Kent State Interns

In underserved populations, improving the accessibility of healthy foods is recommended.   According to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, s mall community food stores can help promote healthy eating behaviors in their customers by providing healthy food options.   In Nebraska the Healthy Neighborhood Store (HNS) project was implemented to increase the “availability and affordability” of fresh fruits and vegetable, low-fat milk, lean meats, whole grains and other healthy food options.   The project was funded by the CDC and Prevention Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant and led by the county’s health department. The project interventions within a store included changing the placement of healthy foods to increase the sales of these items, increasing the amount of healthy foods being offered,   reducing the amount of   alcohol and tobacco advertising, installing the necessary coolers and shelving for the new healthy food opti...

According to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, today’s shoppers are participating in more recipe-based shopping rather than traditional pantry stockpiling. Additionally, consumers are also more willing and able to purchase their groceries at a diverse selection of stores compared to previous generations.   Shoppers are hunting for for specialty items including ethnic, organic, and locally grown products. To me, these trends are a sign that consumers are willing to go to new measures in order to find the items they desire. As a dietetics student, I hope that this also means our consumers are becoming more aware of nutrition issues and motivated to make healthy changes. Another recent finding, according to the Academy, is that today’s shoppers include more men than in the past. Now, “More than 40% of those who claim substantial responsibility for household grocery shopping are men”. This trend has lead grocery stores to change their layouts, signage, and off...

Supermarket dietitians are growing in popularity and influencing consumer diets. The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) conducted a survey that revealed approximately 85% of supermarkets have added a corporate dietitian to their staff, while 30% have RDs working in the stores (Webb, 2015). One supermarket chain with over 230 stores, Hy-Vee, has RDs working is 94% of their stores, with an aim of 100% in the near future (Webb, 2015). Retail RDs are able to influence millions of shoppers across the country. This is creating a huge opportunity to meet clients at the root of their health habits. Retail RDs offer many services in supermarkets including grocery store tours, addressing questions, teaching classes, counseling, food sampling, cooking demonstrations, helping consumers pick out healthier food choices, discussing how to make healthy food affordable, specializing menus and shopping lists, and working with other health professionals as well (Webb, 2015). On top of the community heal...

http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2014/04/14/5-reasons-american-women-wont-breastfeed/ Molla, R. (2014).   5 Reasons American Women Won’t Breastfeed. The Wall Street Journal. With all of the benefits of breastfeeding, one would think that every woman that could would.   Rani Molla voices some of the reasons why mothers shy away from breastfeeding in her article, 5 Reasons American Women Won’t Breastfeed.    With the creation of formula, it seemed to be the perfect alternative for those who wanted their infants to receive all the nutrition of breast milk without the hassle of pumping.   Unfortunately, formula does not give all the benefits as hoped for, but Americans are still choosing this option over the natural route.   It is because of the convenience of formula for women who work, especially if they do not get paid maternity leave and have to return to work as soon as possible (Molla, 2014). The problem is that Americans live in a societ...

Bichell, R. (2015, October 16). The world is not as hungry as you might think.   Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/16/447157158/the-world-is-not-as-hungry-as-you-might-think?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2042 Approximately 40,000 people have died each year since 2000 due to starvation, a large decrease from 1.4 million individuals during 1870-1970.   Despite this decrease in hunger related deaths, about 800 million people are undernourished today.   This article discusses the Global Health Index (GHI) and its use in rating countries based on a scale of 1 to 100.   The GHI is based on the prevalence of undernourishment, child wasting, child stunting, and child mortality. Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Croatia, Latvia, Peru, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, and Venezuela are countries singled out in this report for being the “most improv...

The number of people buying fresh local and organic foods has skyrocketed in the last few years. However, people are still confusing the terms “local” and “organic” foods, or are unsure of what they are actually buying altogether. The organic food industry actually spent millions of dollars promoting organic food, only to not offer enough distinction between organic and local, causing confusion in both. In a study the University of Florida, 17% of people thought organic and local were interchangeable when discussing food. They also discuss in this article the benefits and pitfalls of both local and organic farming. Organic foods are not grown with synthetic pesticides, but may have a larger environmental footprint because they may have to be shipped in from far away. Local foods do not leave as large a footprint on the environment, however may have been grown with synthetic pesticides. The purpose of this research is not to say organic foods are better, but to educate the public...

George Washington University has created a partnership with Wholesome Wave. Wholesome wave is “a nonprofit focused on creating sustainable, equitable food systems”. George Washington University currently has a group of students, faculty, staff, and volunteers called the Urban Food Task Force who work together to promote healthy food education, and to expand community knowledge about safe and sustainable food growth and production (if you want to find out more about this task force, you can visit http://www.gwu.edu/food-task-force ). The task force, along with other organizations such as the Milken Institute School of Public Health, the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the Rodham Institute have created a goal to “advance research in nutrition policy, health care costs, and food systems through the analysis and evaluation of shared data between the two organizations and to seek opportunities to advance knowledge through research and education as food and nutrition”. T...