The transition into college life is difficult across many levels, including deciding what to eat. Many have fears of the 'freshman 15', a concept that can be traced to a 1989 article in the popular women's magazine Seventeen. A systematic literature review conducted in 2008 found the concept to be little more than a myth, with the majority of studies finding an average weight gain of 5 or fewer pounds (Brown 2008). A more recent study of college students from a private Rhode Island university observed females to gain approximately 3.5 lbs and males to gain 5.5 lbs across their freshman year, with the class-wide obesity rate increasing from 14.7% to 17.8% by years end (Lloyd-Richardson et al. 2014).

The idea of the 'freshman 15' is believed to have overall negative consequences for college eating behaviors leading to anxiety over body image, with the college eating environment of buffet-style cafeterias and increased snacking around final exams making healthy decision-making more difficult (Wansink et al. 2013). 

There are, however, food preparation alternatives. A recent series of articles from The Kitchn provides some back-to-school advice for preparing meals in a dorm room and making choices in the dining hall:

• 11 Things We Wish We Had Known About Cooking in College
• 5 Ways to Spice Up Cafeteria Food
• 20 Easy, Inexpensive Recipes You Can Cook in Your Dorm

The United States Department of Agriculture has issued new rules to improve the eating behaviors of the American youth in schools. Regulations inspired by Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" healthy eating campaign already restrict what schools are able to offer in cafeterias, but in July restrictions will expand to include vending machines. In July 2014, vending machines will only be allowed to sell "fruit, dairy products, whole-grain foods, lean-protein products or vegetable items that are less than 200 calories for 'snacks' and 350 calories for 'entrees'."

Read the full article from the Washington Times.

According to a meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal, the difference between healthy versus unhealthy eating is about $1.50/day. Compared to the productivity lost and the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on treating heart disease or diabetes each year, this difference is trivial from a policy perspective. Educational campaigns nationwide could help inform American citizens of the most cost-effective ways to shop for healthy foods, allowing more families to reap the health benefits of healthy eating.

To read NPR's full article, click here.

Access to good food can serve as preventative medicine, combined with education campaigns to help the public understand what foods are "good" and health-promoting. Nearly one in three U.S. adults with a chronic disease has problems paying for food, medicine, or both. What can be done to lessen the burden of food insecurity on nutrition and health?

Read the full article here.

This new film, directed and produced by a team of experts and professionals with wide-ranging backgrounds including Stephanie Soechtig and Katie Couric, explores how the food industry has and continues to contribute to the epidemic of obesity, chronic disease, and decline of health among Americans and global populations.

Films like this one move public understanding of the link between the chronic disease crisis and our food supply in the right direction. A step forward, no matter its magnitude, is still forward.

Learn more about the film at http://www.fedupmovie.com/

In August 2013, the Center for the Study of Human Health and Emory Campus Dining formalized the partnership that they have built over the past few years with the introduction of the Healthy Eating Partners Program at Dobbs Market. Led by senior Peer Health Partners Brooke Woodward and Kylie McKenzie, the program aims to educate students who dine at Dobbs Market to make informed choices as they create their plates. This includes education on general nutrition as well as advertising the healthy options Dobbs offers. By creating a dialogue between students, dining services, and Emory's academic community the Healthy Eating Partners help students create healthy eating habits grounded in the science of health that will stick with them throughout college and beyond.


Check out Emory Magazine's full article here.

In this new YouTube video, Kylie McKenzie 14C (Biology with a Predictive Health minor) and Brooke Woodward 13C (Anthropology with a Predictive Health minor) talk about the new Healthy Eating Partners program that they developed with the help of the Center for the Study of Human Health and Emory Dining. The program illustrates a growing emphasis on the part of the College to translate academics into the real world to make positive changes.

Sometimes during college, a health body can drift off the priority list. In this interview Jackie Gaylis 13C speaks about her personal struggle with nutrition and health issues during her freshman year at Emory and how these issues led her to get involved in the Peer Health Partners program. As a Peer Health Partner, Jackie was able to use her personal experiences to empower incoming freshman to lead healthy lives.

The ethnobotanical study “A comparison of traditional food and health strategies among Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants in Atlanta, Georgia, USA” conducted by Emory undergraduate Sandy Jiang and her mentor Dr. Cassandra Quave of the Center for the Study of Human Health was recently published in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. 

