GM Foods – Have We Gone Too Far?

By Amy Lin

Have you ever seen a tailless cow?  Now you can. In the most recent iteration of transgenic cows aimed at producing more nutritious and hypoallergenic milk, we have also produced a tailless cow. A research group in New Zealand created the cow with no detectable levels of beta-lactoglobulin (BLG), a protein known for causing milk allergies(1). The cow also produces twice as much casein in its milk, compared with conventional milk. These higher casein levels are associated with increased calcium levels and higher cheese yields. What isn’t mentioned in this study is that casein is also a common allergen for those with milk allergies. Milk is also being modified to be more like human breast milk. Milk allergies are one of the most common childhood food allergies in developed countries, affecting 2-3% of infants within their first year of life (2).  Continue reading

Posted in Fall 2012, Features | Leave a comment

The Misleading Truth

By Jennifer Rock

The anti-smoking organization “truth” has been dedicated to spreading information about the dangers of tobacco products. Some may be familiar with their viral campaigns, which use scare tactics to encourage smoking cessation by showing graphic medical long term effects of smoking, such as lungs filled with plaque and amputations.
Now, “truth” has decided to target a younger audience. In their latest ad campaign, titled “Flavor Monsters,” “truth” is using video games to pull in teens and adolescents to their website. The point of the video game is to send a message to children about the evils of fruit-flavored tobacco products (chewing tobacco, flavored to make it more appealing to consumers). While flavored cigarettes have been banned in New York, these flavored chewing tobaccos are still available, and are a leading cause of oral, esophageal, and pancreatic cancer.(1) Continue reading

Posted in Fall 2012 | Leave a comment

New Student Notes

On behalf of the Teachers College Program in Nutrition, we’d like to welcome…

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Restaurant Review

By Alyssa Cohen

Peacefood Café is a vegan restaurant that attracts vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike. The sunlit, quaint café is ideal for a casual breakfast, lunch or dinner, in addition to offering a mouthwatering display of baked goods, coffees, teas, smoothies and juices.

I chose to order the seasonally appropriate Thai Pumpkin Soup ($7.50), a soup of the day that appeared in an absurdly Continue reading

Posted in Fall 2012, Restaurant Review | Leave a comment

Work It Out

By Alyssa Cohen

High Intensity Interval Training (HIT) is a hot topic in exercise physiology, due to its fast-tracked intended health and training benefits. This exercise program alternates periods of short intense aerobic exercise, with less-intense recovery periods. HIT has been shown in various research to improve training for both sprinting and endurance events, owing to its ability to greatly improve cardiac fitness. Additionally, research indicates that HIT appears to yield fitness results that are similar (or more desirable) than endurance training.  Continue reading

Posted in Fall 2012, Work It Out | Leave a comment

Out and About: Food Day

By Vanessa Stasio

On October 25th, the Center for Food and Environment (CFE) and the Program in Nutrition invited the Teachers College community to celebrate Food Day.

Created by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day is a nationwide celebration and movement toward more healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. A diverse group of food movement leaders, organizations, and people from all walks of life use Food Day to address issues as varied as health and nutrition, hunger, agricultural policy, animal welfare, and farm worker justice. The ultimate goal is to strengthen and unify the food movement to improve the nation’s food policies and transform the American diet. Continue reading

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Composting in NYC

By Stephanie Lang

For a person so involved in the restaurant, food, and nutrition world, I was surprised that only recently did I start thinking about my own food waste at home. Having worked for many years at “farm-to-table” restaurants that try to compost and operate sustainably, I still cringe when I see food being dumped because we can no longer legally sell it. I often feel like a bag lady plunking bread rolls into my purse, swooping in at the end of the day and grabbing as many leftovers as possible. “Nothing to waste,” I exclaim as I run out the door with perfectly good day-old cookies, pasta dishes, and yes, bread rolls. Someone will eat them.  Continue reading

Posted in Fall 2012, Op-Ed | Leave a comment

Why CSA?

By Jennifer Rock

As the weather turns balmy, I’ve found that Summer has taken on new meaning for me.  It’s the start of the Community Supported Agriculture season, where people scramble for choice spots in their local CSA programs.

CSAs are a relatively new tradition among America’s food systems.  Influenced by the European biodynamic movement that branched into community support systems, the first American CSAs arrived in 1986 at two enterprising farms: one in Mass-achusetts, one in New Hampshire(1).  Since their beginning, they’ve grown in popularity, considerably in the last decade, as CSA providers have exploded, especially among urban populations.

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Posted in Features, Summer 2012 | Leave a comment

Hot Topic

By Victoria Martinet

The last few years have seen a resurgence in the popularity of the Paleolithic diet. The diet is based on the idea that humans today are genetically adapted to a diet based on what our preagricultural, stone-age ancestors consumed. Even though this diet plan is popular now it is certainly not new. Since Eaton and Konnor introduced the concept of Paleolithic nutrition in the 1980s, there has been much debate on the topic (1). Proponents of the diet suggest that as our modern diets have swayed from Paleolithic eras, we have developed ‘diseases of civilization.’ Others say that there isn’t sufficient information to warrant a shift away from current dietary recommendations. Continue reading

Posted in Hot Topic, Summer 2012 | Leave a comment

Alumni Profile: Suzanna Martinez, M.S.

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Posted in Alumni Profile, Summer 2012 | Leave a comment