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The Power of Storytelling in Scientific Communications

February 12, 2024 in /by

An understanding of the narrative arc in scientific contexts will assist in building storytelling techniques for scientists.

As part of the 2023 Science Innovation Showcase, Andi Robinson (Hijinx Marketing/Butler University) reviewed the essence of storytelling in science including an exploration of some notable examples of storytelling in science.  Also explored was the challenges in scientific communication  - including the complexity and specialization of scientific information.  An understanding of the narrative arc in scientific contexts will assist in building storytelling techniques for scientists. Additionally, case studies are presented with examples from both the public and private sector.

More information on the IAFNS 2023 Science Innovation Showcase is available here.

Benefits of Potassium Substitution for Public Health

February 1, 2024 in /by

Recorded January 29, 2024

IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). The Webinar: Benefits of Potassium Substitution for Public Health awards 1 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU), for completion of this recorded webinar until January 28, 2027, in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.

Description:

Hypertension is the single most important and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide. Non-pharmacologic interventions — in particular dietary modifications — have been established to decrease blood pressure and hypertension-related adverse cardiovascular events. Among those dietary modifications, sodium intake restriction dominates guidelines from professional organizations and has garnered the greatest attention from the mainstream media. Despite guidelines and health campaigns, dietary sodium intake globally has not noticeably changed over recent decades.

Meanwhile, increasing dietary potassium intake has remained on the sidelines, despite its having similar blood pressure-lowering effects. New research reveals a potential mechanism of action, with the elucidation of its effect on natriuresis via the potassium switch effect. Additionally, potassium substituted salt has been shown to not only reduce blood pressure, but also reduce the risk for stroke and cardiovascular mortality. Speakers will discuss these data and a shift from a sodium-focused to a sodium- and potassium-focused approach to dietary modification with an emphasis on intervention strategies which can easily be implemented into clinical practice.

Speakers:

Trish Zecca MS, IAFNS, Moderator

Paul Welling, MD, Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Kristin Reimers, PhD, RD, Research Fellow Conagra Brand

 Commission on Dietetic Registration Performance Indicators:

4.1.2 Interprets and integrates evidence-based research and literature in decision-making.
6.2.3 Analyzes and interprets data to form valid conclusions and to make recommendations.
8.1 Interprets and applies current food and nutrition science in nutrition and dietetic practice.

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

Why is Cutting Back on Sodium So Hard? Exploring the Sensory Science, Consumer Perceptions and Culinary Solutions

February 1, 2024 in /by

Recorded January 31, 2024

IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). The Webinar: Why is Reducing Sodium So Hard? Sensory Science, Consumer Insights and Culinary Solutions awards 1.5 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU), for completion of this recorded webinar until January 30, 2027, in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.

Description:

Sodium reduction efforts are at the center of a complex nexus of taste, food safety, consumer perceptions and culinary solutions. Participants in this webinar will learn about the science behind taste and smell, while also exploring the various factors that influence consumers’ sodium perceptions and behaviors.

A global sensory expert from Monell Chemical Senses Center will feature the sensory science behind sodium and its impact on taste preferences and the role taste and smell play in overall enjoyment. With this scientific knowledge, participants will be able to better navigate the sensory challenges of reducing sodium. A Cargill market research official will examine consumers’ perceptions of sodium, including the impact on purchasing decisions, avoidance behaviors, health perceptions and their familiarity with sodium and sodium replacers.  These consumer insights will equip participants with tools to reduce sodium, deliver on consumers preferences and help provide effective dietary counsel.

In addition to exploring the challenge of sodium reduction, Nestlé’s Director of Culinary Innovation will share alternative solutions for delivering taste-driven products with reduced sodium content. Participants will learn innovative techniques and ingredients that can be used to enhance flavors and create delicious, low-sodium options.

