AIFC and MDR Statement on the White House Conference on Hunger, Health, and Nutrition in the United States
Positive Nutrition: a new mindset to address the obesity epidemic and beyond
Notes from the recent “Positive Nutrition” events in Washington, DC.
Multi-day event brings together world-renowned experts in nutrition and health
Washington, D.C. The Mediterranean Diet Roundtable®, the Embassy of Italy, the American Italian Food Coalition, and Cambridge Food Science recently hosted two prestigious events “Positive Nutrition: Shifting the Focus from Nutrients to Diet for a Healthy Lifestyle,” culminating in a roundtable discussion of world-renowned nutrition experts at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC.
As nutrition issues take center stage with the upcoming White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, and Congress prepares for a new Farm Bill, the MDR and AIFC partnered to organize a symposium to discuss positive nutritional strategies for a healthy future. Distinguished panelists in attendance included: Roberta Re, Director of Cambridge Food Science; Dennis Bier, Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine; Hugo Da Costa Ribeiro, Professor at the Department of Pediatrics at the FMB at the Federal University of Bahia; Lorenzo Maria Donini, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Sapienza University; Paul Gately, Director at MoreLife; Daniela Martini, Assistant Professor at the University of Milan; and Richard Mattes, Distinguished Professor of Nutrition Science at Purdue University.
In addition to the event at the Italian Embassy, the delegation was hosted in the United States Capitol.
The focus of both events centered on the inclusiveness of the Mediterranean eating pattern and the value of a focus on the whole diet and positive nutrition messages. Positive Nutrition refers to a mindset to consider the meal as a whole, not single ingredients and compounds, which could be easily stigmatized and eliminated from menus, creating unbalance and deficiencies.
“People do not eat nutrients. People eat foods and they do so in complicated dietary patterns as well as in astonishingly complex external environmental circumstances,” mentioned Dr. Dennis Bier adding “As is now widely recognized, dietary recommendations based on isolated nutrients alone are no longer acceptable approaches to making recommendations to populations.”
For additional information about the programs and the speakers, please visit the event session.
