February 17, 2016 • Folami Iderraabdullah is an assistant professor in the Department of Genetics in the UNC School of Medicine and a researcher at the Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis. Her research looks at the genetic differences between individuals to determine how the cells in the body respond to changes in diet.
February 1, 2016 • The Zeisel laboratory at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute (NRI) is well known for defining the importance of the nutrient choline in infant brain development. They discovered that choline in mother’s diet during pregnancy is extremely important for optimal brain development in her baby. But, is this the only time in life that choline can improve brain function? Could teenagers eat extra choline to help their school performance?
January 28, 2016 • Green Smoothie recipe designed by Chef Mark Allison, Dole Food Company.
January 28, 2016 • Cereal, pasta, bread, cookies – what do they have in common? The answer is “folic acid,” a synthesized form of a naturally occurring B vitamin called folate. Folate occurs naturally in some foods such as green leafy vegetables, avocados, red meat and lentils. Almost any processed food made with flour has folic acid.
January 4, 2016 • Potato, Spinach and Thyme Soup recipe designed by Chef Mark Allison, Dole Food Company.
January 2, 2016 • Children of mothers whose diet during pregnancy was deficient in the essential nutrient choline have lower performance on cognitive tests. Cognition is rooted in the brain’s cortex, but a direct link between maternal dietary choline levels and cortical development in offspring had not been demonstrated. Experimental evidence of this link, and identification of a physiological mechanism, would greatly enhance our understanding of the importance of proper nutrition during pregnancy.