Anne-Louise Heath

Anne-Louise M. Heath is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the University of Otago, specialising in baby and infant nutrition, including baby-led weaning and iron deficiency.

Academic career

Heath completed a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in 1994, with a thesis on hormone levels in healthy men. Heath then completed a PhD at the University of Otago, studying iron deficiency in pre-menopausal women. Heath then joined the faculty of the University of Otago, rising to associate professor in 2017 and full professor in 2023. She has served on two government Technical Advisory Groups, one for the Development of the New Zealand Nutrition Survey, and the other for the Review of Nutrition Guidance for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women, and Infants and Toddlers.

Heath's research focuses on infant nutrition, covering issues such as the nutritional impact and safety of baby-led weaning. She has also studied iron deficiency in infants and adults. Heath has commented on the whether "toddler milk" is necessary, with her research finding that fortified milk and an increase in red meat are both ways of avoiding reduced iron levels in two-year olds, but that the meat diet was cheaper. Heath received a Health Research Council grant with Rachael Taylor to study the health impacts of baby food pouches. Pouches may make up 70% of baby-food availability in New Zealand supermarkets, and the study was aimed at addressing concerns about whether their use might encourage babies to overeat, and whether their use would affect nutritional intake and dental health. In 2011, Heath was part of a group of seven Otago researchers who presented their work at Parliament.

Selected works