We have invited three speakers who will give a short (7-min) presentation on their research and then Professor Knut-Inge Klepp
(ISBNPA Fellow) will moderate the session facilitating discussion and inviting questions.
The aim of this panel is to consider what we can do from a behavioral nutrition and physical activity approach to achieve both healthy people and a healthy planet.
Our panelists include Professor Elling Bere, Dr. Wilma Waterland and Professor Steven Allender.
Elling Bere is senior researcher at Norwegian Institute of Public Health and professor in Public Health at University of Agder, Norway. Bere is a biologist with a phd in Public Health Nutrition. He lives in Kristiansand, Norway, and enjoys all kinds of foods and physical activities.
Bere is scientifically interested in intervention research and determinants of eating behaviors and physical activities, e.g. social inequalities. As our lifestyles affect both our health and our environment, he tries to focus his research on sustainable lifestyles; i.e. what are sustainable behaviors, how are they related to health, and how can they be promoted. His main current research topics are within active transportation, sustainable diets, and school fruit/lunch.
Elling Bere will be presenting on:
Sustainable physical activity
Dr Waterlander is a scientific researcher at the Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Department of Public Health.
In 2012, Wilma completed her PhD on the feasibility and effectiveness of food pricing strategies on food purchasing behaviour (e.g., the effectiveness of a sugar tax, fruit and vegetable, subsidy, etc.). After that, she worked 6 years at the University of Auckland leading food pricing and food policy research and returned to the Netherlands in 2017.
In her current position, Wilma is working as senior project-coordinator and researcher of the LIKE (Lifestyle Innovations based on youths’ Knowledge and Experience) project. This project combines methods from systems dynamics and Participatory Action Research to develop an innovative, accessible and sustainable approach to promote healthy habits in 10-14 years olds in multi-ethnic lower SE-groups in Amsterdam (as part of the Amsterdam Healthy Weight Programme). Also, she is co-investigator on a Wellcome Trust funded study (US) testing food pricing strategies to improve diet for health and climate outcomes and co-investigator of a research programme at the University of Auckland (NZ) working with one of the major retailers to co-design supermarket interventions to promote healthier diets.
Wilma was a Fellow for the Lancet Commission on Obesity that recently published its report on The Global Syndemic of Obesity, Undernutrition, and Climate Change. She is also a Fellow of the International Council for Science Food Futures Early Career Network and has published a report as part of as part of the Meeting Urban Food Needs initiative of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). She spent 3 months at the University of Oxford working on a project that modelled the optimal food pricing strategies for climate and public health outcomes.
Dr Wilma Waterlander will be presenting on:
Sustainable diet
Dr Steven Allender is Professor of Public Health and founding Director of the Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE) at Deakin University, a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention since 2003.
Steve has an ongoing programme of research on solving complex problems with a focus on the burden of chronic disease and obesity prevention.
Recent work has seen a particular interest in the burden of chronic disease, malnutrition and climate change in developed and developing countries and the possibilities for using complex systems approaches for community-based intervention.
Prof Allender leads two NHMRC Partnership grants on community-based childhood obesity strategies and is a lead investigator for the Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health, the European Union Horizon 2020 Co-Create grant for healthier policy in Europe and a named researcher for the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre. Steve has received lead investigator funding from bodies including the US National Institutes of Health, National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Heart Foundation, VicHealth, the British Heart Foundation, the Western Alliance, European Heart Foundation and the European Union. The GLOBE team support efforts to improve health in over 30 countries world-wide and work directly with the WHO to achieve these aims.
Steve holds a number of honorary appointments including:
- Research Associate, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention, University of Oxford
- Foundation Member World Heart Federation’s Global Working Group (WG) on Policy/Advocacy
- Consultant, Prevention, Health Policy and Epidemiology Section, European Association for Cardiac Prevention and Care
- Honorary Membership Faculty of Public Health. Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom
Professor Steven Allender will be presenting on:
Sustainable health and obesity
Knut-Inge Klepp, Ph.D. MPH is Executive Director of Mental and Physical Health at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Klepp served as Director General for Public Health at the Norwegian Directorate of Health from 2006 to 2015. He is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo where he served as a professor in public health nutrition from 1996 to 2006. Prior to this, he was a professor in international health promotion at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen.
Klepp has published extensively in the fields of adolescent health promotion, nutrition and hiv/aids prevention. He has coordinated and served as investigator on a large number of European Union research projects, and he served as rapporteur for the Working Group on Implementation, Monitoring and Accountability for the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity. Klepp has previously chaired the Norwegian National Council on Nutrition and Physical Activity, and he is former president of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Moderator Knut-Inge Klepp