MRC Epidemiology UnitProgramme Leader and MRC Investigator
Nutritional Epidemiology
Current work and interests
Nita Forouhi is a physician scientist, Professor of Population Health and Nutrition, and Programme Leader of the Nutritional Epidemiology programme of the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge.
Nita Forouhi’s research is focused on the link between diet, nutrition and the risk of diabetes, obesity and related disorders. Her major research interests include:
- Nutritional epidemiology, identifying dietary factors that can elevate or mitigate the risk of developing type 2 diabetes
- Developing and using improved methods to assess diet, including the use of objectively measured nutritional biomarkers and metabolomics approaches
- Promoting methodological knowledge in dietary assessment
- To contribute to an understanding of the drivers, barriers and facilitators of healthy dietary choices
- Understanding between-population differences in cardio-metabolic health, including variation by ethnicity
- Global nutrition and health
Professional roles
Nita Forouhi leads the Nutritional Epidemiology programme, and she is an NIHR Senior Investigator. She is the Theme Co-Lead for the Nutrition, Obesity, Metabolism and Endocrinology Theme of the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, and the Lead of its Precision Prevention programme. Nita is a Principal Investigator of several large cohort studies, including the EPIC-Norfolk Study, the EU-FP6 funded EPIC-InterAct Study, the Fenland Study, the SABRE Study, and the EU-FP7 funded InterConnect Project and EPIC-CVD Study. She is also an Honorary Consultant Public Health Physician with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
Nita is passionate about training and capacity building through teaching and supervising. She is the organiser of the Cambridge Seminar for global participants for increasing understanding of the epidemiological and public health aspects of diabetes, she leads the Unit’s postdoctoral forum (Early and Mid-Career Researcher Forum), is module lead on the University of Cambridge MPhil in Population Health Science, and supervises PhD students, postdoc fellows and visiting fellows, and she is a supervisor for Public Health training fellows..
Nita is committed to promoting a positive research culture and the equality agenda through her role as the Director of Organisational Affairs at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine. She chairs the Clinical School’s EDI Governance Group, and serves as the equality and diversity lead for the MRC Epidemiology Unit. She is also a member of the University of Cambridge race equality charter team.
Background and experience
Nita trained in Medicine at the University of Newcastle, also obtaining a First Class Honours BMedSci intercalated degree in Immunology. She trained in General Medicine and Diabetes & Endocrinology in Edinburgh, obtaining the MRCP. During a Wellcome Training Fellowship at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, she was awarded a Masters and PhD. She specialised in Public Health Medicine in London and Cambridge.
Nita’s research has generated impact through her publications and their citations, and incorporation of her research findings into public health policy. She has actively engaged with the news media to disseminate and interpret research findings, including with the BBC News Online, Daily Mail, Guardian, and CNN, she has been interviewed by BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and BBC One’s The One Show, and she has appeared on BBC Two’s Trust Me I’m a Doctor and BBC One’s The Truth about…fat. In 2017 she was interviewed by the BMJ for BMJ Confidential, and in 2019 by the MRC for their Career Inspirations podcast.
Nita has served on many national and international committees including as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition Joint Working Group on lower carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes. She is a series advisor for the BMJ’s Food for Thought series, and she is serving as a commissioner on the EAT-Lancet Commission on food for human health and planetary sustainability. She delivered the Diabetes UK Rank Nutrition Lecture in 2017, the nutritional epidemiology research programme was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Best Impact Award in 2016, and in 2024 she was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.