Malek Batal
Déterminants environnementaux, sociaux, économiques et culturels des choix alimentaires
- Professeur titulaire
-
Faculté de médecine - Département de nutrition
Pavillon Liliane de Stewart, room 2250-4
- Professeur associé
-
École de santé publique - Département de médecine sociale et préventive
Profile
Research expertise
- Nutrition internationale
- Sécurité alimentaire
- Nutrition des peuples autochtones
- Systèmes alimentaires
- Migration et santé nutritionnelle
- Inégalités en nutrition et santé
Biography
Malek Batal is Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the Nutrition Department at the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal (UdeM). He obtained his bachelor's degree in human nutrition and dietetics at the American University of Beirut and his master's degree in food sciences at the same university. He then underwent doctoral studies in human nutrition at McGill University. Professor for five years at the American University of Beirut and then for another five years at the University of Ottawa, he joined UdeM in 2013. His research focuses on the environmental, social, economic and cultural determinants of food choices and their relationship with individual and ecosystem health in several populations, including First Nations in Canada.
Among First Nations, he is involved in two pan-Canadian projects: the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (www.FEHNCY.ca) and the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (www.FNFNES.ca), which measure and qualify the dietary intake and the risk of exposure to environmental contaminants among First Nations adults, children and youth living on reserve across the country. Both projects are funded by Indigenous Services Canada. With funding from CIHR, he is undertaking several projects on food security for First Nations, including a project with the seven communities of the Okanagan Nation Alliance assessing the impact on food quality, food security and health of an environmental remediation project and the reintroduction of salmon into the Okanagan water system.
Internationally, Malek Batal is involved in several projects, including one in Ecuador through joint funding from CIHR and IDRC as part of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease to study the potential of agro-ecology and alternative food networks in the fight against diabetes and hypertension, as a follow-up to the project assessing the impact on food and health of a national campaign and food policies on nutrition labelling, also in Ecuador. In Haiti, he is co-leading a project on the nutritional health of mothers and their young children with significant four-year funding from Global Affairs Canada. Through a G3 partnership http://g3univ.org, he is undertaking an online training project on the nutritional management of diabetes in a developing country context. Since September 2014, he has been the Director of TRANSNUT, the WHO-Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Changes and Development.
Awards and recognitions
CIHR Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Nutrition and Health Inequalities
For more information…
- 02-05-2019 Insécurité alimentaire, obésité et diabète: portrait inquiétant des Premières Nations
- 26-07-2019 Vérification faite: le gibier, plus nourrissant que la viande d’élevage?
- Du Canada à l’Australie, en passant par le Brésil, les populations autochtones jouent leur survie face à la pandémie
- Au Canada, les peuples autochtones démunis face au Covid
- First Nations ramping up efforts to address food insecurity
- Cri d'alarme au sujet de la santé des Autochtones : Entrevue avec Malek Batal. Radio-Canada. Midi-Info avec Michel C. Auger.
Affiliations and responsabilities
Research affiliations
Research units
Directeur
Titulaire
Membre
Teaching and supervision
Teaching
Courses taught (current session only)
Programs
Student supervision
Theses and dissertation supervision (Papyrus Institutional Repository)
La sécurité alimentaire des réfugiés réinstallés au Québec : le cas des réfugiés syriens
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
Analysis of the dietary taboos affecting dietary diversity of women of reproductive age in the South and Grand’Anse departments of Haiti
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
Sécurité alimentaire et diversité alimentaire des ménages en Haïti
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
Étude d’impact : analyse des données de fréquence alimentaire, d’activité physique et d’image corporelle chez des enfants d’âge scolaire au Burkina Faso
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
The Association Between Food Security and Diet Quality Among First Nations Living On-Reserve in Canada
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
L’allaitement dans la formation initiale des futurs professionnels de la santé du Québec : parvenir à un consensus sur les objectifs de formation initiale pour améliorer les compétences en allaitement
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
The link between self-production of food and diet quality in adults living in rural Lebanon
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
Analyse d’implantation d’un programme de jardinage éducatif en services de garde à la petite enfance : perceptions des intervenantes du milieu
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
Étude d’impact : comparaison et analyse des données anthropométriques et biologiques d’enfants d’âge scolaire au Burkina Faso
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
L’association entre le niveau de sécurité alimentaire des Premières Nations du Manitoba et leurs apports nutritionnels
Cycle : Master's
Grade : M. Sc.
