V O L U M E 7 , N O . 2S P R I N G 2 0 0 6

. .

T UF TS

P L U S : U R B A N F O R A G I N G n T H E R E D S O X D I E T n F I X I N G S C H O O L L U N C H

FEEDING THE AGINGBRAIN A heart-healthy livestyle may staveoff mental decline

For this installment of “Ask Tufts Nutrition,” Mohsen Meydani, director ofthe Vascular Biology Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human NutritionResearch Center on Aging, serves as our expert.

Q:Why are oats good for you? Is it just the soluble fiber?

A: Oats (Avena sativa), a cereal grain, are a great source of carbo-hydrate energy and are high in well-balanced proteins. Theyare also good sources of several micronutrients, including

copper, zinc, calcium, iron, magnesium and manganese and vitamins E,B1, B2 and D. Oats also contain several phytochemicals, including pheno-lic acid, flavonoids, sterols and phytic acid.

They do provide good amounts of soluble and insoluble fibers. The solu-ble fiber of oats is a special form known as beta-glucan. Research suggeststhat when this form of fiber is consumed as part of a healthy, low-fat diet, itcan reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by lowering blood cholesterollevels. The insoluble fiber in oats creates bulk in the intestine and maydilute carcinogens, thus reducing the risk of colon cancer. Oatmeal con-sumption is also reported to increase the ability of arteries to dilate.

In addition, oats have unique polyphenols with antioxidantactivity called avenanthramides, which are only found in oat grain.In recent laboratory tests, my colleagues and I examined thesecompounds as extracted from oats or synthetically prepared inthe lab for their potential health benefits. We found that they pos-sess anti-inflammatory properties and may help prevent the for-mation of plaques.

We purified avenanthramides and exposed them to humanarterial wall cells for 24 hours and found that the ability of bloodcells to stick to the artery walls was significantly reduced. This isnoteworthy, because when blood cells stick to walls and causeinflammation, plaque deposits build up and narrow the passage-ways through which blood flows. We also saw that avenan-thramides inhibited the proliferation of vascular smooth musclecells, the accumulation of which plays an important role in thedevelopment of plaques and the narrowing of arteries. Further-

more, we found that these compounds stimulate production of nitricoxide from the cells of arterial walls, causing the arteries to dilate.

In addition, we found that the avenanthramides of oats also suppressproduction of inflammatory molecules called cytokines and cellular adhe-sion molecules. These “sticky” molecules occur naturally as a means offighting infection, but together with cytokines they attract a large num-ber of inflammatory cells in the vessel wall, which can block blood flow.

Taken together, our current cell culture evidence indicates that con-suming oats has a great potential to provide benefits to vascular health inmany other ways besides just lowering cholesterol. So now you have evenmore reasons to eat your oatmeal.

Please send your questions for future installments of “Ask Tufts Nutrition” toJulie Flaherty, Tufts University Office of Publications, 136 Harrison Ave., Bos-ton, MA 02111. Or send an e-mail to julie.flaherty@tufts.edu.

A S K T U F T S N U T R I T I O N

Now oats can really gloat

PHOTO: FOODCOLLECTION

TUFTSTUFTSG I F T P L A N N I N G

Partnering Philanthropy with Financial Wisdom

For information about supporting the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy through a charitable trust or other

gift planning options, contact Tufts’ Gift Planning Office toll-free at 1-888-748-8387 or via email to giftplanning@tufts.edu.

ROSALIND “LYN” WHINSTON-PERRY graduated from the FriedmanSchool of Nutrition Science and Policy in 1983. Through a planned gift createdby her family, she established an endowed Alumni Internship Fund. During herdegree program she interned at the Jean Mayer USDA Human NutritionResearch Center on Aging (HNRCA). She is a medical editor at theMassachusetts Medical Society and an active member of the Friedman SchoolAlumni Board. Lyn has two daughters, Alisa (pictured above) and Maya.

NA

NC Y

CARB

ON

ARO

ven 25 years ago, when the Friedman School and the HNRCA were in their infancy, internship experiences helped chart my career path. Now as

my oldest daughter, Alisa, is exploring research internships, I am seeing theFriedman School and the HNRCA with fresh eyes. I am amazed at how the school has grown and what it has to offer. My family’s charitable remainder unitrust to support future internships allows me to give back to students of the Friedman School.”

E

A little planning now . . . can make a big difference for generations to come.

A little planning now . . . can make a big difference for generations to come.

dd ee pp aa rr tt mm ee nn tt ss

3 A La CarteResearch in brief

24 On CampusFriedman school news

26 University News29 Advancement31 Alumni News32 Class Notes

On the cover: The heart/head connection. Illustration by Dung Hoang.

cc oo vv ee rr ss tt oo rr yy

8 Feeding the aging brainby Julie Flaherty

What’s good for the heartmay also help ward offAlzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

C O N T E N T SS P R I N G 2 0 0 6 I V O L U M E 7 ,

ff ee aa tt uu rr ee ss

6 The Hero of Katmanduby Julie FlahertyRam Shrestha has motivated an army of volunteersto deliver vitamin A to 3.6 million Nepali children.

14 Fixing School Lunchby Julie FlahertyWith childhood obesity on the rise, chef BillIdell is taking the midday meal out of the cafeteria and into the curriculum.

18 Food Coachby Jacqueline MitchellThe team nutritionist for the Red Sox finds thatplayers have the same questions we all do.

22 In the Concrete Larderby Diana Redwood, N04 How does a graduate student fulfill the urge tohunt and gather? With a little urban foraging.

14

ILLUSTRATION: MATTIAS PALUDI spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 3

,

Sternin have promoted the use of the positive deviance approach innutrition to rehabilitate tens of thousands of malnourished childrenin developing countries. Their premise is the opposite of theexpert-driven approach: Instead of barging in as the outsiders withall the answers and telling local parents what they are doing wrong,

Change from the inside out

they help them find uncommon examplesfrom their own communities of peoplewho are raising well-nourished childrendespite their poverty—positive deviantfamilies—and guide them in designingtheir own initiative to put those behaviorsinto practice.

Recently, the Sternins began introduc-ing the positive deviance technique to amuch different audience: American healthcare providers. When Dr. Tony Cusano, anassistant clinical professor at YaleUniversity School of Medicine, heard theSternins speak at Waterbury Hospital in

RESEARCH IN BRIEF A LA CARTE

2 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

FROM THE D E A N EILEEN KENNEDY

A wealth of symposia . between nutrition science and policy and our educational mission. I am therefore delightedthat the school will be launching the first annual Friedman School Symposium thisSeptember. (Visit nutrition.tufts.edu.) The symposium will provide a forum for discussingcutting-edge science and the links to policies and programs. Appropriately, this first symposium will be dedicated to “Dietary Guidelines 2010: The Right Stuff.” The DietaryGuidelines are enormously important because they form the basis of U.S. nutrition policyand increasingly have become the essential basis for addressing diet and healthy living.

The Friedman School Symposium is an opportunity to bring together scientists andpolicymakers to discuss controversial issues in an unbiased and neutral setting. We are for-tunate to have a task force from the Friedman School’s Board of Overseers that has workedto make this symposium a reality. Chaired by Vishwa Singh, the task force includes JaneFriedman, Paul Morse, Robert Russell, Rhona Applebaum and Sylvia Rowe. In addition,the preparation for the symposium has benefited from the work of the scientific planningcommittee co-chaired by Simin Meydani and Rob Russell, with members including BessDawson-Hughes, Johanna Dwyer, Alice Lichtenstein and Susan Roberts. See you on theevening of September 19 forthe opening reception. And fas-ten your seat belts; we have anexciting mystery speaker toopen the symposium.

Always exciting is the springGershoff Symposium, this year titled “Toward a Healthier Nation: Complexities ofOptimizing Micro-Nutrient Intakes with the U.S. Diet,” which was held on April 24. AliceLichtenstein, with assistance from students Sarah Anderson, Sam Cadena, Latrice Goosby,Wendy Johnecheck, Maina Muthee, Heather Mernitz, Josiemer Mattei, Hilde Petersonand Toshiko Tanaka, pulled together an exciting program.

Knowing that the school was undergoing a serious review of the curriculum, a group ofstudents, with guidance from Patrick Webb, dean of academic affairs, developed a frame-work to guide thinking about ways to enhance both the breadth and depth of teaching thatoccurs at the school. The document, called “A Framework for Food Systems Analysis:Opportunities for Engagement,” involved a wide range of students from the more policy-related areas of the school and already has been helpful in stimulating dialogue among stu-dents and faculty.

Are people born with natural leadership skills or do these talents develop over time?This question is being explored in our taped series called “Conversations with NutritionLeaders.” Interviews with leaders including Nevin Scrimshaw, a World Food Prize winner,and U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, one of the architects of the U.S. food stamp program, revealsome surprises in events that have shaped their stellar careers. The first series of interviewswith nutrition leaders will be completed by this summer and available to view at the school.In addition, these taped interviews will be forthcoming in book form.

The energy and enthusiasm among students, faculty, staff, alums and overseers is palpa-ble. We really are the Friedman School on the move.

v o l . 7, n o . 2 s p r i n g 2 0 0 6

EditorJulie Flaherty

Managing EditorKaren Bailey

Art DirectorMargot Grisar

Graphic DesignerPaul DiMattia

Contributing WritersNina Braten, Jacqueline Mitchell,Helene Ragovin, Diana Redwood,

Mark Sullivan

Editorial AdvisorsEileen Kennedy, D.Sc., Dean

Gerald J. and Dorothy R. FriedmanSchool of Nutrition Science and Policy

Patrick Webb, Ph.D., Dean Academic Affairs

Mark Grossmann, DirectorDevelopment and Alumni Relations

Cindy Briggs Tobin, DirectorAnnual Giving and Alumni Relations

Tufts Nutrition is a publication of the GeraldJ. and Dorothy R. Friedman School ofNutrition Science and Policy at TuftsUniversity for alumni, key university

personnel, students, faculty, staff and otherswith an interest in the school.

The mission of the school is to passionatelyadvance nutritional well-being for peopleworldwide through excellence in research,teaching and the shaping of public policy.

We welcome your letters.Correspondence should be sent to:

Julie Flaherty, Tufts Nutrition,Tufts University Office of Publications,136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111Tel: 617-636-3928 Fax: 617-636-4075

E-mail: julie.flaherty@tufts.edu

We’re online. Please check out the magazineand the world of Tufts Nutrition at

http://nutrition.tufts.edu.

T U F T S N U T R I T I O N

Connecticut, where he is a nephrologist, heimmediately saw the possibilities and thepotential resistance from his colleagues.

“Health care is not like a village inVietnam,” he said. “As nurses and doctors,you have to spend your life being confidentin what you do. You like to control anychange.”

Nevertheless, a small group at the hos-pital decided to use positive deviance totackle the problem of discharge medica-tions. The average patient leaves the hospi-tal with seven prescriptions, and most ofthe time, the doctors weren’t properly fill-ing out the instruction forms for how totake them. A phone survey revealed that 60to 80 percent of discharged patients hadexperienced some sort of problem or confu-sion with their medications. One patientwas taking his medication six times a dayinstead of every six hours. Another saw thatthe bottle instructed him to take his med-ication every day, but he didn’t think thatmeant weekends, too.

When the hospital staff learned theextent of the problems, they took action.Nurses and physicians began working onthe issue together. They found that somewere making follow-up phone calls afterdischarges, making sure instructions weregiven to caregivers such as a family memberand having patients write down the listthemselves.

Within months, 82 percent of the dis-charge medication forms were being filledout, and the number of medication prob-lems was cut in half.

“The difference is the collaborativedesign—getting people to work together sothat the changes stick,” Cusano said.

Waterbury Hospital is now using thepositive deviance approach to improve carefor diabetes patients and care of patientswith acute surgical emergencies involvingabdominal pain or neck and head trauma.

Through a grant from the Robert WoodJohnson Foundation, the Positive DevianceInitiative is also collaborating with thePlexus Institute in New Jersey to reducemethicillin-resistant staph infections inhospitals in six states. The Sternins will betechnical advisors.

THE MAILBOX IS EMPTYTufts Nutrition is your publication, and asthe editor, I am eager to hear from readers.Let me know what you like and don’t like.Tell me what you want to read about. I lookforward to hearing from you.

Julie Flaherty, Editor, Tufts NutritionTufts University Office of Publications 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111tel: 617-636-3928 fax: 617-636-4075 e-mail: julie.flaherty@tufts.edu

Are people born with naturalleadership skills, or do thesetalents develop over time?

ILLUSTRATION: MATTIAS PALUDI spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 3

,

Sternin have promoted the use of the positive deviance approach innutrition to rehabilitate tens of thousands of malnourished childrenin developing countries. Their premise is the opposite of theexpert-driven approach: Instead of barging in as the outsiders withall the answers and telling local parents what they are doing wrong,

Change from the inside out

they help them find uncommon examplesfrom their own communities of peoplewho are raising well-nourished childrendespite their poverty—positive deviantfamilies—and guide them in designingtheir own initiative to put those behaviorsinto practice.

Recently, the Sternins began introduc-ing the positive deviance technique to amuch different audience: American healthcare providers. When Dr. Tony Cusano, anassistant clinical professor at YaleUniversity School of Medicine, heard theSternins speak at Waterbury Hospital in

RESEARCH IN BRIEF A LA CARTE

2 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

FROM THE D E A N EILEEN KENNEDY

A wealth of symposia . between nutrition science and policy and our educational mission. I am therefore delightedthat the school will be launching the first annual Friedman School Symposium thisSeptember. (Visit nutrition.tufts.edu.) The symposium will provide a forum for discussingcutting-edge science and the links to policies and programs. Appropriately, this first symposium will be dedicated to “Dietary Guidelines 2010: The Right Stuff.” The DietaryGuidelines are enormously important because they form the basis of U.S. nutrition policyand increasingly have become the essential basis for addressing diet and healthy living.

The Friedman School Symposium is an opportunity to bring together scientists andpolicymakers to discuss controversial issues in an unbiased and neutral setting. We are for-tunate to have a task force from the Friedman School’s Board of Overseers that has workedto make this symposium a reality. Chaired by Vishwa Singh, the task force includes JaneFriedman, Paul Morse, Robert Russell, Rhona Applebaum and Sylvia Rowe. In addition,the preparation for the symposium has benefited from the work of the scientific planningcommittee co-chaired by Simin Meydani and Rob Russell, with members including BessDawson-Hughes, Johanna Dwyer, Alice Lichtenstein and Susan Roberts. See you on theevening of September 19 forthe opening reception. And fas-ten your seat belts; we have anexciting mystery speaker toopen the symposium.

Always exciting is the springGershoff Symposium, this year titled “Toward a Healthier Nation: Complexities ofOptimizing Micro-Nutrient Intakes with the U.S. Diet,” which was held on April 24. AliceLichtenstein, with assistance from students Sarah Anderson, Sam Cadena, Latrice Goosby,Wendy Johnecheck, Maina Muthee, Heather Mernitz, Josiemer Mattei, Hilde Petersonand Toshiko Tanaka, pulled together an exciting program.

Knowing that the school was undergoing a serious review of the curriculum, a group ofstudents, with guidance from Patrick Webb, dean of academic affairs, developed a frame-work to guide thinking about ways to enhance both the breadth and depth of teaching thatoccurs at the school. The document, called “A Framework for Food Systems Analysis:Opportunities for Engagement,” involved a wide range of students from the more policy-related areas of the school and already has been helpful in stimulating dialogue among stu-dents and faculty.

Are people born with natural leadership skills or do these talents develop over time?This question is being explored in our taped series called “Conversations with NutritionLeaders.” Interviews with leaders including Nevin Scrimshaw, a World Food Prize winner,and U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, one of the architects of the U.S. food stamp program, revealsome surprises in events that have shaped their stellar careers. The first series of interviewswith nutrition leaders will be completed by this summer and available to view at the school.In addition, these taped interviews will be forthcoming in book form.

The energy and enthusiasm among students, faculty, staff, alums and overseers is palpa-ble. We really are the Friedman School on the move.

v o l . 7, n o . 2 s p r i n g 2 0 0 6

EditorJulie Flaherty

Managing EditorKaren Bailey

Art DirectorMargot Grisar

Graphic DesignerPaul DiMattia

Contributing WritersNina Braten, Jacqueline Mitchell,Helene Ragovin, Diana Redwood,

Mark Sullivan

Editorial AdvisorsEileen Kennedy, D.Sc., Dean

Gerald J. and Dorothy R. FriedmanSchool of Nutrition Science and Policy

Patrick Webb, Ph.D., Dean Academic Affairs

Mark Grossmann, DirectorDevelopment and Alumni Relations

Cindy Briggs Tobin, DirectorAnnual Giving and Alumni Relations

Tufts Nutrition is a publication of the GeraldJ. and Dorothy R. Friedman School ofNutrition Science and Policy at TuftsUniversity for alumni, key university

personnel, students, faculty, staff and otherswith an interest in the school.

The mission of the school is to passionatelyadvance nutritional well-being for peopleworldwide through excellence in research,teaching and the shaping of public policy.

We welcome your letters.Correspondence should be sent to:

Julie Flaherty, Tufts Nutrition,Tufts University Office of Publications,136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111Tel: 617-636-3928 Fax: 617-636-4075

E-mail: julie.flaherty@tufts.edu

We’re online. Please check out the magazineand the world of Tufts Nutrition at

http://nutrition.tufts.edu.

T U F T S N U T R I T I O N

Connecticut, where he is a nephrologist, heimmediately saw the possibilities and thepotential resistance from his colleagues.

“Health care is not like a village inVietnam,” he said. “As nurses and doctors,you have to spend your life being confidentin what you do. You like to control anychange.”

Nevertheless, a small group at the hos-pital decided to use positive deviance totackle the problem of discharge medica-tions. The average patient leaves the hospi-tal with seven prescriptions, and most ofthe time, the doctors weren’t properly fill-ing out the instruction forms for how totake them. A phone survey revealed that 60to 80 percent of discharged patients hadexperienced some sort of problem or confu-sion with their medications. One patientwas taking his medication six times a dayinstead of every six hours. Another saw thatthe bottle instructed him to take his med-ication every day, but he didn’t think thatmeant weekends, too.

When the hospital staff learned theextent of the problems, they took action.Nurses and physicians began working onthe issue together. They found that somewere making follow-up phone calls afterdischarges, making sure instructions weregiven to caregivers such as a family memberand having patients write down the listthemselves.

Within months, 82 percent of the dis-charge medication forms were being filledout, and the number of medication prob-lems was cut in half.

“The difference is the collaborativedesign—getting people to work together sothat the changes stick,” Cusano said.

Waterbury Hospital is now using thepositive deviance approach to improve carefor diabetes patients and care of patientswith acute surgical emergencies involvingabdominal pain or neck and head trauma.

Through a grant from the Robert WoodJohnson Foundation, the Positive DevianceInitiative is also collaborating with thePlexus Institute in New Jersey to reducemethicillin-resistant staph infections inhospitals in six states. The Sternins will betechnical advisors.

THE MAILBOX IS EMPTYTufts Nutrition is your publication, and asthe editor, I am eager to hear from readers.Let me know what you like and don’t like.Tell me what you want to read about. I lookforward to hearing from you.

Julie Flaherty, Editor, Tufts NutritionTufts University Office of Publications 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111tel: 617-636-3928 fax: 617-636-4075 e-mail: julie.flaherty@tufts.edu

Are people born with naturalleadership skills, or do thesetalents develop over time?

A better diet for the insulin-resistant

PHOTO: MEDIOIMAGES spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 54 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: FOODCOLLECTION

A LA CARTE RESEARCH IN BRIEF

WHOLE GR AINS PROTEC T ELDERLY

, . simple concept—a person can lose weight by taking in fewer calories than he or she expends.

