First Class – September 1 2015

Welcome to Nutrition and Health, Fall 2015

First Class Sept 1 F2015

 

Class Survey 2015

 

Synopsis F2015

Class Schedule to Sept 18

A Mediterranean Meal for Summer Dinner

A Mediterranean Meal made of grilled salmon, kale and avocado salad, and home made baked beans.

Slices of fresh ocean salmon are placed on a grill and brushed with mustard sauce.  The salmon is grilled on the stove top and then using the broiler in the oven.  The grilled salmon is shown below:

Grilling Salmon 7-5-15

The kale and avocado salad are made as follows:

1.  Wash 3/4 pounds of kale and peel 3 avocados.  Have 2 large lemons and sliced tomato ready.

2.  Place the avocado in with the kale and mash it into the kale.  It is best to use gloved hands and work into the kale.  Squeeze the lemons into the salad and work in some more.  Finally, add some sliced tomato.

Making Kale Avocado Salad

Kale Avocado 2

Kale Avocado Salad3

Kale Avocado 4

3.  Put together the salmon, kale salad, and home made baked beans for this light summer Mediterranean meal:

Salmon Kale Beans Sunday

Eat a Mediterranean Salad to Fight Obesity – June 30th

Today’s salad contained

Romaine lettuce (locally grown)

Mixed greens (spinach and lettuces)

Tomato

Green and red pepper (fried in onions and olive oil)

Pear

Today I added a half a small can of tuna and slices of lemon

Lunch 6-3015 whole crop

Lunch 6-30-15 closeup1

Eat a Mediterranean Salad to Fight Obesity

Eating a Mediterranean salad for lunch or dinner is a fantastic way to eat healthy and fight obesity.  It is packed full of nutrients including plenty of fiber to fill you up.  A Mediterranean salad can also raise your spirits!  In my mind, two important aspects that make it better are:

1.  Using a portable glass salad bowl with a tight fitting lid.  I do not enjoy eating out of a plastic bowl.

2. Use many different ingredients and change them often.

Today’s salad contained

Romaine lettuce (locally grown)

Mixed greens (spinach and lettuces)

White beans (canned)

Tomato

Green and red pepper (fried in onions and olive oil)

Pear

Blue berries

salad 6-29-15 full big crop

Salad 6-29-15 Closup2 Big

Plans for How to Cure Obesity for Summer 2015

Since this blog is basically for my courses on Nutrition and Obesity at Rutgers University, the posts become less frequent during the summer months and between semesters. However, that does not mean that I am inactive during these times. As you were able to see in my last post, I just published a book on Ancel Keys, who was an amazing scientist and also a hard working American who sought to improve the health of all Americans.

This summer (2015), I will attempt to complete another book project– that is, a book on Obesity in America. 

Here is a bit of information on my new book on Obesity:

What is the current title? So far, the title is: Nutrition, Health, and Obesity: The Rise of Obesity in America and its Causes.

Why I am writing this book?  There is not a good nutrition/obesity book for the general public on the market. There are many books written by so-called “media nutrition experts.”  I use “Textbook of Obesity…” (See below) in my class and it is a great book and a wonderful source of references and topics, but it is a fairly dry book for the general reader.

http://www.amazon.com/Textbook-Obesity-Biological-Psychological-Influences/dp/0470655887/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434029298&sr=1-1&keywords=textbook+of+obesity

Do I have the background to write this book? My credentials for writing this book:  I have been teaching a class entitled “Nutrition and Health” for almost 25 years.  I have taught this class at Columbia University in NY, at the University of Missouri, and now about 10 years at Rutgers University.  Over the past few years I have also taught a class entitled, “Obesity: Biology, Behavior, and Management” (11:709:427:01). The Obesity book I am writing uses the knowledge and experience I have gained in teaching these two classes.

What is my philosophy in writing the book?  I believe that if people truly understand the problem behind energy management and obesity, and if they are presented with some solid strategies for going forward with a plan of health living, then they will not turn to fad diets or crazy practices. They will pick a course of action and stick with it.

Who is the Audience for the book?  I think a medium educated and highly motivated audience interested in nutrition and health (and not requiring a science background) will be the target audience.

What are my goals and aspirations for the book?  I am hoping that this book will become the “Guns, Germs, and Steel” of the nutrition area.

What are Early Readers saying? I have had two Beta readers read an early version of the book last fall, and both of them loved it. One told me, “When you publish the book, I will buy a copy for each of my children and friends.”

Please watch out for posts from my book that I will publish this summer on this Site!

Publication of My Book on the Discovery of the Mediterranean Diet by Ancel and Margaret Keys

In late March 2015 I published my book on Dr. Ancel Keys, who was a pioneer researcher into the role of serum cholesterol in coronary heart disease.  Dr. Keys was born in Colorado in 1904 and attended college at the University of California at Berkeley.  He was awarded his Ph.D. from the same institution and then Dr. Keys performed two post-doctoral fellowships in Europe.  When he returned to the U.S., he spent several years at Harvard University, less than a year at the Mayo Clinic, and then in 1938 he was recruited to the University of Minnesota, where Dr. Keys remained his entire scientific career. While he was at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Keys met Margaret Haney, a chemist who began to work in the Keys laboratory as a technician.  In 1939, Ancel and Margaret were married and began a partnership that would last 60 years.  During this partnership, several very major accomplishments were completed.  These included, several that have had a great impact on the American people:
1. He formulated ready-to-eat meals (called K-rations) for the American armed forces during World War II. These turned out to be a technical success and are immortalized in hundreds of
movies and books about World War II.
2. He led a major study during World War II on starvation that provided important information on how to treat starved prisoners and civilians.
3. He conceived and implemented the Seven Countries Study and identified important dietary factors that were associated with coronary heart disease.
4. He led a series of controlled dietary fat and cholesterol feeding studies in humans that resulted in the “Keys Equation,” which accurately predicted the changes in blood cholesterolconcentrations when changes were made in the composition of fats in the diet.

But the capstone of their accomplishments was the writing of three very popular
cookbooks that would help people eat healthy. These were “Eat Well and Stay Well” (1959), and an updated version, “How to Eat Well and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way” (1975). Both books were featured on the New York Times best seller list. They wrote a third book, “The Benevolent Bean,” published in 1967, and it was also successful. A collage of the covers of the three books is shown below:

Covers Collage for Henry 4-2015 PS 200 res

The covers of the three cookbooks written by Ancel and Margaret Keys. Photograph of the collage by JL Dixon. The cover images were used by permission of Penguin Random House LLC (which Doubleday & Company, Inc. is now part of) and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC (which published The Benevolent Bean in 1972).

Handing Off the Second Half of Nutrition and Health to Dr. Josh Miller

After exam 2 on March 13, 2015, and spring break, I handed off the second half of the class to Dr. Josh Miller, who is chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences. The reason for doing this is that I needed time to finish a special project that will be announced during the next blog.  Therefore, Dr. Miller continued the rest of the class as diagrammed below.  I wish to thank the students who took the class this spring.  This was one of the best group of students that I remember ever taking Nutrition and Health.

Class synopsis for 255 spring 2015

Class on Tuesday, March 10, 2015

 

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Screen shot 2015-03-09 at 8.57.05 PM

Class on Friday, March 6, 2015

Screen shot 2015-03-06 at 8.21.13 AM

Class on Tuesday, March 3, 2015

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