Diet and physical activity
Researching how diet, physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight can help people lead better lives and improve their wellbeing.
Front view shot of a multi generation family walking through a woodland forest
Our research is focused on diet, physical activity and helping people maintain a healthy body weight.
Improving what people eat and how active they are is important because not everyone is affected by these issues in the same way. People on a low income and those from ethnic minorities are more likely to experience the negative effects of health inequalities. Because of this we develop and test new ways of improving physical activity, diet and healthy weight maintenance through technology and innovation.
To make sure that our work prioritises the needs of those people most affected by health inequalities, we have partnered with the Bradford Institute of Health Research. Bradford is a city where 30% of adults are unemployed and 40% of the city’s wards are among some of the poorest in Britain. Joining forces will let our research teams tackle issues of nutrition and physical activity that impact the communities living in our cities most.
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National evaluation of weight medication access (NEWA)
Theme Diet and physical activity
Workstream Clinical diet and physical activity
Waist-to-height ratio as a tool for predicting metabolic risk
Theme Diet and physical activity
Workstream Population diet and physical activity
Using genetics to find links between diet and disease
Theme Diet and physical activity
Workstream Population diet and physical activity
Childhood waist to height ratio may be an equally good predictor as BMI of liver disease and high blood pressure in young adults
- 11 June 2025
Exploring links between carbohydrate counting and eating disorders in people with type 1 diabetes
- 8 May 2025
Physical activity provision in schools is about more than equipment
- 24 March 2025