Nutrition Science & Dietetics News
Marlei Simon ’14 receives scholarship from Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation awarded Falk College alumna, Marlei Simon ’14, the Ann Selkowitz Litt Memorial Scholarship. Simon graduated with a bachelor in May 2014, double-majoring in nutrition and public policy. As an undergraduate, she was a resident advisor for three years, board member of the Nutrition Education Promotion Association club for three years and a Literacy Corps tutor. Her career aspiration is to lobby for adequate coverage of nutrition therapy, quality food, government funded health and nutrition services. In addition to the Litt Memorial Scholarship, Simon received the William W. Allen Nutrition Scholars Award from the Allen Foundation earlier this year. Her dietetic internship placement is with the Onondaga County Department of Adult and Long Term Care Services
Litt, who passed away in 2007, was a graduate of Syracuse University’s dietetics program and worked as a nutritionist who specialized in helping young people develop normal eating habits and maintain a healthy weight. She spent many years in private practice in the Washington area and was a nutritionist for the Washington Redskins. She also was the author of “The College Student’s Guide to Eating Well on Campus” (2000, 2005), “Fuel for Young Athletes” (2004) and the American Dietetic Association Guide to Private Practice (2004). She served as a spokesman for several media campaigns, including the “Got Milk?” one, appeared on local and national television, and was quoted in numerous newspapers and magazines. She wrote a column for the Washington Parent for 10 years and was the nutrition consultant to Cosmogirl magazine.
Committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics was founded in 1917 and is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.
Falk professor Jennifer Wilkins updates first U.S. regional food guide to help consumers understand benefits, how-to’s of eating locally
Thanks to farmers’ markets, farm-to-school programs, and community-supported agriculture, locally grown foods are more readily available—and more in demand. People want to know where their food comes from. How is it grown? What steps are involved in its processing? Evidence suggests that plant-based, regionally sourced diets, largely composed of minimally processed foods, can significantly reduce some of the negative environmental impacts of our food choices. Eating locally produced foods also strengthens the market for local farmers.
In 1993 when Jennifer Wilkins, Ph.D., R.D., the Daina E. Falk Endowed Professor of Practice in Nutrition, joined the faculty of the Division of Nutritional Sciences (DNS) at Cornell University, she was interested in local, community-based food systems and the implication of these systems for food choice and diet quality. Noticing the federal dietary guidance system – food guides and dietary guidelines – lacked information on seasonality and local food availability, she came up with the idea of regional dietary guidance. To help consumers select and enjoy diets that were seasonally varied and locally produced, she developed a regional food guide based on the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, the official federal food guide at that time. Working with then-Cornell graduate student, Jennifer Bokaer-Smith, Wilkins was responsible for introducing the first regional food guide in the United States.
The original Northeast Regional Food Guide debuted in 1996 and connected regional food systems with nutrition and dietary guidance. The Northeast Regional Food Guide was accompanied by a set of fact sheets, which provided more information on issues related to local food, food systems and seasonality. In 2011, First Lady Michelle Obama and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack released the federal government’s MyPlate food icon to help consumers build a healthy plate at meal times, with an emphasis on the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein foods, and dairy groups.
To reflect the new federal MyPlate food guide and with support from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, Wilkins recently updated the Northeast Regional Food Guide, working with then-DNS undergraduate project assistant, student Courtney Mayszak, currently a dietetic intern with Wegmans in Rochester, NY. Known today as MyPlate Northeast, the guide promotes healthy eating, sustainability and local food systems, reflecting the latest diet recommendations associated with nutritional well-being. It also proposes that seasonally varied, locally-based diets can foster food systems that are diverse, protective of natural resources, and better able to adapt and mitigate climate change.
