Högskolan i Halmstad
Halmstad University - For the Development of Organisations, Products and Quality of Life

Gunnar Johansson

Professor of Health Sciences specialising in life style questions and preventative healthcare. School of Social and Health Science. Appointed in 2009.

Food and exercise give rise to better health


Gunnar Johansson's research concerns health and how diet affects people's health ie what relations there are between what we eat and how we feel. Do we run a greater risk of becoming ill if we eat certain types of food?

The answer to this question is "yes" according to Gunnar Johansson: the more economically-developed a country is, the greater the incidence of cancer found in the population, which is shown in study after study. Japan is the only exception.
"Japan is different from other westernized countries. They have developed economically but have not changed their dietary habits".

Professor Johansson has carried out research into nutrition and dietary science for 20 years. He has carried out studies which have looked into what happens when people change their dietary habits and he has also studied other dietary surveys and their reliability. He is a member of the National Food Administration's expert group for dietary and health-related questions.

Professor Johansson's research has previously been directed towards public health questions and public health policy ie relating to the population from the perspective of an overarching structural plan. However the future focus with Halmstad University as a base will be on health from an individual perspective.

Professor Johansson will continue however to co-operate with the Swedish National Institute for Public Health. Important sources of data are the yearly questionnaires which the Institute distributes to follow up public health among the population. These questionnaires are a goldmine of information for Gunnar Johansson and provide enormous amounts of data which can be used in research and teaching in many ways.

At Halmstad University, Professor Johansson is part of the Research Centre for Nursing, Health and Sport.

Gunnar Johansson was born in 1956 in Örnsköldsvik. In 1983 he received his Master of Science in Dental Surgery from the Karolinska Institute where he also received his PhD in 1990 with a thesis examining the relationship between diet and cancer. During the 1990s he carried out research and also worked abroad in countries such as the United Kingdom and Norway. In 1998 he was appointed as associate professor and in 2002 as professor of Food Science at Umeå University. Between 2006 and 2009 he was Professor of Public Health Science at Mid Sweden University, working at the Institute for Public Health in Östersund.

Between 1997-99, he was chairman of the Swedish Associate for Dietary Science, Northern Section and on the main board of the same organisation since 2002. Gunnar Johansson is a member of National Food Administration´s expert group for dietary and health questions.  

Gunnar Johansson was appointed as professor at Halmstad University in 2009.

Page editor: Lena Lundén
Page last updated 2011-04-29
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