Lisa G. Wood, PhD

American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2025 International Conference

 featured a session titled ‘Pediatric Year in Review,’ during which several talks were given by panelists such as Lisa G. Wood, PhD, who pointed to recent data on diet’s association with respiratory health outcomes.

Wood, who is known for her research at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and for her position as a University of Newcastle professor, recently gave an interview to 

’s editorial team regarding her ATS talk. In this segment of her interview, Wood was asked whether, in the research shared during the meeting, socioeconomic and geographic disparities in nutrition appeared to influence the risk of developing conditions like 

Socioeconomic Disparities’ Impact on Nutrition and Lung Health, with Lisa G. Wood, PhD

“It's just an unfortunate fact that people who are living in certain geographical areas, typically those that are of low socioeconomic status, the access to fresh and healthy foods is less,” Wood explained. “That really is a very unfortunate fact that we need to understand and look for strategies to try and overcome that limitation. So ultra-processed foods are one aspect. Another aspect that I talked about yesterday was a paper that was looking at the triglyceride glucose index, and that is a measure of metabolic dysfunction. This was another example of where a poor quality diet can be linked to worse respiratory health.”

Wood noted that this paper’s results suggested an association was present between a high triglyceride glucose index, suggesting metabolic impairment, and increased asthma risk. She further pointed to the commonly observed link between a high triglyceride glucose index and obesity.

“Getting back to your previous question about people at risk of these types of diseases, things like aspirin allergies, people in lower socioeconomic areas are more likely to be obese,” Wood said. “They're more likely to have problems with glucose metabolism, to have metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance, making them predisposed to asthma and allergies. So there are multiple ways where a poor quality diet can contribute to the development of asthma and allergy.”

Wood noted that she believes in prioritizing an examination of ways to ensure access to healthy, whole foods. Wood was later asked about any actionable recommendations for health care providers viewing her talk.

“I think that I would really like to see that pulmonologists actually prioritize nutrition for their patients,” Wood said. “Nutrition, as I mentioned, isn't automatically something that everybody links to respiratory health…I hope that the talk was able to reinforce the fact that it is very important for children to be eating healthily, to be maintaining a healthy weight, to focus their diet on whole foods, not processed, packaged foods, because all of these things will have an impact on their respiratory health.”

To find out more information on this topic, view Wood’s full interview segment above. For more on data presented at ATS, view our 

The quotes used in this interview summary were edited for clarity.

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During her ATS interview, Lisa Wood, PhD, spoke about economic and geographic disparities and their connection to diet and related respiratory health outcomes.

A presentation titled ‘Pediatric Year in Review’ was given at the 

 in San Francisco, during which presenter Lisa G. Wood, PhD, highlighted recent findings on nutrition and its connection with 

Wood, who is known for her research at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) and work as a professor at the University of Newcastle, spoke with the 

 editorial team about her presentation from ATS and its major takeaways. First, Wood was asked what had led to her presenting on the topic of diet and its relationship with lung health.

Reviewing Findings on Nutrition’s Connection to Lung Health, with Lisa G. Wood, PhD

“My research team is based at the University of Newcastle in Australia, and we have been working on examining the relationship between nutrition and respiratory disease for the last 20-odd years,” Wood explained. “We've been looking across the lifespan. The effects of nutrition in childhood are what has been one of our areas of focus. We've been really interested in it as a topic because, typically, there hasn't been a lot of research trying to link nutrition and respiratory outcomes.”

 about what she felt were some of the most compelling findings this year that she had presented regarding the impact of early-life nutrition on the onset of respiratory diseases in children.

“Among the topics that I covered in my ‘Year in Review’ presentation were, first of all, a paper that was looking at ultra-processed foods,” Wood said. “They are foods that are industrially produced and are very far away from whole foods…They are manufactured, so they have different nutrient composition, and they are increasingly consumed. Now over 50% of the dietary energy intake in high-income countries comes from these ultra-processed foods. So the fact that they're eaten in such large quantities really makes us ask the question, how are they affecting our health?”

Wood explained that this research and, generally speaking, an increasing amount of work being published, demonstrate that such processed foods could be detrimental to health. She pointed to a paper published in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

“This paper was a systematic review of the literature, and it looked at the association between ultra-processed foods allergies and asthma,” Wood said. “They did actually find quite a number of studies that demonstrated a link between ultra-processed foods and the development of allergies and asthma in children. They also found that ultra-processed foods altered the gut microbiome and caused immune dysregulation. So I think this is a really important finding.”

Wood did note, however, that a number of papers did not demonstrate any effect on asthma or lung health related to ultra-processed foods. Nevertheless, the volume of research pointing to a connection was described by Wood as significant.

“It really directs researchers to go and look further to understand why this is occurring,” Wood explained. “That will allow us to develop some therapeutic strategies, or intervention strategies to avoid the negative effects of ultra-processed foods.”

For any additional information on this subject, view Wood’s full interview segment posted above. To learn more about conference presentations and new data, view our 

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.

This ATS interview features Lisa Wood, PhD, discussing recent findings related to childhood dietary intake and its connection to respiratory health.

Lisa G. Wood, PhD

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