But does it matter where the calories come from? It might, according to findings froma small study published in the December 2005 issue of the medical journal Diabetes Care.Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging(HNRCA) at Tufts discovered that a diet’s overall “glycemic load” may be an importantdeterminant of weight loss, but only for some people.

“Our results suggest that in the future, there may be a way to predict who will do beston a low glycemic-load diet,” said senior author Susan Roberts, director of the HNRCAEnergy Metabolism Laboratory. The key, researchers found, may be in knowing a person’slevel of insulin secretion.

“Insulin is a hormone that is important in glucose [sugar] metabolism,” explained seniorauthor Dr. Andrew Greenberg, director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the

ANXIETYPOUNDSWomen with a history of anxiety disordersor depression, particularly at a young age,have higher weights as adults, accordingto research done at Tufts.

In a study that followed 820 men andwomen from childhood through youngadulthood, scientists found that womenwith a history of either depression or anx-iety—or both, in many cases—tended togain more weight over time. For example,a 30-year-old woman whose depressionwas first recognized at age 14 weighed,on average, 10 to 15 pounds more than asimilar woman with no history of depres-sion.

Anxiety disorders were associated withwomen weighing an extra six to 12 poundsby adulthood, regardless of their age atdiagnosis. In contrast, depression and anxi-ety disorders did not seem to affect men’sweight gain, the researchers found.

The research was reported in theMarch issue of the Archives of Pediatrics &Adolescent Medicine.

Though the weight difference linkedto depression and anxiety was not enor-mous, the extra pounds could lead toobesity in some women, said lead studyauthor Sarah E. Anderson, N04, N06, whoworked with Aviva Must, N87, N92, anassociate professor of public health andfamily medicine at Tufts, on the project.

The researchers concluded that treat-ing young women for anxiety anddepression could help prevent obesity insome of them later on, although theysaid more research is needed to confirmthat depression and anxiety are, in fact,causing the excess weight gain.

Previous studies have shown similarassociations, Anderson said, adding thatsome people respond to depression byovereating, essentially self-medicatingwith food.

One explanation for the gender differ-ence, Anderson said, could be thatwomen are more likely than men to havedepression symptoms that can contributeto weight gain, including increasedappetite and excessive sleeping.

Researchers at Tufts have found that elderly people whose diets are rich in whole-grain foods may delay the onset of metabolic syndrome—a collection of risk factorsfor cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes that affects 50 million Americans.

The study, which was published in the January issue of the American Journal of ClinicalNutrition, examined the relationship between whole-grain intake and metabolic syndrome,which is characterized by abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure andinsulin resistance. It also looked at whole-grain intake’s connection to cardiovascular dis-ease risk factors and the incidence of death due to cardiovascular disease in the elderly.

“Previous studies have found a link between whole-grain intake and reduced risk of meta-bolic syndrome in middle-aged populations,” said Nicola McKeown, a scientist with theNutritional Epidemiology Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition ResearchCenter on Aging (HNRCA). “What’s unique about our study,” McKeown said, “is that wewent back to data that was collected 20 years ago, using diet records that captured foodintake, and found that whole-grain foods had a subsequent benefit in the elderly.”

The study was a collaborative effort that included McKeown; Paul Jacques, director of theNutritional Epidemiology Program at the HNRCA; and first author Nadine R. Sahyoun,N95, an assistant professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Maryland.

“Consuming a high whole-grain diet is likely to have positive metabolic effects in eld-erly individuals who are prone to greater insulin resistance,” Jacques said.

They found that as whole-grain intake increased, fasting blood sugar levels were lower.Refined grain intake was associated with higher fasting blood sugar levels. Elevated fast-ing blood sugar levels can indicate impaired glucose tolerance and the presence of diabetes.

Despite being nutritionally inferior, most grain products consumed in the United Statesare refined, with the average older American consuming five servings of refined grains perday and less than one serving of whole grains.

Based on the research, McKeown said, “Older adults should be encouraged to increasetheir daily intake of whole-grain foods to three or more servings a day by substitutingwhole grains for refined grains.”

HNRCA. “The regulation of body weightis, at least in part, influenced by how muchinsulin a person secretes in response to a loadof glucose as well as by how sensitive that per-son is to insulin’s glucose-lowering effects.”

“In our study, everyone lost some weightas a result of restricting calories,” said firstauthor Dr. Anastassios Pittas, an assistantprofessor at Tufts School of Medicine, “butpeople who had high levels of insulin secre-tion and ate a diet with a low glycemic loadlost the most weight.”

A food’s glycemic load is a relative meas-ure of how much carbohydrate is in the dietand how quickly that food is converted inthe body to blood sugar. Foods with lowernumbers typically have a greater proportionof protein and fat, which usually result in asmaller rise in blood glucose following ameal. Examples of low glycemic-load foodsinclude salads with oil and vinegar dressing,high-fat granola cereal and most freshfruits and vegetables.

As part of the ongoing ComprehensiveAssessment of Long-term Effects ofReducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE)trial at Tufts, the authors studied 32 healthyoverweight adults on a reduced-calorie dietfor six months. Half of the subjects wererandomly assigned to a low glycemic-loaddiet, and the other half followed a diet witha high glycemic load.

“Glycemic load may not be the ‘be-all,end-all’ of weight-loss diets for everyone,”said Roberts, who is also a professor at theFriedman School, “but it significantly en-hanced weight loss in our high insulin-secreting subjects.

“Our findings may eventually haveimplications for individualizing weight-lossdiets,” Roberts said. “We need to confirm ourresults with further studies of larger groupsof subjects first, but measuring insulinsecretion might be a simple way to targetdietary recommendations that help enhancesuccessful weight loss.”

Greenberg, who is also an assistant pro-fessor at the Friedman School, notes that“only when we have completed these futurestudies can we determine whether thesetests will be useful for making recommen-dations for the general public.”

A better diet for the insulin-resistant

PHOTO: MEDIOIMAGES spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 54 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: FOODCOLLECTION

A LA CARTE RESEARCH IN BRIEF

WHOLE GR AINS PROTEC T ELDERLY

, . simple concept—a person can lose weight by taking in fewer calories than he or she expends.

But does it matter where the calories come from? It might, according to findings froma small study published in the December 2005 issue of the medical journal Diabetes Care.Researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging(HNRCA) at Tufts discovered that a diet’s overall “glycemic load” may be an importantdeterminant of weight loss, but only for some people.

“Our results suggest that in the future, there may be a way to predict who will do beston a low glycemic-load diet,” said senior author Susan Roberts, director of the HNRCAEnergy Metabolism Laboratory. The key, researchers found, may be in knowing a person’slevel of insulin secretion.

“Insulin is a hormone that is important in glucose [sugar] metabolism,” explained seniorauthor Dr. Andrew Greenberg, director of the Obesity and Metabolism Laboratory at the

ANXIETYPOUNDSWomen with a history of anxiety disordersor depression, particularly at a young age,have higher weights as adults, accordingto research done at Tufts.

In a study that followed 820 men andwomen from childhood through youngadulthood, scientists found that womenwith a history of either depression or anx-iety—or both, in many cases—tended togain more weight over time. For example,a 30-year-old woman whose depressionwas first recognized at age 14 weighed,on average, 10 to 15 pounds more than asimilar woman with no history of depres-sion.

Anxiety disorders were associated withwomen weighing an extra six to 12 poundsby adulthood, regardless of their age atdiagnosis. In contrast, depression and anxi-ety disorders did not seem to affect men’sweight gain, the researchers found.

The research was reported in theMarch issue of the Archives of Pediatrics &Adolescent Medicine.

Though the weight difference linkedto depression and anxiety was not enor-mous, the extra pounds could lead toobesity in some women, said lead studyauthor Sarah E. Anderson, N04, N06, whoworked with Aviva Must, N87, N92, anassociate professor of public health andfamily medicine at Tufts, on the project.

The researchers concluded that treat-ing young women for anxiety anddepression could help prevent obesity insome of them later on, although theysaid more research is needed to confirmthat depression and anxiety are, in fact,causing the excess weight gain.

Previous studies have shown similarassociations, Anderson said, adding thatsome people respond to depression byovereating, essentially self-medicatingwith food.

One explanation for the gender differ-ence, Anderson said, could be thatwomen are more likely than men to havedepression symptoms that can contributeto weight gain, including increasedappetite and excessive sleeping.

Researchers at Tufts have found that elderly people whose diets are rich in whole-grain foods may delay the onset of metabolic syndrome—a collection of risk factorsfor cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes that affects 50 million Americans.

The study, which was published in the January issue of the American Journal of ClinicalNutrition, examined the relationship between whole-grain intake and metabolic syndrome,which is characterized by abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure andinsulin resistance. It also looked at whole-grain intake’s connection to cardiovascular dis-ease risk factors and the incidence of death due to cardiovascular disease in the elderly.

“Previous studies have found a link between whole-grain intake and reduced risk of meta-bolic syndrome in middle-aged populations,” said Nicola McKeown, a scientist with theNutritional Epidemiology Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition ResearchCenter on Aging (HNRCA). “What’s unique about our study,” McKeown said, “is that wewent back to data that was collected 20 years ago, using diet records that captured foodintake, and found that whole-grain foods had a subsequent benefit in the elderly.”

The study was a collaborative effort that included McKeown; Paul Jacques, director of theNutritional Epidemiology Program at the HNRCA; and first author Nadine R. Sahyoun,N95, an assistant professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Maryland.

“Consuming a high whole-grain diet is likely to have positive metabolic effects in eld-erly individuals who are prone to greater insulin resistance,” Jacques said.

They found that as whole-grain intake increased, fasting blood sugar levels were lower.Refined grain intake was associated with higher fasting blood sugar levels. Elevated fast-ing blood sugar levels can indicate impaired glucose tolerance and the presence of diabetes.

Despite being nutritionally inferior, most grain products consumed in the United Statesare refined, with the average older American consuming five servings of refined grains perday and less than one serving of whole grains.

Based on the research, McKeown said, “Older adults should be encouraged to increasetheir daily intake of whole-grain foods to three or more servings a day by substitutingwhole grains for refined grains.”

HNRCA. “The regulation of body weightis, at least in part, influenced by how muchinsulin a person secretes in response to a loadof glucose as well as by how sensitive that per-son is to insulin’s glucose-lowering effects.”

“In our study, everyone lost some weightas a result of restricting calories,” said firstauthor Dr. Anastassios Pittas, an assistantprofessor at Tufts School of Medicine, “butpeople who had high levels of insulin secre-tion and ate a diet with a low glycemic loadlost the most weight.”

A food’s glycemic load is a relative meas-ure of how much carbohydrate is in the dietand how quickly that food is converted inthe body to blood sugar. Foods with lowernumbers typically have a greater proportionof protein and fat, which usually result in asmaller rise in blood glucose following ameal. Examples of low glycemic-load foodsinclude salads with oil and vinegar dressing,high-fat granola cereal and most freshfruits and vegetables.

As part of the ongoing ComprehensiveAssessment of Long-term Effects ofReducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE)trial at Tufts, the authors studied 32 healthyoverweight adults on a reduced-calorie dietfor six months. Half of the subjects wererandomly assigned to a low glycemic-loaddiet, and the other half followed a diet witha high glycemic load.

“Glycemic load may not be the ‘be-all,end-all’ of weight-loss diets for everyone,”said Roberts, who is also a professor at theFriedman School, “but it significantly en-hanced weight loss in our high insulin-secreting subjects.

“Our findings may eventually haveimplications for individualizing weight-lossdiets,” Roberts said. “We need to confirm ourresults with further studies of larger groupsof subjects first, but measuring insulinsecretion might be a simple way to targetdietary recommendations that help enhancesuccessful weight loss.”

Greenberg, who is also an assistant pro-fessor at the Friedman School, notes that“only when we have completed these futurestudies can we determine whether thesetests will be useful for making recommen-dations for the general public.”

, , ,

that his homeland had the deck stacked against it. In a coun-try where the average person scrapes by on an income of $240a year and 40 percent of people live in poverty, improving thequality of life seemed like a difficult prospect. n It wasn’tuntil Shrestha, then a college student, spent 10 months inremote western villages teaching about health, family plan-ning and literacy that he had a change of perspective.

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 76 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: BROOKS KRAFT

I

“Before that, I used to hear that we are apoor country; we don’t have money, so wecan’t do much,” Shrestha, now 51, says. “Butwith very simple things, you can changepeoples’ attitudes and behavior. I saw withsimple things, you can do a lot.”

As the director of Nepal’s national vita-min A supplementation program for 10years, Shrestha has seen the rate of deficien-cy-related eye disease plummet and infantmortality cut in half. Instead of money, heuses the most basic resources—respect,recognition and the power of community—to change minds and save lives.

GREEN BAGS AND RECOGNITIONIt began in 1993, when the U.S. Agency forInternational Development and theMinistry of Health hired Shrestha to helpmobilize Female Community HealthVolunteers (FCHVs) to give out vitamin Acapsules to all children between six monthsand 59 months old. The difficulty was thatthe ministry, which originally had paid thevolunteers about 100 rupees per month, wasno longer giving out stipends. So Shrestha’schallenge was to motivate the volunteers—most of them mothers and grandmothers—in some other way.

He started by making sure the volunteershad recognition in their communities. Hegave them all distinctive green canvas bagsemblazoned with the vitamin A logo and toldhis program supervisors to offer a ride to any-one with a bag. He also brought the villagechief with him on his visits to volunteers’homes and was sure to ask for directions frompassersby, so word got around that the volun-teers were meeting with important guests.

Then he worked on the volunteers’ fam-ilies, most of whom saw the vitamin Aefforts as taking away time that could bespent providing for them. He saw to it thatif a development project came to the com-munity—say, a goat-raising initiative or sav-ings and credit program—the volunteerswould be given first dibs.

“Because she was a volunteer, the wholefamily got the benefits,” Shrestha explains.“Now she is bringing something home otherpeople can use.”

He also asked the hospitals, health-carefacilities and private nursing homes to givethe volunteers some fringe benefits, tellingthem, “If you can lessen their fee or givethem some medicine free, do it.”

More than 13 years later, Shrestha counts49,000 volunteers among the program’stroops, and everyone in Nepal knows aboutthe importance of vitamin A. “The beauty ofthis program is that the community has takenownership,” Shrestha says, pointing out thatover two days this spring, the volunteers dosed3.6 million children. “On April 19, you couldgo to any part of Nepal—even to the remotevillages at the base camp of Mount Everest—and you would have seen a volunteer distrib-uting vitamin A capsules.There is no ceremo-ny. People have taken this as part of their life.”

So trusted is the program that the gov-ernment has authorized Shrestha’s motivatedvolunteer network to treat pneumonia caseswith antibiotics, a six-year-old program thathas been saving thousands of lives every year.

Although Shrestha’s parents were farm-ers who never went to high school, theywanted their eight children to be educated.They wanted Shrestha to become a doctor,but because Nepal has no medical schools,he instead went to Katmandu to studyorganic chemistry. While pursuing his mas-ter’s degree, he took a job as a language andculture liaison for the Peace Corps and othernon-governmental organizations. He wasimpressed by the nutrition and health pro-grams that the volunteers were working on.

Inspired and encouraged by the volun-teers he worked with, he began applying tonutrition programs in the United States.With the help of financial aid and a gener-ous gift from a mentor, a Canadian profes-sor named Thelma Howard, he was able toenroll at the Friedman School.

After Tufts, he spent two years at theUniversity of Saskatchewan doing researchon the calcium intake of adolescent girls andits relation to osteoporosis. While theresearch was stimulating, he realized that“this kind of study would not be useful inNepal.” He returned home just as theMinistry of Health was organizing its vita-min A program.

AN ENVIRONMENT OF TRUSTBeing a Nepali helping other Nepalis hasbeen fulfilling for him, but it didn’t guaran-tee his immediate acceptance by the volun-teers and villagers.

“My language, my culture, being anational, it helps a little bit, but not much,”he says. “The most influential thing is yournature, your respect for other people, howmuch you create an environment of trust.”He sees that with the Friedman School stu-dents who regularly intern with the NepaliTechnical Assistance Group, for which heserves as executive director.

Shrestha’s techniques have earned himsome recognition. In 2000, he received theInternational Award for Best Practices inGlobal Health from the Global HealthCouncil, U.S. Last November, he was fea-tured in a Time magazine cover story about16 people who are saving the world one lifeat a time and was honored as a “hero” atTime’s Global Health Summit in New York.

He knows that his work is not over.When it comes to volunteers, he explains,“just because you are motivated todaydoesn’t mean you will be motivated tomor-row.” One of his current projects is devel-oping endowment funds to help supportlocal volunteers in the future. Three yearsago, he started asking local village devel-opment committees to put 50,000 rupees(or about $600) into a savings account,with the idea that the interest from thefunds could pay the health volunteers.

“People kept telling me I’m overambi-tious. How can villages in a poor countrylike Nepal get 50,000 rupees?” he says. Buttoday, 15 percent of village developmentcommittees already have set up such funds,using taxes they collect from the local mar-ket and elsewhere.

Throughout his career, Shrestha hastaken inspiration from his mother, who, hesays, had good insight into working withpeople. “She always used to say, ‘In life, don’thave more than what you need. Because welive in a society, we have to share things.Certain things you should keep to yourself,but certain things you should share.’ Shewas very smart,” he says. TN

Ram Shrestha proves there is more than one way to motivate a volunteer

wwiitthh aa lliittttllee

respect

, , ,

that his homeland had the deck stacked against it. In a coun-try where the average person scrapes by on an income of $240a year and 40 percent of people live in poverty, improving thequality of life seemed like a difficult prospect. n It wasn’tuntil Shrestha, then a college student, spent 10 months inremote western villages teaching about health, family plan-ning and literacy that he had a change of perspective.

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 76 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: BROOKS KRAFT

I

“Before that, I used to hear that we are apoor country; we don’t have money, so wecan’t do much,” Shrestha, now 51, says. “Butwith very simple things, you can changepeoples’ attitudes and behavior. I saw withsimple things, you can do a lot.”

As the director of Nepal’s national vita-min A supplementation program for 10years, Shrestha has seen the rate of deficien-cy-related eye disease plummet and infantmortality cut in half. Instead of money, heuses the most basic resources—respect,recognition and the power of community—to change minds and save lives.

GREEN BAGS AND RECOGNITIONIt began in 1993, when the U.S. Agency forInternational Development and theMinistry of Health hired Shrestha to helpmobilize Female Community HealthVolunteers (FCHVs) to give out vitamin Acapsules to all children between six monthsand 59 months old. The difficulty was thatthe ministry, which originally had paid thevolunteers about 100 rupees per month, wasno longer giving out stipends. So Shrestha’schallenge was to motivate the volunteers—most of them mothers and grandmothers—in some other way.

He started by making sure the volunteershad recognition in their communities. Hegave them all distinctive green canvas bagsemblazoned with the vitamin A logo and toldhis program supervisors to offer a ride to any-one with a bag. He also brought the villagechief with him on his visits to volunteers’homes and was sure to ask for directions frompassersby, so word got around that the volun-teers were meeting with important guests.

Then he worked on the volunteers’ fam-ilies, most of whom saw the vitamin Aefforts as taking away time that could bespent providing for them. He saw to it thatif a development project came to the com-munity—say, a goat-raising initiative or sav-ings and credit program—the volunteerswould be given first dibs.

“Because she was a volunteer, the wholefamily got the benefits,” Shrestha explains.“Now she is bringing something home otherpeople can use.”

He also asked the hospitals, health-carefacilities and private nursing homes to givethe volunteers some fringe benefits, tellingthem, “If you can lessen their fee or givethem some medicine free, do it.”

More than 13 years later, Shrestha counts49,000 volunteers among the program’stroops, and everyone in Nepal knows aboutthe importance of vitamin A. “The beauty ofthis program is that the community has takenownership,” Shrestha says, pointing out thatover two days this spring, the volunteers dosed3.6 million children. “On April 19, you couldgo to any part of Nepal—even to the remotevillages at the base camp of Mount Everest—and you would have seen a volunteer distrib-uting vitamin A capsules.There is no ceremo-ny. People have taken this as part of their life.”

So trusted is the program that the gov-ernment has authorized Shrestha’s motivatedvolunteer network to treat pneumonia caseswith antibiotics, a six-year-old program thathas been saving thousands of lives every year.

Although Shrestha’s parents were farm-ers who never went to high school, theywanted their eight children to be educated.They wanted Shrestha to become a doctor,but because Nepal has no medical schools,he instead went to Katmandu to studyorganic chemistry. While pursuing his mas-ter’s degree, he took a job as a language andculture liaison for the Peace Corps and othernon-governmental organizations. He wasimpressed by the nutrition and health pro-grams that the volunteers were working on.

Inspired and encouraged by the volun-teers he worked with, he began applying tonutrition programs in the United States.With the help of financial aid and a gener-ous gift from a mentor, a Canadian profes-sor named Thelma Howard, he was able toenroll at the Friedman School.

After Tufts, he spent two years at theUniversity of Saskatchewan doing researchon the calcium intake of adolescent girls andits relation to osteoporosis. While theresearch was stimulating, he realized that“this kind of study would not be useful inNepal.” He returned home just as theMinistry of Health was organizing its vita-min A program.

AN ENVIRONMENT OF TRUSTBeing a Nepali helping other Nepalis hasbeen fulfilling for him, but it didn’t guaran-tee his immediate acceptance by the volun-teers and villagers.

“My language, my culture, being anational, it helps a little bit, but not much,”he says. “The most influential thing is yournature, your respect for other people, howmuch you create an environment of trust.”He sees that with the Friedman School stu-dents who regularly intern with the NepaliTechnical Assistance Group, for which heserves as executive director.

Shrestha’s techniques have earned himsome recognition. In 2000, he received theInternational Award for Best Practices inGlobal Health from the Global HealthCouncil, U.S. Last November, he was fea-tured in a Time magazine cover story about16 people who are saving the world one lifeat a time and was honored as a “hero” atTime’s Global Health Summit in New York.

He knows that his work is not over.When it comes to volunteers, he explains,“just because you are motivated todaydoesn’t mean you will be motivated tomor-row.” One of his current projects is devel-oping endowment funds to help supportlocal volunteers in the future. Three yearsago, he started asking local village devel-opment committees to put 50,000 rupees(or about $600) into a savings account,with the idea that the interest from thefunds could pay the health volunteers.

“People kept telling me I’m overambi-tious. How can villages in a poor countrylike Nepal get 50,000 rupees?” he says. Buttoday, 15 percent of village developmentcommittees already have set up such funds,using taxes they collect from the local mar-ket and elsewhere.

Throughout his career, Shrestha hastaken inspiration from his mother, who, hesays, had good insight into working withpeople. “She always used to say, ‘In life, don’thave more than what you need. Because welive in a society, we have to share things.Certain things you should keep to yourself,but certain things you should share.’ Shewas very smart,” he says. TN

Ram Shrestha proves there is more than one way to motivate a volunteer

wwiitthh aa lliittttllee

respect

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT EATING THE RIGHT DIET AND GET-

TING enough exercise are two of the best ways to reducethe risk of clogged arteries and heart attacks. But did youalso know that adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle mayreduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease? n InJanuary, the Alzheimer’s Association, a nonprofit advocacygroup, released a comprehensive review of the best scien-tific evidence to date about preventing and treatingdementia. Looking at hundreds of studies from around theworld, they saw the most salient findings had to do with theimportance of controlling cardiovascular risk factors.Reducing blood pressure, reducing weight, reducing choles-terol, treating (or preferably avoiding) diabetes and not smok-ing were all associated with better mental function. They alsosaw a close correlation between exercise and brain health.

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 9

I

h arth

ad

connection

the

What’s good for your ticker may also keep your brain sharp

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT EATING THE RIGHT DIET AND GET-

TING enough exercise are two of the best ways to reducethe risk of clogged arteries and heart attacks. But did youalso know that adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle mayreduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease? n InJanuary, the Alzheimer’s Association, a nonprofit advocacygroup, released a comprehensive review of the best scien-tific evidence to date about preventing and treatingdementia. Looking at hundreds of studies from around theworld, they saw the most salient findings had to do with theimportance of controlling cardiovascular risk factors.Reducing blood pressure, reducing weight, reducing choles-terol, treating (or preferably avoiding) diabetes and not smok-ing were all associated with better mental function. They alsosaw a close correlation between exercise and brain health.

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 9

I

h arth

ad

connection

the

What’s good for your ticker may also keep your brain sharp

the B vitamins are the ones that Americansare most likely to need more of. Many peo-ple over age 60 have problems absorbingB12, for example, because their stomachsmay produce less acid. So while eating agood diet with lots of fruits and vegetables isthe best way to get your B vitamins, “it does-n’t hurt to take a multivitamin and a B12 ifyou’re worried about it,” Tucker said.

FISH FOR THOUGHTFor a truly heart-healthy diet, the AmericanHeart Association recommends eating twomeals of fatty fish per week. Fatty fish arecold-water varieties like salmon, tuna andmackerel, which are high in two kinds ofomega-3 fatty acids and have been shownto lower triglycerides and maybe even serveas anti-inflammatory compounds.

As good as it is for your heart, one of thefatty acids in fish, docosahexaenoic acid

(DHA), seems to be very special for the brain.“About four percent of the fatty acid in

the blood is DHA,” said Dr. Ernst J.Schaefer, director of the HNRCA LipidMetabolism Laboratory. “But about half thefatty acid in the brain is DHA.”

The folklore that fish is “brain food” maybe more than legend. It’s been shown thatDHA is important for brain development ininfants. Human breast milk is about 8 to 10percent DHA, and baby formula companiesnow add DHA to their products.

At the other end of the age range,patients with dementia have been shown tohave less DHA, both in their brains and intheir blood.

Using data from the long-runningFramingham Heart Study, Schaefer and hiscolleagues set out to see how well DHA lev-els in the blood could predict whether a per-son would develop Alzheimer’s. For their

research, which is slated to appear in theArchives of Neurology, they looked at 899men and women who did not have demen-tia, measured their blood levels of DHA andhad them fill out a dietary questionnaire.Nine years later, 99 of them had developeddementia, included 71 cases of Alzheimer’sdisease. After adjusting for other factorssuch as genetics, age, sex, education andhomocysteine levels, the researchers foundthat the subjects with the highest levels ofDHA in their blood ate an average of threeservings of fish per week and were 47 per-cent less likely to develop dementia than theother subjects.

“We think it’s because these fatty acidsare important for the fluidity of mem-branes,” Schaefer said.

Omega-3 fatty acids can be beneficial incells by preventing the tight packing of fattyacids in membranes—thereby making themembranes more “fluid.” Membrane fluidi-ty is important for optimal function of mostcells in the body, which is one reasonresearchers think omega-3s help keep theheart pumping regularly. But membrane flu-idity is especially important for portions ofcells that act as receptors for hormones orneurotransmitters.

“What we need now are randomized tri-als to see if giving omega-3 fatty acids willhelp prevent dementia or improve cognitivefunction,” Schaefer said.

In the meantime, because scientistsalready know that consuming fish or fish oilwill decrease arrhythmias, triglyceride levels,the growth rate of arterial plaque and evenblood pressure, Schaefer has no qualms aboutrecommending fish for brain health as well.

“If you are concerned about developingdementia or it runs in your family, there iscertainly no harm to eating two or three fishmeals a week as a part of heart-healthy dietanyway,” he said.

THE GENE TIC FAC TORThe ongoing Framingham Heart Study,which set out in 1948 to study the causes ofheart disease and stroke, has turned out tobe a rich source of information on risk fac-tors for Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists whohave plumbed the study have come up withthree dementia predictors: homocysteine

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 11

“What we are calling dementia is a phe-nomenon that may occur over decades,” hesaid. “There may be very subtle kinds ofdecline going on over long periods of time,and how much of that may be nutritionallyrelated is still a very interesting question.”

Rosenberg and other scientists at theHNRCA are looking closely at the waysnutrition may help prevent Alzheimer’s dis-ease and finding that certain lifestyle choic-es that protect the heart might stave off cog-nitive decline as we age.

As James Joseph, a scientist in theHNRCA Neuroscience Laboratory, puts it,“The thing that’s becoming increasinglyclear from a lot of sources is that what youeat that would be good for your heart is alsogoing to be good for your brain and is alsogoing to be good for your eyes and probablyother organs.”

THE BEAUTIFUL BsIf your doctor talks to you about your riskfor heart disease, chances are she will even-tually bring up the word homocysteine.Homocysteine is an amino acid found inthe blood, a by-product of the body’s pro-cessing of the essential amino acid methio-nine. Too much of it is related to a higherrisk of coronary artery disease, stroke and periph-eral vascular disease (fattydeposits in peripheral arter-ies). As many as 50 percentof patients who suffer astroke and or have otheratherothrombotic diseasesturn out to have highhomocysteine levels. Scien-tists think this may bebecause excess homocys-

teine damages the inner lining of arteriesand promotes blood clots.

As a result, homocysteine is one thingsome doctors measure when trying to assessa patient’s risk for heart disease. But homo-cysteine, it turns out, is also a risk factor fordementia. In 1996, Katherine Tucker, direc-tor of the HNRCA’s Dietary Assessmentand Epidemiology Research Program, wasamong the authors of a study that foundhigh plasma concentrations of homocys-teine in a group of mostly elderly men wereassociated with poor spatial copying skills,or the ability to draw a series of geometricfigures presented to them. Another Tuftsstudy, in 2001, showed an associationbetween high homocysteine levels and poorrecall. A year later, another study concludedthat subjects with elevated homocysteinehad nearly double the risk of developingAlzheimer’s.

Luckily, there is an easy, inexpensive wayto lower homocysteine levels. Eating foodswith enough B vitamins (such as green, leafyvegetables and citrus fruits) or taking themas supplements can bring down homocys-teine. The B complex vitamins, particularlyB6, B12 and folate, are essential in breakingdown homocysteine and recycling it in the

body. That is why somedoctors prescribe folic acid(the synthetic form of thevitamin B9, known asfolate) for their patientswith high homocysteine.

This year, Tucker sawsome of the most com-pelling evidence yet thatgetting enough B vitaminsthrough the diet can wardoff dementia. She and her

colleagues followed 50- to 85-year-old menin the Normative Aging Study. They askedthem about what they ate and then testedtheir cognitive abilities.Three years later, theytested them again and checked their bloodlevels for homocysteine, folate, B6 and B12.

At the end of the study, the men whoreported eating the fewest B vitamin-con-taining foods and had the lowest concentra-tion of B vitamins in their blood showed adecline in their spatial copying scores. Themen with higher B levels and dietary intakeperformed as well as before on the tasks,while those who ate the most B-rich foodsactually improved their scores.

In fact, the associations, which werereported in the American Journal of ClinicalNutrition, were so strong that Tucker saidshe thought the results, from an epidemio-logical standpoint, were “beautiful.”

“I found that very convincing,” she said.Among all the factors the researchers

looked at, folate was particularly protectiveagainst mental decline, which means that itmay have beneficial effects beyond its abili-ty to neutralize excess homocysteine. Folate,after all, is an important ingredient in cellreplication, including the cells in the brain.

In addition, Tucker said a preliminarymagnetic resonance imaging study showed“surprisingly strong associations” betweenthe B vitamins and brain health as well. Thestudy subjects who had higher levels offolate in their blood tended to have largerhippocampi and admigdola, importantstructures in the brain that help with cogni-tive processing. And B12 was associatedwith total brain volume.

At this time, high homocysteine is con-sidered only a marker for dementia risk; thereis no proof that lowering it with vitamins willprevent Alzheimer’s disease. That kind ofevidence will have to come through interven-tion studies, few of which have been done.

“I think it’s fair to say that the associa-tions have become stronger and morerobust,” Rosenberg said. “But such interven-tion studies as there have been have so farfailed to prove that giving B vitamins andlowering homocysteine have a clear out-come in terms of cognitive function.”

What should you do in the meantime?Tucker points out that aside from vitamin D,

10 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

“If you are concernedabout developingddeemmeennttiiaa or it runs inyour family, there iscertainly no harm toeating two or three fish meals a week…”

—Ernst Schaefer

e found that well-known risk factorsfor heart disease also are risk factors

for cognitive decline and that physical activity may reduce risk for cognitivedecline and dementia in adults,” reported Marilyn Albert, past chair of theAlzheimer’s Association Medical & Scientific Advisory Council. n Like heart dis-ease, dementia is not something that develops overnight, said Dr. Irwin H.Rosenberg, director of the Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory at theJean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts.

“ w

the B vitamins are the ones that Americansare most likely to need more of. Many peo-ple over age 60 have problems absorbingB12, for example, because their stomachsmay produce less acid. So while eating agood diet with lots of fruits and vegetables isthe best way to get your B vitamins, “it does-n’t hurt to take a multivitamin and a B12 ifyou’re worried about it,” Tucker said.

FISH FOR THOUGHTFor a truly heart-healthy diet, the AmericanHeart Association recommends eating twomeals of fatty fish per week. Fatty fish arecold-water varieties like salmon, tuna andmackerel, which are high in two kinds ofomega-3 fatty acids and have been shownto lower triglycerides and maybe even serveas anti-inflammatory compounds.

As good as it is for your heart, one of thefatty acids in fish, docosahexaenoic acid

(DHA), seems to be very special for the brain.“About four percent of the fatty acid in

the blood is DHA,” said Dr. Ernst J.Schaefer, director of the HNRCA LipidMetabolism Laboratory. “But about half thefatty acid in the brain is DHA.”

The folklore that fish is “brain food” maybe more than legend. It’s been shown thatDHA is important for brain development ininfants. Human breast milk is about 8 to 10percent DHA, and baby formula companiesnow add DHA to their products.

At the other end of the age range,patients with dementia have been shown tohave less DHA, both in their brains and intheir blood.

Using data from the long-runningFramingham Heart Study, Schaefer and hiscolleagues set out to see how well DHA lev-els in the blood could predict whether a per-son would develop Alzheimer’s. For their

research, which is slated to appear in theArchives of Neurology, they looked at 899men and women who did not have demen-tia, measured their blood levels of DHA andhad them fill out a dietary questionnaire.Nine years later, 99 of them had developeddementia, included 71 cases of Alzheimer’sdisease. After adjusting for other factorssuch as genetics, age, sex, education andhomocysteine levels, the researchers foundthat the subjects with the highest levels ofDHA in their blood ate an average of threeservings of fish per week and were 47 per-cent less likely to develop dementia than theother subjects.

“We think it’s because these fatty acidsare important for the fluidity of mem-branes,” Schaefer said.

Omega-3 fatty acids can be beneficial incells by preventing the tight packing of fattyacids in membranes—thereby making themembranes more “fluid.” Membrane fluidi-ty is important for optimal function of mostcells in the body, which is one reasonresearchers think omega-3s help keep theheart pumping regularly. But membrane flu-idity is especially important for portions ofcells that act as receptors for hormones orneurotransmitters.

“What we need now are randomized tri-als to see if giving omega-3 fatty acids willhelp prevent dementia or improve cognitivefunction,” Schaefer said.

In the meantime, because scientistsalready know that consuming fish or fish oilwill decrease arrhythmias, triglyceride levels,the growth rate of arterial plaque and evenblood pressure, Schaefer has no qualms aboutrecommending fish for brain health as well.

“If you are concerned about developingdementia or it runs in your family, there iscertainly no harm to eating two or three fishmeals a week as a part of heart-healthy dietanyway,” he said.

THE GENE TIC FAC TORThe ongoing Framingham Heart Study,which set out in 1948 to study the causes ofheart disease and stroke, has turned out tobe a rich source of information on risk fac-tors for Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists whohave plumbed the study have come up withthree dementia predictors: homocysteine

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 11

“What we are calling dementia is a phe-nomenon that may occur over decades,” hesaid. “There may be very subtle kinds ofdecline going on over long periods of time,and how much of that may be nutritionallyrelated is still a very interesting question.”

Rosenberg and other scientists at theHNRCA are looking closely at the waysnutrition may help prevent Alzheimer’s dis-ease and finding that certain lifestyle choic-es that protect the heart might stave off cog-nitive decline as we age.

As James Joseph, a scientist in theHNRCA Neuroscience Laboratory, puts it,“The thing that’s becoming increasinglyclear from a lot of sources is that what youeat that would be good for your heart is alsogoing to be good for your brain and is alsogoing to be good for your eyes and probablyother organs.”

THE BEAUTIFUL BsIf your doctor talks to you about your riskfor heart disease, chances are she will even-tually bring up the word homocysteine.Homocysteine is an amino acid found inthe blood, a by-product of the body’s pro-cessing of the essential amino acid methio-nine. Too much of it is related to a higherrisk of coronary artery disease, stroke and periph-eral vascular disease (fattydeposits in peripheral arter-ies). As many as 50 percentof patients who suffer astroke and or have otheratherothrombotic diseasesturn out to have highhomocysteine levels. Scien-tists think this may bebecause excess homocys-

teine damages the inner lining of arteriesand promotes blood clots.

As a result, homocysteine is one thingsome doctors measure when trying to assessa patient’s risk for heart disease. But homo-cysteine, it turns out, is also a risk factor fordementia. In 1996, Katherine Tucker, direc-tor of the HNRCA’s Dietary Assessmentand Epidemiology Research Program, wasamong the authors of a study that foundhigh plasma concentrations of homocys-teine in a group of mostly elderly men wereassociated with poor spatial copying skills,or the ability to draw a series of geometricfigures presented to them. Another Tuftsstudy, in 2001, showed an associationbetween high homocysteine levels and poorrecall. A year later, another study concludedthat subjects with elevated homocysteinehad nearly double the risk of developingAlzheimer’s.

Luckily, there is an easy, inexpensive wayto lower homocysteine levels. Eating foodswith enough B vitamins (such as green, leafyvegetables and citrus fruits) or taking themas supplements can bring down homocys-teine. The B complex vitamins, particularlyB6, B12 and folate, are essential in breakingdown homocysteine and recycling it in the

body. That is why somedoctors prescribe folic acid(the synthetic form of thevitamin B9, known asfolate) for their patientswith high homocysteine.

This year, Tucker sawsome of the most com-pelling evidence yet thatgetting enough B vitaminsthrough the diet can wardoff dementia. She and her

colleagues followed 50- to 85-year-old menin the Normative Aging Study. They askedthem about what they ate and then testedtheir cognitive abilities.Three years later, theytested them again and checked their bloodlevels for homocysteine, folate, B6 and B12.

At the end of the study, the men whoreported eating the fewest B vitamin-con-taining foods and had the lowest concentra-tion of B vitamins in their blood showed adecline in their spatial copying scores. Themen with higher B levels and dietary intakeperformed as well as before on the tasks,while those who ate the most B-rich foodsactually improved their scores.

In fact, the associations, which werereported in the American Journal of ClinicalNutrition, were so strong that Tucker saidshe thought the results, from an epidemio-logical standpoint, were “beautiful.”

“I found that very convincing,” she said.Among all the factors the researchers

looked at, folate was particularly protectiveagainst mental decline, which means that itmay have beneficial effects beyond its abili-ty to neutralize excess homocysteine. Folate,after all, is an important ingredient in cellreplication, including the cells in the brain.

In addition, Tucker said a preliminarymagnetic resonance imaging study showed“surprisingly strong associations” betweenthe B vitamins and brain health as well. Thestudy subjects who had higher levels offolate in their blood tended to have largerhippocampi and admigdola, importantstructures in the brain that help with cogni-tive processing. And B12 was associatedwith total brain volume.

At this time, high homocysteine is con-sidered only a marker for dementia risk; thereis no proof that lowering it with vitamins willprevent Alzheimer’s disease. That kind ofevidence will have to come through interven-tion studies, few of which have been done.

“I think it’s fair to say that the associa-tions have become stronger and morerobust,” Rosenberg said. “But such interven-tion studies as there have been have so farfailed to prove that giving B vitamins andlowering homocysteine have a clear out-come in terms of cognitive function.”

What should you do in the meantime?Tucker points out that aside from vitamin D,

10 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

“If you are concernedabout developingddeemmeennttiiaa or it runs inyour family, there iscertainly no harm toeating two or three fish meals a week…”

—Ernst Schaefer

e found that well-known risk factorsfor heart disease also are risk factors

for cognitive decline and that physical activity may reduce risk for cognitivedecline and dementia in adults,” reported Marilyn Albert, past chair of theAlzheimer’s Association Medical & Scientific Advisory Council. n Like heart dis-ease, dementia is not something that develops overnight, said Dr. Irwin H.Rosenberg, director of the Nutrition and Neurocognition Laboratory at theJean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts.

“ w

“In the aged animals, that machinery canget turned back on with berries,” Josephsaid. “I don’t know if it will get turned backon with other things, but I know berrieswould do it.

“I don’t think any of these diets is goingto cure a disease like Alzheimer’s disease,” hesaid. “This would be all in either preventingit or pushing out the onset of it. I think tocure this disease is going to take far morethan any of these foods can do. The idea is tokeep you functioning longer. A healthy diet,I think, may contribute to that.”

Think he is overestimating the impor-tance of delaying the onset of the disease?Consider this: Studies predict if the onset ofAlzheimer’s is delayed by just five years, theprevalence of the disease and the number ofpeople in nursing homes will be cut in half.

ON THE MOVEThere’s no question that carrying aroundextra pounds and leading a sedentarylifestyle put a damper on heart health. Nowseveral studies have linked excess weight toan increased risk of developing dementia.At the same time, more and more studiesare showing that exercise can thwartAlzheimer’s.

Exercise during the middle years canhave a positive effect on the brain later inlife. A Swedish study that appeared in theonline issue of The Lancet followed 1,449men and women who were in their thirties,forties and fifties. The researchers surveyedthe people regularly about their leisure-timephysical activities as they grew older. By thetime the subjects were between the ages of65 and 79, the researchers found that indi-viduals who exercised at least twice a weekwere 60 percent less likely to have developedAlzheimer’s compared to those who exer-cised less often.

In January, a study published in theAnnals of Internal Medicine showed thateven moderate activity can stave off mentaldecline. The study followed 1,700 men andwomen ages 65 and older who had no cog-nitive problems. Over the six-year courseof the study, 158 of the subjects developeddementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.But the seniors who exercised moderatelyfor at least 15 minutes each day were 30percent less likely to show cognitivedecline. The study suggested that even ashort, brisk walk every day could help wardoff the disease.

Along with flexing your muscles, Josephpoints out, you should be flexing your greymatter. Many studies have shown thatkeeping the brain active—be it with cross-word puzzles or reading—keeps the brainresponsive.

“There’s a triad of things you ought to bedoing: diet, exercise and exercising yourbrain, which is probably as important asexercising your body,” Joseph said. Headded, somewhat unscientifically, thatwatching reality television shows shouldmake you “lose points.” TN

Julie Flaherty is the editor of this magazine.She can be reached at julie.flaherty@tufts.edu.

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 13

levels, fatty fish consumption and a genethat Schaefer and Jose Ordovas, director ofthe HNRCA Nutrition and GenomicsLaboratory, wrote about in 1996.

So far, this is the only gene identified asa risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s dis-ease. (Early-onset Alzheimer’s, which is arare form that occurs between the ages of 30and 60, is inherited.) The gene makes aform of protein called apolipoprotein E(ApoE). Everyone has ApoE, which helpscarry cholesterol in the blood, but onlyabout 15 percent of people have the formcalled ApoE4, which increases the risk ofAlzheimer’s.

About a quarter of the population inheritsone copy of the ApoE4 gene, which increas-es their risk of developing Alzheimer’s by upto four times. But not all people who have thegene develop Alzheimer’s. Ordovas theorizesthat the gene interacts with other genes andwith environmental factors (such as diet) todetermine when and if the disease develops.

Gene type adds another layer to scientists’investigations into diet and Alzheimer’s dis-ease.Tina Huang, a researcher in Tucker’s lab,recently completed a study that appeared inthe journal Neurology comparing gene type,fish consumption and dementia. The study,which used data from the Cardiovascular

Health Cognition Study, found that peoplewho ate fatty fish more than twice a weekwere 41 percent less likely to have Alzheimer’sdisease. But this was only true of subjects whodid not have the ApoE4 genotype.

BERRY GOODOne of the most frustrating facts aboutAlzheimer’s disease is that not only is thereno cure, but there have been few medicalbreakthroughs in how to manage it.

“The drug companies come up withdrugs that so far have made tiny, tiny effectson mental functioning in dementia,”Rosenberg said. “There is not nearly asmuch being invested in something likenutritional factors that might prevent cogni-tive decline, partly because there is not a lotof money to be made. No drug company isgoing to have proprietary rights for that.”

James Joseph, a scientist in the HNRCANeuroscience Laboratory, agrees. “This isscary when you think about it,” he said.“We’re using 40- to 50-year-old technologynow to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Aricept [oneof the most common drugs used in treatingdementia] is based on neuroscience that isalmost 50 years old.” Acetylcholinesterase-inhibitors such as Aricept seem to modestlymoderate symptoms but do not prevent dis-ease progression, including cell death.

As the baby boomers approach theirgolden years, the number of people withAlzheimer’s disease will only increase. “If wedon’t get a handle on Alzheimer’s disease, ifwe don’t prevent it, delay its onset over thenext 10 years, you can’t believe what it’sgoing to be like,” Joseph said.

Indeed, much of the concern about thelong-term solvency of Medicare is based onthe estimated cost of caring for babyboomers, assuming that they developAlzheimer’s in the same proportions as ear-lier generations.

Until a cure is found, HNRCA scientistsare centered on nutritional prevention.Joseph’s research has focused on two familiarfactors in cardiovascular disease—inflamma-tion and oxidative stress—which also seemto be detrimental to brain function as we age.

“What we see at the end of the day isthat inflammation processes and oxidativestresses are really at the heart of every major

disease that you could think of regardingaging,” Joseph said.

Because antioxidants mop up the veryreactive molecules called free radicals thatcause the oxidative stress, Joseph has beeninvestigating colorful foods that are rich inantioxidants and how they affect the agingbrain. At the top of his list: berries. Blue-berries, in particular, seem to help reversesome aspects of brain aging, at least in ani-mal studies.

Joseph’s team took aging rats that werealready showing declines in memory, motorcoordination and balance and put some ofthem on diets supplemented with blueberry,spinach or strawberry extracts. All of therats on the supplemented diets out-per-formed the control group, with the blueber-ry group showing the best improvements inneuronal and cognitive behavioral activity aswell as motor behavior.

Yes, blueberries are rich in antioxidants.In fact, among some 50 fresh fruits and veg-etables tested by Joseph and his colleagues,they ranked highest in oxygen radicalabsorbance capacity (ORAC). But Josephsaid something more is going on in the brain“machinery” that takes neurotransmitterchemicals and translates them into electricalsignals and back again. Receptors on thesurface of brain cells grow less responsive tochemical messengers as we age. Yet in theblueberry group, two types of receptors actu-ally became more sensitive.

“This isn’t an antioxidant effect,” he said.“It’s a communication effect. We know fromour work they are actually turning off signalsassociated with free radicals in some cell sys-tems. They are actually enhancing the com-munication of some signals that are veryimportant in learning and memory.They makeone neuron talk better to another neuron.”

In the March issue of the journalNutrition, Joseph and his colleagues, includ-ing Barbara Shukitt-Hale, described promis-ing findings about another blue-purple fruit,Concord grape juice. Previous research hadfound the colorful juice to be protectiveagainst various cancers and heart disease.Mature rats that drank the juice performedsignificantly better on tests of their motor andcognitive skills. Other tests have shown prom-ising results with strawberries and cranberries.

12 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

Exercise duringthe mmiiddddllee yyeeaarrsscan have a posi-tive effect on thebrain later in life.

“In the aged animals, that machinery canget turned back on with berries,” Josephsaid. “I don’t know if it will get turned backon with other things, but I know berrieswould do it.

“I don’t think any of these diets is goingto cure a disease like Alzheimer’s disease,” hesaid. “This would be all in either preventingit or pushing out the onset of it. I think tocure this disease is going to take far morethan any of these foods can do. The idea is tokeep you functioning longer. A healthy diet,I think, may contribute to that.”

Think he is overestimating the impor-tance of delaying the onset of the disease?Consider this: Studies predict if the onset ofAlzheimer’s is delayed by just five years, theprevalence of the disease and the number ofpeople in nursing homes will be cut in half.

ON THE MOVEThere’s no question that carrying aroundextra pounds and leading a sedentarylifestyle put a damper on heart health. Nowseveral studies have linked excess weight toan increased risk of developing dementia.At the same time, more and more studiesare showing that exercise can thwartAlzheimer’s.

Exercise during the middle years canhave a positive effect on the brain later inlife. A Swedish study that appeared in theonline issue of The Lancet followed 1,449men and women who were in their thirties,forties and fifties. The researchers surveyedthe people regularly about their leisure-timephysical activities as they grew older. By thetime the subjects were between the ages of65 and 79, the researchers found that indi-viduals who exercised at least twice a weekwere 60 percent less likely to have developedAlzheimer’s compared to those who exer-cised less often.

In January, a study published in theAnnals of Internal Medicine showed thateven moderate activity can stave off mentaldecline. The study followed 1,700 men andwomen ages 65 and older who had no cog-nitive problems. Over the six-year courseof the study, 158 of the subjects developeddementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.But the seniors who exercised moderatelyfor at least 15 minutes each day were 30percent less likely to show cognitivedecline. The study suggested that even ashort, brisk walk every day could help wardoff the disease.

Along with flexing your muscles, Josephpoints out, you should be flexing your greymatter. Many studies have shown thatkeeping the brain active—be it with cross-word puzzles or reading—keeps the brainresponsive.

“There’s a triad of things you ought to bedoing: diet, exercise and exercising yourbrain, which is probably as important asexercising your body,” Joseph said. Headded, somewhat unscientifically, thatwatching reality television shows shouldmake you “lose points.” TN

Julie Flaherty is the editor of this magazine.She can be reached at julie.flaherty@tufts.edu.

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 13

levels, fatty fish consumption and a genethat Schaefer and Jose Ordovas, director ofthe HNRCA Nutrition and GenomicsLaboratory, wrote about in 1996.

So far, this is the only gene identified asa risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s dis-ease. (Early-onset Alzheimer’s, which is arare form that occurs between the ages of 30and 60, is inherited.) The gene makes aform of protein called apolipoprotein E(ApoE). Everyone has ApoE, which helpscarry cholesterol in the blood, but onlyabout 15 percent of people have the formcalled ApoE4, which increases the risk ofAlzheimer’s.

About a quarter of the population inheritsone copy of the ApoE4 gene, which increas-es their risk of developing Alzheimer’s by upto four times. But not all people who have thegene develop Alzheimer’s. Ordovas theorizesthat the gene interacts with other genes andwith environmental factors (such as diet) todetermine when and if the disease develops.

Gene type adds another layer to scientists’investigations into diet and Alzheimer’s dis-ease.Tina Huang, a researcher in Tucker’s lab,recently completed a study that appeared inthe journal Neurology comparing gene type,fish consumption and dementia. The study,which used data from the Cardiovascular

Health Cognition Study, found that peoplewho ate fatty fish more than twice a weekwere 41 percent less likely to have Alzheimer’sdisease. But this was only true of subjects whodid not have the ApoE4 genotype.

BERRY GOODOne of the most frustrating facts aboutAlzheimer’s disease is that not only is thereno cure, but there have been few medicalbreakthroughs in how to manage it.

“The drug companies come up withdrugs that so far have made tiny, tiny effectson mental functioning in dementia,”Rosenberg said. “There is not nearly asmuch being invested in something likenutritional factors that might prevent cogni-tive decline, partly because there is not a lotof money to be made. No drug company isgoing to have proprietary rights for that.”

James Joseph, a scientist in the HNRCANeuroscience Laboratory, agrees. “This isscary when you think about it,” he said.“We’re using 40- to 50-year-old technologynow to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Aricept [oneof the most common drugs used in treatingdementia] is based on neuroscience that isalmost 50 years old.” Acetylcholinesterase-inhibitors such as Aricept seem to modestlymoderate symptoms but do not prevent dis-ease progression, including cell death.

As the baby boomers approach theirgolden years, the number of people withAlzheimer’s disease will only increase. “If wedon’t get a handle on Alzheimer’s disease, ifwe don’t prevent it, delay its onset over thenext 10 years, you can’t believe what it’sgoing to be like,” Joseph said.

Indeed, much of the concern about thelong-term solvency of Medicare is based onthe estimated cost of caring for babyboomers, assuming that they developAlzheimer’s in the same proportions as ear-lier generations.

Until a cure is found, HNRCA scientistsare centered on nutritional prevention.Joseph’s research has focused on two familiarfactors in cardiovascular disease—inflamma-tion and oxidative stress—which also seemto be detrimental to brain function as we age.

“What we see at the end of the day isthat inflammation processes and oxidativestresses are really at the heart of every major

disease that you could think of regardingaging,” Joseph said.

Because antioxidants mop up the veryreactive molecules called free radicals thatcause the oxidative stress, Joseph has beeninvestigating colorful foods that are rich inantioxidants and how they affect the agingbrain. At the top of his list: berries. Blue-berries, in particular, seem to help reversesome aspects of brain aging, at least in ani-mal studies.

Joseph’s team took aging rats that werealready showing declines in memory, motorcoordination and balance and put some ofthem on diets supplemented with blueberry,spinach or strawberry extracts. All of therats on the supplemented diets out-per-formed the control group, with the blueber-ry group showing the best improvements inneuronal and cognitive behavioral activity aswell as motor behavior.

Yes, blueberries are rich in antioxidants.In fact, among some 50 fresh fruits and veg-etables tested by Joseph and his colleagues,they ranked highest in oxygen radicalabsorbance capacity (ORAC). But Josephsaid something more is going on in the brain“machinery” that takes neurotransmitterchemicals and translates them into electricalsignals and back again. Receptors on thesurface of brain cells grow less responsive tochemical messengers as we age. Yet in theblueberry group, two types of receptors actu-ally became more sensitive.

“This isn’t an antioxidant effect,” he said.“It’s a communication effect. We know fromour work they are actually turning off signalsassociated with free radicals in some cell sys-tems. They are actually enhancing the com-munication of some signals that are veryimportant in learning and memory.They makeone neuron talk better to another neuron.”

In the March issue of the journalNutrition, Joseph and his colleagues, includ-ing Barbara Shukitt-Hale, described promis-ing findings about another blue-purple fruit,Concord grape juice. Previous research hadfound the colorful juice to be protectiveagainst various cancers and heart disease.Mature rats that drank the juice performedsignificantly better on tests of their motor andcognitive skills. Other tests have shown prom-ising results with strawberries and cranberries.

12 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

Exercise duringthe mmiiddddllee yyeeaarrsscan have a posi-tive effect on thebrain later in life.

PHOTO: TRAVIS DOVE spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 1918 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

Tufts nutritionist keepsthe Sox healthy for theFenway Faithful

by Jacqueline Mitchell

of public health professionals when someone in the crowd shoutsout a question meant just for her. n “What’s up with JohnnyDamon?” n She smiles, unfazed by a question she’s probably beenasked a lot lately. n “Well, he’s gone now, so we don’t really care.”

Mardigan, N02, M02, is not just anotherBoston fan getting over the center fielder’sdefection to the Yankees. As the team nutri-tionist for the Boston Red Sox, Mardiganmight be more concerned about pitchingace Curt Schilling’s health than even thedie-hard fans swarming Kenmore Square ona summer evening.

Mardigan’s association with the Red Soxbegan when she started working withSchilling as a client. During her on-siteconsultations with him, the rest of the teamwould pepper her with nutrition questions.

Most baseball teams consult with nutri-tionists only when a player needs to bewhipped back into shape after an injury oran illness. But seeing the general interest inthe Red Sox clubhouse, Mardigan presenteda proposal to the team, offering nutritionalservices that emphasized a preventiveapproach. Having witnessed her success withSchilling during 2004, the team said yes.

Professional athletes have the same nutri-tion questions as the rest of us, Mardigansays. Many of them are looking to trim thefat; some want to boost their energy and, saysMardigan, “no one ever wants to hear theyhave to eat more fruits and vegetables.”

During her one-on-one counseling withthe players, Mardigan downplays nutrition-al supplements and recommends eating awide variety of natural foods. “I tell them tolook for color, to eat color-rich foods—andno, Cheetos don’t count.”

WHE T TING HER APPE TITEWorking with the team is the latest step ona path she began forging as a young athleteherself, training as a gymnast in upstateNew York. When some of her peers beganstarving themselves, she wondered whichfoods could fuel her body best. With herselfas her first client, Mardigan embarked on acareer that would have her asking that samequestion for a lot of people, from cancerpatients, to private clients to the most scru-tinized athletes in New England.

From her first day as an undergraduate atthe University of New Hampshire, Mardiganworked to become a dietitian. After gradua-tion, she matched with the Yale-New HavenHospital Dietetic Internship Program whereshe prepared for the National RegistrationExam for Dietitians.

Once licensed, Mardigan became a clinicaldietitian at Massachusetts General Hospital

Guarding the plate

PHOTO: TRAVIS DOVE spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 1918 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

Tufts nutritionist keepsthe Sox healthy for theFenway Faithful

by Jacqueline Mitchell

of public health professionals when someone in the crowd shoutsout a question meant just for her. n “What’s up with JohnnyDamon?” n She smiles, unfazed by a question she’s probably beenasked a lot lately. n “Well, he’s gone now, so we don’t really care.”

Mardigan, N02, M02, is not just anotherBoston fan getting over the center fielder’sdefection to the Yankees. As the team nutri-tionist for the Boston Red Sox, Mardiganmight be more concerned about pitchingace Curt Schilling’s health than even thedie-hard fans swarming Kenmore Square ona summer evening.

Mardigan’s association with the Red Soxbegan when she started working withSchilling as a client. During her on-siteconsultations with him, the rest of the teamwould pepper her with nutrition questions.

Most baseball teams consult with nutri-tionists only when a player needs to bewhipped back into shape after an injury oran illness. But seeing the general interest inthe Red Sox clubhouse, Mardigan presenteda proposal to the team, offering nutritionalservices that emphasized a preventiveapproach. Having witnessed her success withSchilling during 2004, the team said yes.

Professional athletes have the same nutri-tion questions as the rest of us, Mardigansays. Many of them are looking to trim thefat; some want to boost their energy and, saysMardigan, “no one ever wants to hear theyhave to eat more fruits and vegetables.”

