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The Centre for Nutrition and Behaviour

The Centre for Nutrition and Behaviour (CNB) is based within Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH). The trust has a long history of conducting research and providing exemplary tailored nutritional care for those with severe mental illness.

Nutrients are essential for the growth and maintenance of all physiological components of the body. Sound nutrition plays a key role in all aspects of physical and mental growth, development and behaviour.

The need for considering nutrition as key to improving outcomes in a range of conditions is vital and in particular, increased when medications are used. Many nutrients are co-factors in the processes required for medicines to exert their effect and there are metabolic side effects noted from a range of drugs including psychoactive medicines.

The Centre for Nutrition and Behaviour conducts world-class research, which is designed, delivered and disseminated by clinical, academic and patient experts rooted in the NHS. They offer nutritional management consultancy services, such as conference presentation, evaluation and audit work.

Sitting within the NHS, they benefit from NHS governance and assurance processes and have well established links to patients and the public, with strong connections with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and networks such as the Ethnic Minority Research Inclusion (EMRI) network.

For enquiries about their work, please contact us.

The science behind the centre

There are a plethora of conditions where the role of nutrition needs to be explored further both in the case of patients with clear diagnoses and in the case of the population more generally in terms of their general health and wellbeing.

Whilst focusing on the population in general, we also look to consider the wellbeing of our workforce in particular. The areas we aim to initiate research projects are:

  • autism
  • mental Health
  • depression, anxiety, sleep, stress
  • dementia
  • offender health

Nutrition and the brain is an international area of interest that is expanding, particularly in the topic of food and the symptoms of depression. Several nutrients, particularly the essential fatty acids, essential amino acids and key vitamins and minerals are linked to the onset, if deficient and potential reduction, once deficiency is corrected, of depressive symptoms (Rao et al. 2008).

Regarding autism in particular the causes are both complex and multifactorial, and although genetic factors clearly influence vulnerability, the expression of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) requires environmental triggers. Among these, nutritional factors during pregnancy and early life, have been implicated as potential contributory factors.

Perhaps understandably, the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) is high for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Harris et al. 2012). However, most of these treatments lack any evidential support. Increasing the evidence base in this area of behaviour is needed to investigate the efficacy of supplements as a treatment to improve the health and wellbeing of those affected.

Research into NHS patient and carer health and wellbeing is vital, however it is also important to consider the health and wellbeing of those providing patient care. The NHS is one of few organisations that operate services 24 hours per day, over 365 days per year. The services provided are often physically and emotionally draining. Staff sickness rates are 46% higher than the UK average (CIPD, 2013). One recent study cites that over half of doctors were stressed, anxious and had difficulty sleeping (Harrison et al. 2014). Sound nutrition can play a therapeutic role in those issues. There’s currently a national agenda to tackle the issue of workforce wellbeing in the UK and it’s important to consider a research theme that covers this.

In 2014, the Alzheimer’s Disease International (London) published a report dedicated to the topic of nutrition and dementia. The report considers nutrition central to the quality of life and has potential for improving outcomes for those affected by dementia (ADI, 2014). The report also cites the need for more research in this area.

Regarding offender health research the Public Health England Health and Justice Report (2014) states that prisoners and those in the criminal justice system have health inequalities in comparison to the general population. The behavioural patterns of prisoners are known to have an effect on the wellbeing of the prison population, including staff.

Attempts to ameliorate the behaviour of prisoners are therefore warranted, and nutritional intervention has shown promise. A randomised placebo-controlled trial of nutritional supplementation in a youth offending population (n=231) demonstrated a significant reduction in antisocial behaviour, including violence (Gesch et al. 2002).

Page last reviewed: September 18, 2025
Next review due: September 18, 2026