Immigrant health and traditional medicinal knowledge is of great importance to public and global health. Every individual comes with his or her own different cultural background, especially in medicinal system beliefs such as Chinese immigrants, who use traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). TCM is governed on the basis of homeostasis achieved through the balance of yin and yang energy. In this study, Jiang and Quave analyzed medicinal food usage and health preferences among Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants in the Atlanta community. They found significant differences in preference for Western and Eastern medicine, beliefs in the yin and yang system, usage of medicinal foods, and gardening for medicinal plants. This research highlights the importance of cultural competency training for allopathic medical practitioners who provide care to immigrant populations.  

The fall semester is off to a great start with the new Healthy Eating Partner Program and a new round of health classes -- as well as a brand new major. Check out the YouTube video below about Healthy Eating Partners and also take a look at the most recent videos featuring our students.

In this video, CNN's Medical Producer Matt Sloane discusses recent findings supporting the positive health effects of the Mediterranean diet.

This week Dr. Cassandra Quave and students from Emory University's study abroad program in Italy were highlighted by eScience Commons. The students recently visited Dr. Quave at her field site in the Vulture-Alto Brandano region of Basilicata province to learn more about the traditional medical practices of the Arbereshe ethnic minority in Italy who came to the region five centuries ago from Albania during the Ottoman invasion of their homeland.

Read more about their trip and Dr. Quave's work with the Arbereshe on the eScience Commons blog.  To see photo's of the visit, please visit this Flickr page.

The Emory University Italian Studies Program, in collaboration with the Emory School of Medicine, Emory Center for Ethics, and Emory Center for the Study of Human Health offered an interdisciplinary course in Italian and Medical Humanities this summer. On June 15th, 2013, Dr. Cassandra Quave of Emory CSHH hosted the course participants and guests for a day of immersion in the traditional life-ways of the village of Ginestra, located in the Basilicata province in southern Italy. The group began the morning with a guided plant walk in the countryside surrounding the village, where they learned about the ethnobotanical importance of local plants. Next, they visited a local vineyard, where they learned about cultivated food plants and ate fresh mulberries off of the tree. In the shade of a grove of walnut trees, they were treated to a rare demonstration of how locals use dogs to hunt wild truffles. 

Upon return the village, they enjoyed additional demonstrations in traditional ricotta cheese making and basket weaving. They visited the church of San Nicola, where they learned about the Albanian heritage of this small village and heard about the daily agro-pastoralist life from a 4th generation shepherd. The group then enjoyed a buffet of traditional local foods, including handmade pasta, bean soup, fried peppers, cured sausages, olives, local breads, local wines (including the Aglianico wine typical to this region of Italy),  and a variety of local desserts. Lastly, the group visited the Borgo dei Sapori in Ginestra, which is a museum that documents the traditional means of wine making, oil pressing, medicinal plant processing, and wheat harvesting used historically in this territory.

We extend our deep thanks to the local government administration, linguistic institute, and cultural organization for organizing the luncheon and demonstrations of traditional life-ways for the students. We also thank the community of Ginestra as a whole for their hospitality and for sharing their cultural heritage with us.

Visit this website to view more photos of the day.

On June 15, 2013, Emory students enrolled in the interdisciplinary program in Italian and Medical Humanities will visit the village of Ginestra to learn about Arbëreshë history and medical traditions of the region. Ginestra is an Arbëreshë community founded in the second half of the fifteenth century. Located in the northern area of ​​Basilicata in the Vulture area, it is home to about 750 inhabitants in the municipality. 

The visiting students and professors will be guests of Dr. Cassandra Quave of the Emory Center for the Study of Human Health, the local administration of the municipality of Ginestra, the local language institute and cultural organization. Students will begin their day with a visit to a local vineyard and the Ethnobotanical Garden of Ginestra, where they will learn about local wild food and medicinal plants. After the lesson on local plants, students will be treated to a presentation on Arbëreshë history and experience a tasting of traditional foods. For the full announcement on this event, please visit the following news link (in Italian).

Dr. Cassandra Quave, CSHH Visiting Assistant Professor, is staying busy this summer on a medicinal plant collecting expedition in Italy. Quave’s field research site is located in southern Italy in the Vulture-Alto Bradano region of the Basilicata province. The local landscape is dominated by the dormant volcano Monte Vulture. The rolling hillsides below are covered with fields of wheat, olive groves and vineyards. She will be there in June and July to collect specimens of medicinal plants under study in the Human Health laboratory. When the plants arrive at the lab, members of Quave’s team will use the raw materials to create a series of plant extracts to be used in various drug discovery research projects underway at Emory. Natural products derived from medicinal plants represent a promising source of new drugs.

Hannah Robertson, 9, asked the CEO of McDonald's to consider the health consequences of marketing 
when she stated, “I don't think it's fair when big companies try to trick kids into eating food," reported USA Today's Bruce Horovitz.

