Vasanti S. Malik, MSc, ScD
University of Toronto

Dr. Vasanti Malik, ScD, a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention at the University of Toronto, is an accomplished nutritional epidemiologist. Her 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.

In a series of analyses using large prospective cohort studies, Dr. Malik has shown benefits of consuming plant-based foods in place of animal-based foods and refined grains on cardiometabolic risk. Her lab recently published a systemic review demonstrating benefits of healthful plant-based diets on weight management that received the APNM Award for Nutrition Translation from CNS. Dr. Malik is also conducting research evaluating the dietary quality of school meals in Canada and perceptions of school meals from diverse households that will help inform the national school food program policy that is currently under consideration by the federal government as a strategy to improve the diet quality of children in Canada. 

Dr. Malik was awarded a Connaught New Researcher Award and a Pathway Grant from the Faculty of Medicine to provide pilot data for a CIHR project grant that that she was recently awarded that aims to jointly assess the environmental impact and cardiometabolic risk associated with different dietary patterns consumed in Canada. This work  includes the development of a comprehensive database of environmental impacts of foods consumed in Canada that will be an invaluable resource for future research and collaborations in this priority area. 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.