Lindsey Smith Taillie is an Assistant Professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and Fellow at the Carolina Population Center. She received a BA. in Sociology with honors from Northwestern University, an MPH from the Yale School of Public Health (concentration in social-behavioral sciences), and a PhD in nutrition (minor in epidemiology) from the Dr.
Lindsey is a nutrition epidemiologist whose work focuses on evaluating food policy efforts in the US and globally, and how these influence disparities in diet and obesity. Current projects focus on evaluating sugary beverage taxes, front-of-package warning labels, and marketing restrictions in a number of Latin American countries, including Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Peru. She has also conducted a number of studies on the nutrition transition in China, including fieldwork on diet behaviors and diet assessment technology. In the US, her research focuses on changes in marketing and labeling of unhealthy foods and beverages, their association with the nutritional profile of food purchases and disparities in food purchases, and whether marketing and labeling policies can help consumers make healthier choices, especially in vulnerable populations such as Latino and low-income parents. She also conducts nutrition epidemiology studies on food behaviors, diet intake, and obesity using large population-level datasets such as the National Health and Nutrition Survey and American Time Use Study.
In conjunction with the UNC Food Research Program, Lindsey’s previous and ongoing US efforts focus on the link between home cooking, diet, and obesity, especially among low-income populations. In addition to her work in Latin America, Lindsey is also interested in the nutrition transition in China, and has spent several summers conducting fieldwork on diet behaviors and assessment technologies, as well as more traditional epidemiologic analyses of obesity. Lindsey is also interested in exploring ethical issues related to the food system, environment, and economics in the context of a dynamic, globalizing food supply.
A Buckeye by birth and a North Carolinian by choice, Lindsey loves Lake Erie, the Smokies, 70 degree days in February, pine forests, and bluegrass. In her free time, she chases after her toddler and enormous poodle. She loves binge reading, embarassingly bad crime dramas, yoga, hiking, and making messes. If she had to choose a last meal on Earth, it would probably involve a slice of New-Haven style pizza (with bacon & mashed potatoes), a kale ceasar salad, a glass of Carmenere, and a brownie the size of her head.
me & study participants in kunming, china
Lindsey Smith Taillie, PhD 