Dr Ihab Tewfik

Ihab is a Registered Nutritionist (UK) with global expertise in planning, implementing and evaluating sustainable nutrition-sensitive intervention programmes at a population level. 

Dr Tewfik’s nutrition career spanning nearly 30 years has included a variety of leadership roles while at the University of Westminster [UoW]: As Course Leader of the BSc Human Nutrition degree for nearly 12 years, as Research Scientist leading on projects funded by the Food Standards Agency, UK, as Director of International and Collaborations, Faculty of Science and Technology, as Technical International Consultant to UNICEF, UN advising on knowledge exchange to launch the school nutrition programme in Georgia, as Research group leader [Community Health, Resilience and Wellbeing - COHERE] to provide support to fellow researchers within the School of Life Sciences at UoW, with such diverse positions and roles, Ihab has proficiently delivered on them all. Ihab holds PhD from London South Bank University, and Master of Public Health (M.P.H) from the Nutrition Department, University of Alexandria where he was promoted as Associated Professor in 2008.

Ihab has developed an independent research path that underpins the pivotal role of clinical nutrition to combat undernourishment among vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Ihab's tailored nutrition interventions have improved clinical outcomes of malnourished populations and assured sustained optimum nutrition among: 

• underweight/stunted school children in Ghana; 
• cancer cachexic patients in India; 
• People living with HIV (PLHIV) in Nigeria [to delay the progression of HIV to AIDS]. 

The intervention strategies of these nutrition programmes were to develop and optimise tailored food recipes [TFRs] that are not limited to eliminating malnutrition but extend to the design and engineering of food that transcends disease prevention by improving the bioavailability of micronutrients, increasing biological functions and promoting sustainable health.

These TFRs draw from the growing evidence-based science linking diet to disease epidemiology and link it to ethnobotany, target population-specific dietary requirements to optimise model meals that seek to attenuate and manage malnourishment among these populations. 

Impact of TFR (S-Cool) meal in Ghana [2013-2017]: 

I have led a community-based intervention to enhance the effectiveness of the Ghanian School feeding Programme through a nutrition intervention that is based on the scientific success of TFR in two preceding contexts [Nigeria and India]. Through the collaboration with Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research [Dr. Gloria Folson], University of Ghana Legon [Prof. I Oduro] and Dr. Jolene Nyako’s [PhD – UoW] formulation of three different flavours of TFR meals [aka S-Cool] has been achieved. ‘S-Cool’ proved feasible to enhance the bioavailability of micronutrients from local agricultural produce without compromising palatability. These nutrient-dense meals have significantly improved the nutrition status of Ghanaian undernourished/stunted schoolchildren [N=330 child; 5 -8 years olds] and are considered viable alternatives for ensuring food security, and adequate/balanced nutrition intervention for long-term strategy. The approximate total cost per hot meal per child per day is 5 pence [one penny cheaper than the current Ghanaian school meal]. Each S-cool meal provides up to 40% of the macronutrients Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI) of schoolchildren (aged 5-8yrs).

Impact of TFR (iATTA) meal in India [2012-2016]: 

I have led a community-based intervention in India upon being approached by Dr. Neha Kapoor [PhD-UoW] and a collaborator from the Palliative Care Department [Dr. Sushma Bhatnagar and Dr. Rakesh Garg] at the AIIMS-Hospital in Delhi, to optimise a TFR meal [iATTA] for people living with cancer receiving Chemo/radiotherapy. The iATTA meal has significantly improved the quality of life and stabilised body fat in cachexic female patients [N = 150 cancer patients]. 

Knowledge Exchange Activity toward Community: In the presence of healthcare professionals and carers, I organised a workshop with patients to inform them on how to sustain the consumption of the iATTA meal as part of the sustainability plan of this intervention.

The approximate total costs per meal per patient per day [100g] = £0.20, which is cheaper than the available oral nutrition supplements that range from £1.75-£2.3/100g.

Impact of TFR ( Amtewa ) meal in Nigeria [2010-2014]: 

I have led a community-based intervention in Nigeria upon being approached by Dr Abraham Amlogu [PhD-UoW]  – and collaborator at the State House Medical Centre Abuja - SHMCA [a.k.a. The Presidential Hospital, Abuja] to design a sustainable nutrition intervention to attenuate the progression of HIV to AIDS among people living with HIV [PLHIV]. The programme started with the recruitment of 400 HIV-infected adults on a randomised controlled trial. PLHIV consumed the optimised nutrient-dense TFR [AMTEWA] meal (100g dry weight; Energy= 354.92 kcal) for 6 months. The TFR was supplemented free of charge to PLHIV while receiving standard medical treatments at SHMCA. I reported that protracted consumption of Amtewa meal along with uninterrupted access to ART [antiretroviral therapy] was efficient in sustaining anthropometric and biochemical indices of PLHIV and effectively delaying the progression of HIV to AIDS.

Knowledge Exchange Activity toward Community: In the sustainability plan of this intervention, I organised a workshop with PLHIV in the presence of healthcare professionals, and local doctors, to inform them on how to sustain the consumption of the AMTEWA meal. I showed them how to resource local food ingredients, clean, wash, prepare, consume and store them in their kitchen [where applicable]. 

