Adam Drewnowski

About

Adam Drewnowski is a world-renowned leader in the study of obesity and social disparities in diets and health. He is a Professor of Epidemiology and the Director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington School of Public Health. He also serves as the Director of the University of Washington Center for Obesity Research, which addresses the environmental, social, and economic aspects of the obesity epidemic. Dr. Drewnowski obtained his MA degree in biochemistry at Balliol College, Oxford, and a Ph.D. in psychology at The Rockefeller University in New York. Following post-doctoral training at the University of Toronto, he returned to The Rockefeller University as an Assistant Professor. He later moved to the University of Michigan, where he became Professor of Public Health, Psychology, and Psychiatry and Director of the Program in Human Nutrition at the School of Public Health. Since relocating to Seattle in 1998, he has contributed extensively to research on dietary patterns, nutrition economics, spatial distribution of obesity rates, and the development of metrics to identify nutrient-dense, affordable, and sustainable foods. Dr. Drewnowski is the inventor of the Nutrient Rich Foods Index and the Affordable Nutrition Index, and has conducted extensive studies on taste function, food preferences, and the genetics of bitter taste. His work also includes innovative spatial epidemiology of diets and health using GIS approaches. He has served on…

Research topics

• Environmental health
• Medicine
• Food science
• Gerontology
• Computer Science
• Demography
• Internal medicine
• Economics
• Environmental science
• Biology

Selected publications

• Expert consensus on low-calorie sweeteners: facts, research gaps and suggested actions

  Nutrition Research Reviews · 2020 · 83 citations

  A consensus workshop on low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) was held in November 2018 where seventeen experts (the panel) discussed three themes identified as key to the science and policy of LCS: (1) weight management and glucose control; (2) consumption, safety and perception; (3) nutrition policy. The aims were to identify the reliable facts on LCS, suggest research gaps and propose future actions. The panel agreed that the safety of LCS is demonstrated by a substantial body of evidence reviewed by…

  DOI

• Trends in tap and bottled water consumption among children and adults in the United States: analyses of NHANES 2011–16 data

  Nutrition Journal · 2020 · 63 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-20 recommend choosing water in place of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). This study examined water consumption patterns and trends among children and adults in the US. METHODS: Dietary intake data for 7453 children (4-18y) and 15,263 adults (>19y) came from two 24 h dietary recalls in three cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2011-2016). Water was categorized as tap or bottled (plain). Other beverages were assig…

  DOI

• An Overlap Between “Ultraprocessed” Foods and the Preexisting Nutrient Rich Foods Index?

  Nutrition Today · 2020 · 55 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  nutrient density metrics.

  DOI

• Toward a science-based classification of processed foods to support meaningful research and effective health policies

  Frontiers in Nutrition · 2024-07-03 · 31 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Processed foods have been part of the American diet for decades, with key roles in providing a safe, available, affordable, and nutritious food supply. The USDA Food Guides beginning in 1916 and the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) since 1980 have included various types of commonly consumed processed foods (e.g., heated, fermented, dried) as part of their recommendations. However, there are multiple classification systems based on "level" of food processing, and additional evidence is n…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Characterising percentage energy from ultra-processed foods by participant demographics, diet quality and diet cost: findings from the Seattle Obesity Study (SOS) III

  British Journal Of Nutrition · 2020 · 31 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Higher consumption of 'ultra-processed' (UP) foods has been linked to adverse health outcomes. The present paper aims to characterise percentage energy from UP foods by participant socio-economic status (SES), diet quality, self-reported food expenditure and energy-adjusted diet cost. Participants in the population-based Seattle Obesity Study III (n 755) conducted in WA in 2016-2017 completed socio-demographic and food expenditure surveys and the FFQ. Education and residential property values we…

  DOI

Recent grants

• Moving to Health: How changing built environments impact weight and glycemic control

  NIH · $582k · 2017–2022

• Food environment, diet quality and disparities in obesity

  NIH · $482k · 2007–2015

• Food environment, diet quality and disparities in obesity

  NIH · $642k · 2007–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Colin D. Rehm

  82 shared

• Nicole Darmon

  Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement

  80 shared

• Rishi Kansagra

  United Nations Children's Fund

  64 shared

• Dipika Matthias

  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  64 shared

• Anura V. Kurpad

  St.John's Medical College Hospital

  64 shared

• Reynaldo Martorell

  Emory University

  64 shared

• Roland Kupka

  64 shared

• Venkatesh Mannar

  64 shared

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