Research title: The urban food retail environment and its impact on diets, health, and the environment in sub-Saharan Africa​.

About my research: Food consumption has important impacts on personal health and the environment, and the food environment is an important antecedent to food acquisition and consumption. The global food environment in recent decades has seen rapid transformations that make more unhealthy food options available. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the increased presence of ‘Western-style’ fastfood outlets and supermarket chains, and the proliferation of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) (like carbonated and sweetened drinks and snacks) in the food retail environment (FRE) have been implicated in the ongoing shifts in dietary patterns and disease profiles.

My PhD research used mixed methods to 1) investigate the trends of meat, fruit, vegetables, and UPFs consumption in SSA; 2) map the features of the FRE in a case study urban community in Ghana and how these impact dietary behaviours; as well as 3) explore attitudes and perceptions towards UPFs, meat, fruit, and vegetables consumption in relation to health and environmental sustainability.

Supervisors: Dr Oyinlola Oyebode; Dr Rob Lilywhite; Dr Raquel Nunes

Recent publications:

Mensah DO, Nunes AR, Bockarie T, Lillywhite R, & Oyebode O. Meat, fruit, and vegetable consumption in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Nutrition reviews. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuaa032

Reynolds C, Rivera XCS, Frankowska A, Kluczkovski A, Bridle S....Mensah DO. Cooking as part of a global sustainable food system- a 6-country pilot survey. Poster presented at the Nutrition & Cooking Education Symposium, 12 Jun 2020, Newcastle, Australia. https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/24351

 Contact: d.mensah.2@warwick.ac.uk