During her one-on-one counseling withthe players, Mardigan downplays nutrition-al supplements and recommends eating awide variety of natural foods. “I tell them tolook for color, to eat color-rich foods—andno, Cheetos don’t count.”

WHE T TING HER APPE TITEWorking with the team is the latest step ona path she began forging as a young athleteherself, training as a gymnast in upstateNew York. When some of her peers beganstarving themselves, she wondered whichfoods could fuel her body best. With herselfas her first client, Mardigan embarked on acareer that would have her asking that samequestion for a lot of people, from cancerpatients, to private clients to the most scru-tinized athletes in New England.

From her first day as an undergraduate atthe University of New Hampshire, Mardiganworked to become a dietitian. After gradua-tion, she matched with the Yale-New HavenHospital Dietetic Internship Program whereshe prepared for the National RegistrationExam for Dietitians.

Once licensed, Mardigan became a clinicaldietitian at Massachusetts General Hospital

Guarding the plate

W

PHOTOS: TRAVIS DOVE; CHRISTOPHER CHURCHILL TOP RIGHT spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 21

in 1996, where she got a strong introductionto specific nutrition prescriptions for variousclinical situations. It was at a professionalconference that she first heard of theFriedman School’s Nutrition Communica-tion program. She still remembers theinspiring conversation she had with JenniferHellwig, N97, about the virtues of theunique program. After three-years at MGH,Mardigan enrolled at Friedman. “As soon asI started, I knew I was in the right place,” shesays. “Everything we were learning was veryapplicable. In class and outside of class, itseemed real. It seemed worth doing.”

Passionate about her coursework,Mardigan discovered her interest in publichealth halfway through the program.Working with Professor Jeanne Goldberg,she figured out a way to grad-uate with both her master’s innutrition communication andher master’s in public health.“I was really intrigued by theidea of making broad changesand finding broad-basedways of reaching people,” shesays.

Mardigan’s career is markedby her creative approaches toreaching people in different

walks of life. One day, walking bySociedad Latina, a youth center inBoston’s Mission Hill neighborhood,she popped in and proposed adding anutrition workshop to their roster ofhealth programs.

Mardigan talked to the kids and teensabout how their eating habits could affecttheir health, now and later on. She usedengaging demonstrations to make her mes-sages stick. “I remember slowly pouring 64teaspoons of sugar into a bowl to show themjust how much sugar was in the ever-popu-lar 7-Eleven Double Gulp,” she says. “Theirjaws were all wide open with surprise.

“This was a tough audience,” she adds.“But it was fun, it was visual and it worked.”

Mardigan reaches out to the communityin other ways, too. As one offour dietitians at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, sheworks to keep her patientswell nourished despite thecommon side effects ofchemotherapy and radiationtherapy—including nauseaand diminished appetite—by adding certain foods,eliminating others andtweaking meal schedules.

She also fields the increasing number ofquestions that come in about combiningherbs, vitamins, supplements and integrativetherapies with traditional cancer therapies.

Additionally, Mardigan and her col-leagues at Dana-Farber host a bimonthlysession called “Fighting Cancer with YourFork” for patients, their family members andthe community. This spring, the Dana-Farber nutrition team is also gearing up totake an outreach project for prostate cancersurvivors on the road. The dietitians willtake Dana-Farber’s mobile teaching van tounderserved areas of Boston to urge minor-ity prostate cancer survivors to pay closeattention to healthy lifestyle changes.“Minority men are especially at risk foraggressive cancer or cancer recurrence,”Mardigan says. “We need to change that.Lifestyle change is a good place to start.”

Her work at Dana-Farber incorporates theclinical, educational and public health aspectsof nutrition. “It includes a little bit of every-thing, which makes me really happy,” she says.

20 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

But the work can take its toll, too. “Weget to know these people very, very well,” shesays. “When we suffer losses, it’s always hard.Sometimes that can catch up with you.”

STEPPING UP TO THE PL ATEIn addition to her role at Dana-Farber,Mardigan runs a private practice called“Tara’s Table.” Mardigan meets with patientsin their homes and creates customized dietsthat address her clients’ nutritional needswhile taking their lifestyles into considera-tion. She’ll even take them grocery shop-ping, educating clients as they shop whilekeeping empty calories out of the carriage.

“It’s an instant intervention,” she says. “Ittakes a step out of the process. If it’s not intheir house, I don’t have to get them to throwit away.”

Mardigan is taking a similar approach tocoaching the Sox in good nutrition. In addi-tion to meeting with each major and minorleague player, she’ll also be making broadchanges to the food served to the playersbefore games.

“If I’m telling them one thing and theyonly have access to something else, it’s notgoing to work. They are not going to com-ply,” she says. “It’s really like any other publichealth measure.”

The Sox may miss their pre-game pizza,but they—and all of New England—may bethanking Mardigan come October, as theteam’s improved nutrition increases theirstamina and performance. TN

Jacqueline Mitchell is a senior health scienceswriter in Tufts’ Office of Publications. She canbe reached at jacqueline.mitchell@tufts.edu.

We are all hard-wired, says David J. Tybor, N03, to col-lect information about the world, to see patterns anddraw conclusions. But our biases, assumptions andbeliefs often lead us astray on our quest for truth.

“We tend to selectively examine evidence thatconfirms that which we already know,” says Tybor.“It’s a pattern that goes on in everything—medicaladvice or nutritional advice. But this is about base-ball, so it’s more important,” he deadpans.

Tybor is talking about “The Analysis of Baseball:Statistics and Sabermetrics,” the class he and his colleagues, Andy Andres, N99, and MorganMelchiorre, have taught at Tufts’ Experimental College on the Medford/Somerville campus forthe last three years.

Sabermetrics, as defined by the field’s founding father Bill James, is the “search for objectiveknowledge about baseball.” Sabermetricians use statistics to assess player performance in a waythat goes much deeper than traditional baseball statistics.

“Sabermetrics asks what are the traditional means of player evaluation and why might theybe wrong or not tell the whole story,”Tybor says.

A measure of worth

Long considered a hobby of little interest to professional baseball players or management, saber-metrics began to gain widespread acceptance when Oakland Athletics’ General Manager BillyBeane used its principals to the team’s obvious advantage. A new generation of baseball execu-tives began explaining trades and acquisitions with stats right out of Bill James’ playbook. Today,every sports writer and rotisserie league participant fancies himself a sabermetrics whiz-kid. Butthe mathematical elegance behind the metrics is largely lost on the mainstream fan.

“Just like everyone who has ever eaten a meal thinks they know a lot about nutrition,” saysTybor, “everyone who has ever watched a game thinks they know a lot about baseball. Saber-metrics is a way to see people’s biases.”

That’s where the Ex-College class, one of very few credited sabermetrics classes in the coun-try, comes in. The course has its origins in the Tufts employee softball league in which Tybor,Andres and Melchiorre play for the Friedman School’s team, “Jumbo’s Peanut Surprise”—back-to-back league champions, Tybor is quick to point out. All lifelong fans of the game, the threefrequently engaged in debates typical among baseball fans: Exactly how many millions of dol-lars is Pedro worth? And does Big Papi or A-Rod deserve the MVP?

“It’s probably a stupid thing to be sitting around shooting the breeze with your friends andthink people would probably be interested in this conversation,”Tybor laughs. “But we all haddifferent skills from other fields that would be appropriate.”

Tybor, currently a doctoral candidate in nutritional epidemiology at the Friedman School, hasteaching experience in statistics and statistical analysis. Andres, now an assistant professor ofnatural science at Boston University, earned his Ph.D. in muscle physiology from Friedman. Mel-chiorre is information specialist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center onAging at Tufts. The trio designed a 13-week course that examines traditional baseball statisticsand explores the new ways of thinking about them. Students learn about statistics’ usefulnessfor projection and prediction and how sabermetric evaluations affect the economics of baseball.

“The baseball world has a lot of interest in our class,” says Andres. “This really is about usingthe scientific method to better understand the game.”

Tybor believes the course has value to everyone, not just those with major league dreams.“We’re giving some lessons about becoming consumers of data,” he says. “We’ll teach you

with baseball, and then, when you watch the nightly news or read about the latest findingsabout low-fat diets, you’ll have some way to think about what those numbers mean.”

—Jacqueline Mitchell

NUMBERS GAMECourse applies science toAmerica’s favorite pastime

Clockwise from left, Tara Mardigan, team nutritionist for the Boston Red Sox, advises TimWakefield, Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez. Inset, her clubhouse access pass. Right, enjoyinga spring training game.

David Tybor and Andy Andres

W

PHOTOS: TRAVIS DOVE; CHRISTOPHER CHURCHILL TOP RIGHT spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 21

in 1996, where she got a strong introductionto specific nutrition prescriptions for variousclinical situations. It was at a professionalconference that she first heard of theFriedman School’s Nutrition Communica-tion program. She still remembers theinspiring conversation she had with JenniferHellwig, N97, about the virtues of theunique program. After three-years at MGH,Mardigan enrolled at Friedman. “As soon asI started, I knew I was in the right place,” shesays. “Everything we were learning was veryapplicable. In class and outside of class, itseemed real. It seemed worth doing.”

Passionate about her coursework,Mardigan discovered her interest in publichealth halfway through the program.Working with Professor Jeanne Goldberg,she figured out a way to grad-uate with both her master’s innutrition communication andher master’s in public health.“I was really intrigued by theidea of making broad changesand finding broad-basedways of reaching people,” shesays.

Mardigan’s career is markedby her creative approaches toreaching people in different

walks of life. One day, walking bySociedad Latina, a youth center inBoston’s Mission Hill neighborhood,she popped in and proposed adding anutrition workshop to their roster ofhealth programs.

Mardigan talked to the kids and teensabout how their eating habits could affecttheir health, now and later on. She usedengaging demonstrations to make her mes-sages stick. “I remember slowly pouring 64teaspoons of sugar into a bowl to show themjust how much sugar was in the ever-popu-lar 7-Eleven Double Gulp,” she says. “Theirjaws were all wide open with surprise.

“This was a tough audience,” she adds.“But it was fun, it was visual and it worked.”

Mardigan reaches out to the communityin other ways, too. As one offour dietitians at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, sheworks to keep her patientswell nourished despite thecommon side effects ofchemotherapy and radiationtherapy—including nauseaand diminished appetite—by adding certain foods,eliminating others andtweaking meal schedules.

She also fields the increasing number ofquestions that come in about combiningherbs, vitamins, supplements and integrativetherapies with traditional cancer therapies.

Additionally, Mardigan and her col-leagues at Dana-Farber host a bimonthlysession called “Fighting Cancer with YourFork” for patients, their family members andthe community. This spring, the Dana-Farber nutrition team is also gearing up totake an outreach project for prostate cancersurvivors on the road. The dietitians willtake Dana-Farber’s mobile teaching van tounderserved areas of Boston to urge minor-ity prostate cancer survivors to pay closeattention to healthy lifestyle changes.“Minority men are especially at risk foraggressive cancer or cancer recurrence,”Mardigan says. “We need to change that.Lifestyle change is a good place to start.”

Her work at Dana-Farber incorporates theclinical, educational and public health aspectsof nutrition. “It includes a little bit of every-thing, which makes me really happy,” she says.

20 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

But the work can take its toll, too. “Weget to know these people very, very well,” shesays. “When we suffer losses, it’s always hard.Sometimes that can catch up with you.”

STEPPING UP TO THE PL ATEIn addition to her role at Dana-Farber,Mardigan runs a private practice called“Tara’s Table.” Mardigan meets with patientsin their homes and creates customized dietsthat address her clients’ nutritional needswhile taking their lifestyles into considera-tion. She’ll even take them grocery shop-ping, educating clients as they shop whilekeeping empty calories out of the carriage.

“It’s an instant intervention,” she says. “Ittakes a step out of the process. If it’s not intheir house, I don’t have to get them to throwit away.”

Mardigan is taking a similar approach tocoaching the Sox in good nutrition. In addi-tion to meeting with each major and minorleague player, she’ll also be making broadchanges to the food served to the playersbefore games.

“If I’m telling them one thing and theyonly have access to something else, it’s notgoing to work. They are not going to com-ply,” she says. “It’s really like any other publichealth measure.”

The Sox may miss their pre-game pizza,but they—and all of New England—may bethanking Mardigan come October, as theteam’s improved nutrition increases theirstamina and performance. TN

Jacqueline Mitchell is a senior health scienceswriter in Tufts’ Office of Publications. She canbe reached at jacqueline.mitchell@tufts.edu.

We are all hard-wired, says David J. Tybor, N03, to col-lect information about the world, to see patterns anddraw conclusions. But our biases, assumptions andbeliefs often lead us astray on our quest for truth.

“We tend to selectively examine evidence thatconfirms that which we already know,” says Tybor.“It’s a pattern that goes on in everything—medicaladvice or nutritional advice. But this is about base-ball, so it’s more important,” he deadpans.

Tybor is talking about “The Analysis of Baseball:Statistics and Sabermetrics,” the class he and his colleagues, Andy Andres, N99, and MorganMelchiorre, have taught at Tufts’ Experimental College on the Medford/Somerville campus forthe last three years.

Sabermetrics, as defined by the field’s founding father Bill James, is the “search for objectiveknowledge about baseball.” Sabermetricians use statistics to assess player performance in a waythat goes much deeper than traditional baseball statistics.

“Sabermetrics asks what are the traditional means of player evaluation and why might theybe wrong or not tell the whole story,”Tybor says.

A measure of worth

Long considered a hobby of little interest to professional baseball players or management, saber-metrics began to gain widespread acceptance when Oakland Athletics’ General Manager BillyBeane used its principals to the team’s obvious advantage. A new generation of baseball execu-tives began explaining trades and acquisitions with stats right out of Bill James’ playbook. Today,every sports writer and rotisserie league participant fancies himself a sabermetrics whiz-kid. Butthe mathematical elegance behind the metrics is largely lost on the mainstream fan.

“Just like everyone who has ever eaten a meal thinks they know a lot about nutrition,” saysTybor, “everyone who has ever watched a game thinks they know a lot about baseball. Saber-metrics is a way to see people’s biases.”

That’s where the Ex-College class, one of very few credited sabermetrics classes in the coun-try, comes in. The course has its origins in the Tufts employee softball league in which Tybor,Andres and Melchiorre play for the Friedman School’s team, “Jumbo’s Peanut Surprise”—back-to-back league champions, Tybor is quick to point out. All lifelong fans of the game, the threefrequently engaged in debates typical among baseball fans: Exactly how many millions of dol-lars is Pedro worth? And does Big Papi or A-Rod deserve the MVP?

“It’s probably a stupid thing to be sitting around shooting the breeze with your friends andthink people would probably be interested in this conversation,”Tybor laughs. “But we all haddifferent skills from other fields that would be appropriate.”

Tybor, currently a doctoral candidate in nutritional epidemiology at the Friedman School, hasteaching experience in statistics and statistical analysis. Andres, now an assistant professor ofnatural science at Boston University, earned his Ph.D. in muscle physiology from Friedman. Mel-chiorre is information specialist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center onAging at Tufts. The trio designed a 13-week course that examines traditional baseball statisticsand explores the new ways of thinking about them. Students learn about statistics’ usefulnessfor projection and prediction and how sabermetric evaluations affect the economics of baseball.

“The baseball world has a lot of interest in our class,” says Andres. “This really is about usingthe scientific method to better understand the game.”

Tybor believes the course has value to everyone, not just those with major league dreams.“We’re giving some lessons about becoming consumers of data,” he says. “We’ll teach you

with baseball, and then, when you watch the nightly news or read about the latest findingsabout low-fat diets, you’ll have some way to think about what those numbers mean.”

—Jacqueline Mitchell

NUMBERS GAMECourse applies science toAmerica’s favorite pastime

Clockwise from left, Tara Mardigan, team nutritionist for the Boston Red Sox, advises TimWakefield, Rudy Seanez and Julian Tavarez. Inset, her clubhouse access pass. Right, enjoyinga spring training game.

David Tybor and Andy Andres

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 23

I

I would like to give hope to those in the cement lands who findthemselves itching to gather, to hunt, to acquire sustenance by dintof effort and skill, cunning and physical labor. Here is some advicegleaned from years of research as a student and as a person with aperverse yen: scrounging.

Food waste has always been obscene to me. I was the one whowould drink the last of the chalky lemonade merely to finish it. Theone to take home a doggy bag from the restaurant composed of onetablespoon of rice, half a chapatti and some slivers of eggplant coat-ed in oil. As a poor (thrifty, prudent, miserly, avaricious) student, itcomes as no surprise that I thought of food often. Surprisingly, foodeyed me back and gave me a wink in the form of lecture receptions,conferences, art openings, department parties and sport regattas. Nomatter that I wasn’t actually in the engineering department, part ofthe ear doctors’ convention, terribly interested in late 18th-centuryChinese sewer works or one of the art installation crew. I partook ofthe brie, dates, crackers, wine, dolmas, pizza, soymilk, chickenkorma, pasta salad, melon, Coke and petit fours.

I learned that by eating quickly and delicately, I could tuck awayan amazing amount on three-inch plates. I would circle the buffetagain and again, smiling sagely, if uncomprehendingly, at the Germanspeakers next to me or chewing thoughtfully while listening to WorldBank plans for rural development subsidies. But scrounging as an artform extends beyond the cocktail hour into plans for meals to come.

BACKPACKS AND ALPHA LIONSTIP #1: Big purses and small backpacks can hold a lot if packedcorrectly. Always take an empty Tupperware-style container andplastic grocery bags (at least two, one for dry foods and one for wet)with you wherever you go. You never know when you will be mean-dering by, the revelers having long gone, the knishes lying forlornupon foil trays, entreating your approach.

TIP #2: Custodians and catering crews are your friends. Greetthem. Acknowledge that they are the alpha lion in line at the gazellecarcass. Ask permission to partake. (After all, they may be eyingthose leftover stuffed mushrooms as much as you). Smile. If they say,which they will nine times out of 10, “Go for it; we just throw it inthe trash,” thank them. Pull out your plastic bags (see Tip #1) andstart filling them with the 10 pounds of shaved luncheon meat leftlying on green lettuce leaves.

Group like items together. Never put the strawberries in with thecubed smoked Gouda, unless you will be separating it as soon as youget home. In order of preference, choose meat, fruit, vegetables,cheese, and then lastly, desserts. Cookies travel well, but they are themost commonly available item and will be at the next reception,besides being not as nutritionally dense as the previously mentionedcomestibles. Avoid condiments. Regretfully leave the salad dressingbehind; the little plastic cup will indeed collapse in your satchel,because you are transporting this all home in your arms or on yourbicycle, yes? If you have a friend to call when the plunder is morethan you can handle, do so. Give them a share of the loot. Use oneof the leftover plastic catering trays. It will balance on your handle-bars if you walk slowly alongside.

Between classes or on breaks, canvas which university buildingsare more likely to have dinner meetings, committee luncheons, guestlectures, etc. Then stroll through the hallways looking into rooms.Pay attention to flyers. If you see people meeting, look quickly to theside of the room for the sterno burner’s cheery flame. Alternately, fol-low the catering carts to their destination, identifiable by the coffeeurns, those steaming metallic edifices. Note the room number andfloor. Wait a couple hours. Although you may need to check backnow and again, they will leave food.

The sweetness of acquisition is about providing substance at thecost of your time and labor and foresight, not your wallet. It is aboutreducing waste and not letting something as valuable as food rot awayuntransformed into muscle, fat and thought. And it is about breakingthe taboos of unsightly desire; joy in gaining that which others findsullied, imperfect, probably contaminated, and certainly not the focusof the event.

