As a research director at Inserm and principal investigator of the NutriNet-Santé study, Mathilde Touvier focuses on the causal relationships between nutrition and human health, taking a holistic and multidisciplinary approach. Her team’s work contributes to the development of recommendations for the National Nutrition and Health Program.

Mathilde Touvier has been invited to hold the Public Health Chair for the 2022–2023 academic year, a position created in partnership with the national public health agency, Santé publique France.

Over the course of a lifetime, we consume approximately 30 tons of food and 50,000 liters of beverages. The thousands of epidemiological, experimental, and clinical studies published over the past 50 years have helped to lift—at least in part—the veil on the impact of these foods and their bioactive compounds on our health. Nutrition, broadly encompassing diet, body composition, and physical activity, is now recognized as one of the main modifiable factors influencing the development of the most prevalent diseases in the industrialized world: obesity, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes… Globally, an unbalanced diet is one of the leading risk factors for mortality, accounting for approximately 1 in 5 deaths, with nutritional issues varying widely across countries worldwide. This knowledge has established a high level of evidence for several protective or harmful nutritional factors, which have served as the basis for the development of nutrition policy in France, embodied by the National Nutrition and Health Program (PNNS).

In her inaugural lecture, Mathilde Touvier will present the state of the art regarding nutrition-health relationships, as well as current recommendations for the nutritional prevention of chronic diseases.

• Biography and Publications

• Mathilde Touvier will deliver her inaugural lecture titled “The Role of Nutrition in the Prevention of Chronic Diseases: State of Scientific Knowledge and Recommendations” on April 11, 2023.

• Her series of courses and seminars, “Nutritional Prevention of Chronic Diseases: From Research to Public Health Action,” will begin on April 11, 2023.

• Her symposium, “Nutritional Determinants of Health: Recent Research Discoveries and Translation into Public Health Action,” will be held on June 28, 2023.

“To date, we have published over 250 papers based on the NutriNet-Santé study, notably in major journals such as the British Medical Journal and Nature Food, as well as over 350 papers presented at international conferences. Taking all this research into account is changing public health recommendations. Take the example of food additives and ultra-processed foods: concepts that were virtually unknown in France before the first papers from the 2018 NutriNet-Santé study. In those papers, we demonstrated a link between the consumption of so-called “ultra-processed” products—containing additives that are unnecessary, such as colorants, emulsifiers, and sweeteners—or that have undergone extensive processing, such as frying—and an increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, functional digestive disorders, depressive symptoms, and mortality in the cohort. The revelation of these links has shifted consumer attitudes, leading to greater vigilance regarding the degree of food processing. Since the publication of this research, manufacturers have begun adopting "clean labeling" practices by reducing the amounts of additives used. We were then invited to testify several times before the National Assembly and the Senate to help reorient public health policy decisions in light of these new findings. This led to a shift in perspective within the National Nutrition and Health Program (PNNS), which now recommends limiting the consumption of these foods as much as possible in the French diet. Another result of our work: nutritional labeling, and in particular the NutriScore, which was invented and proposed by our team. We know we shouldn’t eat too much fat, sugar, or salt, but how can we ensure that people actually put this knowledge into practice? If we ask consumers to turn over the packaging and decipher a product’s composition—which can be very complex—no one will do it, and certainly not the most disadvantaged populations. This model would further widen social inequalities related to nutrition.”

This quote is from his exclusive interview, “Nutrition: At the Crossroads of Cultural, Economic, and Ecological Factors,” available on the Collège de France website.

“Following Arnaud Fontanet on pandemics, Didier Fassin on life inequalities in the face of public health issues, and Rémy Slama on the risks associated with exposure to environmental contaminants, the Collège de France is delighted to welcome Mathilde Touvier this year to the Public Health Chair, created in partnership with the national agency Santé publique France. The challenges related to nutrition are significant and shape the determinants of our health on a daily basis. They are a source of concern for our fellow citizens, who are sometimes uncertain about the reliability of the information available to them regarding food products and caught in consumption habits that are difficult to change. Mathilde Touvier’s lectures will provide the public with useful answers to these questions, based on cutting-edge scientific work, supported by rigorous research, and informing public policy in a true continuum from research to action.” Thomas Römer, Administrator of the Collège de France

“For the fourth consecutive year, Santé publique France is supporting the Chair of Public Health at the Collège de France. The theme addressed this year by Mathilde Touvier resonates with the agency’s work, which is particularly focused on evaluating national nutrition and health plans (PNNS), implementing the Nutriscore system, and promoting physical activity and a balanced diet. Noncommunicable or chronic diseases account for approximately 85% of the burden of all diseases, and their prevalence increases starting in midlife (age 40). Nutrition is one of the main risk factors we can influence. Our surveillance of chronic diseases, combined with our regular analyses of health behaviors, provides essential insights for taking action on diet, physical activity, and sedentary lifestyles. Our indicators also inform research; in particular, we contribute to numerous studies led by Mathilde Touvier. “Combating sedentary lifestyles and improving nutritional behaviors are critical challenges, especially as we emerge from three difficult years that have disrupted certain lifestyle habits,” says Prof. Laëtitia Huiart, Scientific Director of Santé publique France.

About the Public Health Chair

Created in partnership with Santé publique France, the Public Health Chair is designed to promote excellence in research and intellectual debate at the highest level on public health issues, and particularly to raise awareness of contemporary challenges—in France and around the world—among the medical and scientific communities, policymakers, and the general public, by inviting a different distinguished figure to hold the chair each year.

About Santé publique France

Santé publique France addresses the need for a center of reference and expertise in public health in France. Based on the continuum between knowledge and intervention, its mission is to improve and protect the health of the population. It is responsible for continuously monitoring the health status of the population and its evolution to inform the development and evaluation of policies aimed at improving and protecting health. Its work addresses major public health challenges over the long term, ranging from protection against threats (including infectious and environmental risks) to health improvement (health determinants, prevention, health promotion, and reducing the burden of chronic diseases, as well as social and regional inequalities).

About the Collège de France

Since 1530, the Collège de France has fulfilled a dual mission: to serve as both a center for the most daring research and a venue for its teaching. It thus offers instruction to all interested members of the public, without any enrollment requirements, in “knowledge as it is being developed in all fields of the humanities, sciences, and arts.” The Collège de France is an associate member of PSL University.