Place-based determinants of nutrition
How food environments — from food deserts to cultural norms and supermarket geography — shape diet across communities. Currently active through MSc-level work in Bristol.
Research
Food, health, and place — researched in clinic and community.
Vincent’s research bridges clinical dietetics, community nutrition, and sustainable food systems. The work starts from a simple conviction: what is available, affordable, and culturally meaningful where we live shapes how we eat — and therefore how we heal.
Vincent-Adocta Awuuh · HCPC PIN: DT035697
Approach
How the work is done
- 01
A co-productive methodology that treats lived experience as expertise alongside clinical and academic knowledge.
- 02
A place-based lens: food environments, household composition, and structural access are taken as variables, not background.
- 03
Outcomes measured against agreed clinical and community-level markers — not aesthetics or short-term metrics.
Research areas
Four threads, one practice
Each thread feeds the others — clinical work, community interventions, sustainable food thinking, and lived-experience methodology connect through the people and places they serve.
Maternal and child nutrition
Field and clinical studies on undernutrition, peptide-rich proteins, and maternal-foetal outcomes. Includes a randomised controlled trial in north-eastern Ghana and a current clinical study on Bird’s Nest Peptides.
Sustainable food systems and clinical practice
Reconciling the clinical Nutrition Care Process with sustainable food thinking — how dietetic practice can address both individual health and the wider food system.
Co-production in nutrition interventions
Designing community-led nutrition programmes that draw on lived experience and shared environments. Grounded in community nutrition, health education, and place-based research experience.
Active studies
Currently in progress
- Active
Ongoing
Bird’s Nest Peptides and maternal-foetal outcomes
Clinical study
A current clinical study investigating peptide-rich protein supplementation and its role in maternal and foetal nutrition.
- Active
2024–2025
Place-based determinants of nutrition
University of the West of England, Bristol
MSc Sustainable Food Systems research exploring how food environments shape dietary patterns and outcomes in Bristol communities.
Completed studies
Foundational work
- Completed
2015–2017
Maternal and child undernutrition in north-eastern Ghana
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
Community-based randomised controlled trial as Principal Investigator, examining nutrition interventions in food-insecure communities. Foundation of Vincent’s place-based methodology.
- Completed
2007–2018
Community nutrition and health education
University of Cape Coast & University for Development Studies, Ghana
Early-career research and teaching grounding in community-level nutrition interventions and health education — the foundation of the co-productive approach Vincent uses today.
Affiliations
Professional bodies and institutions
- HCPC — Registered Dietitian (United Kingdom)
- British Dietetic Association (BDA)
- AHPC — Registered Dietitian and Public Health Nutritionist (Ghana)
- Ghana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (GAND)
- University of the West of England, Bristol
- Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
- University of Cape Coast, Ghana
- University for Development Studies, Ghana
Research collaboration
Have a project? Let’s talk.
Open to collaboration on place-based nutrition, community-led food interventions, clinical dietetic outcomes, and sustainable food systems. Particularly interested in projects that centre lived experience alongside clinical and academic knowledge.
Get in touch →Free initial session
Reach Health Goals With Nutrition
Book a free discovery call — a relaxed conversation about what you would like to work on and whether the practice is the right fit. No commitment.