5 Minutes with… Dr Priscila Machado
Dr Priscila Machado envisions a world with a food system that is conducive to equitable access to affordable and sustainable healthy food. In the last 5 years, her groundbreaking research on the impacts of ultra-processed foods, sustainable diets, and policy responses has attracted over $1.5m of research funding.
Q. What’s your research focus in a nutshell?
My research focuses on understanding the impacts of ultra-processed foods on diet quality, public health and food systems, and policy options and strategies to reduce their harms.
Q. What’s the best piece of advice you could give to an early career researcher?
Prioritise the work you are leading and your research vision as much as possible, and cultivate collaborations with excellent, kind, and passionate researchers along the way.
Q. What’s something a lot of people don’t know about you?
I play drums in a Maracatu group, and we often perform across Melbourne. Maracatu is a beautiful, vibrant, and traditional Afro-Brazilian cultural manifestation influenced by African and Indigenous cultures.
Q. What’s your research ‘big picture’? What would you like to see change?
My vision is a world where everyone can enjoy good food and delicious meals produced by a system that is sustainable and fair. I would like to see a food system that is not dominated by ultra-processed food corporations, where whole foods are more accessible and affordable.
Q. What’s your favourite meal?
Definitely feijoada – a traditional Brazilian dish made with black beans, rice, collard greens, fried manioc flour with plantain and slices of orange – shared with friends and family.
Find out more about Priscila’s research here.
