March 24, 2016 • Obesity is a disease that impacts all levels of society. It is the most prevalent nutritional disorder among children and adolescents and is continuing to rise. In 2012 more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents over the past 30 years.
March 10, 2016 • A team of researchers from the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute (UNC NRI) created and tested what it believes is a more reliable method to measure antioxidant capacity.
Currently, many assays involved hydrogen atom transfer reactions (like in oxygen radical absorbance capacity [ORAC] and total radical trapping antioxidant parameter [TRAP]) or electron transfer. The UNC assay measures the activation of antioxidant response elements (AREs). AREs are said to turn on genes in the body that make enzymes for protecting cells against free radical damage.
March 7, 2016 • The Interagency Committee on Human Nutrition Research (ICHNR) released the first Nutrition Research Roadmap designed to guide federal nutrition research. The 2016-2021 National Nutrition Research Roadmap encourages an increased focus on research that can lead to more individualized advice for promoting health and preventing disease.
March 7, 2016 • Daniel Lupu, MD, doctoral student in nutrition, has received the 2015 David Kritchevsky Graduate Student Award from the journal Nutrition Research for two articles published in the November 2015 issue of the journal.
February 22, 2016 • Avocado Chocolate Mousse recipe designed by Chef Megan Lambert, Senior Instructor at Johnson & Wales University.
February 18, 2016 • The greedy metabolism of cancer cells to target kidney cell carcinomas, which kill more than 100,000 Americans each year, has been exploited by researchers. The team showed that the majority of renal cell cancers rewire their metabolism in a way that leaves them addicted to the nutrient cystine. By depriving the cancer cells of cystine, the researchers were able to trigger a form of cell death called necrosis in tumor cells.