Dr Monique Tan, BSc MSc PhD

Profile

I am an NIHR Advanced Fellow at Queen Mary’s Centre for Public Health and Policy. I am interested in policy measures that encourage food reformulation and make it easier for everybody to enjoy healthier diets.

I hold degrees in nutrition and dietetics (University of Applied Science, Switzerland) and international health (Uppsala University, Sweden). I also have research and field experience in Europe, Asia, and Africa, notably through my work for the World Health Organization and the European Commission.

I originally joined Professors Feng J He’s and Graham MacGregor’s team at Queen Mary as a PhD student. My doctoral research focused on salt reduction in China, which my work helped identify as one of the countries with the highest salt intake in the world.

My NIHR Advanced Fellowship is now centred on the salt reduction programme in the UK, where average salt intake still exceeds the maximum recommended levels. Excess salt intake is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the biggest cause of premature deaths in the country.

I am on Twitter: @@_moniquetan

Research

Research Interests:

• Public health policy
• NCD prevention
• Nutrition

Publications

Please click through to see a complete list of Monique's publications.

Featured publications

Obesity and covid-19: the role of the food industry, BMJ.

Impact of the 2003 to 2018 Population Salt Intake Reduction Program in England: A Modeling Study, Hypertension. 

Salt Reduction to Prevent Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease: JACC State-of-the-Art Review, Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Twenty‐four‐hour urinary sodium and potassium excretion in China: a systematic review and meta‐analysis, Journal of the American Heart Association.

Salt content of sauces in the UK and China: cross-sectional surveys, BMJ. 

Supervision

Ms Isabel Valero-Morales, 'Salt intake in Mexico and a pilot salt reformulation programme'. Started October 2019.