Dr Maria Maynard

Reader in Public Health Nutrition Leeds Beckett University

  • Leeds England

Expertise in the health & diets of minority ethnic & migrant communities - exploring nutrition-related inequalities, obesity & diabetes.

Contact

University Alliance

View more experts managed by University Alliance

Areas of Expertise

Communities
Obesity
Nutrition
Migrant Health
Diet and Inequality
Healthy Living
Deprivation

Biography

Dr Maria Maynard is Reader in Public Health Nutrition in the Nutrition and Dietetics Group, School of Clinical and Applied Sciences at Leeds Beckett University. She leads the Migrant Health Research group and the Inequalities theme of the Applied Obesity Research Centre. Her expertise is in the health and diets of minority ethnic and migrant communities - exploring aspects such as nutrition-related inequalities, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. She works with those who are living with multiple levels of deprivation to understand how to address better health outcomes that prioritise their own perspectives, cultures, traditions and food preferences. She has undertaken work with the Black Health Initiative, the Leeds West Indian Centre Charitable Trust, Leeds City Council and Public Health England.

Maria co-founded and co-managed the DASH longitudinal study of the health of young people from diverse ethnic groups in London. She works internationally as the UK lead of a multidisciplinary and multi-agency network funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund conducting projects addressing malnutrition, urban renewal and sustainable livelihoods among vulnerable women and their children in Ghana and Nigeria. Maria is also on the Editorial Board of the the journal BMC Public Health.

Multimedia Appearances

Social

Education

Leeds Beckett University

Post-Graduate Certificate Academic Practice

2014

University of Bristol

Ph.D.

Nutritional Epidemiology

2000

University of London

B.Sc.

Nutrition

1991

Affiliations

  • Chair, Race Equality and Diversity forum
  • Member, Nutrition Society
  • Member, Society for Social Medicine
  • Member, European Public Health Association
  • Member, Association for Nutrition
Show All +

Event Appearances

Migrant Health Research Group: the FOODEY study

Interdisciplinary Research Network Event (2017)  Leeds Beckett University

Ethnicity and Health in the FOODEY, DASH, & DEAL studies: current approaches and future directions

Public Health Research Seminar Series (2018)  University of Salford

Views on risk, prevention and management of type 2 diabetes among UK Black Caribbeans in the FOODEY study

1st World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race & Health (2018)  Edinburgh, Scotland

Show All +

Articles

Fruit and vegetable consumption and mental health across adolescence: evidence from a diverse urban British cohort study

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

2019

Evidence on the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption (FV) and mental health in adolescence is sparse and inconsistent. Social determinants of FV include ethnicity, family environments and economic disadvantage.

View more

Nutrient Composition of Popularly Consumed African and Caribbean Foods in The UK

Foods

2019

Traditional foods are important in the diets of Black Africans and Caribbeans and, more widely, influence UK food culture. However, little is known about the nutritional status of these ethnic groups and the nutrient composition of their traditional foods.

View more

Minority men's engagement with health promotion (Boyz2men): an exploratory cross-sectional study

The Lancet

2020

Ethnic health disparities continue to widen in the UK. For example, UK black men have double the risk of prostate cancer compared with white men, and deprivation has a greater negative impact on men's health outcomes than on women's.

View more

Show All +