Many foods pictured on MyPlate Northeast are available regionally year round, such as milk, yogurt, cheeses, dry beans, nuts, eggs, poultry, fish, meats, breads, cereals, pasta, tortillas, and whole grains. Most fresh fruits and vegetables are available on a seasonal basis, but several, such as hearty root vegetables and apples, store well and maintain their quality for months. Being a local food consumer in the Northeast means choosing more stored, dried, frozen and canned produce in the winter and enjoying our region’s abundant fruits and vegetables fresh during the spring, summer, and fall.
“In the future, fact sheets and other resource materials will be developed to accompany MyPlate Northeast. These may include a quiz or game to help consumers assess how seasonal and local their current diets are. As the USDA updates its Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years, it may also eventually revise MyPlate. This will be an opportunity to once again update MyPlate Northeast. As we learn more about the energy and other resource costs of individual food choices, this will help inform the development of regional dietary guidance,” notes Wilkins.
Dr. Wilkins joined Falk College in August 2014 from the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University where she had been an Extension faculty member for 21 years and where she retains a visiting scholar appointment. Her professional portfolio includes directing statewide outreach for the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, developing the New York State Farm to School Outreach Program, and serving as community coordinator for the Cornell Dietetic Internship. She was one of eight individuals selected nationally for the Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellowship from 2004-2006. Her monthly nutrition, food policy and food system column, The Food Citizen, appeared for six years in the Albany Times Union. For several years she taught short courses in food systems, policy, diet and nutrition and Mediterranean diets as a visiting professor at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo and Parma, Italy. In 2009 she coined the term ‘civic dietetics’ to describe the emergence of integration of food system awareness into professional dietetics practice.
Her applied research includes exploration of interests and practices related to local food procurement among school food service professionals and the implications of farm-to-cafeteria programs on transaction costs and institutional procurement strategies, children’s diets, and small and mid-size farms; economic impact of institutional procurement on local agricultural; influences of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) participation on food preferences, diet composition and food skill development particularly among low income families; conceptualization and interest in of local and seasonal foods; influence of food consumption patterns on per capita land, water, and energy requirements, and; roles of dietary guidance and consumer food choice in addressing sustainability issues, including climate change.
A Rewarding Summer
Farming is one of the most important professions
by Christina LiPuma
Nutrition Major, Class of 2016
As a college student from April to September I’m always bombarded with the same question: What are you up to this summer? I love seeing the expressions on people’s faces when I tell them I work on a farm. People have some pretty wild interpretations of the term ‘farmer’ so it always requires further explanation. I work at Stults Farm, a family-owned berry farm in Plainsboro N.J., a suburb of Princeton.
In this post I’ll go through what a typical day of work for me in June is.
It’s 5:50 a.m. when I roll into the dusty parking lot at the farm. Work doesn’t start till 6 but Mrs. Stults always says, ‘If you’re on time, you’re late, and if you’re five minutes early you’re on time.’ The other pickers arrive sleepy-eyed and bundled in sweatshirts. June is strawberry season, and picking strawberries is a family affair – all the Stults plus four to eight hired workers pick side by side.
We head out to the fields piled into three John Deer Gators – golf cart-like utility vehicles – with more than 20 flats, each containing 8 quart-sized containers that we pick directly into. Mrs. Stults gives us directions on where to pick and we begin. The berries at Stults truly aren’t mass-produced. I find berries of all shapes and sizes. As long as the berries are ripe and not rotting or covered in mud, I pick them. The girls sometimes chat about college and movies and boys as we move down the endless rows of berries, but mostly we work in silence, which is actually quite peaceful once you get good at picking.
After an hour or two the sun heats up the fields and we all pull off our sweatshirts. There are only two ways to pick strawberries: bent over, which kills your back, or squatting down, which kills your thighs – both ways kill your hamstrings. One interesting thing about working at Stults, though, is that there are no time standards, but we all understand that we are costing the farm money if we slack off, and we have too much pride in what we do to be the weakest link that day, so we all work hard.
After two to three hours of picking strawberries, we return to the barn to exchange the full flats for white buckets and cool off before heading out to the pea field. Bent over our row we rip pea pods off the fragile plants and throw them into the buckets until we reach our goal and can return to the barn. At this point we’re exhausted, sweaty and covered in mud, and Mrs. Stults usually calls it a day.
