Mary L'Abbé, CM, PhD
Mary L'Abbé, CM, PhD
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Dr. L'Abbé's work aims to provide an evidence base to support sound public health nutrition policy.​
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Research areas currently of interest include health claims on foods, front-of-pack labelling, children’s marketing on foods, nutritional quality of packaged and restaurant foods, menu labelling, dietary intakes and patterns of the Canadian population using national nutrition surveys, food fortification, food-like natural health products, trans fat, sodium, and sugar.
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The L’Abbé Lab’s research and food supply data have been used by Health Canada, the Ontario government, Toronto Public Health, Heart and Stroke Foundation, food industry, WHO/FAO and others to support monitoring, policy development and consumer programs.
Biography
Dr. Mary L’Abbé is a Professor Emeritus and former Chair, Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto and Director, WHO Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Policy for NCD Prevention. Her research aims to provide an evidence base to support sound public health nutrition policy. Specific research interests and areas of expertise include evaluating the nutritional quality of the food supply using various nutrient profile models, nutrition labelling (including front of pack labelling), food marketing to children, food prices, dietary patterns, and consumer research related to nutrition knowledge, attitudes and behaviours and dietary intakes Dr. L’Abbé has served on numerous expert committees for the WHO, PAHO, Dietary Reference Intakes, Health Canada and others. Professor L’Abbé has authored over 330 publications and is a member of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Canadian Nutrition Society, the American Society for Nutrition and the International Union of Nutritional Sciences. She has received numerous national and international awards for her research and nutrition leadership.