Researcher perspectives: Jody Salton

Jody Salton is one of our PhD students. She is exploring whether the micronutrient content of food could be influencing our food choices. She is supervised by Professor Jeff Brunstrom, Professor Julian Hamilton-Shield, and Dr Dani Ferriday.

In August 2026, we spoke to Jody about her academic journey, her PhD and what motivated her to investigate eating behaviours, micronutrients and iron deficiency.

Developing an interest in eating behaviour

I am a first-generation university student, and I did not even know research was a career until my undergraduate placement. However, I did know that I was interested in why people eat what they do.

I studied in the School of Psychology at the University of Bristol. During my degree, I completed an internship with Dr Dani Ferriday and Dr Ella Hinton, developing a task to assess how distraction affects episodic memory for eating. That was my first hands-on experience of research.

Without the opportunity of doing research during my undergraduate degree, I do not think I would have gone on to do a PhD. Dani and Ella showed me what research could look like and helped me realise it was something I could do.

Exploring what motivates people to choose the food they eat

A lot of research into eating behaviour looks at dietary interventions to help people manage their weight or live healthier lives. My research goes back a step to explore what leads to a food being chosen in the first place.

If you asked someone why they ate a food, they might say it was because it tastes good, it was affordable, or that they were trying to make healthier choices. What I am looking at is whether, without realising it, our choices also consider the food’s nutritional composition.

I am particularly interested in micronutrients: vitamins and minerals. In simple terms, I question whether the foods people select offer more micronutrients than the foods they do not eat. If we see this pattern across multiple studies, we can begin to suggest that consumption of vitamins and minerals in the diet is not random, and that micronutrients may influence choice.

Understanding the role of food composition could help people make choices that support their health.

Iron deficiency anaemia – a public health concern

A part of my work focuses on people who menstruate, because iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia are a real public health concern in this group.

If my research shows that people aren’t selecting iron-rich foods when they are most in need of them, then maybe we need to develop better dietary messaging, earlier interventions or even recommend supplements to support them instead.

If people can select diets that meet their needs, that also matters. My research aims to provide evidence so future advice and policy are based on how people make food choices in the real world.

What do people want to eat – developing online food choice tasks

I recently completed a project looking at whether changes in iron status across the menstrual cycle predict dietary iron selection. I wanted to know whether people are more likely to choose iron-rich foods such as red meat at points in their cycle when their iron status may be lower.

Instead of only looking at what people actually ate, I wanted to look at what they would want to eat if different options were available. Food diaries are useful, but they are limited by what people have available, what they usually eat, cost, routine and environmental concerns.

I developed multiple online food choice tasks. For example, in one of the tasks, participants were shown two meals and asked which one they would choose if both were in front of them. They repeated this across different meal pairs, and we looked for patterns, such as whether they chose the option containing red meat or more iron.

Participants completed these tasks once when they were menstruating and once when they were not. We also collected iron status measures using at-home finger-prick kits.

Improving the lives of people with low iron status

I hope this research will benefit people at risk of micronutrient deficiencies, particularly those who menstruate and may experience low iron status.

Many of those affected by low iron seem to accept it as a normal part of life.

If we can understand what choices people are already making, we can then look at developing support to increase iron intake and improve that.

Planning for the future

I am due to finish my PhD in September 2027, and I would love to stay in research. What happens will depend on timing, funding and opportunities, but I have many questions I would like to keep exploring.

In future, I would like to take dietary iron selection further with more public involvement, working with people who have experienced low iron status to understand what they know, what they need and how research could support them better.