Speakers:

Marlene Schmidt, Sr. NHW Manager, Nestlé USA, Moderator

Gary Beauchamp PhD, Distinguished Member; Emeritus Director and President, Monell Chemical Senses Center

Karlis Nollendorfs, MMR, Market Insights Lead, Cargill

Robert Fedorko, Director of Culinary Innovation, Nestlé USA

 Commission on Dietetic Registration Performance Indicators:

4.1.2 Interprets and integrates evidence-based research and literature in decision-making.
6.2.3 Analyzes and interprets data to form valid conclusions and to make recommendations.
8.5.2 Develops or modifies recipes, menus, and meals using sensory perception and other food components.

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

Emerging Science and Technologies to Support Sodium Reduction

February 1, 2024 in /by

Recorded January 26, 2024

IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). The Webinar: Leveraging innovation to address technical challenges of reducing sodium in foods awards 1.5 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU), for completion of this recorded webinar until January 25, 2027, in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.

Description:

Research suggests that most of the dietary sodium of Americans comes from processed, packaged and prepared foods. For individuals trying to manage their sodium intake, identifying food choices that meet their needs may be challenging in some eating or food purchasing situations. However, many food manufacturers and food service organizations have made commitments towards sodium reduction in their products and have stealthily introduced them into the market. There are many technical obstacles to reducing sodium in food products considering the functional roles of sodium-containing ingredients. Removal of sodium-containing ingredients or identifying non- or low-sodium alternatives without compromising sensory attributes (taste, texture, color) and food safety and shelf-life has its limits. The commercially available solutions of today may not achieve the higher sodium reduction targets of the future. This webinar will give insights on the challenges of existing tools, focusing on emerging technologies and future recommendations from a food industry perspective. In addition, attendees will gain insights on the process of identifying new technologies or ingredients and the development cycle of bringing an idea from initial concept to commercialization.

Speakers:

Janice Johnson, PhD, Cargill, Moderator

Soo Yeun-Lee, PhD, Professor and Director of the School of Food Science at Washington State University

Andrew Daniher, PhD, VP Science & Technology, Givaudan

John Jaeggi, Cheese Industry and Applications Group, Center for Dairy Research

Commission on Dietetic Registration Performance Indicators:

4.1.2 Interprets and integrates evidence-based research and literature in decision-making.
6.3.1 Accurately and ethically shares research findings with a variety of audiences
11.1.5 Incorporates market research, consumer insights and current evidence-based literature when developing new products and services.

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

Effects of Sodium Reduction on Food Safety and Quality

February 1, 2024 in /by

Recorded January 25, 2024

IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). The Webinar: Effects of Sodium Reduction on Food Safety and Quality awards 1.5 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU), for completion of this recorded webinar until January 24, 2027, in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.

Description:

Sodium plays a critical role in ensuring food safety and quality. Historically, sodium has served as a natural preservative by lowering water activity in certain foods, which inhibits the growth of harmful pathogens. The addition of salt has also been instrumental in extending the shelf-life of various food products while delaying spoilage. Today, salt remains essential in many food commodities, such as dairy and ready-to-eat meats, not only as a preservative but also as a flavor enhancer and a means to improve texture.

However, as the need to reduce sodium consumption has become more critical to public health, there’s a growing need to decrease salt levels in the formulation of highly-consumed food products. This reduction is complicated and can have consequences—not only to taste and quality but it may also heighten the risk of pathogenic bacterial growth.

This webinar will highlight the technologies and strategies currently employed to safely reduce sodium in foods where salt contributes to food quality and preservation. Also discussed will be the impact of sodium reduction, limitations in particular food products and areas where investment and technologies are still needed to accelerate progress.

