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Sarah A. Johnson, PhD, RDN, FASN

Associate Professor
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida, United States

Sarah A. Johnson, PhD, RDN, FASN is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences at Florida State University. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) and Excellence in Nutrition Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition (FASN) with expertise in clinical and translational nutrition, functional foods and phytochemicals, vascular physiology, and precision nutrition.

Dr. Johnson's research program applies clinical and translational approaches to develop and evaluate food-based nutritional interventions that promote cardiometabolic and gut health, healthy aging, and the prevention of chronic disease. Her work has a particular emphasis on anthocyanin-rich foods and other phytochemical-rich, high–nutritional quality functional foods, with a focus on their effects on vascular function, blood pressure, oxidative stress, inflammation, metabolism, and gastrointestinal health. Her research includes healthy adults, middle-aged and older adults, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, and individuals with cardiometabolic risk factors.

A primary focus of Dr. Johnson's research is understanding how interactions among dietary phytochemicals and namely polyphenols, the gut microbiome, host biology, and behavioral and environmental factors influence cardiometabolic health and explain why individuals respond differently to food-based interventions. Her laboratory integrates randomized controlled trials with translational and reverse-translational research, multi-omics technologies, food science, and mechanistic approaches to investigate the biological mechanisms through which anthocyanin-rich foods, particularly berries and microgreens and other dietary interventions (e.g., probiotics, dietary patterns, and lifestyle strategies), promote cardiometabolic health and healthy aging.

Guided by a multidisciplinary "plants-to-health" philosophy that bridges agriculture, food science, nutrition, physiology, biomedical sciences, and public health, Dr. Johnson's research aims to identify effective food-based strategies, uncover the mechanisms underlying their health benefits and factors contributing to efficacy or lack thereof, and advance precision and personalized nutrition through evidence-based approaches that improve health across the lifespan.

In addition to her research, Dr. Johnson is an accomplished educator and leader in nutrition, dietetics, and food science. She is committed to mentoring and training, and translating rigorous nutrition science into evidence-based dietary recommendations and guidelines that inform clinical practice, advance public health, improve food nutritional quality, and support the integration of food as medicine.

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