Why do I feel such intense joy when acquiring these passed-overmorsels? And why does it also feel shameful to gather up the left-overs? Why am I furtive in my motions, tucking foods hastily into mybag with a napkin lain over? Why do I feel I must hotly defend myselfwhen I catch people looking? “Well, it will go to waste!” I exclaim.But that is not the whole story.

Food is our ultimate communion. Without it we cease to exist. Yetfood is also cultural expression, both in what we eat, what we choosenot to eat and how we leave it behind. Acknowledging both the noblesentiment and the greedy clandestine abandon of carrying home 20pounds of leftover BBQ beef ribs, though you are a professed vegetar-ian, will go a long way to understanding the complexities and delightsof being a scrounger. TN

Diana Redwood, N04, is a nutrition research specialist with the AlaskaNative Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage, Alaska.

harvesting wild foods with your own hands. It iscreating meals out of what to others are weeds andshadows in the woods, too laborious for words orjust not as tasty as Cheetos and frozen pizza. Itrequires time and effort and a commitment to theidea that all that is edible does not have to be pur-chased. So is subsistence unattainable when youare not living in the wild? What happens, forexample, when a girl from Alaska moves to theultimate concrete larder—the City of Boston?

scrounging and the city

spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 23

I

I would like to give hope to those in the cement lands who findthemselves itching to gather, to hunt, to acquire sustenance by dintof effort and skill, cunning and physical labor. Here is some advicegleaned from years of research as a student and as a person with aperverse yen: scrounging.

Food waste has always been obscene to me. I was the one whowould drink the last of the chalky lemonade merely to finish it. Theone to take home a doggy bag from the restaurant composed of onetablespoon of rice, half a chapatti and some slivers of eggplant coat-ed in oil. As a poor (thrifty, prudent, miserly, avaricious) student, itcomes as no surprise that I thought of food often. Surprisingly, foodeyed me back and gave me a wink in the form of lecture receptions,conferences, art openings, department parties and sport regattas. Nomatter that I wasn’t actually in the engineering department, part ofthe ear doctors’ convention, terribly interested in late 18th-centuryChinese sewer works or one of the art installation crew. I partook ofthe brie, dates, crackers, wine, dolmas, pizza, soymilk, chickenkorma, pasta salad, melon, Coke and petit fours.

I learned that by eating quickly and delicately, I could tuck awayan amazing amount on three-inch plates. I would circle the buffetagain and again, smiling sagely, if uncomprehendingly, at the Germanspeakers next to me or chewing thoughtfully while listening to WorldBank plans for rural development subsidies. But scrounging as an artform extends beyond the cocktail hour into plans for meals to come.

BACKPACKS AND ALPHA LIONSTIP #1: Big purses and small backpacks can hold a lot if packedcorrectly. Always take an empty Tupperware-style container andplastic grocery bags (at least two, one for dry foods and one for wet)with you wherever you go. You never know when you will be mean-dering by, the revelers having long gone, the knishes lying forlornupon foil trays, entreating your approach.

TIP #2: Custodians and catering crews are your friends. Greetthem. Acknowledge that they are the alpha lion in line at the gazellecarcass. Ask permission to partake. (After all, they may be eyingthose leftover stuffed mushrooms as much as you). Smile. If they say,which they will nine times out of 10, “Go for it; we just throw it inthe trash,” thank them. Pull out your plastic bags (see Tip #1) andstart filling them with the 10 pounds of shaved luncheon meat leftlying on green lettuce leaves.

Group like items together. Never put the strawberries in with thecubed smoked Gouda, unless you will be separating it as soon as youget home. In order of preference, choose meat, fruit, vegetables,cheese, and then lastly, desserts. Cookies travel well, but they are themost commonly available item and will be at the next reception,besides being not as nutritionally dense as the previously mentionedcomestibles. Avoid condiments. Regretfully leave the salad dressingbehind; the little plastic cup will indeed collapse in your satchel,because you are transporting this all home in your arms or on yourbicycle, yes? If you have a friend to call when the plunder is morethan you can handle, do so. Give them a share of the loot. Use oneof the leftover plastic catering trays. It will balance on your handle-bars if you walk slowly alongside.

Between classes or on breaks, canvas which university buildingsare more likely to have dinner meetings, committee luncheons, guestlectures, etc. Then stroll through the hallways looking into rooms.Pay attention to flyers. If you see people meeting, look quickly to theside of the room for the sterno burner’s cheery flame. Alternately, fol-low the catering carts to their destination, identifiable by the coffeeurns, those steaming metallic edifices. Note the room number andfloor. Wait a couple hours. Although you may need to check backnow and again, they will leave food.

The sweetness of acquisition is about providing substance at thecost of your time and labor and foresight, not your wallet. It is aboutreducing waste and not letting something as valuable as food rot awayuntransformed into muscle, fat and thought. And it is about breakingthe taboos of unsightly desire; joy in gaining that which others findsullied, imperfect, probably contaminated, and certainly not the focusof the event.

Why do I feel such intense joy when acquiring these passed-overmorsels? And why does it also feel shameful to gather up the left-overs? Why am I furtive in my motions, tucking foods hastily into mybag with a napkin lain over? Why do I feel I must hotly defend myselfwhen I catch people looking? “Well, it will go to waste!” I exclaim.But that is not the whole story.

Food is our ultimate communion. Without it we cease to exist. Yetfood is also cultural expression, both in what we eat, what we choosenot to eat and how we leave it behind. Acknowledging both the noblesentiment and the greedy clandestine abandon of carrying home 20pounds of leftover BBQ beef ribs, though you are a professed vegetar-ian, will go a long way to understanding the complexities and delightsof being a scrounger. TN

Diana Redwood, N04, is a nutrition research specialist with the AlaskaNative Tribal Health Consortium in Anchorage, Alaska.

harvesting wild foods with your own hands. It iscreating meals out of what to others are weeds andshadows in the woods, too laborious for words orjust not as tasty as Cheetos and frozen pizza. Itrequires time and effort and a commitment to theidea that all that is edible does not have to be pur-chased. So is subsistence unattainable when youare not living in the wild? What happens, forexample, when a girl from Alaska moves to theultimate concrete larder—the City of Boston?

scrounging and the city

PHOTOS: LICHENTENSTEIN BY ED MALITSKY; OTHERS BY MARK MORELLI spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 25

PAR TNERS IN HEALTH

24 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: VITO ALUIA

, , ..

weblog (usfoodpolicy.blogspot.com) in December 2004, as he was near-ing the end of his first semester teaching a course on U.S. food policyat the Friedman School. It was a way to monitor recent developmentsin food stamps, food spending, household food security and a hugeassortment of food policy issues while exercising his writing skills.

About a blog “I realized that while I knew the schol-arly material I was teaching, I didn’t knowthe issues of the day as well as I once did asa reporter,” said Wilde, who spent two yearsbefore grad school as the editor of a weeklypublication put out by the CommunityNutrition Institute.

His blog’s tagline is “U.S. food policyand economics from a public interest per-spective.” Like most blogs, opinion is partof the territory. “The tone is a little bitadvocacy-oriented,” he said. “It tends to rapthe knuckles of people who have donethings that are not in the public interest.”

For example, he’s criticized restaurantslike Quizno’s, Fuddrucker’s and Applebee’sfor not releasing nutrition information abouttheir foods. It’s his way of nudging the foodindustry to police itself. “In order for themarket economy to work on its own, cus-tomers need certain information,” he said. “Ialmost want to protect the food industryfrom undue government regulation.”

To wit, he pokes fun at a Florida TomatoCommittee crackdown on a local variety oftasty but frequently misshapen produce.(Headline: “The federal government pro-tects us from ... ugly tomatoes.”)

In another post, he uses his 5-year-oldson to illustrate his concerns about the qual-ity of school lunches: “Our son sometimesreports eating carrots or fruit salad, but atother times it seems there was no fruit orvegetable. When asked, he agrees that thereapparently was some such thing somewhere,but it leaves me picturing a bowl of vegeta-bles in a small cave at the end of some longrabbit hole in Alice’s Wonderland.”

He doesn’t assign his blog as mandatoryclass reading (a bit too much hubris forhim), but he does have a number of studentreaders who e-mail him with ideas. And heexpects to publish scholarly articles else-where that started out as blog topics.

He gets about 200 readers a day to hisblog, an audience few scholarly articles canclaim. Not bad for a hobby.

ON CAMPUS NUTRITION SCHOOL NEWS

Ever wonder what a food economist does to let loose?Parke Wilde hits the blogosphere.

THE FRIEDMAN SCHOOL HAS EMBARKED ON A TWO-YEAR PROJECT WITH THE EMIRATE OF

Ras Al Khaimah (R.A.K.) in the United Arab Emirates to create distancelearning curricula for nutrition students and a healthy lifestyle programfor its citizens and visitors.

On April 6, Izzat Dajani, chief executive of the emirate’s Investment andDevelopment Office, visited the school and joined Dean Eileen Kennedy insigning a memorandum of understanding outlining the collaboration.

“This is a terrific opportunity for the school to link cutting-edge sci-ence to application, improving overall nutrition,” Kennedy said. “The activi-ties of the Friedman School will have much more of an impact globally.”

The Friedman School will explore development of a master’s of nutri-tion degree program for R.A.K., most likely centered on online coursesthat will have the same rigorous requirements as courses taught atFriedman. Dajani, who points out that almost two billion people in 10countries live within an hour’s flight of R.A.K., expects the program willattract students from throughout the region.

“R.A.K. is aggressively defining itself as a regional player in health careand education,” he said. “We’re attracting global institutions of repute, insti-tutions with specific disciplines. Tufts has proven to be a special partner.”

Ras Al Khaimah is the northern most of the seven states that makeup the United Arab Emirates. Its standard of living is comparable to thatof many industrialized countries, and accordingly, its citizens face someof the same nutritional challenges.

“The Tufts nutrition program really addresses many of the nutrition ail-ments we face in our part of the world,”Dajani said. “In the Middle East, in

honored by the American Society forNutrition at the Experimental Biology 2006meeting in San Francisco, Calif., this spring.

Alice Lichtenstein, director of theCardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at theJean Mayer USDA Human NutritionResearch Center on Aging (HNRCA),became the first woman to receive theRobert H. Herman Memorial Award. Theaward honors a clinical investigator whoseresearch has contributed importantly to theadvancement of clinical nutrition, particu-larly the biochemical and medical aspects ofhuman nutrition. Lichtenstein, the StanleyN. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Scienceand Policy, was singled out for her contribu-tions in cardiovascular nutrition. Her

research has, in part, laid the groundwork forthe recent dietary guidelines recommenda-tions to decrease trans fat and the FDA’sdecision to require trans fat labeling.

Irwin H. Rosenberg, director of theHNRCA Nutrition and NeurocognitionLaboratory, received the Conrad A.Elvehjem Award for Public Service inNutrition. He has held many key positionsthat influenced nutrition policy, guidelinesand public health, including chair of thePanel on Vitamins, Minerals and Hem-atinics at the FDA; chair of the Food andNutrition Board; president of the nutritionsociety; and chair of the Institute ofMedicine committee on Dietary ReferenceIntakes. The former director of theHNRCA and dean emeritus, Rosenberg is aUniversity Professor at Tufts and holds theJean Mayer Chair in Nutrition.

“Customers needcertain information”

—Parke Wilde

High honors

the subcontinent and in the neighboring counties, we see a lot of poornutrition practices, lots of obesity, high levels of smoking, minimal exerciseand high levels of stress. Combine all that, and it really isn’t a good formula.”

To address that, the Friedman School plans to develop a healthy-lifestyle nutrition and wellness program to be used in health centers andother out-patient settings in R.A.K. The program will address diet andexercise and their roles in preventing obesity and lifestyle diseases suchas heart disease and diabetes.

Parke Wilde

Dean Eileen Kennedyand Izzat Dajani sign amemorandum ofunderstanding

Alice Lichtenstein Irwin Rosenberg

PHOTOS: LICHENTENSTEIN BY ED MALITSKY; OTHERS BY MARK MORELLI spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 25

PAR TNERS IN HEALTH

24 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: VITO ALUIA

, , ..

weblog (usfoodpolicy.blogspot.com) in December 2004, as he was near-ing the end of his first semester teaching a course on U.S. food policyat the Friedman School. It was a way to monitor recent developmentsin food stamps, food spending, household food security and a hugeassortment of food policy issues while exercising his writing skills.

About a blog “I realized that while I knew the schol-arly material I was teaching, I didn’t knowthe issues of the day as well as I once did asa reporter,” said Wilde, who spent two yearsbefore grad school as the editor of a weeklypublication put out by the CommunityNutrition Institute.

His blog’s tagline is “U.S. food policyand economics from a public interest per-spective.” Like most blogs, opinion is partof the territory. “The tone is a little bitadvocacy-oriented,” he said. “It tends to rapthe knuckles of people who have donethings that are not in the public interest.”

For example, he’s criticized restaurantslike Quizno’s, Fuddrucker’s and Applebee’sfor not releasing nutrition information abouttheir foods. It’s his way of nudging the foodindustry to police itself. “In order for themarket economy to work on its own, cus-tomers need certain information,” he said. “Ialmost want to protect the food industryfrom undue government regulation.”

To wit, he pokes fun at a Florida TomatoCommittee crackdown on a local variety oftasty but frequently misshapen produce.(Headline: “The federal government pro-tects us from ... ugly tomatoes.”)

In another post, he uses his 5-year-oldson to illustrate his concerns about the qual-ity of school lunches: “Our son sometimesreports eating carrots or fruit salad, but atother times it seems there was no fruit orvegetable. When asked, he agrees that thereapparently was some such thing somewhere,but it leaves me picturing a bowl of vegeta-bles in a small cave at the end of some longrabbit hole in Alice’s Wonderland.”

He doesn’t assign his blog as mandatoryclass reading (a bit too much hubris forhim), but he does have a number of studentreaders who e-mail him with ideas. And heexpects to publish scholarly articles else-where that started out as blog topics.

He gets about 200 readers a day to hisblog, an audience few scholarly articles canclaim. Not bad for a hobby.

ON CAMPUS NUTRITION SCHOOL NEWS

Ever wonder what a food economist does to let loose?Parke Wilde hits the blogosphere.

THE FRIEDMAN SCHOOL HAS EMBARKED ON A TWO-YEAR PROJECT WITH THE EMIRATE OF

Ras Al Khaimah (R.A.K.) in the United Arab Emirates to create distancelearning curricula for nutrition students and a healthy lifestyle programfor its citizens and visitors.

On April 6, Izzat Dajani, chief executive of the emirate’s Investment andDevelopment Office, visited the school and joined Dean Eileen Kennedy insigning a memorandum of understanding outlining the collaboration.

“This is a terrific opportunity for the school to link cutting-edge sci-ence to application, improving overall nutrition,” Kennedy said. “The activi-ties of the Friedman School will have much more of an impact globally.”

The Friedman School will explore development of a master’s of nutri-tion degree program for R.A.K., most likely centered on online coursesthat will have the same rigorous requirements as courses taught atFriedman. Dajani, who points out that almost two billion people in 10countries live within an hour’s flight of R.A.K., expects the program willattract students from throughout the region.

“R.A.K. is aggressively defining itself as a regional player in health careand education,” he said. “We’re attracting global institutions of repute, insti-tutions with specific disciplines. Tufts has proven to be a special partner.”

Ras Al Khaimah is the northern most of the seven states that makeup the United Arab Emirates. Its standard of living is comparable to thatof many industrialized countries, and accordingly, its citizens face someof the same nutritional challenges.

“The Tufts nutrition program really addresses many of the nutrition ail-ments we face in our part of the world,”Dajani said. “In the Middle East, in

honored by the American Society forNutrition at the Experimental Biology 2006meeting in San Francisco, Calif., this spring.

Alice Lichtenstein, director of theCardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at theJean Mayer USDA Human NutritionResearch Center on Aging (HNRCA),became the first woman to receive theRobert H. Herman Memorial Award. Theaward honors a clinical investigator whoseresearch has contributed importantly to theadvancement of clinical nutrition, particu-larly the biochemical and medical aspects ofhuman nutrition. Lichtenstein, the StanleyN. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Scienceand Policy, was singled out for her contribu-tions in cardiovascular nutrition. Her

research has, in part, laid the groundwork forthe recent dietary guidelines recommenda-tions to decrease trans fat and the FDA’sdecision to require trans fat labeling.

Irwin H. Rosenberg, director of theHNRCA Nutrition and NeurocognitionLaboratory, received the Conrad A.Elvehjem Award for Public Service inNutrition. He has held many key positionsthat influenced nutrition policy, guidelinesand public health, including chair of thePanel on Vitamins, Minerals and Hem-atinics at the FDA; chair of the Food andNutrition Board; president of the nutritionsociety; and chair of the Institute ofMedicine committee on Dietary ReferenceIntakes. The former director of theHNRCA and dean emeritus, Rosenberg is aUniversity Professor at Tufts and holds theJean Mayer Chair in Nutrition.

“Customers needcertain information”

—Parke Wilde

High honors

the subcontinent and in the neighboring counties, we see a lot of poornutrition practices, lots of obesity, high levels of smoking, minimal exerciseand high levels of stress. Combine all that, and it really isn’t a good formula.”

To address that, the Friedman School plans to develop a healthy-lifestyle nutrition and wellness program to be used in health centers andother out-patient settings in R.A.K. The program will address diet andexercise and their roles in preventing obesity and lifestyle diseases suchas heart disease and diabetes.

Parke Wilde

Dean Eileen Kennedyand Izzat Dajani sign amemorandum ofunderstanding

Alice Lichtenstein Irwin Rosenberg

PHOTO: JOANIE TOBIN spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 27

guished Teacher Award, the StudentAmerican Veterinary Medical AssociationNational Teaching Award in Basic Scienceand the Former Students DistinguishedAchievement Award in Teaching at TexasA&M. She has received numerous grantsfor education and curriculum developmentand participated in educational outreachprojects funded by the National Institute ofEnvironmental Health Science.

Kochevar’s research focuses on pharma-cology and cellular and molecular biology.She has received research grants from the

American Heart Association, the U.S.Department of Agriculture and corpo-rate sponsors.

“After a comprehensive, nationalsearch, I am delighted that we’ve hiredthe best candidate in the country,” saidTufts Provost and Senior Vice PresidentJamshed Bharucha. “Dr. Kochevar is pas-sionate about research and teaching andis the perfect leader to take our veterinaryschool into the future, building on thesuccesses of former Dean Phil Kosch andInterim Dean Sawkat Anwer.”

Kochevar is president of the Ameri-can College of Veterinary ClinicalPharmacology and is active in theAmerican Veterinary Medical Associa-tion (AVMA), having chaired itsCouncil on Education and the Educa-tional Commission for Foreign Veter-inary Graduates. As a member andvice-chair of the AVMA Council onResearch, she also served on the edito-rial board of the American Journal ofVeterinary Research.

The committee charged with find-ing the best candidate to lead NewEngland’s only veterinary school was

composed of faculty, students and staff.The committee began its search in June2005, after Kosch announced his decisionto take a one-year sabbatical before return-ing to Tufts to assist the Provost’s Officewith special research projects. M. SawkatAnwer, distinguished professor and chair ofthe school’s Department of BiomedicalSciences, has served as the veterinaryschool’s interim dean since last July. He willresume his teaching and research responsi-bilities full-time on August 1.

26 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: LARRY WADSWORTH

, .

Deborah Turner Kochevar as the fourth dean of the CummingsSchool of Veterinary Medicine. She starts her new job onAugust 1. n Board-certified by the American College of VeterinaryClinical Pharmacology, Kochevar is widely respected as a leader inveterinary medicine, an inspirational teacher and a scientist.

