Work of Deakin University researcher named among the 15 greatest discoveries in nutrition

The work of Deakin University researcher Professor Boyd Swinburn has been ranked seventh in a list of the 15 greatest discoveries in nutrition since 1976.

Professor Swinburn was acknowledged for the discovery that 'Obesity is a normal response to an abnormal environment'. This was the only research in the top 15 to have come from Australia or New Zealand.

The discovery represented a significant step forward in understanding and tackling obesity. It was the first investigation into a different area of the obesity issue, namely the role of the environment. Until the time of Professor Swinburn and colleague's research, the search for causes of weight gain had centred on genetic or metabolic abnormalities in people suffering from obesity.

A total of 15 discoveries were nominated and ranked at a one-day symposium of nutrition experts held in Netherlands in November 2006. The results of the symposium are published in a recent issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The journal paper 'Which are the greatest recent discoveries and the greatest future challenges in nutrition?' reports the outcome of the symposium at which speakers and the audience were asked to nominate and subsequently vote on the greatest discoveries in nutrition since 1976, and on the greatest challenges for the coming thirty years.

Professor Swinburn is one of Australia's leading public health and obesity prevention researchers and is internationally renowned for his work in preventing obesity in children and adolescents.

Professor Swinburn is Chair in Population Health and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention within Deakin University's Faculty of Health, Medicine, Nursing and Behavioural Sciences. He has been at Deakin University since 2001. Prior to that he was Medical Director of the National Heart Foundation in New Zealand and an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland.