Deborah Lycett, RD

Prof. Deborah Lycett RD PhD is Professor in Religious Health Interventions and Dietetic Practice in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Her research explores whole-person approaches to chronic disease management. She has investigated tobacco addiction, obesity and diabetes with particular emphasis on the psychological and spiritual aspects of eating behaviour. She is interested to see what the role is for faith-based, whole-person interventions, to help those with long-term conditions in the community. She is experienced in the design and clinical trial of interventions to improve eating behaviours in primary care and within churches. 

Deborah is on the Education Board of the British Dietetic Association (BDA), Chair of the BDA Quality Standards Committee and on the Scientific Committee for the European Institute for Religion, Spirituality and Health. She is a Fellow of the Association of Higher Education, and teaches in medical and health science faculties.She collaborates on projects with a wide variety of universities in the UK and abroad. She has been principal investigator on several National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded studies. She is published in The Lancet and regularly presents her research at national and international conferences.

Deborah has 20 years of clinical experience as a dietitian having worked for many years in the NHS and also privately, running her own Nutrition and Dietetic Consultancy. She has a PhD in Behvaioural Medicine. 

Research:

Sometimes in providing specific clinical advice for one condition we fail to see the bigger picture of what this means for a person as a whole. My research has previously investigated multiple behaviour change, namely weight and glycaemic control during smoking cessation. Having seen similar behaviours in tobacco addiction and emotional eating my focus is currently exploring whole person approaches to obesity. Far from considering that obesity can be solved simply by addressing physical energy balance, we need to also consider the psychological and spiritual factors that drive eating. As a society I believe we need a more compassionate and non-judgemental approach towards obesity, viewing it as a chronic, relapsing, remitting condition, where our aim is to reduce the harms associated with it; rather than view it as a lack of self-control and seek weight loss at all costs. So far, very little attention has been given to the spiritual or religious causes and consequences of those struggling with food and weight issues, or how churches may be able to help those address these needs within the community. I have developed Taste & See: a church based programme to develop a healthy relationship with food, which I am currently testing in a mutli-center cluster randomised controlled trial. 

I am leading a new project, funded by the John Templton Foundation, to develop a taxonomy for Religious Health Interventions in Behavioural Sciences (RHIBS).

I am also interested more generally in the role of spiritual assessment within dietetic practice and how dietitians of the future can be trained to incorporate this into their care. I have several doctoral researchers working alongside me in these areas.

Area of Expertise:

• Research methods
• Religion, Spirituality and Health
• Religiously-integrated health interventions
• Nutrition and dietetics
• Behavioural Medicine
• Psychology of Eating and Weight Control
• Smoking Cessation and Weight Gain