Next meeting: Spring 2025 (date to be determined) 10-11am
Join by Zoom – details will be available closer to the meeting date.
Leadership:
| Olivia Thomas, MS, RDN, LDN | Director of Nutrition Innovation and Implementation at Boston Medical Center (BMC) | |
| Megan Sandel, MD | Professor of Pediatrics at BU & Professor of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health (SPH); Research Focus: housing and child health | |
| Vipul Chitalia, MD | Professor of Medicine, Nephrology at BU |
Innovating Nutrition
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
12-2pm
72 E Concord St, room E118 (Evans building)
Intro to food is medicine: Problems with nutrition research and interventions
▪ Innovation spotlight 1: BMC QI food and nutrition project
▪ Innovation spotlight 2: Wearing diet tracking assessment devices (15-min presentation)
▪ Future of food and nutrition and ways to get more involved
Panel speakers
o Megan McCrory, PhD
o Lorrin Liang, BU 3 rd year medical student
o Megan Sandel, MD
Description
Food-based interventions, collectively called Food Is Medicine (FIM), are increasingly recognized within the healthcare system as essential strategies for preventing and managing chronic diseases. While the link between nutrition and health has long been acknowledged, addressing patients’ nutritional needs and improving food access as a routine part of medical care has recently gained significant national momentum.
In 2022, the White House hosted the landmark Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, emphasizing nutrition’s critical role in public health. Building on this progress, the Department of Health and Human Services convened the inaugural Food Is Medicine Summit in 2024, bringing together government, healthcare, for-profit, and nonprofit leaders to develop actionable solutions for improving health outcomes through nutrition-focused interventions.
While nourishing food is vital to health, human relationships with food are deeply personal and multifaceted. Food is essential for survival, but its significance extends beyond sustenance, reflecting individual values, traditions, and lived experiences.
Unfortunately, nutrition education often oversimplifies the complexity of food-related behaviors. In reality, dietary preferences are highly nuanced, influenced by family traditions, community norms, and the sociocultural practices of a host country.
Nutrition research is highly complex, with significant challenges in accurately measuring dietary patterns. Moreover, there is a notable lack of comprehensive data on varied eating habits and global food traditions. A well-known example of nutrition research is the exploration of Blue Zones—regions where observational and descriptive studies, employing epidemiological and anthropological methods, have analyzed the health and longevity of populations. This research has highlighted the Mediterranean diet as a model of healthy eating, but is it the only beneficial eating pattern? What other aspects of eating—beyond the food itself—might contribute to overall health and well-being?
A recent quality improvement study at Boston Medical Center surveyed over 1,000 patients about their food preferences and how they prefer to learn about nutrition. Overall, results suggested that Individuals have varied food preferences. Interestingly, and despite significant differences in diets across self-identified languages, races, and backgrounds, almost everyone reported pasta as their favorite food.
To address these personalized realities, innovative solutions are essential. For example, researchers at Boston University, including Dr. Megan McCrory, are working with wearable devices that assess dietary patterns in real time. These tools have the potential to revolutionize personalized nutrition care by tailoring interventions to individual dietary habits and providing key insights across populations in research.
As the Food Is Medicine movement grows, it is crucial to embrace solutions that honor food’s cultural, emotional, and practical dimensions. We can advance this field by integrating fuller patient-centered approaches into healthcare. Now, let’s eat.
Outline:
Seeking: Interest in joining the leadership team, and particularly from the DoM; The group is meeting by Zoom every third Friday.
If you are interested in participating, please contact Olivia Thomas.
Current Core Group:
| Kelsey Egan, MD, MSC | Research Focus: Improving clinical-community integration in health outcomes for children and families | |
| Jessica Peters, RN, RD, LDN | Outpatient Nutrition Manager, BMC | |
| Dani Brooks, MPH | Health Research Manager | |
| Richard Sheward, MPP | Director of System Implementation Strategies, Children’s HealthWatch Assistant Professor |
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| Ana Poblacion, PhD, MSC | Research Focus: pediatric nutrition and ending food insecurity in households with children through the increase in access to healthy foods | |
| Renee Boynton Jarrett, MD, ScD | Founding Director, Vital Village Community Engagement Network Associate Professor |
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| Christina Gago, PhD, MPH | Research Focus: Food Security, Nutrition Assistance, Early Childhood Care & Education, Health Equity, Parenting, Health Behavior Interventions, Implementation Science | |
| Rebecca Rudel, DrPH, MPH, RD | Implementation scientist and evaluator; Research Focus: the intersection between clinical care and public health | |
| Norma Gonzalez, MPH | Focus: health and education for underserved populations | |
Current Advisors:
| Pablo Buitron de la Vega | ||
| Naomi Hamburg | ||
| Ismail Samad | ||
| Barbara Corkey | ||
| Mallika Sabharwal | ||
| Jonathan Berz | ||
| David Opp | ||
| Latchman Hiralall | ||
On Dec 6, 2024, current research was highlighted during a Synopsis 5′: research talks & networking event.
Talks given by Pre-ARC leadership included
Olivia Thomas, MS, RD, LDN, PhD student (Background and the Food is Medicine Movement & Introduction to the Food and Nutrition Pre-ARC)
Stacey Zawacki, DrPH, RD, LD (Education Research)
Kareem King, BA (Community-Based Participatory Research)
Megan Sandel, MD https://www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/profile/megan-sandel (Clinical Research)