Professor Janet Cade

Profile

Prof. Janet Cade leads the Nutritional Epidemiology Group at the University of Leeds. She obtained her PhD from the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit in Southampton under the guidance of David Barker. Her main areas of research are nutritional epidemiology, development of new diet assessment methods (eg. https://www.myfood24.org), and the relationship of diet to chronic disease development. She serves on the UK Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT). An independent scientific committee that provides advice to the Food Standards Agency, the Department of Health and other Government Departments and Agencies on matters concerning the toxicity of chemicals. She has published over 300 papers, abstracts and book chapters and generated over £6 million in research income (the majority as PI).

She was the first Registrar for the Association for Nutrition (http://www.associationfornutrition.org/), the professional body for nutritionists. Protecting the public and promoting high standards in evidence-based science and the professional practice of nutrition. Check the website to see if you can register!

Responsibilities

• Head of Nutritional Epidemiology Group
• Faculty Director of Graduate School

Research interests

My major research project over the last few years has been the UK Women's Cohort Study which has detailed information on diet and cancer incidence in 35,000 British women. Other major research activities include developing myfood24 - an online dietary recall tool; developing nutritools.org - an expert-led website which hosts dietary assessment tools; creating and piloting `My Meal Mate` - a smart phone app for weight loss; evaluating the school fruit and vegetable scheme; conducting an intervention to improve school lunchboxes; and studying the effect of caffeine consumption in pregnancy on birthweight.

In recognition of my work in public health nutrition and epidemiology, I held one of the first DoH/NHS Career Scientist Awards for Public Health (2001-2006).

Recent funding activity

Medical Research Council
DIET@NET - DIETary Assessment Tool Network (£ 866,000)

DIET@NET brings together a core group of experts in the field of dietary assessment, nutritional epidemiology, public health and clinical studies from eight universities and institutions in the UK (University of Leeds, Imperial College London, Institute of Food Research, MRC Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge, MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in Southampton, University of Bristol, University of Oxford, University of Southampton).
To help improve the quality, consistency and comparability of dietary data in epidemiological and clinical studies, the partnership aims to:

• establish expert consensus on best practice guidelines for the collection and analysis of dietary intake data in population and clinical studies;
• create an interactive web-site, nutritools.org, to guide researchers to an e-library of validated, expert-reviewed Dietary Assessment Tools (DATs);
• provide online access to DATs with, where possible, an online facility for data entry and `real time` food/nutrient analysis;
• develop a Food Questionnaire creator and provide links to useful dietary assessment resources.

Medical Research Council

myfood24 - UK on-line 24h dietary recall(£989,000)

National Institute for Health Research (Public Health)
Does the RHS Campaign for School Gardening increase intake of fruit and vegetables in children? (£398,481)

World Cancer Research Fund
Dietary patterns and breast cancer (£71,744)

National Prevention Research Initiative
Promoting weight loss and improved health using mobile phone technology - `My Meal Mate` (£417,427)

Optimisation of the National School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (£584,016)

Food Standards AgencySmart lunchbox template (£542,455)

Medical Research Council
Cambridge Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology in Cancer Prevention and Survival (£74,000)

• Evaluation of the Ministry of Food Schools programme on cooking confidence, food literacy and dietary behaviour
• Healthy and environmentally sustainable foods for infants and young children: taking a close look at commercial babyfoods and listening to families

Qualifications

• BSc
• PhD

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Association for Nutrition

Student education

I am module leader for FOOD2215 and 5510, these modules explore how we study food and nutrient intake in large populations and provides an introduction to epidemiology.

Research groups and institutes

• Nutrition and Public Health
• Nutritional Epidemiology
• Obesity, Cancer and Metabolic Disease
• Human Nutrition and Lifestyle Intervention

Current postgraduate researchers

• Yuanyuan Dong
• Chinwe Uzokwe
• Karen Vaughan
• Muhammad Iqbal