The same sort of pattern goes for the months to follow but with different produce. Raspberries ripen after strawberries, then blueberries, then blackberries, with green beans and tomatoes overlapping all of them. Occasionally we get assigned odd jobs like weeding or planting in the green house. I love the variety.
Actually, I love just about everything about my job. The people who work there make me smile every morning. As time goes on you get used to the stress berry-picking puts on your body and it’s really nice that you can immediately see your work paying off as the flats of berries you picked pile up in the barn. Every day is interesting, whether it be because you find enormous spiders the size of your hand or enormous blueberries on the row that almost never bears fruit. I love working on the farm and being close to the land. It takes a special type of person to run a farm. You have to be hard-working and honest but also a crop-savvy business person. In my opinion, farming is the most important profession because, as it has been pointed out by many, no farms equals no food and without a steady food supply, no other job could exist.
The Mediterranean Diet
Professor, students travel to Italy to study and explore benefits of the Mediterranean diet
by Tanya Horacek, Ph.D., R.D.
Professor of Nutrition
Department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition
What is the Mediterranean diet and why do people eat this way? How many ways can we really define the Mediterranean diet, based upon regional and cultural differences? This year, we had a great group of 16 women and two men experience one of the most renowned cuisines in the world. Through class discussions, we investigated the historic, geographic, and socio-economic underpinnings of the Mediterranean diet. We critiqued the health benefits and the implications of following a Mediterranean diet. We discussed the current dietary habits of people surrounding the Mediterranean to determine just how closely the Mediterranean diet is being followed.
Once in Italy, we experienced the current Mediterranean diet from farm to table by exploring small artisan producers for cheese, olive oil and pasta. We explored the significance of local/regional production not only from a food system but also from a legislative and labeling perspective. We worked in the fields, shopped for the freshest ingredients and cooked authentic Italian meals.
Immediately upon arrival we were transported to the agriturismo La Ginestra. Here we did extensive walking tours, worked at the agriturismo in the vineyards and learned about beekeeping and making honey. We also made pizza using an antique grain wheat in a wood-fired oven. We visited a small demonstration sustainable garden in Montespertoli. We then spent the day cooking with our Italian chef friend Jacopo at his home. We made a fantastic meal of spinach ravioli, chicken cacciatore, costini and tiramisu. We went to Pisa for a quick look at the learning tower – then on to a 1.5 hour bike ride (cut back from 2.5 hours) in a national park. We visited Corzano and Paterno for a detailed look at the cheese making process and a tasting of their famous pecorini cheese. We visited a small organic vineyard- Podere Paglieri for a tour, lunch and olive oil tasting. Finally, before heading into Florence, we had a lesson and tour of small pasta factory – Pastaficio Fabbri in Strada in Chianti. In Florence, we toured the city and did a fantastic tourist tour “Taste of Florence,” stopping at 10 sites for lessons and a sampling. We shopped at the small farmer’s market Sant’ Ambroggio and cooked with Jacopo at the new kitchens at Villa Rosa. We had a guided tour of the Uffizi museum.
The students loved the trip and had this to say about it:
“I loved that we immersed ourselves in the homemade cooking process and that we got a sense of the community.”
“Every activity taught me something about Mediterranean food and culture especially in Italy.”
“I really enjoyed the farm aspect…I learned how society relies on the resources available and how the farmers pull it all together.”
Tanya M. Horacek Ph.D., R.D. led the class and trip. Dr. Horacek is a Professor in the department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition at Falk College. She teaches upper level/graduate applied dietetics classes. Her current research involves the development and validation of a healthy campus environmental audit and randomized treatment control trials using a non-diet approach to weight management. She has a variety of other research projects include eating competence, green eating, participatory program planning, and the effectiveness of lifestyles-oriented nutrition counseling/education. She is passionate about helping students fit a study abroad experience into their program of study. She has broadened her area of study/teaching to include sustainability and a global cultural experience via the Mediterranean Food Culture class. She spent the Fall 2009 semester living and teaching in Florence and continues to study Italian.
