Carol Williams

Senior Lecturer

contact:
Nursing and Midwifery
Falmer
Brighton
BN1 9PH

Telephone: +44 (0)1273 644080

Email: C.Williams2@brighton.ac.uk

Roles

• Public Health Nutritionist and Infant Feeding Specialist
• Senior Lecturer: Health Promotion and Public Health Research Fellow

Research interests

• Early years nutrition
• Breastfeeding / infant feeding
• Introduction of solid foods to infants
• HIV and infant feeding
• Maternal nutrition
• Global food and nutrition policy analysis and advocacy
• Five a day
• Healthy eating and the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases
• Translation of technical recommendations for public and professional practice: communication and training
• Consumer advocacy
• Peer support
• Conflicts of interest
• Food labelling and advertising regulations
• International nutrition programmes

Profile

Carol is a Public Health Nutritionist with a long experience of working on food and health issues in the UK and internationally, primarily in the public and Non-Government Organisation (NGO) sectors.

She joined the University of Brighton in 2011, after completing a secondment in the London Regional Public Health Group 'Healthy Weight Team', as the London–Lead for Early Years Nutrition and Regional Infant Feeding Coordinator.

For the past 20 years she has combined part-time employment teaching nutrition policy and infant feeding at the UCL Institute of Child Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University of Westminster, with consultancy work for agencies such as WHO, UNICEF, UK Food Standards Agency, Save the Children Fund, Ministry of Health Philippines, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action.

She is director and co-founder of a community interest company: the Infant Feeding Consortium c.i.c which sets out 'to support action to improve the feeding, nurture and wellbeing of infants, young children'. She conducts infant feeding training in the UK and internationally, and has brought the annual Breastfeeding: Practice and Policy Course held in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF at ICH in London, to the University of Brighton. Most recently, she delivered regional training on maternal and infant nutrition in Cambodia for the World Vision South East Asia.

Past achievements include:

• Devised the scheme for assessing the 'Strength of Evidence' on diet and health which first appeared in the World Cancer Research Fund report 1997, and has subsequently become a mainstream approach used by WHO and others.
• One of a small team responsible for introducing '5 fruits and vegetables a day' into the UK in the early 1990s following publication of WHO Diet and Chronic Diseases report.
• Conceived, formatively developed and pilot-tested the 'Guideline Daily Amounts' for UK Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF) now widely used on food labels in the UK.

Her current work centres on the introduction of solid foods to infants under one year and she is a regular speaker, trainer and adviser on 'Starting Solid Foods' in the UK and internationally.

Recent publications

Books, chapters and journal articles

Cattaneo A, Williams C et al. ESPGHAN’s 2008 recommendations for early introduction of complementary foods: how good is the evidence? Mat Child Nutr 2011 (7) 335-343

Williams C. ‘Talking About Starting Solid Foods’ Training of Trainers course, London, SE and West Midlands Regional Public Health Groups & Infant Feeding Consortium cic Feb 2012.

Almroth S, Arts M, Quang ND, Hoa PTT, Williams C. Exclusive breastfeeding in Viet Nam: An attainable goal. Acta Paed 2008;97:1066-1069

Williams C. Protecting, Promoting and Supporting Continued Breastfeeding from 6 to 24 plus months. Joint Statement based on a workshop of the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action Global Breastfeeding Partners Meeting in Penang, Malaysia, October 2008. www.waba.org.my.

Williams C, Breastfeeding and Family Foods: Loving and Healthy. World Breastfeeding Week, 2005, World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, Penang, 2005.

Rayner M, Scarborough P, Williams C. The Origin of Daily Guideline Amounts and the Food Standards Agency’s Guidance on What Counts as “a Lot” and “a Little”. J Public Health Nutr 2004

Williams C, Marmot M. Changing Rationales, Consistent Advice: Dietary Recommendations on Vegetables and Fruit. Chapter 5, 49-63, and Williams C, Marmot M. At Least Five A Day? Devising Quantified Dietary Advice on Vegetables and Fruit. 63-71 in Preventing Coronary Heart Disease: The Role of Antioxidants, Vegetables and Fruit. London, National Heart Forum/ Stationary Office, 1997

Williams C. Healthy Eating: Clarifying Advice about Fruit and Vegetables. British Medical Journal, 1996, 310:1453-1455.

Research reports

Williams C. Supporting breastfeeding in Brighton & Hove: an introductory scoping report for a social marketing project. National Centre for Social Marketing Research Demo-site project. Brighton & Hove PCT, Nov 2007.

Williams C. The Composition of Breastmilk and How it Compares with Commercial Infant Formula and Cow’s Milk. WHO Consultancy Review Paper 2005

Williams C. Country Adaptation of Global HIV/ IF Guidelines in Myanmar, in Koniz-Booher P, Burkhalter B, de Wagt A, Iliff P, Willumsen J (eds). 2004. HIV and Infant Feeding: A compilation of programmatic evidence. Bethesda, MD: Published for UNICEF and USAID by QAP, URC

Williams C. UNICEF Myanmar. Country Adaptation of Global HIV and Infant Feeding Guidelines, and Development of Replacement Feeding Guidelines for Myanmar, 2001- 2003 NNC/NAP/UNICEF collaborative project. Yangon, 2004.

Williams C, McColl K, Cowburn G. Food, Nutrition and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in the European Region: Challenges for the New Millenium. Report of the European Heart Network’s Nutrition Expert Group. European Heart Network, Brussels, 2002.

Williams C. Salt Science: what is the current position? Health Which? London, 2001.

Williams C. The National School Fruit Scheme. UK Department of Health, London, 2000.

Conference papers, posters and invited presentations

Starting solids – how, when and why?. UNICEF Annual Baby Friendly Conference, Dec 2010. Sandwell PCT Jan, Feb 2010, West Midlands Infant Feeding Coordinators Nov 09, Breastfeeding Network Oct 09, SW Regional Breastfeeding Conference, Exeter Oct 6 2006.Kilburn Children’s Centre July 08, Dudley Children’s Centre January 08

Breastfeeding in Britain: Catching a rising tide? . Royal College of Pediatrics & Child Health Annual conference, Warwick Univ June 2010.

Starting Solids: Time to rethink our approach?. And Supporting continued breastfeeding 6-24+ months: best practice and challenges. Canadian National Breastfeeding Conference. Toronto Oct 2009

How close is 'closer to breastmilk?' National Network of Breastfeeding Coordinators Yorkshire Region 9th Annual Conference. Bradford June 9, Sunderland Sept 19 2006.

Weight monitoring: practice which supports breastfeeding? Making Breastfeeding A Reality – Meeting The Challenges. National Childbirth Trust conference, London, March 20th 2006

Publications from the institutional repository