Dr Margaret Ashwell

Margaret is a Registered Nutritionist and was President/Chair of Council at the Association for Nutrition from 2016 to 2021. She was Honorary Secretary of The Nutrition Society from 1984 to 1988 and saw the inception of the first Register of Nutritionists. She has been a Research Scientist with the Medical Research Council, Principal of the Good Housekeeping Institute, Science Director of the British Nutrition Foundation and, for more than 20 years, Director of Ashwell Associates, a nutrition science consultancy.

Margaret was among the first to advocate the use of the simple waist-to-height ratio as a warning of early health risk. Primary screening only requires a piece of string: "Keep your waist to less than half your height". Margaret served on the UK Government’s Food Advisory Committee for 9 years and was rewarded with the OBE. She has been a Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School since 2015 and she received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Westminster in 2018.

Margaret edited the biography of the nutrition pioneers, McCance and Widdowson, published in 1993. She described this project as that which has given her most satisfaction. However she is equally thrilled to be a founding Trustee of the Academy of Nutrition Sciences which will give enormous strength to the profession.