The approximate cost per meal per patient per day is £0.10 [or $=0.13] which is an insignificant price when compared with the average costs of medications the Nigerian Government spends per HIV patient per week = £20. 

The empirical success of ‘TFR’ is ingrained in its versatility as an efficient KE tool that is advocated by the involvement of the community as a ‘co-creator’ when designing a tailored intervention, such a unique aspect facilitates the translation of knowledge into positive deviation of practice that easily embedded and retained by interventional communities, hence sustainable outcomes remain beyond the lifetime of the intervention itself

The UN-SDGs associated with my 3 studies are SDG 1, SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 6, SDG 8, SDG 12 and SDG 17 and we endorse the Eat-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet and Health main message.  

Global Impact

At the University of Westminster, we are considered the pioneer who employed food-on-food fortifications (through the TFR concept) as we have proven its efficacy and effectiveness in three different contexts (Ghana, India and Nigeria). The impact of Dr Tewfik’s research and expertise in the School of Life Sciences is unique and would further strengthen our present external research collaboration with Harvard University (T.H.Chan School of Public Health, Boston). 

Dr Tewfik’s TFR concept provides a practical approach to combat chronic diseases related to undernourishment – an area where the United Nations (and its organisations WHO, WFP, FAO, UNICEF) is urging Governments to consider as part of their SDG targets. It is worth noting that implications of the gained findings of TFR meals can be easily translated to vulnerable populations in different regions by following the principles to ensure overall consumers’ acceptability, appropriate clinical targets to assure sustainability.

Dr Tewfik was recognised for the continuous progress of the University of Westminster’s research agenda to promote public health nutrition intervention programmes in countries such as India, Georgia, Ghana, Nigeria, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dr Tewfik received an appreciation award, consisting of a medal and a certificate, from the World Association for Sustainable Development - WASD in recognition of his “valuable and outstanding contribution” to the public health nutrition field at a global level.

Dr Tewfik research portfolio extends to include: 

The relationship between the obesogenic environment and health outcomes of individuals and populations. Ihab’s work embraces the effects of nutritional exposure during childhood and risk factors for later non-communicable diseases (NCDs), especially in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) experiencing economic and nutritional transition. Ihab has collaborated with the American University in Beirut (AUB) through a public health nutritional intervention which aimed to assess the effectiveness of public health nutrition intervention designed to enhance healthy eating and lifestyle modification among Lebanese Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOs). The intervention has significantly raised patients' nutritional awareness and enhanced their healthy lifestyle which was reflected by substantial weight reduction and resumption of their reproductive function.

As a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health (FRSPH), Ihab has been at the forefront of promoting Global public health intervention programmes and his research agenda expanded to 12 research projects with UNICEF-UN in aspects of public health nutrition intervention. Nationally, he has carried out three Food Standards Agency (FSA, UK) projects on food safety and one on Biomarkers for predicting breast radiotherapy-induced side-effects funded by the National Cancer Research Institute – UK. Ihab has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals (+ 100 publications). Ihab has worked as an international consultant to support capacity building for healthcare workforces in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) and has participated in training activities in Africa and Asia.  He is a regular invited speaker on several workshops, CPD and short-training courses and he is a key team member in developing international public health education programmes to communicate relevant competencies. Between 1992 and 2010 he was instrumental in developing the public health nutrition programme at the University of Alexandria, where he fulfilled an Associate Professorship at the Department of Nutrition.

Ihab as Editor-in-Chief:

1.      Editor-in-Chief of the BNRC Springer Nature, UK [Since November 2022]

2.      Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Food, Nutrition and Public Health, WASD UK [Since 2008]

• Ihab as Guest Editor 2023: Special issue on: ‘Global Excellence in Children and Health’ – Frontiers in Public Health https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1286481 [Journal Impact factor: 5.2].
• Ihab as Guest Editor 2022: Special issue on: ‘The Role of Vitamin D in Gut Health and Disease in Children’ – Frontiers in Public Health https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.912773  [Journal Impact factor: 5.2].

Research grants

A)External Income through Research Supervision:

£47,000 – from the Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau [SACB] in London [2023 - 2027]

£24,000 - from Surrey University [2004-2008]

B)External Income through Research projects:

£9,000 – From UKRI the Global Challenges Research Fund [2019]

£20,500 – From UKRI the Global Challenges Research Fund [2019]

£60,630 – From the Social Science Research Unit of the FSA (FS615017) [2014-2015]

£4,500 - From the Ministry of Health, the United Arab Emirates [2013-2015]

£1,520 - From the Wellcome Trust [2011]

£20,000 - From the National Cancer Research Institute – UK (2006-2008) 

£52,000 - FSA project (Project code: A05005) [1999-2003]

£62,000 – FSA project (Project code: A01027) [2001 - 2003]

C)External Income through Short Training Courses:

£28,700 – Tailored Short Training courses [Feb 2003 to Sep 2004].

PhD supervision/examination

Ihab has successfully supervised 16 PhDs to completion [between 2001-2023]. At present, Dr Tewfik is supervising 5 Active PhDs [ongoing research]. Dr Tewfik has been appointed as External Examiner to 15 PhD viva voce.

Dr Ihab Tewfik is Accepting new PhD candidates. 

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.