NEWS

Unique course aims to teach methods of improving health through nutrition

By DAVID WILLIAMSON
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Getting Americans to help themselves by changing unhealthy lifestyles -- such as eating poor diets, smoking and being sedentary -- can be a lot harder than pulling teeth, health specialists have learned over the past few decades.

Now they’re taking a new tack toward the same goals -- trying to change public policy and the various environments in which people find themselves.

A unique new training course designed to teach such professionals from across the country how to accomplish the goal of improving nutrition is being held this week and next (Oct. 16-21) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The schools of public health and medicine are sponsoring the course through the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is funding the event, which will take place at the Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center at Meadowmont.

"This intensive course is designed to parallel one that the University of South Carolina has been offering for eight years or so that addresses physical activity and public health," said Dr. Alice S. Ammerman, associate professor of nutrition. "Like our colleagues in Columbia, we’re trying to go beyond focusing chiefly on changing individuals’ behavior through education and instead are attempting to change environments that are unhealthy in some way with respect to food."

Examples of unhealthy nutritional environments are workplaces and schools where adults and children are given access to high-fat foods and soft drinks, which are high in calories and low in nutrients, Ammerman said.

Some of the noted speakers and instructors will be controversial, she said, such as Dr. Marion Nestle of New York University, author of "Food Politics," a recent, widely read examination of the U.S. food industry that showed how the industry contributed to poor nutrition and obesity by stimulating Americans to eat more than they should.

Nestle will speak from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Sunday (Oct. 20) on "Healthy Eating in an Unhealthy Environment" and again from 11 a.m. until noon on "The Politics of Food – Options for Change Through a Public Policy Approach."

Another speaker will be Dr. Bill Dietz of the CDC who will discuss "Obesity as a National Epidemic – What Can We Do About it?" at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. He will address the same topic that evening in an interactive session with Terry and Joe Graedon of "The People’s Pharmacy," Dr. Shiriki Kumanyika of the University of Pennsylvania and conference attendees from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

"Dietz is widely known for his work over the years on such issues as the link between excessive television watching and childhood obesity," Ammerman said. "He now heads the CDC branch that’s leading the effort to promote more physical activity, better diets and less TV watching."

Dr. Rima Rudd of the Harvard University School of Public Health, who will speak Saturday from 10:30 a.m. until noon, has become prominent through her culturally sensitive nutritional program in Boston known as "Sisters Together." That program identifies and tries to counteract major barriers to women, especially younger black women, engaging in physical activity.

"Dr. Rudd found, for example, that some current hairstyles and fashions make it difficult for women to be active and maintain a professional appearance," Ammerman said. "With the help of beauticians and others, Rudd and colleagues designed a program to show young women how to be active and still wear clothes and hairstyles that they think become them."

UNC’s nutrition department and the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention have been integrally involved in establishing a comparable program in North Carolina called "Girls Rule," which focuses on helping black women and their daughters avoid obesity and promote fitness. Faculty members there have concentrated on low-income populations since research has shown them to be at greatest risk for obesity and related health problems, which include high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke.

"One of the reasons the CDC funded UNC’s new course and conference was because North Carolina was one of the first states Congress funded for a program known as WISEWOMAN," Ammerman said. "That is an effort reduce the toll from cardiovascular disease in older, low-income women by enhancing existing programs focused on cancer screening and treatment. Congress has shown considerable interest in expanding this program, which already is in 11 states nationwide."

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Note: Reporters are invited to cover the conference, which is not a public event. Ammerman can be reached at (919) 966-6082 or alice_ammerman@unc.edu. Course project director Nancy Aycock can be reached at (919) 966-0702.

Contact: David Williamson, 962-8596