Lu Wang, PhD, is Research Assistant Professor at the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. Her research focuses on diet and chronic disease, food processing and diet quality, and the health and economic impacts of nutrition policies and interventions.
Dr. Wang has conducted extensive research on ultra-processed foods, including national trends in consumption among U.S. children and associations of ultra-processed food intake with colorectal cancer, cardiometabolic health, and mortality. Her recent work examines an important question in the field: how the health risks associated with ultra-processed foods relate to, and may be distinguished from, the nutritional quality of the overall diet.
Her broader research integrates nutritional epidemiology, health economics, and simulation modeling to translate evidence into actionable food and nutrition policy. She is also leading an American Diabetes Association–funded study investigating how online grocery environments can be leveraged to improve food purchasing, diet, and health.