Educating and empowering individuals to make healthy choices in their daily life is essential to improve the health of our society.

Photo from https://www.todayiatearainbow.com/

More than 100 students turned out to hear her talk about how to fuel your body and mind for optimal health and energy.  The students learned how to make a great tasting green smoothie, a health boosting kinky kale salad and a tropical chia pudding.   Her recipes require few ingredients and no cooking at all!  They were simple, quick and easy to make. Best of all, they passed the student taste test and were declared delicious!  

Wendy Jo’s  4-3-2-1 Smoothie

• 4 handfuls of  fresh spinach
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 2 bananas
• 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
• Milk of your choice (cow, almond, coconut, soy are common choices)

Put all ingredients in a blender, add milk until the mixture blends smoothly and is a consistency you like. Enjoy!

Ms. Peterson is a Registered Dietitian who works to inspire others to cook more, eat smarter, and approach life as though it’s worth tasting.  She is the author of the Mediterranean Diet Cookbook for Dummiesand hosts a radio show on nutrition. For more information, see her website.

To learn more about this event, as well as other events sponsored or recommended by the Center for the Study of Human Health, please vist our Events page.

The Center for the Study of Human Health and Emory Dining are sponsoring a Talk & Cooking Demo by Registered Dietitian Wendy Jo Peterson at Food EU on Thursday, April 25th beginning at noon.  For additional details, see our Events page!

Previous studies on caloric restriction in animal models like mice and nematodes found that the reduction in consumption lead to an increase in longevity.  Thus far, the impacts of such dietary restrictions in primate species have been mixed, with at least one major study finding no such association between life span and calorie restriction and another concluding that the restriction did in fact add years.

While longevity is still being debated, these studies are finding that the animals “health span”, or the number of years they live before showing signs of age-related disease, is extended among primates living on calorie restricted diets.  To learn more about the concept of a “health span”, as well as specific findings related to health outcomes such as cancer and heart disease among the study cohorts, please visit: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/08/caloric-restriction-in-monkeys.html.

Sales on large sodas and sugary drinks at movie theaters, restaurants, and other locations are now restricted in New York City after a vote by the Board of Health.  This is part of the city’s bold move to curb obesity rates; estimates indicate that at least 5,000 city residents die from obesity-related causes each year.

The ban, however, does not include all sellers in the city and doesn’t capture all sugary drinks.  For example, only stores and venues that receive health department inspection grades are impacted by the restriction, leaving vending machines and convenience stores like 7-11 untouched.  Diet sodas are exempt from the ruling, but restaurants with self-service soda fountains can no longer provide cups larger than 16 ounces.
For more on New York City’s new food-related regulations, please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/nyregion/health-board-approves-bloombergs-soda-ban.html?_r=1.

Recently Stanford University released a systematic review of the published literature regarding the health effects of organic foods compared with their conventionally grown counterparts.  Their study found that, in general, organic products did not have significantly beneficial health effects.  However, of the 237 research results they examined, only 3 actually commented specifically on clinical health outcomes and all of the rest were nutrient- or pesticide-specific studies.  The average difference in pesticide presence between organic and conventionally grown produce was approximately 30%, with organic produce exhibiting less residue.

The public has had strong reactions to the study; for reactions to the Stanford review, please see the following NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/us/would-be-healthy-eaters-face-confusion-of-choices.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all.

Researchers across Emory are participating in numerous projects that examine the different relationships between “sugars” and cancer.

First, Emory was recently awarded two grants totaling $2.5 million dollars over five years from the National Cancer Institute to study the sugary coatings of cancer cells.  Novel diagnostic methods and anticancer treatments  are expected to come from this research.  Read more at: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/08/cancer_glycomics_grants/index.html.

Second, Emory researchers continue to investigate cancer cell’s “sugar cravings”.  Cancerous cells use up more glucose than healthy cells, as they turn off the mitochondria which are typically responsible for producing energy and instead rely on glucose.  In the video below, Jing Chen, PhD, associate professor of hematology and medical oncology at Emory University School of Medicine and Winship Cancer Institute, explains how his team is examining whether anticancer therapies can target this mis-appropriation of glucose.  To read more about the research, please visit: http://shared.web.emory.edu/whsc/news/releases/2011/12/enzyme-that-flips-switch-on-cells-sugar-cravings-could-be-anti-cancer-target.html.

While food is obviously required for survival, overeating can lead to poor weight control and has been a contributor to the growing obesity epidemic.  This video provides a basic introduction to the innate body chemistry that is at play when we overeat.