I'm a biological anthropologist with a focus on nutrition and health in the context of reproduction. My research uses theoretical and methodological tools from evolutionary biology to investigate why people eat what they eat when they're pregnant and why parents vary in how they feed their infants and young children.

 

There is now clear evidence that nutrition during the period of development from just before conception to about age two affects many aspects of children's later growth, health, and wellbeing. In particular, early life nutrition appears to impact later life risks for many non-communicable diseases such as type two diabetes and heart disease.  So, insights gained from the kinds of studies my collaborators and I are undertaking can help us understand why there are differences within and among human populations in prevalence of such diseases and, ideally, be used to reduce both non-communicable disease burdens and non-communicable disease inequities.