Cafe Scientifique Silicon Valley

A discussion that promises to awaken our appetites for healthy foods, despite recent headlines pointing to the purported higher cost of "healthier" nutritional choices.

Diet and nutrition are increasingly important topics to everyone from individuals to national policy makers. On the national policy side, obesity and type 2 diabetes are currently national epidemics. On the personal side, we receive advice and opinions on proper approaches to diet, weight loss and healthful eating that are often mutually exclusive and constantly changing.

National dietary guidelines published by the USDA/HHS went through their own recent change. The advisory food pyramid is gone, replaced by an iconic dinner plate (with no room left for dessert).

San Jose State professor Marjorie Freedman will host a wide ranging discussion on nutrition and diet. As part of her talk, she will decipher the updated federal guidelines and discuss her research on environmental correlates of obesity, portion size reduction, nutrition labeling, and food waste.