Nutrition: Good for Your Health, Good for the Economy

You are what you eat and most of us eat more than we should. Our abundant food supply and increasingly inactive lifestyles have led to an unprecedented obesity epidemic in the United States that’s fueling spiraling rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. The resultant human and healthcare costs are taking a heavy toll on our quality of life.

Utah State University USTAR professors David York and Michael Lefevre tackle the subject of nutrition and its societal impact head-on during USU’s Sunrise Session research breakfast Friday, Jan. 25. The gathering will be held from 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Salt Lake City’s Little America Hotel, 500 South Main.

 

“Nutrition is fundamental to all aspects of health and disease,” York says. “Today’s environment is very conducive to the development of obesity, which has become a top public health concern.”

 

York and Lefevre, both recruited to USU as part of the Utah Science, Technology and Research initiative, are members of USU’s new Center for Advanced Nutrition. Scientists at the center pursue molecular and genetic approaches to explore how our bodies recognize and respond to nutrients. The group also investigates “functional foods,” that is, foods and nutritional supplements with health-promoting properties.

 

York earned a doctorate in physiology from England’s University of Southhampton. Prior to joining USU in 2006, he served as associate executive director of basic research at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

 

Lefevre, who joined USU in 2007, served as chief of the division of functional foods research at PBRC, professor in the center’s division of nutrition and chronic diseases and as adjunct professor in LSU’s School of Human Ecology. He holds a doctorate in nutrition from the University of California, Davis.

 

USU’s “Sunrise Sessions” is a breakfast lecture series designed to highlight timely and cutting-edge research conducted at Utah State University. The lecture is sponsored by Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah.

 

To RSVP, please contact Kent Clark at 435-797-2645 or respond online.