Speakers:

Caitlin Karolenko, PhD, IAFNS, Moderator

Kathy Glass, PhD, Distinguished Scientist and Associate Director of the Food Research Institute, University of Wisconsin

Daniel Unruh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Iowa State University

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist, Next Generation Ingredient Science, Kraft Heinz Company

Bob Henney, Product Research and Development Lead, Kraft Heinz Company

Commission on Dietetic Registration Performance Indicators:

4.1.2 Interprets and integrates evidence-based research and literature in decision-making.
7.2.1 Applies knowledge of biological, environmental, physical or chemical properties that may cause food and water to be unsafe for human consumption.
8.1.3 Evaluates the chemical nature and composition of food, on food quality, acceptability, and compatibility to inform product development, menu planning and food preparation techniques

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

Lessons Learned: Opportunities and Challenges to Monitoring Sodium in the Food Supply

February 1, 2024 in /by

,Recorded January 24, 2024

IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). The Webinar: Lessons Learned: Opportunities and Challenges to Monitoring Sodium in the Food Supply awards 1.25 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU) for completion of this recorded webinar until January 23, 2027, in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.

Description:

A significant component of the public health strategy in the US and Canada relies on monitoring sodium in the food supply to evaluate industry progress against the voluntary sodium reduction targets established in both countries. This webinar will provide registered dietitians, public health professionals, policy makers and researchers with critical information on the data and technologies available to monitor the nutrition of the food supply including key challenges and limitations.

Health Canada will present their approach to monitoring, lessons learned and the changes they implemented going into their second round of monitoring. Attendees will learn detailed information about Global Data Strategy and the use of the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) as a unique identifier for food and beverage products. Participants will learn what causes changes in the GTIN and the complexities of monitoring foods over time.

Finally, attendees will understand how USDA’s FoodData Central is preparing for these challenges and the data quality and validation measures being put in place to ensure data integrity and elevate this dataset as a useful tool for real-time monitoring of nutrition in the food supply.

Speakers:

Trish Zecca, MS, IAFNS, Moderator

Dino Covone, PhD, Chief, Nutrition Regulations and Standards Division, Health Canada

Scott Brown, Senior Director, Global Data Strategy 1WorldSync

Kyle McKillop, MS, USDA FoodData Central, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center

Commission on Dietetic Registration Performance Indicators:

4.2.1 Identifies potential or existing opportunities and challenges.
6.2.1 Identifies and applies appropriate research methods when collecting and retrieving data.
6.2.3 Analyzes and interprets data to form valid conclusions and to make recommendations.

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

Continuous Improvement: What Manufacturers are Doing to Reduce Sodium in Food Products

February 1, 2024 in /by

Recorded January 23, 2024

IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). The Webinar: Continuous Improvement: What Manufactures are doing to reduce sodium awards 1 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU), for completion of this recorded webinar until January 22, 2027, in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.

Description:

It is well known that most of the dietary sodium comes from processed, packaged, and prepared foods. To improve public health, the food industry has worked for years to voluntarily reduce the sodium in packaged foods. Attendees will learn about the approaches companies take to sodium reduction and reformulation and how they are measuring progress towards their goals. Nutrition and Food Scientists from The Kraft Heinz Company will discuss their public commitments to sodium reduction, provide examples of successes and challenges and an update on progress.  We will also hear from General Mills and their company’s commitment to sodium reduction in key US retail food categories.  General Mills will also share information about their participation in the International Food & Beverage Alliance (IFBA) and the member companies Global Sodium Reduction Commitment: 2025 & 2030.

Webinar Speakers:

Trish Zecca, MS IAFNS, Moderator

Erica Hill PhD, RD, Nutrition Scientist, Kraft Heinz

Allison Trio, Principal Scientist- Next Generation Ingredient Science, Kraft Heinz

Amy Loew MS RD, Regulatory Affairs Manager, General Mills

Commission on Dietetic Registration Performance Indicators:

4.2.1 Identifies potential or existing opportunities and challenges.
4.2.6 Integrates relevant information with previous learning, experience, professional knowledge, and current practice models.
8.1.3 Evaluates the chemical nature and composition of food on food quality, acceptability, and compatibility to inform product development, menu planning and food preparation techniques.

