Professor Gary Sacks

Scientific Advisory Committee

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Professor Gary Sacks is Co-Director of the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) at Deakin University. Gary is a member of the Prevention Centre’s Scientific Advisory Committee, having made a significant contribution to research that focuses on improving population nutrition through policy. This research includes the evaluation of government and corporate policies for improving the healthiness and environmental sustainability of the food supply.

In 2023, Gary received a Sax Institute Research Action Award for advancing obesity prevention policy through the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) that was developed by INFORMAS, a global network for monitoring food environments, active in 60+ countries, co-founded by Gary. As part of INFORMAS, he has led studies to benchmark progress on obesity prevention by Australian governments and major food companies. Gary’s research was included as part of The Lancet Commission on Obesity, and he has co-authored several global reports for the World Health Organization (WHO) on nutrition.

Professor Gary Sacks's projects

Professor Gary Sacks's news and media

Professor Gary Sacks's resources

Engaging with the media

Resource category: Reports

Date 29 Nov 2022
Building healthier, more equitable and sustainable food systems for Australia

Resource category: Findings Brief

Date 15 Jun 2022
Australia’s Food Environment Dashboard launch

Resource category: Videos

Date 14 Jun 2021
Australia’s Food Environment Dashboard website

Resource category: Websites

Date 13 Jun 2021
Inside our supermarkets: Assessment of the healthiness of Australian supermarkets

Resource category: Reports

Date 17 May 2020
How Australian governments can achieve best practice in obesity policy

Resource category: Videos

Date 26 Jul 2017
Roadmap to tackle obesity prevention

Resource category: Findings Brief

Date 16 Feb 2017

Professor Gary Sacks's projects

Public health law: making it work for the prevention of chronic disease

Supporting priority actions in the food and nutrition system

Benchmarking obesity policies in Australia

Healthy public policy to support healthy and equitable eating

Learning health systems approach to optimise implementation of prevention programs

Professor Gary Sacks's news and media

Introducing the Prevention Centre’s Scientific Advisory Committee

RE-FRESH CRE enters a new generation

Supporting the next generation of prevention leaders

Rewarding year for Prevention Centre network in 2023

Research Action Award for advancing obesity prevention policy

Prevention Centre chronic disease prevention June newsletter

Food Policy Index reports for all Australian jurisdictions

The global view of obesity

International Congress on Obesity (ICO) Melbourne Oct 18-22

What if we had a health star rating to protect the planet?

Action needed on prevention and collaboration implementation research

Food Environment Dashboard award finalist

Using evidence to improve population diets: Australia’s food dashboard

World leading actions in the food and nutrition system

NHMRC funding success for prevention researchers

Big Appetite for Food Dashboard

No, it’s not just a lack of control that makes Australians overweight. Here’s what’s driving our unhealthy food habits

Food dashboard shows just how unhealthy Australian supermarkets are

Food security – Flavour of the month

Investigators’ Forum and the future of chronic disease prevention

Supermarkets urged to end heavy promotion of unhealthy foods

Too many cars, too few supermarkets: how Australia’s cities really stack up

Patchy report card for states on obesity prevention efforts

Focus on the food system not the individual, experts urge

Landmark report sets out ambitious roadmap to tackle obesity and unhealthy diets

Professor Gary Sacks's resources

Engaging with the media

Building healthier, more equitable and sustainable food systems for Australia

Australia’s Food Environment Dashboard launch

Australia’s Food Environment Dashboard website

Inside our supermarkets: Assessment of the healthiness of Australian supermarkets

How Australian governments can achieve best practice in obesity policy

Roadmap to tackle obesity prevention

Professor Gary Sacks's publications

Priority setting for non-communicable disease prevention – co-producing a regulatory agenda informing novel codes of practice in Australia

Preventive health resource allocation decision-making processes and the use of economic evidence in an Australian state government – A mixed methods study

Change in the healthiness of foods sold in an Australian supermarket chain following implementation of a shelf tag intervention based on the health star rating system

A call to action: More collaborative implementation research is needed to prevent chronic disease

Cost-benefit and cost-utility analyses to demonstrate the potential value-for-money of supermarket shelf tags promoting healthier packaged products in Australia

Price promotions offered by quick service restaurants in Australia: analysis from an obesity prevention perspective

What role should the commercial food system play in promoting health through better diet?

Food Retail Environments in Greater Melbourne 2008–2016: Longitudinal Analysis of Intra-City Variation in Density and Healthiness of Food Outlets

Investigating menu kilojoule labelling policy adoption from a political science perspective

A systematic review of the Australian food retail environment: Characteristics, variation by geographic area, socioeconomic position and associations with diet and obesity

Corporations’ use and misuse of evidence to influence health policy: a case study of sugar-sweetened beverage taxation

National policies to prevent obesity in early childhood: Using policy mapping to compare policy lessons for Australia with six developed countries

BIA-Obesity (Business Impact Assessment—Obesity and population-level nutrition): A tool and process to assess food company policies and commitments related to obesity prevention and population nutrition at the national level

Food and Beverage Price Promotions: an Untapped Policy Target for Improving Population Diets and Health

Extending the paradigm: a policy framework for healthy and equitable eating (HE2)