Dr. Vasanti Malik receives the INMD / CNS – Early Career Researcher Partnership Prize 2024!
Dr. Vasanti Malik, Assistant Professor at the Department of Nutritional Sciences and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention at the University of Toronto, is an accomplished nutritional epidemiologist. She is the recipient for the INMD / CNS – Early Career Researcher Partnership Prize, 2024 announced at the Annual Canadian Nutrition Scoiety Conference in Edmonton. This prize supports recognize outstanding research relevant to the Institute's mandate of supporting research to enhance health in relation to diet, digestion, excretion, and metabolism; and to address causes, prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, support systems, and palliation for a wide range of conditions and problems associated with hormone, digestive system, kidney, and liver function.
Dr. Vasanti Malik's research focuses on nutrition and modifiable determinants of obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in different populations using a combination of population-based studies, clinical trials and evidence synthesis. Over the course of her academic career, Dr. Malik has contributed a number of important papers on diet quality and cardiometabolic risk in children and adults. These efforts have resulted in a strong publication record of over 125 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 3 book chapters, and an H-index of 49. She also wrote the obesity prevention chapter for the World Bank’s Disease Control Priorities (DCP3), which is important resource for global priority setting.
Among her research areas, Dr. Malik is most known for her work on sugary beverages. Her earliest paper on this topic (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2006) has been cited more than 1400 times and was considered one of the most influential papers of the year by the American Society of Nutrition. Dr. Malik’s subsequent meta-analyses on sugary beverages have played a pivotal role in shaping dietary guidance, public health policies and clinical practice guidelines. Through her many leadership positions combined with her past and current research, Dr. Malik has made substantial contributions to improving the dietary quality and cardiometabolic health of children and adults in Canada and globally that will only continue as her research program grows.
