School of Life Course & Population Sciences

Department of Nutritional Sciences

We explore the relationship between diet and health

The Department of Nutritional Sciences undertakes high impact, cutting-edge research that promotes health and prevents and treats disease through nutrition. To achieve our mission we have three core research themes in Molecular & Cellular Nutrition, Diet and Phenotype, and Public Health and Global Nutrition and through transdisciplinary and multi-sector collaboration we aim to improve health-related outcomes from cell to society.

We began in 1953 as the first university department of nutrition in Europe and have been at the forefront of research in nutrition science and dietetics ever since. Based at King’s Waterloo Campus, the Department of Nutritional Sciences combines over 60 basic and applied scientists, dietitians, nutritionists, doctors and public health experts.

We have developed new food applications to impact blood glucose control, collected big data through citizen science to understand individual responses to food and pioneered the low FODMAP diet as a treatment for IBS. We are currently investigating the role of food processing on health, including cereal processing techniques to unlock the natural iron and zinc in staple foods as well as the impacts of ultra-processed foods and food additives on the gut.

We develop the next generation of nutrition scientists and dietitians in order to build evidence-based practice and research capacity, and we undertake pedagogic research to inform teaching and learning. Our teaching programmes are accredited by professional bodies (Association for Nutrition, British Dietetic Association, HCPC) allowing our graduates to register as Associate Nutritionists or Registered Dietitians.

The Department has three Research Themes that encompass multiple overlapping research topics. The themes are Molecular and Cellular Nutrition, Diet and Phenotype, and Public Health and Global Nutrition.

Our Research Themes

Molecular and Cellular Nutrition

The Molecular and Cellular Nutrition research theme aims to understand the mechanisms and processes of how nutrients, food components and foods impact biology in health and disease.

Our research involves studies at the molecular and cellular level, as well as models and human systems. These provide valuable information that can then be translated into further human research to accelerate our understanding of nutrition-related physiological processes, as well as potential new nutritional therapeutic approaches. For example, our theme explores the transport and utilisation of iron and zinc in the gut, and the effect of polyphenols on sugar absorption.

Diet and Phenotype

The Diet and Phenotype research theme aims to explore the associations and effects of diet on human health and disease.

Our research focuses on establishing the phenotypic associations and responses to nutrients, food components, foods and whole diets. Our research methodologies include high quality acute and chronic intervention trials and observational studies in healthy people and those with chronic conditions. Our world-leading scientists have decades of expertise in research studies including the individual glycaemic responses to foods, polyphenols and the gut microbiome, nuts and cardiometabolic risk, probiotics in constipation, the low FODMAP diet in irritable bowel syndrome, food additives in inflammatory bowel disease and nutritional optimisation in cancer and critical illness.

We use our expertise to undertake systematic reviews and meta-analyses that inform national and international dietary guidelines that impact the health and wellbeing of large numbers of the public and patient populations.

Public Health and Global Nutrition

AQ FOLSM Nutrition wide The Public Health and Global Nutrition research theme addresses some of the world's most pressing public health issues related to nutrition. Our research aims to understand the role of nutrition in preventing disease and promoting health across the life course.

Our research focuses on understanding how environmental and socio-economic factors impact and interact with dietary behaviours and nutritional status and contribute to the health of diverse population groups. Our research is often translated into the development and testing of interventions to improve health, for example, we are currently exploring how the workplace impacts diet and health, and how sleep influences diet choices and cardiometabolic risk, and how maternal nutrition impacts child health in the first 1000 days. We also address the unique nutritional challenges in low- and middle-income countries, such as iron deficiency and vitamin D deficiency and low omega-3 fatty acid status.