Ultra-Processed Foods: The New Tobacco? - Dr. Laura Schmidt

Описание: Drawing on research from the University of California - San Francisco Industry Documents Library, Dr. Schmidt will discuss the shifting narrative on unhealthy foods, and the way that this moment is, and isn’t, like the War on Tobacco of the late twentieth century.

We’re very fortunate to be hosting Dr. Laura Schmidt, a professor at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley in addition to completing doctoral coursework in public health.

Her research investigates the societal root causes of chronic disease in the current food system by studying the interplay between the processed food industry and the populations that experience health harms from its products. This population-based research examines how food availability and marketing explain how and why our current food supply leads to overeating, craving, and poor health. Dr. Schmidt’s work is known for uncovering the close ties between the tobacco and processed food industries, rethinking addiction from the standpoint of processed and hyperpalatable foods, and innovating new ways to prevent chronic disease by changing food systems. This research informs new ways to prevent obesity, diabetes, and related cardiometabolic diseases by making food systems more conducive to health.