Vicky Drapeau, Ph.D., Dt.P. holds a bachelor degree in nutrition and a doctorate in kinesiology from Université Laval. She is a Professor of Nutrition at the Faculty of Education, the co-director of the Clinique Équilibre-Santé at Université Laval and a researcher at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute and the NUTRISS/Institute on Nutrition and Functional Foods research centers. Her research program is related to eating behaviors and appetite control, healthy weight management and health education/promotion. She is currently leading RCTs aimed to promote healthy eating and sustainable health.
Healthy and sustainable eating is about choosing healthy foods that are healthful to our environment and bodies. The study of healthy and sustainable eating must inevitably consider individual biological and psychological variation to promote an adequate compatibility between food consumption and body needs to maintain homeostasis. With respect to the study of healthy sustainable eating, the main contribution of QFS is related to human variability. In this regard, the Quebec Family Study (QFS) is unique because numerous individual and environmental factors influencing eating habits and health were determined. The genotyping of the cohort is also part of the uniqueness, which permits to consider individual differences in the study of healthy and sustainable eating and health. Altogether, QFS provide evidence that we are not all equal in our ability to adopt and respond to healthy eating habits and that a better understanding of human variation, i.e. the individual biological and psychological variables that influence the response to a given intervention, may represent an important step to promote sustainable changes