Rachael Waring Taylor FRSNZ (born 1971) is a New Zealand childhood nutrition academic. She is currently a full professor at the University of Otago.^[1]

After a 2001 PhD titled Body composition in children and adolescents : a DXA based study at the University of Otago, Taylor worked at Otago, rising to full professor in 2016.^[2][1]

Much of Taylor's research is related to infant and childhood obesity and has frequently made the news.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} In 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.^[8]

• Taylor, Rachael W., Ianthe E. Jones, Sheila M. Williams, and Ailsa Goulding. "Evaluation of waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and the conicity index as screening tools for high trunk fat mass, as measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, in children aged 3–19 y–." The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 72, no. 2 (2000): 490–495.
• Goulding, Ailsa, Ianthe E. Jones, Rachael W. Taylor, Sheila M. Williams, and Patrick J. Manning. "Bone mineral density and body composition in boys with distal forearm fractures: a dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry study." The Journal of Pediatrics 139, no. 4 (2001): 509–515.
• Taylor, Rachael W., Debbie Keil, Elspeth J. Gold, Sheila M. Williams, and Ailsa Goulding. "Body mass index, waist girth, and waist-to-hip ratio as indexes of total and regional adiposity in women: evaluation using receiver operating characteristic curves." The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 67, no. 1 (1998): 44–49.
• Rockell, Jennifer E., Timothy J. Green, C. Murray Skeaff, Susan J. Whiting, Rachael W. Taylor, Sheila M. Williams, Winsome R. Parnell et al. "Season and ethnicity are determinants of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in New Zealand children aged 5–14 y." Journal of Nutrition 135, no. 11 (2005): 2602–2608.
• Taylor, Rachael W., Ianthe E. Jones, Sheila M. Williams, and Ailsa Goulding. "Body fat percentages measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry corresponding to recently recommended body mass index cutoffs for overweight and obesity in children and adolescents aged 3–18 y." The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 76, no. 6 (2002): 1416–1421.