Cultivating Well-being and Nutrition

The right balance is possible

From fast food to no food, from the obesity epidemic sweeping the globe to social isolation and unhappiness, we’re still plagued by barriers to human thriving. The links between our health and how we feel, interact, and live are complex and clouded. But the path forward has never seemed clearer.

We’re leading the way in determining how genetics, lifestyles and societies interact to influence everything from metabolism to mental health. We’re designing sustainable strategies to feed an exploding population. We’re leading cutting edge research to understand how diet impacts health at molecular and population levels—and how where we live, learn, work, and play influences our health. But it doesn’t stop at the science: we’re also shaping sustainable food policies, finding new ways to measure well-being, and providing insights to empower individuals and drive real-world progress.

We’re advancing health and happiness for all.

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Nutrition Source
The Nutrition Source at the Harvard Chan School is a leading authority on food and nutrition knowledge, providing science-based guidance for healthy living, and offering comprehensive nutrition information through timely content and tools.
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Recent Stories

Analysis: Pregnancy attempts dropped steeply during pandemic

From May 2020 to October 2020, pregnancy attempts among women in the U.S. dropped from 6.1% to 4.9%—almost 20%—according to a new analysis from the Apple Women’s Health Study.

Increasing production of aquatic foods a win-win for people and planet

September 17, 2021—Nutrition researchers have long touted the health benefits of fish such as salmon, cod, and herring. But the world’s waterways, from the depths of the oceans to the cutbanks of rivers to tropical reefs, offer up…

The health benefits of trees

A growing body of research shows that regularly spending time around trees provides a wide range of human health benefits, from lowering stress to improving cognition to boosting longevity.

More affordable aquatic foods could prevent 166 million micronutrient deficiencies worldwide

For immediate release: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 Boston, MA – Some 166 million micronutrient deficiencies could be averted by 2030 if the global production of marine and freshwater foods is increased by 15.5 million tons (8%), new research…

Office air quality may affect employees’ cognition, productivity

For immediate release: Thursday, September 9, 2021 Boston, MA – The air quality within an office can have significant impacts on employees’ cognitive function, including response times and ability to focus, and it may also affect their productivity,…

Sara Bleich
Professor of Public Health Policy

"I predict that in 30 years, we will live in an environment where everything is nudging us toward healthy choices—as opposed to the environment we live in now, where everything conspires to get us to eat more and exercise less."
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Lindsay Jaacks
Assistant Professor of Global Health and Population

"Diabetes will be the signal disease for cardiovascular risk in the future, because most people with diabetes die from its complications, such as cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and kidney failure."
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Vasanti Malik
Research Scientist in the Department of Nutrition

"For many decades, one of the challenges has been how to assess diet in our research. In the future, we will see growth in wearables and other technologies that can directly evaluate diet... That will not only help research but also help consumers."
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