Learned it through the grape vine
Perché il cibo è un’arte – Because food is an art
by Rachel Johnson
Nutrition Major, Class of 2015
What if you had the opportunity to learn about Mediterranean cuisine and then be given the chance to experience it first-hand in Italy? Would you accept the offer?
This past spring, about 19 students and myself were given that opportunity. We were enrolled in NSD 354: Mediterranean Food, Culture and Health: An Italian Experience. Throughout the semester, we learned about the dietary habits of the countries within the Mediterranean region and then compared those habits with the American diet.
Our trip began by working on the La Ginestra farm. The owners of La Ginestra raise pigs and sheep, grow olives, and produce wine and honey. While there, we helped to prune grape vines.
For some odd reason when told we were going to help with wine-making, I imagined a nice, composed version of our class stomping grapes in a barrel – the way the main character Lucy from an episode of the “I Love Lucy” television show did.
But I quickly learned two things: One, the way Lucy stomped the grapes in the television show is not the way they make wine today. Two, the grapes had not bloomed yet so there were no grapes to be stomped. Instead, I developed a new appreciation for pruning grape vines.
I’m sure that once an individual gets the hang of pruning grape vines the process is easy. But for someone who is not accustomed to pruning grape vines, like myself, the process is not as clear-cut as one might think. When pruning, the vinedresser has to distinguish the primary grape stems on the vine from the excess stems. Once the primary stems are determined, the vinedresser then removes the excess stems off the vine because they would take nutrients from the primary stems. Although our class pruned grape vines for only three hours, it helped me to appreciate a little more how wine is made.
We spoke with workers from La Ginestra, and they explained to us how they’re in the field every day, regardless of the weather conditions, for six months straight, tending grapes.
While in this class, we had the opportunity to compare the Italian dietary guidelines with the American ones. It was noted that the Italians have a glass of wine on their food pyramid whereas the American food pyramid has milk for its beverage of consumption. The reason: wine is a food item that is a significant part of each meal within the Italian culture. In America it’s customary to have soda, juice, water or milk with a meal.
After pruning the leaves of the grapes, we observed Marco, one of the owners of La Ginestra, extract honey and pollen from one of the beehives.
One interesting item we learned: the workers set up different species of trees around the hives for the bees to pollinate and create different flavors of honey. Also, the Italians have an interesting take on pollen. In the U.S. we see pollen as an annoyance. The Italians see pollen as a deterrent to allergies. They use the pollen from the bees to help fight allergies. They do this by placing the pollen in their cereals or yogurts. See the accompanying photo. Working on the farm was an experience I will never forget.
A Most Anticipated Trip
SU Abroad student follows her heart to Madrid
by Keri Sherise Gausney-Jones
Nutrition Major, Class of 2015
After a yearlong countdown, I was preparing for the most anticipated trip of my life. Once I stepped foot onto the plane, my built-up excitement turned into a bittersweet feeling that I couldn’t shake from my gut.
For four months I would be out of the country for the first time in my life and I was going alone to a foreign country with only little knowledge of the native language. I quickly realized I had become accustomed to returning to Syracuse in the winter, embracing the weather, heading to Disney for Cheerleading Nationals, and living with my best friends. The thought of being away from it all was terrifying, but the idea of spending a semester in Madrid, Spain was exhilarating.
I took the organized group flight into Madrid. Directly following the eight-hour flight, we were split into our seminar groups and put on buses, which would take us to where our specific seminars began. I was a part of the Imperium Seminar, which traveled to Cordoba, Granada, Seville, Valencia, and Lisbon.
As a group, we were immersed in the Spanish culture quickly – advised by our professors to get lost in the city. I was both surprised and glad to find out that I wasn’t the only person who came alone. A lot of people were alone and everyone was open to making new friends and exploring the country together. Every two days we were in a new city, new hotel and usually with a different roommate. This made it easy to meet everyone. But before we got too comfortable, the 12 days were up and we were headed to Madrid to meet our host families.
