The Nutrition Transition

Dr. Caballero is Professor of International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Professor of Pediatrics at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. He has over 20 years of experience as a scholar, researcher and leader in the area of child health and nutrition. He obtained his MD from the University of Buenos Aires and his PhD (in neuroendocrine regulation) from MIT. He started his faculty career at Harvard Medical School, and moved to Johns Hopkins in 1990 to found the Center for Human Nutrition.

Dr. Caballero is a recognized expert on the nutritional needs of children and adults, and on nutrient requirements in undernourished populations. For the past 10 years, he has focused on the problem of childhood obesity in the US and in developing countries, and explored the impact of dietary transition and globalization on health indicators. He is an active participant in key scientific committees advising the US government on issues of diet and health, including the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) Committee, the Expert Panel on Macronutrient Requirements, and the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee, and is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).

Dr. Caballero is an active leader in the area of global health, specifically on diet, lifestyle and disease risk. He is Chairman of the Board of the Pan American Health and Education Foundation, in Washington, D.C., and member of the Board of Directors of the International Nutrition Foundation, in Boston, MA. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Centers of Excellence Network of the Global Health Initiative, National Institutes of Health. Recent awards include the Ancel Keys Prize for achievements in international public health and the Thompson-Beaudette Lectureship from Rutgers University. In 2011 he was named to the Spanish Academy of Nutritional Sciences.

Dr. Caballero is the author of over 150 scientific publications. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Food Sciences and Nutrition, a 10-volume work on food production, consumption and biological effects. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition, which received the Book of the Year Award from the British Medical Association. His Guide to Dietary Supplements summarizes the current scientific basis for the use of mineral and vitamin supplements. His book The Nutrition Transition: Diet and Disease in the Developing World explored the impact of demographic and economic development on diet- and lifestyle-related diseases in developing countries. His book Obesity in China summarizes research conducted in rural and urban China to track the impact of socioeconomic development on health outcomes. He is also co-editor of the most widely used textbook in human nutrition, Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease.