Susan Jebb

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Susan Jebb
OBE
Professor Susan Jebb.jpg
Government portrait, 2021
Born (1964-08-29) 29 August 1964 (age 60)
Alma mater University of Surrey (BA)
University of Cambridge (PhD)
Scientific career
Institutions University of Oxford
Food Standards Agency
Website www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/susan-jebb

Susan Ann Jebb OBE (born 24 August 1964) is Chair of the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency and Professor of Diet and Population Health at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. [1] She is also a senior research fellow at Jesus College. [2]

Contents

Education

She is the eldest daughter of Roy Parkinson of Cheadle Hulme. [3]

Jebb earned her undergraduate degree in nutrition from the University of Surrey in 1986, qualifying as a state registered dietitian before completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1990, which investigated methods of measuring body composition. [2] [4]

Career

At the Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre in the early 1990s, she worked with Sally Poppitt, where she became head of obesity research [5] She took up her current professorship at Oxford in 2013. [2] In 1997 she said 'alcohol in moderation can be good for you, but it must be in moderation'. [6] In 2015, she was criticised in an investigation by the British Medical Journal for her closeness to the sugar industry. [7]

Jebb's research has suggested that a referral to commercial weight management weight loss programmes delivered in the community may be a cost-effective way to treat obesity in primary care. [8] [9] [10] Her more recent work has studied how our perception of portion size as normal or smaller than normal can affect the amount of food we eat, and how shoppers can be influenced to choose decreased salt alternatives at the grocery store. [11] [12]

Jebb is a member of The Times Health Commission. In January 2023, her comments were the subject of some media attention after she appeared to compare bringing cake into the workplace to passive smoking. [13] [14] [15]

Personal life

When at Cambridge, she lived in Steeple Morden, near Royston, Hertfordshire and later in Great Shelford; she now lives in Shropshire. [16]

Her husband is the son of Lionel Jebb and Corinna Hawkesworth, with sister Sophie and brother Andrew. Her husband, born in 1961, grew up at Dudleston Grange in Shropshire. [17]

Her husband's mother was the daughter of a Shrewsbury School teacher, [18] [19] and her husband's father attended Shrewsbury School. [20] Her husband's father was High Sheriff of Shropshire from 1991-92, [21] and Chairman of the Governors of Adcote School in the 1990s. [22] Her husband is a relative of novelist Minette Walters. [23]

Awards and honors

Early on in her career, Susan Jebb was awarded the ASO's (the association for the study of obesity) and EASO 's (European association for the study of obesity) ‘Young Investigator’ award. [24]

In 2008, she was awarded an OBE for services to public health. [25] Susan Jebb has won the international 2015 John Maddox Prize for courage in promoting science and evidence on a matter of public interest. [26] In 2018, she was appointed Fellow of the Medical Academy of Sciences. [27]

Selected publications

References

  1. "FSA Chair appointment".
  2. 1 2 3 "Professor Susan Jebb". Jesus College, Oxford. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
  3. Times Saturday September 9 1989, page 12
  4. "Dr Susan Jebb". Centre for Science and Policy. Retrieved 16 May 2025.
  5. Cambridge Daily News Thursday 29 April 1993, page 39
  6. Shropshire Star Tuesday 2 September 1997, page 8
  7. Gornall, J. (2015). "Sugar: Spinning a web of influence" . BMJ. 350: h231. doi:10.1136/bmj.h231. PMID   25673325. S2CID   45177823.
  8. Jebb SA, Ahern AL, Olson AD, Aston LM, Holzapfel C, Stoll J, Amann-Gassner U, Simpson AE, Fuller NR, Pearson S, Lau NS, Mander AP, Hauner H, Caterson ID (October 2011). "Primary care referral to a commercial provider for weight loss treatment versus standard care: a randomised controlled trial". Lancet. 378 (9801): 1485–92. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61344-5. PMC   3207352 . PMID   21906798.
  9. Ahern AL, Wheeler GM, Aveyard P, Boyland EJ, Halford JCG, Mander AP, Woolston J, Thomson AM, Tsiountsioura M, Cole D, Mead BR, Irvine L, Turner D, Suhrcke M, Pimpin L, Retat L, Jaccard A, Webber L, Cohn SR, Jebb SA (June 2017). "Extended and standard duration weight-loss programme referrals for adults in primary care (WRAP): a randomised controlled trial". The Lancet. 389 (10085): 2214–2225. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30647-5. PMC   5459752 . PMID   28478041.
  10. Astbury NM, Aveyard P, Nickless A, Hood K, Corfield K, Lowe R, Jebb SA (September 2018). "Doctor Referral of Overweight People to Low Energy total diet replacement Treatment (DROPLET): pragmatic randomised controlled trial". BMJ. 362: k3760. doi:10.1136/bmj.k3760. PMC   6156558 . PMID   30257983.
  11. Haynes A, Hardman CA, Makin AD, Halford JC, Jebb SA, Robinson E (March 2019). "Visual perceptions of portion size normality and intended food consumption: A norm range model". Food Quality and Preference. 72: 77–85. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2018.10.003. PMC   6333281 . PMID   30828136.
  12. Payne Riches S, Aveyard P, Piernas C, Rayner M, Jebb SA (February 2019). "Optimising swaps to reduce the salt content of food purchases in a virtual online supermarket: A randomised controlled trial". Appetite. 133: 378–386. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2018.11.028. PMC   6335438 . PMID   30502442.
  13. Rachel Sylvester; Chris Smyth; Kat Lay (19 January 2023). "Cake in the office should be viewed like passive smoking, obesity expert warns". The Times . Archived from the original on 19 February 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  14. "Beyond cakegate: Why we need to consider the impact of our environment more seriously". Food Active. 30 January 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  15. "FSA statement on The Times Health Commission". Food Standards Agency. 18 January 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
  16. Cambridge Daily News Wednesday 11 May 1994, page 29
  17. Times Thursday October 27 1966, page 2
  18. Times Thursday October 1 1959, page 12
  19. The Tatler Wednesday 2 December 1959, page 79
  20. Shrewsbury Chronicle Friday 20 March 1992, page 44
  21. Shropshire Star Thursday 21 March 1991, page 23
  22. Shrewsbury Chronicle Thursday 27 February 1997, page 8
  23. Shropshire Star Friday 20 October 2000, page 24
  24. "ASO Honorary Fellowship Award Winner" (PDF). aso.org.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  25. "Susan Jebb". www.phc.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  26. "Scientist awarded the 2015 John Maddox Prize for Standing up for Science | University of Oxford". www.ox.ac.uk. 4 November 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  27. "Professor Susan Jebb | the Academy of Medical Sciences".