I could not have been luckier to have the host family I had. My host mother and host cousin couldn’t speak any English, which made communication a little difficult, but they were patient and did everything to make me comfortable in their home. Soon enough, our conversations became easier and my hosts were able to teach me all the “ins” and “outs” of their city.
One of the hardest adjustments was getting used to Spain’s eating habits. As part of the program’s arrangements, the host family is responsible to provide breakfast and dinner. In America we are used to hearing that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that we should start our day with something hearty. In Spain their largest meal of the day is lunch, and many Spaniards partake in siesta, in which they take a few hours from work to have a big lunch followed by a nap. Naps are easily incorporated into anyone’s life, but dinner wasn’t to be had until at least 9 p.m.
The changes were scary, as changes usually are, but when you face your fears you begin to grow. Studying in Europe was nothing short of amazing. Every country had its own charm, every city its own warmth, and the people – everyone so different yet genuine. Words and photos aren’t worthy enough of capturing it all. I was able to learn more than I could have imagined about numerous different cultures and even more about myself.
Falk College Welcomes New Faculty
As we begin the Fall 2014 semester, Syracuse University’s Falk College is pleased to announce the appointment of five new outstanding faculty members: Beth Dixon, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Margaret Voss, Patrick Walsh, and Jennifer Wilkins. We also welcome Mine Göl-Güven as visiting assistant professor of child and family studies. Their exceptional wealth of academic and practical experience in their respective fields is complemented by their passion for teaching, research, scholarship and service. Each of them will offer students tremendous opportunities for learning inside and outside of the classroom. We invite you to read more about their accomplishments, and areas for potential collaboration
Falk Nutrition students consider Fresh Apples vs. Apple Fritters at the Great New York State Fair
The Great New York State Fair has come and gone and we hope everyone who attended the Fair had a blast. Our Falk Nutrition students had fun. They asked questions, tasted Tzatziki sauce, crunched fresh apples and proved anyone can eat healthy at the Great New York State Fair.
Armed with appetites and an agenda, Falk nutrition students Rachel Johnson ‘15 and Mary Briggman ‘15 set out to dispel the myth that it’s impossible to eat healthy at the Fair. Did the students pass up the Fried Chicken Fingers, Heart-Attack Burgers, and Apple Fritters for Fruits and Veggies? You just might be surprised.
Nutrition faculty Named Fellows of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics
In recognition of professional contributions, Falk College nutrition faculty members Drs. Kay Stearns Bruening, Sudha Raj and Sarah Short, along with long-standing, part-time instructor, Donna Acox, were named Fellows of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics. The Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics recognizes Academy members who have distinguished themselves among their colleagues, as well as in their communities, by their service to the dietetics profession and by optimizing the nation’s health through food and nutrition. Fellows demonstrate the Academy’s core values of customer focus, integrity, innovation, and social responsibility. Fellows provide outreach to their communities and grow public trust for Academy members.
The Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics was founded in 1917, and is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. The Academy is committed to promoting the organization of food and nutrition professionals and improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education and advocacy. The academy provides evidence-based information for the public, awards credentials to individuals to practice in the dietetics profession advocates public policy and is responsible for accrediting undergraduate and graduate programs
Nutrition alumna Skylar Griggs ’08 addresses healthy school lunches on FOX News Boston
Providing healthy food options that children not only want to eat but will eat was one of many important messages Falk College alumna, Skylar Griggs, MS, RD, LDN, offered during a recent interview with WFXT-25/FOX News in Boston. Griggs, who graduated from the Falk College’s Nutrition/DPD programs in 2008, is a clinical nutrition specialist at Children’s Hospital in Boston. From providing more fruits and vegetables and 100 percent whole grain options to limiting sodium, Griggs shared her expertise on healthier nutrition requirements for school lunches.
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