Plant-Based Canada Podcast

Episode 95: Translating nutrition research into action for cardiovascular health with Dr. Meaghan Kavanagh

Plant-Based Canada

Welcome to the Plant-Based Canada Podcast. In this episode we are joined by Dr. Meaghan Kavanagh to chat about diet-disease relationships and translating nutrition knowledge into action for cardiovascular health.

Meaghan is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto and the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital, mentored by Dr. John Sievenpiper. Her research explores diet-chronic disease relationships through clinical trials, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and epidemiology. Recipient of the CIHR-MSFSS award, she visited the CDC in Atlanta as a Guest Researcher to investigate the Portfolio Diet's cardiovascular benefits in the NHANES program.

Meaghan is dedicated to translating her research into practical tools, including the PortfolioDiet.app, developed for cardiovascular disease prevention.

Before her Ph.D., Meaghan was a project manager at the University of Toronto (2016-2020), researching dietary patterns and disease prevention with Dr. David Jenkins, and Clinical Coordinator for the STOP Sugars NOW Trial at St. Michael’s Hospital (2019-2020) with Dr. John Sievenpiper. She completed her M.Sc. at the University of Guelph with Drs. Lindsay Robinson and Amanda Wright and her B.Sc. thesis with Dr. Alison Duncan.

In 2025, Meaghan will continue as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Frank Hu at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Resources:

Global Burden of Disease

Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors, Lancet 2024

Glenn A, et al., AJCN 2024

Portfolio Diet Meta-Analysis 

BMJ Open - newspaper reliable reporting

Representation of statins in the British newsprint media 


Dr. Meaghan Kavanagh’s Socials:
Twitter: @MeaghanKavanag1 

LinkedIn

Google Scholar 

ResearchGate


Plant-Based Canada’s Socials:

Instagram  (@plantbasedcanadaorg)

Facebook (Plant-Based Canada, https://m.facebook.com/plantbasedcanadaorg/)

Website  (https://www.plantbasedcanada.org/)

X / Twitter @PBC_org


Bonus Content from University of Guelph

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