Jennie Brand-Miller

Janette Cecile Brand-Miller (born 1952), also known as Jennie Brand-Miller, Janette Cecile Brand and GI Jennie, is an Australian academic who holds a chair in human nutrition in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney. She is best known for her research and publications on the glycemic index, a term originated by David J. Jenkins of the University of Toronto, and its role in human health.

It is not widely known outside the University of Sydney's nutrition and medical communities that Brand-Miller is married to Dr John James Miller, now retired after decades as Medical Director, Novo Nordisk Australasia. (2) Notably, Brand-Miller was a "co-supervisor" of her husband's 1989 University of NSW PhD dissertation, his research substantially undertaken in the University of Sydney's Human Nutrition Unit (run back then by Professor Stewart Truswell), while John Miller was an employee of global pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk's local predecessor CSL-Novo. (3) (4)

This high-powered but little-known relationship is highly relevant and is starting to be reported in the media (5), because University of Sydney policy (6) and the policy of most scientific journals is that every researcher's actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest must all be explicitly disclosed. (7) Unfortunately, the multi-decade boost to Brand-Miller's household income from her life/financial partner's Novo Nordisk career in diabetes drugs has never been disclosed to the global nutrition, medical or diabetes communities. Economist Rory Robertson claims that the University of Sydney has given Brand-Miller "a decades-long free pass to hide her links to Novo Nordisk and its predecessors, allowing her to carefully exclude it from conflict-of-interest disclosures she published in hundreds of formal diet-and-health papers, in clear violation of university policy". (5)

The Australian paradox: added sugar consumption
She has come under attack by economist Rory Robertson over her argument that added sugar consumption in Australia has declined in recent decades at the same time rates of obesity increased, which she has dubbed the Australian paradox. Recent research by GreenPool Commodity Specialists for the Australian Sugar Refiners, using Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS "extended series") methodology, has confirmed that apparent consumption of sugar has decreased in Australia over the past few decades. It is worth noting that the ABS is now looking into re-establishing the collection of Apparent Consumption data for Australia. In addition to this, new research by Levy and Shrapnel has confirmed that added sugar from soft drinks has continued to decline, and finally the Australian Governments latest Health Survey indicates that total sugar consumption has decreased from 1995 - 2011/12.

Following an investigation prompted by the Australian economist, two minor arithmetical errors were identified in the original manuscript of The Australian Paradox which were promptly corrected in early 2014. Similarly, complaints about the scientific journal Nutrients publication of The Australian Paradox paper were not substantiated.

Awards and recognition

 * 2003: Received a Clunies Ross Medal for Science and Technology
 * 2004: Received the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology Award of Merit
 * 2009: Received the Sir Kempson Maddox Award for her significant contribution to the diabetes movement and towards helping to improve the lives of people living with diabetes
 * 2011: Appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for her research into human nutrition and as a supporter of people with a hearing impairment.
 * 2018: Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA).
 * 2022: Upgraded to Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to science, notably in the field of human nutrition, and as an advocate for people with disability".