Projects
Research projects
Chaire de recherche du Canada sur les inégalités en nutrition et santé
Evaluating, refining and bringing to scale the endogenous health-promoting attributes of alternative food networks to address diabetes mellitus and hypertension among Ecuadorian farmers
Évaluation et mise à l'échelle de réseaux alimentaires alternatifs pour la lutte contre le diabète et l'hypertension en Équateur / Evaluating and bringing to scale alternative food networks to adress diabetes melitus and hypertension
Évaluation of the Health and Healthy Equity Outcomes of Okanagan Sockeye Salmon Reintroduction Initiatives
Food, Environment, Health and Nutrition of First Nations Chiidren and Youth (FEHNCY)
Projet de recherche sur la santé nutritionnelle des mères et des enfants (PRSNME)
The impact of socio-economic, geography and cultural factors on household food insecurity of Syrian refugees: a comprehensive study after resettlement in Canada
Appui prénatal, périnatal, postnatal et nutritionnel en Grand'Anse et au sud d'Haïti (A3PN)
First Nation Food Nutrition and Environment Study
Pulling together for health: food security in first nations communities
FIRST NATION FOOD NUTRITION AND ENVIRONMENT STUDY
Profil, pratiques et comportements alimentaires d'usagers de Moisson Montréal
Profil, pratiques et comportements alimentaires d'usagers de Moisson Montréal
PULLING TOGETHER FORHEALTH : FOOD SECURITY IN FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITIES
LA CONSOMMATION DE PRODUITS ULTRA-TRANSFORMÉS AU QUÉBEC ET SON ASSOCIATION AVEC L'OBÉSITÉ
Outreach
Publications and presentations
Publications
- Kenny T, Little M, Lemieux T, Griffin JP, Wesche S, Ota Y, Batal M, Chan HM, Lemire M (2020). The Retail Food Sector and Indigenous Peoples in High-Income Countries: A Systematic Scoping Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(23), 8818. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17238818
- Deaconu A, Mercille G, Batal M. (2020). Promoting traditional foods for human and environmental health: lessons from agroecology and Indigenous communities in Ecuador. BMC Nutrition. 10.21203/rs.2.18285/v1
- April-Lalonde G, Latorre S, Paredes M, Hurtado MF, Muñoz F, Deaconu A, Cole DC, Batal M*. (2020). Characteristics and Motivations of Consumers of Direct Purchasing Channels and The Perceived Barriers to Alternative Food Purchase: a Cross-Sectional Study in the Ecuadorian Andes. Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6923. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6923/htm
- Blanchet R, Willows N, Johnson S, Okanagan Nation Salmon Reintroduction Initiatives, Batal M (2020). Traditional Food, Health, and Diet Quality in Syilx Okanagan Adults in British Columbia, Canada. Nutrients, 12(4), 927; https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/4/927
- Domingo A, Springer J, Wittman H, Gruhn M, Chan HM, Tikhonov C, Ing A, Fediuk K, Sadik T, Batal M (2020). Predictors of household food insecurity and relationship with obesity in First Nations communities in British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario. Public Health Nutrition. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1368980019004889
- Sia D, Miszkurka M, Batal M, Delisle H, Zunzunegui MV (2019). Chronic disease and malnutrition biomarkers among unemployed immigrants and Canadian born adults. Archives of Public Health, Vol 77(41). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-019-0367-8
- Johnson-Down L, Willows N, Kenny TA, Ing A, Fediuk K, Sadik T, Chan HM, Batal M* (2019). Optimization modeling to improve the diets of First Nations individuals. Journal of Nutritional Science. vol. 8, e31, page 1 of 18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jns.2019.30.
- Batal M*, Decelles S (2019). A scoping review of obesity among Indigenous peoples in Canada. Journal of Obesity. Volume 2019, Article ID 9741090, 20 pages https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2019/9741090/
- Marushka L, Kenny T-A, Batal M, Cheung WWL, Fediuk K, Golden CD, Salomon AK, Sadik T, Weatherdon LV, Chan HM (2019). Potential impacts of climate-related decline of seafood harvest on nutritional status of coastal First Nations in British Columbia, Canada. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0211473. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211473
- Deaconu A, Mercille G, Batal M (2019). The Agroecological Farmer’s Pathways from Agriculture to Nutrition: a practice-based case from Ecuador’s highlands. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Vol 58(2), pp. 142-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2019.1570179
- Edde C. E, Delisle H, Daboné C, Batal M* (2019). Impact of the Nutrition-Friendly School Initiative: Analysis of anthropometric and biochemical data among school-aged children in Ouagadougou. Global Health Promotion. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1757975918789350
- Willows N, Johnson-Down L, Kenny,T A, Chan HM, Batal M* (2018). Modelling optimal diets for quality and cost: examples from Inuit and First Nations communities in Canada. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. Jul; 44(7):696-703. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2018-0624 : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30566364
- Batal M*, Steinhouse L, Delisle H (2018). La transition nutritionnelle et le double fardeau de la malnutrition. Médecine et santé tropicales, Vol 28(4), pp. 345-350. https://www.jle.com/fr/revues/mst/e-docs/la_transition_nutritionnelle_et_le_double_fardeau_de_la_malnutrition_313512/article.phtml
Disciplines
- Nutrition
- Dietetics
- Preventive Medicine
Areas of expertise
- Nutrition
- Native Health
- Feeding Behavior
- Health Prevention
- Canada
- Canada (Québec)
- Haiti
- Americas
- Middle East