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Liana Haywood

New dietary guidelines include pregnancy, breastfeeding and early childhood recommendations for first time

Guidelines recognize the role of nutrition during pregnancy in influencing lifelong health outcomes for mother and baby

For the first time ever, the newly released 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans focus on a lifespan approach to nutrition, with specific sections dedicated to nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and infancy and early childhood.  

The OHSU Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness provided testimony on the science of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) to the scientific committee compiling the recommendations for the updated guidelines.

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Success story: sustainable farm supports budding Latino farmers

Farm is run on "horsepower"

Arriving at Stoneboat Farm, Matsu one of the large, white farm dogs immediately trundles over and pushes his head under your hand for a few ear scratches. He wanders freely around this farm in the rolling hills just west of Portland doing his part to keep animals, like hungry deer, away from the rows of veggies.

The Moore Institute likes to highlight groups around the state that are working to improve the food culture and ultimately reduce the prevalence of chronic disease.

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Success story: one school’s quest to serve healthy whole foods

Low-income public charter school in Medford, Ore. serves three fresh from-scratch meals daily

The smell of baking bread is irresistible as head chef Kris Walker shows a group of visitors the trailer he and his team have been working out of for the past year. The tiny trailer is steamy from hours of food preparation, and cramped with only five people in it. Yet somehow this is where Walker and his team have been able to prepare three healthy meals a day from scratch for more than 300 kids for the past year.

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Often overlooked, adolescent nutrition plays key role in health

Nutrition is important at all stages of life, but during adolescence it plays a particularly important role.

Any parent who has had to buy their child three different sizes of pants over the course of one school year will know that adolescents grow more during this time period than at any other time except infancy. So it goes without saying that adolescents have increased nutritional needs.

About half of a healthy body mass is gained during adolescence.

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Success story: one university’s attempt to improve the health culture on campus

George Fox University implements Nutrition Matters Program to weave nutrition importance throughout campus culture

When you think of food on college campuses what comes to mind? For most of us we probably picture dorms with cafeterias offering mystery meat burgers, pizza, corn dogs, fries and soda dispensers. But George Fox University decided it wanted to change all of that.

George Fox is located just outside of Portland in Oregon’s growing wine country. The campus has a 14:1 student to faculty ratio, helping the 4,000 plus students form a tight-knit community.

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What’s wrong with the American diet?

Too much and too little

What’s wrong with the average American diet? Too much and too little. We consume too much salt, fat, sugar and calories and too little nutrients from fresh whole fruits and vegetables.

Three-quarters of Americans don’t eat the recommend five to nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables. More than half exceed the recommendations for protein and grain consumption, but this is made up of red meat, high-fat dairy and refined carbohydrates,

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Nine ways to strengthen the connection between schools and nutrition

It’s that time of year. Kids across the country have headed back to school. They spend the greater part of their day at school and what they learn there can have a huge impact on how they think and feel about food. Creating a healthy environment at school can influence a child’s health, learning and long-term eating habits. Shouldn’t our schools be sending the right message about the importance of nutrition to our kids’ health?

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How birth weight predicts our risk for adult chronic disease

How we grow before we're born and in the first years of life matters

Did you know that your birth weight can predict whether you will develop heart disease, diabetes or certain other chronic diseases later in life? Wacky, but true.

Thanks to research into the Developmental Origins of Health & Disease (DOHaD) over the past 20 years, we know that babies born at the lower end of the normal birth weight range experience greater rates of chronic disease throughout life.

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How we grow before we’re born matters

The current generation of children is the third generation to eat processed foods and will be the first generation ever in the U.S. to live shorter lives than their parents. We now know that the nutrition we receive before we are born and in the first years of life affects our risk for developing chronic disease. Watch OHSU Moore Institute director Kent Thornburg at TEDxPortland explain more.

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How dad’s nutrition impacts children’s health

What males eat before becoming fathers affects their children's chronic disease risk

What a woman eats while she is pregnant has implications for her developing child. But what about the role of men? Does what a man eats have an impact on his future children? It may seem strange, but emerging research shows that the nutrition of fathers does have a role in their children’s risk for developing chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and obesity later in life.

Just as a woman’s diet has a role in affecting the health of her children and grandchildren,

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The magical, mysterious placenta

What does it have to do with chronic disease?

The placenta is the organ that connects the developing baby to its mother during pregnancy. It is where the mother’s and baby’s blood meet to exchange nutrients. At birth it detaches from the inner wall of the womb and is delivered to the outside world along with the newborn baby.

While the placenta may be one of the least understood organs in the human body, it is arguably one of the most important.

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Success story: One organization’s path toward changing its food culture

A Q&A with Eecole Copen, manager of the OHSU Farmers Market

What was the impetus behind starting a farmers market at OHSU?

My director and I were at the very first Food-Med conference. We heard a presentation about the process of starting farmers markets at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California. A lightbulb went off in both of our brains simultaneously. OHSU is located on a hill with little access to fresh fruits and veggies, and at the time had no place for the community to gather.

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“Instead of wagging fingers, we need to generate consensus. Empowering consumers to call for better access to better food will put pressure on politicians to respond to voters, and on the food industry to please their customers.”

David Barker, Ph.D. from Nature, 2013