E249: History Fact Check: Impact of Corporate Influence on Research

October 3, 2024

Study after study has shown that consumption of sugar sweetened beverages poses clear health risk. So how have the big soda companies, Coke and Pepsi in particular, reacted to this news and to public health policies that have aimed to restrict their business dealings like marketing, labeling, and even taxes? A fascinating and important part of this history has been told in a new book by Dr. Susan Greenhalgh called Soda Science: Making the World Safe for Coca Cola. Dr. Greenhalgh is the John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society Emerita at Harvard University. But hold on, what in the heck does China have to do all this? Well, we’re about to find out. This will be a very interesting discussion.

Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Food Industry Behavior & Marketing | Soda Taxes |

 

E245: Menus of Change Collaborative – shaping university student eating habits and careers

September 9, 2024

When you hear university dining, you likely have images in your mind of college students with trays and hand waiting in a line for a meal in a dining hall. You may even think of a food court or a trendy food hall in the cool part of town. But there is so much more happening behind the scenes. Today we will learn about Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, MCURC for short, which is a nationwide network of colleges and universities using campus dining halls as living laboratories for behavior change. The collaborative’s goals are to move people towards healthier, more sustainable and delicious foods using evidence-based research, education and innovation. Our guest today is the collaborative’s co-founder and co-director, Stanford University’s Sophie Egan.

Related podcasts: Chefs & Food Writers | Diet & Nutrition | Food Industry Behavior & Marketing | Food, Psychology & Neuroscience | School Meals |

 

E241: What is the connection between the gut and our brain?

August 13, 2024

We’ve recorded a series of podcasts on the microbiome and its wide ranging impacts. But boy is this a field that moves rapidly. As soon as you think you’ve covered much of the territory, along comes some new and exciting findings, and this is the case today. We’re going to describe research done by our guest, Dr. Ibrahim Javed. He has done innovative work on links between the gut microbiome and the brain, particularly focused on Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Javed is an Enterprise Fellow and National Health and Medicine Research Council Emerging Leadership Fellow in Clinical and Health Sciences at the University of South Australia.

Related podcasts: Child Development & Nutrition | Diet & Nutrition | Microbiome |

 

E238: Celebrating the Successes of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation

June 27, 2024

Nonprofit organizations can play a very important role in building healthy communities by providing services that contribute to community stability, social mobility, public policy, and decision-making. Today we’re speaking with Kathy Higgins, CEO of the Alliance for Healthier Generation. The Alliance is a nonprofit organization, a well-known one at that, that promotes healthy environments so that young people can achieve lifelong good health.

Related podcasts: Advocacy & Food | Child Development & Nutrition | Childhood Obesity | COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Food | Diet & Nutrition | Philanthropy & Food Systems | School Meals |

 

E236: Why we need a new food labeling system

April 29, 2024

The first nutrition labels mandated by the Food and Drug Administration appeared on food packages in 1994. A key update occurred in 2016, informed by new science on the link between diet and chronic disease. Along the way, things like trans fats and added sugars were required, but all along, the labels have been laden with numbers and appear on the back or side of packages. There has long been interest in more succinct and consumer-friendly labeling systems that might appear on the front of packages. Such systems exist outside the US, but for political reasons and lobbying by the food industry, have been blocked in the United States. There’s new hope, however, described in a recent opinion piece by Christina Roberto, Alyssa Moran, and Kelly Brownell in the Washington Post. Today, we welcome Dr. Christina Roberto, lead author of that piece. She is the Mitchell J. Blutt and Margot Krody Blutt Presidential Associate Professor of Health Policy in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Food Industry Behavior & Marketing | Food Policy | Food, Psychology & Neuroscience |

 

E235: A successful interactive obesity treatment approach

April 22, 2024

Traditional clinical weight loss interventions can be costly, time consuming, and inaccessible to low-income populations and people without adequate health insurance. Today’s guest, Dr. Gary Bennett, has developed an Interactive Obesity Treatment Approach, or iOTA for short, that represents a real advance in this area. Dr. Bennett is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Medicine and Global Health at Duke University, where he is also Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Obesity |

 

E233: Grocery and meal insight from the Baby’s First Years project

March 28, 2024

A growing number of research studies show that the cognitive and brain development of low-income children differs from that of children in higher income families. For any family, that is a concerning statement. Today’s podcast features a project called Baby’s First Years, a multi-year effort to test the connections between poverty reduction and brain development among very young children. Here to talk about what the study has revealed so far is Dr. Lisa Gennetian from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, and Dr. Sarah Halpern-Meekin from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Related podcasts: Child Development & Nutrition | Diet & Nutrition | Food Insecurity | Social Safety Net & Food |

 

E230: Results from a national consumer attitudes survey on dollar stores

February 22, 2024

Dollar stores are the fastest growing food retailer in the United States, both by sheer number of stores and consumer food purchases. Just two corporations, Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which also owns Family Dollar, operate more than 35,000 stores across the country. However, a growing body of research reveals that dollar stores offer limited healthy food options. Dollar stores shape the food environments of communities, especially in the South and Midwest regions and communities in rural areas with substantial shares of Black and Latin people and households with limited financial resources. What do we know about the impact dollar stores have on these communities and the overall wellbeing of community members? The Center for Science in the Public Interest conducted a national survey to understand how people perceive and actually use dollar stores. Today we will talk with lead author of this study, Senior Policy Scientist Sara John.

Related podcasts: Diet & Nutrition | Food Industry Behavior & Marketing | Food Insecurity |

 

E223: Food Policy Lessons from Removing Trans Fats from our Diet

December 20, 2023

In August of 2023, the Food and Drug Administration issued something known as a direct final rule, disregarded trans fats in the food supply. Consumers won’t notice changes as the rule just finalizes FDA’s 2015 ruling that partially hydrogenated oils – trans fats – no longer had “GRAS status.” GRAS stands for generally regarded as safe. We cover this issue today because this trans fat ban was the product of lots of work by a key group of scientists, the advocacy community, and others. The anatomy of this process can teach us a lot about harnessing scientific discovery for social and policy change. At the center of all this is today’s guest, Dr. Walter Willett. Walter Willett is one of the world’s leading nutrition researchers. He is professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and for many years served as chair of its Department of Nutrition. He’s published extensively, been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and it turns out, is the world’s most cited nutrition researcher.

Related podcasts: Advocacy & Food | Diet & Nutrition | Food Industry Behavior & Marketing | Food Policy | Food Safety & Food Defense |

 

E221: Understanding Poverty, Wellbeing, and Food Security for US Children

November 30, 2023

As the parent of a 12-year-old child, I know that raising a child is one of the most profound and rewarding experiences of a person’s life. It is also shockingly expensive. The high cost of child rearing is particularly difficult for families with limited resources. To help us think through this issue, it is my great pleasure to welcome a colleague here at Duke: Dr. Christina Gibson-Davis, Professor of Public Policy. Christina studies economic inequality, and particularly how it affects families with children.

Related podcasts: Child Development & Nutrition | Diet & Nutrition | Equity, Race & Food Justice | Food Insecurity | Food Policy | School Meals | Social Safety Net & Food |