“The students, faculty and staff atthe Cummings School are among thebest in the nation,” Kochevar said. “I amthrilled to serve as dean for such a ded-icated and talented group. From itsbeginning in 1978, the school hasserved as a model for progressive andinnovative scholarly activity. I hope tonurture and expand those traditions tothe benefit of the school and the veteri-nary profession.”

Kochevar is currently associate deanfor professional programs and holds theWiley Chair of Veterinary MedicalEducation at Texas A&M University’sCollege of Veterinary Medicine andBiomedical Sciences. She also is a pro-fessor of veterinary physiology andpharmacology at the College ofVeterinary Medicine, with a jointappointment in medical physiology.She has been on the faculty at TexasA&M since 1987 and served two stintsas acting dean in 2004 and 2005.

“I’m excited about having Dr.Kochevar join our senior academicleadership team,” Tufts PresidentLawrence S. Bacow said. “Not only will shebe an outstanding dean of the CummingsSchool, she also will have much to con-tribute to the entire university. She hasenormous energy and is a superb teacherand scholar.”

Kochevar graduated Phi Beta Kappawith a B.A. in English and biology fromRice University in 1978. She received a doc-tor of veterinary medicine degree fromTexas A&M University in 1981, and a post-doctorate degree in cellular and molecular

biology from the University of TexasSouthwestern Medical Center in 1987. Shewas a National Institutes of HealthNational Research Service Award Fellowfrom 1984 to 1986. In the mid-1990s, shespent a year in Washington, D.C., as aCongressional Science Fellow with theSenate Labor and Human ResourcesCommittee.

Heralded as an inspiring mentor to herstudents, Kochevar has won many teachingawards, including the Norden Distin-

UNIVERSITY NEWS THE WIDER WORLD OF TUFTS

Dr. Deborah Turner KochevarCummings School has new leaderTHE LIGHT ON THE HILL CAN SHINE MORE BRIGHTLY,

says Julie Pierce, Tufts’ new executive directorof communications. “It’s often said that Tufts isa hidden gem,” says Pierce, who arrived atTufts last fall and stepped into her position ona full-time basis in January. “I see my job ashelping bring that gem to light, to get theword out about Tufts as a distinctive place. Ifwe’re not doing a good job of talking aboutour people, about their research and about

what makes Tufts special, then the university’s not going to get the recognition it deserves.“Successful communication is critical to the success of the university,”she says. “And our abili-

ty to shine a light on Tufts is absolutely essential to the success of our next capital campaign.”Pierce has spent most of her career working in Asia; her background includes experi-

ence in communications strategy, reputation management, media relations and publishing.Her responsibilities at Tufts include oversight for Publications, Public Relations and WebCommunications, which now make up a university-wide communications office within thethree-year-old University Relations Division led by Mary Jeka. “We’re beginning to take amuch more integrated and collaborative approach to how we talk and write about Tuftsand how we serve various constituencies, both internally and externally,” Pierce says.

As the university prepares for its next capital campaign, with a goal of raising more than$1 billion, University Relations has undertaken a branding initiative designed to strengthenTufts’ communications and visual identity. That’s the type of talk that until fairly recentlywas typical of the commercial world, not academia.

“It’s true, we’re not strictly in the business of selling a service or a product,” Pierce says.“We’re in a more genteel profession. Some would like to believe we don’t need to talkabout what makes us special or what makes Tufts different [from other universities]. But ifwe don’t, we leave it to others to define us. We’re stepping forward and taking ownership ofour own identity.”The communications team will begin rolling out the new visual identitysystem in June and will be meeting with many groups across the university over the com-ing months.

Pierce’s other priorities include:n Strengthening Tufts’ presence online, in part by working with the professional schools

and key externally facing departments, including Admissions and Human Resources,to build user-friendly websites based on a common design template and contentmanagement system.

n Providing strategic communications counsel and support to senior university officersand the leadership teams at each of the schools.

n Assessing opportunities to improve print and online publications and marketing com-munications collateral based on internal and external feedback as well as competitivebenchmarking in terms of quality, cost and timeliness.

A graduate of Yale University, Pierce began her career as a copy editor for the EconomistIntelligence Unit, a provider of business intelligence for multinational companies. At age 25,she went to work for the company’s operations in Hong Kong, arriving there with littlemore than two suitcases and the desire to experience life abroad. She subsequently workedfor management consultants McKinsey & Co., both in Hong Kong and in Boston, returningto the United States in 1999. She lives in Newton, Mass., with her husband and their twoteenage sons. —Helene Ragovin

Defining whatwe know as

Julie Pierce

Dr. Deborah Turner Kochevar

President Lawrence S. Bacow at the startingline in Hopkinton, Mass., on April 17 forthe 110th running of the Boston Marathon.The Tufts team participated in the fourthannual President’s Marathon Challenge,which raises funds for nutrition, medicaland fitness research at the university.

Tufts runners raised more than$900,000 during the first three years of thechallenge, and the 2006 team exceeded its$400,000 goal, raising more than $401,000in donations and pledges so far, accordingto Eric C. Johnson, executive director ofdevelopment, who ran his fourth marathonchallenge this year.

Scott Loomis, a second-year student atTufts School of Medicine, was the fastestrunner from Massachusetts to cross the fin-ish line, clocking 2 hours, 28 minutes and48 seconds over the 26.2-mile course—good enough for 35th place among the20,117 runners who toed the starting line.

The 2006 Tufts team consisted of 102students, 41 alumni, 26 faculty/staff mem-bers, 10 parents and 21 friends of the uni-versity, including Somerville Mayor JoeCurtatone. Throughout the winter, teammembers participated in interval trainingruns with Don Megerle, Tufts’ longtimemen’s swimming coach, and attendednutritional seminars hosted by faculty ofthe Friedman School of Nutrition Scienceand Policy. “I continue to be impressed byeveryone’s commitment to being part of theTufts Marathon Team,” Bacow said.

In addition to the runners, another 300to 400 members of the Tufts communityserved as volunteers and cheerleaders alongthe marathon route. For more about therace or to make a Challenge pledge, go tohttp://www. tuftsmarathonchallenge.com.

A CHALLENGE MET

Scott Loomis, astudent at TuftsSchool of Medicine,was the fastest runnerfrom Massachusetts

PHOTO: JOANIE TOBIN spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 27

guished Teacher Award, the StudentAmerican Veterinary Medical AssociationNational Teaching Award in Basic Scienceand the Former Students DistinguishedAchievement Award in Teaching at TexasA&M. She has received numerous grantsfor education and curriculum developmentand participated in educational outreachprojects funded by the National Institute ofEnvironmental Health Science.

Kochevar’s research focuses on pharma-cology and cellular and molecular biology.She has received research grants from the

American Heart Association, the U.S.Department of Agriculture and corpo-rate sponsors.

“After a comprehensive, nationalsearch, I am delighted that we’ve hiredthe best candidate in the country,” saidTufts Provost and Senior Vice PresidentJamshed Bharucha. “Dr. Kochevar is pas-sionate about research and teaching andis the perfect leader to take our veterinaryschool into the future, building on thesuccesses of former Dean Phil Kosch andInterim Dean Sawkat Anwer.”

Kochevar is president of the Ameri-can College of Veterinary ClinicalPharmacology and is active in theAmerican Veterinary Medical Associa-tion (AVMA), having chaired itsCouncil on Education and the Educa-tional Commission for Foreign Veter-inary Graduates. As a member andvice-chair of the AVMA Council onResearch, she also served on the edito-rial board of the American Journal ofVeterinary Research.

The committee charged with find-ing the best candidate to lead NewEngland’s only veterinary school was

composed of faculty, students and staff.The committee began its search in June2005, after Kosch announced his decisionto take a one-year sabbatical before return-ing to Tufts to assist the Provost’s Officewith special research projects. M. SawkatAnwer, distinguished professor and chair ofthe school’s Department of BiomedicalSciences, has served as the veterinaryschool’s interim dean since last July. He willresume his teaching and research responsi-bilities full-time on August 1.

26 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTO: LARRY WADSWORTH

, .

Deborah Turner Kochevar as the fourth dean of the CummingsSchool of Veterinary Medicine. She starts her new job onAugust 1. n Board-certified by the American College of VeterinaryClinical Pharmacology, Kochevar is widely respected as a leader inveterinary medicine, an inspirational teacher and a scientist.

“The students, faculty and staff atthe Cummings School are among thebest in the nation,” Kochevar said. “I amthrilled to serve as dean for such a ded-icated and talented group. From itsbeginning in 1978, the school hasserved as a model for progressive andinnovative scholarly activity. I hope tonurture and expand those traditions tothe benefit of the school and the veteri-nary profession.”

Kochevar is currently associate deanfor professional programs and holds theWiley Chair of Veterinary MedicalEducation at Texas A&M University’sCollege of Veterinary Medicine andBiomedical Sciences. She also is a pro-fessor of veterinary physiology andpharmacology at the College ofVeterinary Medicine, with a jointappointment in medical physiology.She has been on the faculty at TexasA&M since 1987 and served two stintsas acting dean in 2004 and 2005.

“I’m excited about having Dr.Kochevar join our senior academicleadership team,” Tufts PresidentLawrence S. Bacow said. “Not only will shebe an outstanding dean of the CummingsSchool, she also will have much to con-tribute to the entire university. She hasenormous energy and is a superb teacherand scholar.”

Kochevar graduated Phi Beta Kappawith a B.A. in English and biology fromRice University in 1978. She received a doc-tor of veterinary medicine degree fromTexas A&M University in 1981, and a post-doctorate degree in cellular and molecular

biology from the University of TexasSouthwestern Medical Center in 1987. Shewas a National Institutes of HealthNational Research Service Award Fellowfrom 1984 to 1986. In the mid-1990s, shespent a year in Washington, D.C., as aCongressional Science Fellow with theSenate Labor and Human ResourcesCommittee.

Heralded as an inspiring mentor to herstudents, Kochevar has won many teachingawards, including the Norden Distin-

UNIVERSITY NEWS THE WIDER WORLD OF TUFTS

Dr. Deborah Turner KochevarCummings School has new leaderTHE LIGHT ON THE HILL CAN SHINE MORE BRIGHTLY,

says Julie Pierce, Tufts’ new executive directorof communications. “It’s often said that Tufts isa hidden gem,” says Pierce, who arrived atTufts last fall and stepped into her position ona full-time basis in January. “I see my job ashelping bring that gem to light, to get theword out about Tufts as a distinctive place. Ifwe’re not doing a good job of talking aboutour people, about their research and about

what makes Tufts special, then the university’s not going to get the recognition it deserves.“Successful communication is critical to the success of the university,”she says. “And our abili-

ty to shine a light on Tufts is absolutely essential to the success of our next capital campaign.”Pierce has spent most of her career working in Asia; her background includes experi-

ence in communications strategy, reputation management, media relations and publishing.Her responsibilities at Tufts include oversight for Publications, Public Relations and WebCommunications, which now make up a university-wide communications office within thethree-year-old University Relations Division led by Mary Jeka. “We’re beginning to take amuch more integrated and collaborative approach to how we talk and write about Tuftsand how we serve various constituencies, both internally and externally,” Pierce says.

As the university prepares for its next capital campaign, with a goal of raising more than$1 billion, University Relations has undertaken a branding initiative designed to strengthenTufts’ communications and visual identity. That’s the type of talk that until fairly recentlywas typical of the commercial world, not academia.

“It’s true, we’re not strictly in the business of selling a service or a product,” Pierce says.“We’re in a more genteel profession. Some would like to believe we don’t need to talkabout what makes us special or what makes Tufts different [from other universities]. But ifwe don’t, we leave it to others to define us. We’re stepping forward and taking ownership ofour own identity.”The communications team will begin rolling out the new visual identitysystem in June and will be meeting with many groups across the university over the com-ing months.

Pierce’s other priorities include:n Strengthening Tufts’ presence online, in part by working with the professional schools

and key externally facing departments, including Admissions and Human Resources,to build user-friendly websites based on a common design template and contentmanagement system.

n Providing strategic communications counsel and support to senior university officersand the leadership teams at each of the schools.

n Assessing opportunities to improve print and online publications and marketing com-munications collateral based on internal and external feedback as well as competitivebenchmarking in terms of quality, cost and timeliness.

A graduate of Yale University, Pierce began her career as a copy editor for the EconomistIntelligence Unit, a provider of business intelligence for multinational companies. At age 25,she went to work for the company’s operations in Hong Kong, arriving there with littlemore than two suitcases and the desire to experience life abroad. She subsequently workedfor management consultants McKinsey & Co., both in Hong Kong and in Boston, returningto the United States in 1999. She lives in Newton, Mass., with her husband and their twoteenage sons. —Helene Ragovin

Defining whatwe know as

Julie Pierce

Dr. Deborah Turner Kochevar

President Lawrence S. Bacow at the startingline in Hopkinton, Mass., on April 17 forthe 110th running of the Boston Marathon.The Tufts team participated in the fourthannual President’s Marathon Challenge,which raises funds for nutrition, medicaland fitness research at the university.

Tufts runners raised more than$900,000 during the first three years of thechallenge, and the 2006 team exceeded its$400,000 goal, raising more than $401,000in donations and pledges so far, accordingto Eric C. Johnson, executive director ofdevelopment, who ran his fourth marathonchallenge this year.

Scott Loomis, a second-year student atTufts School of Medicine, was the fastestrunner from Massachusetts to cross the fin-ish line, clocking 2 hours, 28 minutes and48 seconds over the 26.2-mile course—good enough for 35th place among the20,117 runners who toed the starting line.

The 2006 Tufts team consisted of 102students, 41 alumni, 26 faculty/staff mem-bers, 10 parents and 21 friends of the uni-versity, including Somerville Mayor JoeCurtatone. Throughout the winter, teammembers participated in interval trainingruns with Don Megerle, Tufts’ longtimemen’s swimming coach, and attendednutritional seminars hosted by faculty ofthe Friedman School of Nutrition Scienceand Policy. “I continue to be impressed byeveryone’s commitment to being part of theTufts Marathon Team,” Bacow said.

In addition to the runners, another 300to 400 members of the Tufts communityserved as volunteers and cheerleaders alongthe marathon route. For more about therace or to make a Challenge pledge, go tohttp://www. tuftsmarathonchallenge.com.

A CHALLENGE MET

Scott Loomis, astudent at TuftsSchool of Medicine,was the fastest runnerfrom Massachusetts

28 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTOS: MELODY KO

AS SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN TO AFRICA SEVEN OR EIGHT TIMES AND

spent a month last summer working in Africa and Bangladesh, Dr.Jeffrey Griffiths, associate professor of public health and family medi-cine and of medicine, knows a thing or two about the value of travers-ing great distance and connecting with others. That knowledge under-lay his recent successful grant application to NIH for seed money tocreate a Global Health Framework at Tufts University, based at themedical school. This fall, the NIH awarded Tufts a grant of $125,000annually for three years to link, unify and deepen the dimensions ofthe university’s education and research into global health.

“The grant size may be small, but it will be catalytic for us,” says Griffiths,principal investigator for the proposal. Five years in the making, the grantwill help pay for the creation of a global health curriculum open to Tufts stu-dents across disciplines; provide $50,000 a year in student exchange funds,enabling a number of students to travel overseas and foreign students tocome to Boston; support a half-time global health program assistant forthree years; underwrite the development of Internet-based educational col-laborations with colleagues and institutions abroad; and fund twice-yearlyglobal health workshops on campus.

Griffiths sees the grant as a matter of “lining up the strengths thatwe have here at Tufts” while magnifying their impact. “At the sametime, it’s about tapping the moment where people are focused oninternational events and the health slant on things,” he continues, sin-gling out the scare over avian flu from China and tsunami relief effortsin Thailand in 2004 as recent dramatic examples.

Curricular offerings will tap expertise from a number of Tuftsschools—including, in addition to the medical school, the FriedmanSchool of Nutrition Science and Policy and its Feinstein InternationalFamine Center, the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, theFletcher School and the School of Engineering.

Big questions within the program scope can be richly framed from

multiple perspectives, he believes: What is our definition of health?What is the relationship between poverty and health, and how can weget people out of the desperate, grinding poverty that we find in somany developing nations? How can epidemics or pandemics be man-aged effectively across national borders? How do we handle disasterrelief? Coursework will start at the graduate level, but eventually filterdown to undergrads, thus benefiting the entire Tufts community.

The addition of a part-time staffer in global health is intended toprovide steadiness and continuity for the program, with assignedtasks ranging from hunting down additional funding sources to help-ing students find their overseas placements. “It may be the most criti-cal piece of all,” Griffiths says.

Personal and institutional collaborations over the Internet promiseto exploit modern technology by putting students and colleaguestogether in real time. The kinks of this co-curricular approach are stillbeing worked out, but once everyone is connected, beginning withsites in East Africa, “students at Tufts will no longer learn about globalhealth issues in other countries, they will learn with people in thosecountries,” Griffiths says.

Tufts will officially launch a Concentration in Global Health withinthe M.P.H. program beginning in the 2006–07 academic year.

SMALL WORLDMedical school wins $375,000 global health grant

. , . Professor of English and American History atTufts University, and biographer Kai Bird havebeen awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biogra-phy for their book on the life of J. RobertOppenheimer, the physicist who led theManhattan Project, which resulted in the develop-ment and use of the atomic bomb in August 1945.

A New York Times review describes AmericanPrometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. RobertOppenheimer (Knopf, 2005) as “a work of volumi-

nous scholarship and lucid insight, unifying itsmultifaceted portrait with a keen grasp ofOppenheimer’s essential nature.”

“Oppenheimer was well known for black holetheory,” a region of space that has so much massconcentrated in it that there is no way for a near-by object to escape its gravitational pull, Bird toldthe Boston Herald. “He, as a subject, was a blackhole—extremely enigmatic, complicated.”

Sherwin became interested in Oppenheimerwhile writing A World Destroyed: Hiroshima andthe Origins of the Arms Race (Vintage Books,1987). Earlier this year, American Prometheusreceived the National Book Critics Circle Awardfor the best biography of the year.

PULITZER PRIZE-WINNER

Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths

Martin J. Sherwin

UNIVERITY NEWS THE WIDER WORLD OF TUFTS

PHOTO: GREGORY CAMPBELL spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 29

. , , ,

strengths is its caring and dedicated faculty. His fondness for Tufts’instructors was reinforced the day his international relations profes-sor approached him and said, “Barry, you would be so much morehandsome if you shaved your beard off.”

Rosenbaum, just having returned fromspending a summer in the late 1950s as a“gandy dancer” (a railroad worker), was theonly student on campus with a full beard.He was not the slightest bit offended andbrightly recalls that it was one of the manymoments when he knew that the faculty atthe college cared about the students theytaught. “They really took an interest in us,”he says.

Now, Rosenbaum, a Friedman Schooloverseer, and his wife, Renée Underwood,are saying thanks. They have established acharitable remainder trust to benefit theFriedman School of Nutrition Science andPolicy and the Tufts University AlumniAssociation. The unitrust gives them theability to make a significant gift to Tuftsand provides them with income for life.

“Creating a charitable remainder trustis unique because people can donate assetsor other items to charities while simulta-neously ensuring a stream of income,”Rosenbaum says. “It’s a great way to meetall your needs.”

Although Renée is not a Tufts graduate,she says she has grown to love the universityand the Friedman School as passionately asher husband. She joins Barry in many of histrips to the Hill on behalf of the university.

Rosenbaum’s interest in nutrition beganduring his specialty training in nephrology,when he learned the importance of nutri-tion physiology in the biochemistry of thebody. He has since become an overseer tothe Friedman School.

