Vasanti Malik

Professor Malik researches dietary and lifestyle risk factors for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases at different life stages, and in different populations using epidemiological approaches. She is also interested in assessing the environmental impacts of diets and food systems in the Canadian context. Additional interests include the implementation of qualitative studies and lifestyle modification trials to improve cardiometabolic health, and environmental sustainability in local and global settings.

Professor Malik joined the Department of Nutritional Sciences as an Assistant Professor in July 2019. She holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Chronic Disease Prevention and an adjunct position in Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Malik obtained an MSc. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Toronto and a dual doctorate in Nutrition and Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she also completed a post-doctoral fellowship. She has published over 100 papers on diet quality in relation to cardiometabolic diseases including systematic reviews and meta-analyses that have had a key role in informing dietary recommendations and policies.

As an emerging leader in the field, Prof. Malik has participated in expert panels including the CIHR/Health Canada Best Brains exchange on added sugars and the American Heart Associations’ round table on added sugars and is currently a consultant for the WHO’s Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) subgroup on Diet and Health. She serves on the advisory board for the CIHR’s Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes and is on the steering committee for the Feeding Kids Nourishing Minds Initiative with Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition. Dr. Malik’s research program is supported by a Connaught New Researcher Award and John R. Evans Leaders Fund Award from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. She is an Associate editor for Nutrition and Health and a review editor for Frontiers in Epidemiology. Dr. Malik teaches a fourth-year undergraduate course on, International and Community Nutrition.

In the News

Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds: Researcher Mavra Ahmed studies school food programs in Canada. U of T News. April 29, 2022.

From detecting earthquakes to preventing disease: 27 U of T research projects receive CFI funding. U of T News. August 12, 2021.

From astrophysics to literature: 29 researchers at U of T awarded Canada Research Chairs. U of T News. December 16, 2020.

Teaching Appointments

Course Instructor, NFS490H – International and Community Nutrition, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto