Appetite For Life – Wednesday, September 18, 2019: “Good Bowls: A social venture to improve healthy food access” was presented by Alice Ammerman, DrPH, Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Director of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Dr. Ammerman’s research for the last 20 years has focused on health disparities and social determinants of health, such as food insecurity, poverty, and lack of economic opportunity. After testing many different approaches to improving food access, common challenges that arise include: lack of affordable healthy food in low income communities; stress and time demands that make it hard to purchase and prepare healthy food; lack of cooking skills, and perishability of fresh food. As a result, she has launched a social venture using healthy (based on the Mediterranean diet with a southern twist) frozen meals sold on a sliding scale to satisfy both foodies and residents of food deserts. The company is Good Bowls: Do good while eating well. Future plans are to work with rural communities to produce the bowls in commercial kitchens, thus contributing to the local economy. *Conflict of Interest Disclosure: Dr. Alice Ammerman, director of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, founded and has equity ownership in Equiti Foods, LLC (formerly Good Bowls, LLC). This relationship has been disclosed to and is under management by UNC-Chapel Hill. https://eatgoodbowls.com/ View PowerPoint presentation. View video.
Appetite For Life @ Johnson & Wales University – Tuesday, October 15, 2019: “Healthy Fall Soups & Stews” was presented by Chef Megan Lambert, MS, RD, from Johnson & Wales and Sarah Hreyo from the NRI. They came together to demonstrate preparation of delicious, healthy fall soups and stews while sharing tips for consuming a balanced, nutritious diet. View Video. View recipes and nutrition notes.
Appetite For Life – Thursday, January 16, 2020: “Genes and individual response to nutrients in bone health,” was presented by Saroja Voruganti, PhD, Associate Professor of Nutrition, UNC Nutrition Research Institute. Studies have shown that obesity and diabetes weaken bones and increase the risk for fractures. Poor bone health can also result from smoking, consuming alcohol, and taking certain medications, and is more prevalent in older females who are Caucasian or Asian and are less physically active than average. However, it is also known that people with specific genetic variants are more prone to bone weakness and may suffer bone loss at a younger age. The crux of Dr. Voruganti’s precision nutrition research is in understanding how diet and food can help strengthen the bones, especially in those who are more prone to bone loss.
Keywords: genetics, nutrient s, epidemiology, minority populations, heart disease, bone health, public health
View PowerPoint presentation. View video.
Appetite For Life – Wednesday, February 19, 2020: “The Food and Nutrition Myths that Never Fade Away: Time to Debunk Them,” presented by Cecilia Kwan, PhD, postdoctoral research associate, Smith Lab, UNC Nutrition Research Institute. As we become more health conscious, we are eager to find ways to eat and live healthily. We chat with friends about their eating habits. We scroll through social media posts looking for trending diets. We search the internet for our favorite celebrity’s meal plan. Very soon, we find ourselves overwhelmed with conflicting information and opinions. “Should I avoid fat because it will make me fat?” “Do I need supplements after I work out?” “Are eggs really that bad?” Deciding which information to trust and which to question is not easy. In this talk, we will demystify some of these common myths about foods, nutrition and health, and take a closer look at what the science really says about them. Let’s say goodbye to these myths and embrace the true science of healthy eating! View video. View PowerPoint presentation.
