Susan Jebb
Dr Susan Jebb is head of nutrition and health at the Human Nutrition Research (HNR) division of the Medical Research Council, specialising in the role of diet in the aetiology and treatment of obesity and its related metabolic diseases. Dr Jebb also leads the HNR Communication team, which focuses on the translation of health science into policy and practice. The team works with policymakers, health professionals, industry, the media and NGOs. [1]
Jebb holds a number of high-profile government advisory roles. She is a board member of the Public Health England Obesity Programme, chair of the UK Department of Health's Public Health Responsibility Deal Food Network and one of the chairs of the NICE Public Health Advisory Committees. [2]
Jebb is also a professor of diet and population health at the University of Oxford. [3]
On 10 November 2011, Jebb received an OBE for services to public health. [4]
Contents
Career
Jebb is former chair of the Healthy Weight Healthy Lives: Independent Expert Advisory Group established by the UK Department of Health (DOH). According to the DOH website:
- The Expert Advisory Panel was originally established to provide the Cross-Government Obesity Unit with expert advice on the evidence that emerged from the Foresight Tackling Obesities: Future Choices project. The group also ensured that Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: a Cross-Government Strategy for England built on this evidence effectively in the broader context of pragmatic policy making.[5]
She was the science adviser for the 'Foresight' obesity report and subsequently chaired the cross-government Expert Advisory Group on Obesity from 2007-11. [2]
Jebb is a trustee and former chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) board. [6]
Controversy
Financial ties between nutrition experts and food companies
In February 2015 the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published results of an investigation into the extensive network of links between public health scientists and the sugar industry. It revealed that researchers working for a government committee examining nutritional advice - the Medical Research Council’s Human Nutrition Research unit - had received research funding from companies whose products are widely held to be responsible for the obesity crisis. [7]
Jebb as leader of nutrition and health at the Human Nutrition Research (HNR) unit led 10 research projects between 2004 to 2015 with £1.37 million in total funding from various food companies. [8] The companies included Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestlé, Sainsbury’s, the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and Weight Watchers International. [7]
Between 2008 and 2010 Coca-Cola’s beverage institute paid £194,652 for one of Jebb's clinical trials led in the UK and US to test the effect on weight loss of a product being developed by the company. [2]
Weight Watchers International gave £610 140 between 2007 and 2010 to a project led by Jebb to analyse data from the Weight Watchers NHS referral scheme. [2]
Jebb stated that the research was 'conducted according to all the Medical Research Council governance arrangements for working with industry and the industry involvement has been declared'.[9] She also told BMJ that all of her research was analysed and reported independently of industry, and added, 'Everything I do, whether in my research or as chair of the responsibility deal, is to try to improve public health.' [7]
Affiliations
As at March 2010:[10]
- Head of Nutrition and Health Research at Human Nutrition Research (HNR)[11]
- Member of the Change4Life Board
- Sits on the Food Standards Agency Food Policy Strategy Advisory Group
- Former Expert Advisor to the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit Review on Food
- a member of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, the BioSciences Federation Council [12]
- Chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) board since at least January 2010 (when the webpage was last updated). [13]
- Member of the Tanita Medical Advisory Board (as at September 2014);[14]
- past member of Nestlé Advisory Board (ceased 2010),
- Coca-Cola Advisory Board (ceased 2011)
- Heinz Advisory Board (ceased 2011)
- contributor to the Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine.[14]
Notes
- ↑ Medical Research Council [1] accessed 28 January 2011
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Professor Susan Jebb OBE Future of Food, accessed 25 February 2015 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "Jebb" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Sarah Boseley Obesity adviser rejects conflict of interest claim The Guardian, 11 February 2015, accessed 25 February 2015
- ↑ Medical Research Council [2] accessed 28 January 2011
- ↑ Department of Health Healthy Weight Healthy Lives: Independent Expert Advisory Group accessed 1st March 2010
- ↑ ASO Our Trustees, accessed 26 October 2010.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The BMJ www.bmj.com, accessed 25 February 2015
- ↑ James Gallagher Row over sugar firms' links to scientists BBC News, 12 February 2015, accessed 25 February 2015
- ↑ Kadhim Shubber Public scientists urged to quit over food and drink group links, ft.com, 11 February 2015, accessed 25 February 2015
- ↑ Department of Health Healthy Weight Healthy Lives: Independent Expert Advisory Group Members accessed 1st March 2010
- ↑ Senior Staff, MRC-HNR website, accessed 3 Mar 2010
- ↑ Senior Staff, MRC-HNR website, accessed 3 Mar 2010
- ↑ ASO Our Trustees, accessed 26 October 2010.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Maria Bryant, Lee Ashton, Julia Brown, Susan Jebb, Judy Wright, Katharine Roberts and Jane Nixon Systematic review to identify and appraise outcome measures used to evaluate childhood obesity treatment interventions (CoOR): evidence of purpose, application, validity, reliability and sensitivity Health Technol Assess 2014; 18(51).
