FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 11, 2016
NEWS SOURCE ADVISORY
Faculty Member Available to Comment on
Revised Government Nutritional Guidelines
Pamela A. Koch, Research Associate Professor of Nutrition Education and is available to discuss the U.S. government's revised nutrition guidelines released January 7.
Koch, Executive Director, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education and Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, is an expert on science-based nutrition and food policy.
The guidelines, http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/ updated every five years by the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, provide science-based dietary recommendations designed to reduce obesity and prevent chronic diseases tied to diet and obesity. They are intended to provide the general public, as well as policy makers and health professionals with information to help the public make informed, healthy food choices.
Koch conducts research about the connections between a just, sustainable food system and healthy eating. She translates the results from her research into useful resources such as curricula for schoolteachers and recommendations for food policy and education.
Last November, Koch and co-author Hans Taparia published an op-ed http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/opinion/a-seismic-shift-in-how-people-eat.html?_r=2 A Seismic Shift in How People Eat,” in the New York Times Sunday Review, which argues that “eating habits are changing across the country and food companies are struggling to keep up.” Food manufacturers will need to fundamentally shift their approach and invest billions of dollars in healthier food production if they’re going to keep pace with the healthier changes in Americans’ eating habits and tastes, Koch and Taparia write.
In an earlier op-ed in the Huffington Post, Koch and Taparia noted that, while big food companies aggressively fought the new dietary guidelines in proposal form, consumers were already abandoning food products with unhealthy ingredients.
“Legacy food companies in America are ailing and their concern is that the latest proposed Dietary Guidelines spells the final death knell,” they wrote. “Lobbying against the Dietary Guidelines will not change that, and with the microscope so sharply focused on them, it is likely to further damage consumer trust and backfire.
To reach Pamela Koch at her office, please call 212-678-3001, or email her at [email protected], or call her at 917-514-6207. Or or email or call Patty Lamiell at Teachers College, [email protected], 212-678-3979, or 973-449-7086.
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