Dr Luciana Torquati

Luciana is a registered nutritionist who has completed her PhD at HMNS at the end 2016, and has since joined CRExPAH as a Research Fellow. She has previously worked with Prof Wendy Brown and Dr Tracy Kolbe Alexander in several intervention studies aimed to promote physical activity in the workplace. Her PhD focused on designing, implementing and evaluating a diet and physical activity workplace intervention for nurses.

Her overarching research focus is on how modifying diet and physical activity behaviours can promote health and prevent chronic disease; either by direct changes in diet (sugar, fiber) and physical activity level/fitness, or indirectly via environmental factors (social factors, workplace, policy).

Current research

Luciana is currently investigating how energy balance differs across different occupational groups and how is this associated with weight gain over time. She is also looking at sugar intake across different physically active and occupational groups, and its relation to weight gain. She is collaborating with other CRExPAH members by conducting a meta-analysis on shift work and the risk of cardiovascular disease and poor mental health (Dr Gregore Mielke, Prof Wendy Brown, Dr Nicola Burton, Dr Tracy Kolbe-Alexander), and in a pilot study assessing exercise effects on gut microbiome in Type 2 Diabetes patients (Prof Jeff Coombes and Dr Shelley Keating).