Marcela González-Gross - Biography#

After studying Pharmacy, Marcela Gonzalez-Gross did her PhD in Sports Nutrition, analysing the nutritional status of the junior soccer and basketball teams of the Real Madrid F.C.

Current Position: Full Professor for sport nutrition and exercise physiology at the Faculty of physical activity and sport sciences-INEF at UPM.

Marcela Gonzalez-Gross is in charge of the research group on nutrition, exercise and healthy lifestyles (https://www.ImFINE.es). For 30 years, she has been analyzing nutritional status and its impact both on functional and cognitive level of healthy subjects and those with risk factors with different levels of fitness and physical activity, especially teenagers and elderly.

Marcela Gonzalez-Gross has been involved in several FP5 (FolateFuncHealth), FP6 (HELENA), FP7 (ODIN), ERASMUS+ Comenius (HELLP, HEPE, Health(a)ware), EIT Health (FOOD4HEALTH) and national (AVENA, PRONAF, PREDIMED, EXERNET, ANIBES, PASOS, PESCA) projects. Research lines include early identification of malnutrition, determinants of obesity and healthy ageing, how to introduce exercise in primary care and how to get people more active. Another research line is related to education, mainly health literacy.

Transfer to society with projects like “Mission X: train like an astronaut”, together with NASA and the European Space Agency, with the astronaut as role model, aiming at introducing healthy lifestyle into schools since 2011. She is responsible for the development of the “Healthy lifestyle pyramid for children and adolescents©” in 2007, pioneering the concept at global level, integrating dietary intake, physical activity, sleep, hygiene and other habits.

In total, Marcela Gonzalez-Gross has participated in 73 research projects, 35 of them as Principal Investigator. Some ongoing projects: “Relation between adverse reactions to food, physical performance and health in a Mediterranean population” 2020-2024 “ASOMAD. Study of Physical Activity, Obesity and Sedentarism of children in Madrid. 2020 - 2024.

Marcela Gonzalez-Gross has supervised 20 PhD Thesis and 50 Master Thesis. She has been scientific adviser to the Spanish Government, WHO, research institutes, industrial companies and the European Parliament. She has published more than 420 peer-reviewed scientific articles in JCR journals (see publications in PUBMED together with other publications, book chapters, etc. Invited speaker (more than 250 conferences) at national and international events.