“It has been a wonderful experience andhas meant a lot to me to make a contribu-tion to the workings of the school,” he says.“Tufts taught me how to think. Now I usethat ability to come up with research topicsand innovative ways to raise money.”

Rosenbaum recently retired as thefounder and managing member of theAtlanta Nephrology Referral Center inAtlanta. He received a B.A. from Tufts in1960 and his M.D. from Seton Hall in1964. An active Tufts alum, Rosenbaum isa past regional vice president of the TuftsUniversity Alumni Association, an inter-viewer and one of the founders of the TuftsAlumni Admissions Program (TAAP) andthe founder of the Atlanta Tufts Alliance.

PROVIDING THE MEANS FOR EXCELLENCE A D V A N C E M E N T

Noted nephrologist and wifeestablish charitable trustby Nina Braten

Dr. Barry Rosenbaum and his wife, Renée Underwood

PHOTO: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 31

STAYING CONNECTED ALUMNI NEWS

30 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTOS: MELODY KO

DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE DRAWSFROM VOLUNTEER LEADERS

. Friedman School of Nutrition Science andPolicy, and he turns eloquent spokesman.

“The mission of the school is one of thegreat humanitarian missions,” said Rabb, aFriedman School overseer and Boston-areaphysician. “It’s feeding the hungry, treatingand preventing disease through nutritionand managing the policy issues of worldhunger, which affects more people thanbullets.”

So Rabb has offered his services to helpraise several million dollars in contributions

to the school by co-chairing a newDevelopment Committee, drawn from vol-unteer leaders from the Board of Overseersand the Friedman Alumni Association.

Formed to bolster the school’s fund-rais-ing efforts, the Development Committeewill expand the school’s pool of donors atthe leadership ($1,000-plus) level, cultivatenew friends and institutional partners capa-ble of providing major and principal giftsand recommend fund-raising strategies forthe university’s upcoming capital campaign.

“Past efforts on behalf of Friedman

School fund-raising largely have been led byprofessionals in the development office,” saidcommittee Co-Chair Joan ArbetterRosenberg, N84, of the Friedman AlumniAssociation Executive Council. “With theformation of the Development Committee,volunteers and professionals will partner tostrengthen the school’s fund-raising efforts.”

Other members are Elizabeth CocharyGross, N82, N88, a Friedman overseer andpresident of the school’s alumni association;Executive Associate Dean Judy Diamond;Overseer and Trustee Emerita Ruth Remis,A79P, A81P; and Overseer Robert Usen,A50, N03P.

Working closely with the committee areMark Grossmann, the school’s director ofdevelopment; Cindy Briggs Tobin, theschool’s director of annual giving and alumnirelations; and Wendy Lekan, associate direc-tor for corporate and foundation relations.

Committee members aim to harnesstheir networking skills to attract outsidesupport for the Friedman School’s singularwork. “Through strategies such as eventsand one-on-one meetings, the committee isworking to expand the school’s body offriends to dramatically increase the school’sresources and strengthen its ability to fulfillits mission,” Rosenberg said.

Because the Friedman School has beenin existence for such a short time and itsgraduates tend toward altruistic careers, thecommittee’s efforts to find additional sup-porters are crucial, said Rabb, who finds thecompelling nature of the school’s missionand work stimulates the interest of manynew friends.

“The beauty of the school is the fusionof the hard and social sciences and policy,”Rabb said. “It’s a unique graduate schoolthat encompasses nutrition in its entirety—from counting the vitamins in your diet thatpromote better health to caring for desper-ate survivors of a tsunami.

“Our aim is to interest people in sup-porting this critical and lofty mission ofinquiry into all aspects of nutrition,” hesaid. “It’s a very big job.”

To support the Friedman School or tolearn more, call the Office of Developmentand Alumni Relations at 617-636-2940 orvisit http://nutrition.tufts.edu/giving.

A D V A N C E M E N T PROVIDING THE MEANS FOR EXCELLENCE

by Mark Sullivan

During my more than 20 years’ association with Tufts, I havewatched the Friedman School evolve and, unlike many alumni, Ihave had a chance to view it through a variety of lenses: as a stu-dent, scientist, faculty member, director of admissions, AlumniAssociation president and overseer.

Tufts has long had a proud tradition in the nutrition field throughits Frances Stern Nutrition Center. As a member of the school’s firstclass of just 14 students, I was part of a grand experiment—to createan institution that trained new leaders in the nutrition science andpolicy realm and provided cutting-edge scholarship that could helppeople in meaningful, powerful ways. Back in1982, I don’t think any of us could have imag-ined the school as it exists today:

n A world-renowned, respected leader inthe nutrition field.

n More than 850 graduates who arehelping to change the world in roles asdiverse as scientist, scholar, industryleader, public relations specialist, com-munity organizer and policymaker.

n A beautiful facility in downtown Boston that offers state-of-the-art classrooms and places for students and faculty mem-bers (and alumni!) to connect.

n Degree programs that span the discipline of the nutritionfield, including one-of-a-kind programs like NutritionCommunication and Humanitarian Assistance.

As much as the school has grown from its humble beginnings,the core of the school remains the same: its mission. I urge you tostop by the school, meet the latest generation of students and checkout its great home base at 150 Harrison Avenue. For those of youwho may want to help students, network or renew bonds withfriends and mentors, we would love for you to be involved in theAlumni Association. To find out more, please contact Cindy BriggsTobin, director of alumni relations and annual giving, at 617-636-2940 or cindy.briggs@tufts.edu. Or visit the alumni section ofhttp://nutrition.tufts.edu. I look forward to connecting with you!

Sincerely,

, , ,

The mission that ties us together

Elizabeth Van Huysen Mayer, the wife of for-mer Tufts University President Jean Mayer,died on April 4 at Tufts-New England MedicalCenter. She was 91.

“Betty,” as she was known to the Tuftscommunity during the 16 years she served asthe university’s first lady from 1976 to 1992,was deeply interested in Tufts students andwas frequently in the audience for athleticsevents, plays, dance performances and lec-tures. The Elizabeth Van Huysen Mayer Cam-pus Center, opened in 1985 on the

Medford/Somerville campus, is testament toher stature in the Tufts community.

Born in Somerville, Mayer grew up inWeston. She attended the Dana Hall Schoolbefore entering Vassar College, eventuallytransferring to Radcliffe as a commuter stu-dent during the Depression. She did not grad-uate with her class but received her bachelor’sdegree through the Harvard Extension Schoolin 1976 at the time of her 40th reunion.

Unpretentious and athletic, Mayer was thejunior champion of her golf club, played base-ball with the boys and had a mean back-hand.She went hang-gliding at age 75, and at age 88,when she locked herself out on the roof of hersummer cottage in Gloucester, she climbeddown a tree rather than disturb the neighbors.

After leaving college, Mayer worked as areporter, a dance instructor at an Arthur Mur-ray studio, a secretary to movie mogul LouisB. Mayer (no relation) and in Harvard’s Depart-ment of Physiological Chemistry.

It was at Harvard in 1941 that she metJean Mayer, a lieutenant in the Free FrenchForces, who told her on the spot that she wasthe woman he would marry. He sailed forEurope, but when his ship was torpedoed, heasked her to join him in Halifax, Nova Scotia,where they wed. He returned to action formore than three years while Elizabeth, whohad a security clearance from her Harvardwork, worked at the Manhattan Project and inthe radiation lab at MIT. After the war, theylived in New Haven, Washington and Parisbefore returning to the Boston area in 1950,when he joined the Harvard faculty.

The couple came to Tufts in 1976. She vol-unteered in the Boston public schools wellinto her eighties and was a trustee ofLawrence Memorial Hospital, the SomervilleHistorical Society and the National BraillePress, among other organizations.

Mayer is survived by five children and ninegrandchildren.

OBITUARY

FORMER TUFTS FIRST LADY AT

Elizabeth VanHuysen Mayer and former TuftsPresident JeanMayer

Dr. James Rabb (left)and Joan ArbetterRosenberg (above)

PHOTO: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES spr ing 2006 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n 31

STAYING CONNECTED ALUMNI NEWS

30 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006 PHOTOS: MELODY KO

DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE DRAWSFROM VOLUNTEER LEADERS

. Friedman School of Nutrition Science andPolicy, and he turns eloquent spokesman.

“The mission of the school is one of thegreat humanitarian missions,” said Rabb, aFriedman School overseer and Boston-areaphysician. “It’s feeding the hungry, treatingand preventing disease through nutritionand managing the policy issues of worldhunger, which affects more people thanbullets.”

So Rabb has offered his services to helpraise several million dollars in contributions

to the school by co-chairing a newDevelopment Committee, drawn from vol-unteer leaders from the Board of Overseersand the Friedman Alumni Association.

Formed to bolster the school’s fund-rais-ing efforts, the Development Committeewill expand the school’s pool of donors atthe leadership ($1,000-plus) level, cultivatenew friends and institutional partners capa-ble of providing major and principal giftsand recommend fund-raising strategies forthe university’s upcoming capital campaign.

“Past efforts on behalf of Friedman

School fund-raising largely have been led byprofessionals in the development office,” saidcommittee Co-Chair Joan ArbetterRosenberg, N84, of the Friedman AlumniAssociation Executive Council. “With theformation of the Development Committee,volunteers and professionals will partner tostrengthen the school’s fund-raising efforts.”

Other members are Elizabeth CocharyGross, N82, N88, a Friedman overseer andpresident of the school’s alumni association;Executive Associate Dean Judy Diamond;Overseer and Trustee Emerita Ruth Remis,A79P, A81P; and Overseer Robert Usen,A50, N03P.

Working closely with the committee areMark Grossmann, the school’s director ofdevelopment; Cindy Briggs Tobin, theschool’s director of annual giving and alumnirelations; and Wendy Lekan, associate direc-tor for corporate and foundation relations.

Committee members aim to harnesstheir networking skills to attract outsidesupport for the Friedman School’s singularwork. “Through strategies such as eventsand one-on-one meetings, the committee isworking to expand the school’s body offriends to dramatically increase the school’sresources and strengthen its ability to fulfillits mission,” Rosenberg said.

Because the Friedman School has beenin existence for such a short time and itsgraduates tend toward altruistic careers, thecommittee’s efforts to find additional sup-porters are crucial, said Rabb, who finds thecompelling nature of the school’s missionand work stimulates the interest of manynew friends.

“The beauty of the school is the fusionof the hard and social sciences and policy,”Rabb said. “It’s a unique graduate schoolthat encompasses nutrition in its entirety—from counting the vitamins in your diet thatpromote better health to caring for desper-ate survivors of a tsunami.

“Our aim is to interest people in sup-porting this critical and lofty mission ofinquiry into all aspects of nutrition,” hesaid. “It’s a very big job.”

To support the Friedman School or tolearn more, call the Office of Developmentand Alumni Relations at 617-636-2940 orvisit http://nutrition.tufts.edu/giving.

A D V A N C E M E N T PROVIDING THE MEANS FOR EXCELLENCE

by Mark Sullivan

During my more than 20 years’ association with Tufts, I havewatched the Friedman School evolve and, unlike many alumni, Ihave had a chance to view it through a variety of lenses: as a stu-dent, scientist, faculty member, director of admissions, AlumniAssociation president and overseer.

Tufts has long had a proud tradition in the nutrition field throughits Frances Stern Nutrition Center. As a member of the school’s firstclass of just 14 students, I was part of a grand experiment—to createan institution that trained new leaders in the nutrition science andpolicy realm and provided cutting-edge scholarship that could helppeople in meaningful, powerful ways. Back in1982, I don’t think any of us could have imag-ined the school as it exists today:

n A world-renowned, respected leader inthe nutrition field.

n More than 850 graduates who arehelping to change the world in roles asdiverse as scientist, scholar, industryleader, public relations specialist, com-munity organizer and policymaker.

n A beautiful facility in downtown Boston that offers state-of-the-art classrooms and places for students and faculty mem-bers (and alumni!) to connect.

n Degree programs that span the discipline of the nutritionfield, including one-of-a-kind programs like NutritionCommunication and Humanitarian Assistance.

As much as the school has grown from its humble beginnings,the core of the school remains the same: its mission. I urge you tostop by the school, meet the latest generation of students and checkout its great home base at 150 Harrison Avenue. For those of youwho may want to help students, network or renew bonds withfriends and mentors, we would love for you to be involved in theAlumni Association. To find out more, please contact Cindy BriggsTobin, director of alumni relations and annual giving, at 617-636-2940 or cindy.briggs@tufts.edu. Or visit the alumni section ofhttp://nutrition.tufts.edu. I look forward to connecting with you!

Sincerely,

, , ,

The mission that ties us together

Elizabeth Van Huysen Mayer, the wife of for-mer Tufts University President Jean Mayer,died on April 4 at Tufts-New England MedicalCenter. She was 91.

“Betty,” as she was known to the Tuftscommunity during the 16 years she served asthe university’s first lady from 1976 to 1992,was deeply interested in Tufts students andwas frequently in the audience for athleticsevents, plays, dance performances and lec-tures. The Elizabeth Van Huysen Mayer Cam-pus Center, opened in 1985 on the

Medford/Somerville campus, is testament toher stature in the Tufts community.

Born in Somerville, Mayer grew up inWeston. She attended the Dana Hall Schoolbefore entering Vassar College, eventuallytransferring to Radcliffe as a commuter stu-dent during the Depression. She did not grad-uate with her class but received her bachelor’sdegree through the Harvard Extension Schoolin 1976 at the time of her 40th reunion.

Unpretentious and athletic, Mayer was thejunior champion of her golf club, played base-ball with the boys and had a mean back-hand.She went hang-gliding at age 75, and at age 88,when she locked herself out on the roof of hersummer cottage in Gloucester, she climbeddown a tree rather than disturb the neighbors.

After leaving college, Mayer worked as areporter, a dance instructor at an Arthur Mur-ray studio, a secretary to movie mogul LouisB. Mayer (no relation) and in Harvard’s Depart-ment of Physiological Chemistry.

It was at Harvard in 1941 that she metJean Mayer, a lieutenant in the Free FrenchForces, who told her on the spot that she wasthe woman he would marry. He sailed forEurope, but when his ship was torpedoed, heasked her to join him in Halifax, Nova Scotia,where they wed. He returned to action formore than three years while Elizabeth, whohad a security clearance from her Harvardwork, worked at the Manhattan Project and inthe radiation lab at MIT. After the war, theylived in New Haven, Washington and Parisbefore returning to the Boston area in 1950,when he joined the Harvard faculty.

The couple came to Tufts in 1976. She vol-unteered in the Boston public schools wellinto her eighties and was a trustee ofLawrence Memorial Hospital, the SomervilleHistorical Society and the National BraillePress, among other organizations.

Mayer is survived by five children and ninegrandchildren.

OBITUARY

FORMER TUFTS FIRST LADY AT

Elizabeth VanHuysen Mayer and former TuftsPresident JeanMayer

Dr. James Rabb (left)and Joan ArbetterRosenberg (above)

32 t u f t s n u t r i t i o n spr ing 2006

Laura Coleman, N95, is a researchspecialist at the Marshfield ClinicResearch Foundation in Wisconsin.

Xiang-Dong Wang, professor atthe Friedman School and directorof the Nutrition and Cancer Biolo-gy Laboratory at the Jean MayerUSDA Human Nutrition ResearchCenter on Aging, has received afive-year, $1.4 million grant fromthe National Cancer Institute tostudy the chemopreventive effectof lycopene against carcinogene-sis and insulin-like growth factor-1signaling. Wang has been invitedto speak on “Smoking, Alcoholand Vitamin A” at the AmericanInstitute for Cancer Research inter-national conference on “Food,Nutrition and Cancer,” which willtake place July 13-14 in Washing-ton, D.C. He has also been invitedto speak on “Carotenoid OxidativeMetabolites: Implications for CancerPrevention” at the InternationalSociety for Free Radical Research13th biennial congress, which willbe held August 15-19 in Davos,Switzerland. Wang will give aninvited talk on “Alcohol, Retinoidsand Hepatocellular Cancer” at theInternational Society for Biomed-ical Research on Alcoholism’s 2006World Congress September 10-13in Sydney, Australia.

Carolyn Contract works for theCenter for Health Communicationat the Academy for EducationalDevelopment in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Otten is pursuing a doc-toral degree at the University ofVermont.

Karen Schroeder married MichaelKassel on May 7, 2005. She isworking as a freelance medicalwriter.

Wanda Velez-Carrasco, N99, is anassistant professor at the Universi-dad Central del Caribe’s School ofMedicine in Puerto Rico. Sheteaches lipid metabolism to first-year medical students. Herresearch focuses on nicotinicreceptors.

Jessica Collins is the director ofthe Somerville Health Agenda forthe Cambridge Health Alliance.

Holly Freishtat has joined Skagi-tonians to Preserve Farmland asan agricultural marketing pro-gram director. The program oper-ates in collaboration with the Eco-nomic Development Associationof Skagit County, located in thenorthwest corner of WashingtonState. The program is aimed atmarketing the Skagit Valley brandand creating an identity for Skag-it-grown products.

Kimberly Dong and KendrinSonnenville traveled with theTufts Travel-Learn Program toParis and Amsterdam in May 2005.

Casey Lewis has been promotedto manager at Cadbury Sch-weppes Inc., and has moved toAustralia to start a nutritiondepartment for that company’sAsia Pacific region.

Vanessa Cavallaro traveled withthe Tufts Travel-Learn program toParis and Amsterdam in May 2005.

Jean Bianchetto is a recruiter forvolunteer services in the Metabol-ic Research Unit of the Jean MayerUSDA Human Nutrition ResearchCenter on Aging at Tufts.

Alexander “Sasha” Chanoff, F04,launched Somerville-basedMapendo International(www.mapendo.org) in 2004 torescue and protect people fleeingconflict and violence in Africawho have fallen through the netof humanitarian aid. The organiza-tion’s medical and rescue initia-tives aim to reach out to thou-

sands of people whose struggleto survive would otherwise gounnoticed.

Justine Kahn is a senior childnutrition outreach coordinator forProject Bread in Boston.

Kristine Shedd is pursuing a doc-toral degree at the University ofCalifornia at Davis.

Stacey King is the coordinator ofHealthy Living Cambridge, a pro-gram of the Department of PublicHealth in Cambridge, Mass.

ALUMNI NEWS CLASS NOTES

Join us in congratulatingthe Class of 2006 and supporting the future

leaders in nutrition

Give to the Friedman School’s annual fund and inspire:

• Sound nutrition research•Innovative teaching

• Reliable health information• Public service through community programs

To make your donation, use the envelopeenclosed in this magazine or, for more

information, call the Friedman DevelopmentOffice at 617-636-2940 or go online to

http://nutrition.tufts.edu.

Fixing school lunchWhat do celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, leg-endary restaurant owner Alice Waters andFriedman School alumnus Bill Idell have incommon? All are chefs using their culinaryknow-how to turn the school lunch experi-ence into something more than chickennuggets and French fries. While Oliver andWaters have campaigned for changes nation-ally and internationally, Idell, a professionalchef for 18 years, is using the midday meal towork nutrition into the curriculum at aMassachusetts charter school. At the sametime, he empathizes with budget-strappedschool lunch directors who face pressure tocurb childhood obesity. For more on thestory, see page 14.

PHO

TOBY

MEL

OD

YKO

NONPROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDBOSTON, MA

PERMIT NO. 1161

TUFTS UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF PUBLICATIONS 7337 5/06

the gerald j. and dorothy r. friedmanschool of nutritionscience and policy150 Harrison AvenueBoston, MA 02111http://nutrition.tufts.edu