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

What’s New: Sodium Intake and Public Health Today

January 30, 2024 in /by

Recorded January 22, 2024

IAFNS is a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) provider with the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). The Webinar: What’s New: Sodium Intake and Public Health Today awards 1 Continuing Professional Education Unit (CPEU), for completion of this recorded webinar until January 21, 2027, in accordance with the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s CPEU Prior Approval Program.

Description:

Americans consume on average 3,400 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day—nearly 50% more than the 2,300 mg limit recommended by federal guidelines for people 14 years of age and older. It is also well known that consuming too much sodium can raise blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. But there is a lot of complexity involved in estimating dietary intake in America and its relationship to public health. This webinar will present recent data on the public health impact of consuming excess sodium, the FDA’s approach to address sodium reduction in food and information on how the Agriculture Department’s Food Surveys Research Group estimates sodium in reported food and beverage intake through the ‘What We Eat in America’ survey. Attendees will also learn about new research on the top food category contributors of sodium to the diet as well as the overall dietary value of those foods to meeting nutritional recommendations. Participants will discuss the potential impact on dietary messaging to reduce sodium and improve dietary intake for consumers.

Webinar Speakers:

Trish Zecca, MS, IAFNS, Moderator

Robin McKinnon, PhD, Senior Advisor for Nutrition Policy at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA CFSAN)

Alanna Moshfegh, MS, RD, Research Leader, Food Surveys Research Group, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Mavra Ahmed, MSc, PhD, Research Associate at the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Joannah and Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition, University of Toronto

Commission on Dietetic Registration Performance Indicators:

4.1.2 Interprets and integrates evidence-based research and literature in decision-making.
6.3.1 Accurately and ethically shares research findings with a variety of audiences.
6.2 Collects and interprets research data to advance knowledge and practice, and to enhance effectiveness of services.

If a CEU certificate is needed, please complete the survey

Guidance for reporting of test parameters in nutrition and cognition research

January 29, 2024 in /by

In many publications focused on the effects of nutrition on cognitive performance, reporting on both the intervention, and the cognitive performance test (including administration of the test) lacks the required detail to truly understand how the study was conducted, making replication and interpretation difficult. Psychologists commonly develop new tests, but in such cases, there is often missing information about the methodological specifics – a significant barrier to the evidence interpretation and synthesis.

Comparison of studies and synthesis of evidence is critical for arriving at conclusions about how a nutrition intervention might affect cognitive performance. As variability in test selection and test validity – as noted in the DGAC 2020 report - are challenges in the study of nutrition and cognition, additional reporting detail can assist researchers, the food industry, and public health groups to understand the possible reasons for similarities and differences in study results. Perhaps most impactful, authorities responsible for the development of dietary guidance could have improved ability to synthesize available literature on a specific question.

This work will include an initial phase of a scoping review to document common reporting practices (or lack thereof) to note gaps and evaluate if and why reporting guidance is critical. Phase II will leverage the scoping review to develop a Workshop with the aim of outlining reporting guidance, modeling the process applied by a Federation of European Societies for Nutrition (FENS) working group which proposed the CONSORT-nut checklist.

Institution: Swansea University

Principal Investigator: Hayley Young, PhD

Year: 2024

This work was supported by the IAFNS Cognitive Health Committee.

Co-Designed Platform to Aid in Cognitive Test Selection for Research Studies: Understanding Stakeholder Needs

January 29, 2024 in /by

From cross-sector discussions and dietary guidance deliberations globally, it is evident that industry, government, and academic scientists find it challenging to navigate the scientific literature to identify valid and sensitive cognitive performance tests to address nutrition research questions. There is a clear opportunity to facilitate decision-making concerning cognitive test selection – for nutrition studies and other purposes.

A user-friendly resource is needed by which interested parties can enter their specific requirements (e.g., population, cognitive domain of interest) and retrieve information about reliable, valid, and sensitive tests, or alternatively enter a test name, and retrieve information about what is being measured by the test, suitable populations, and nutrients / food / diets to which the test may be sensitive.

This work will: (1) support evidence-based dietary guidance by promoting the ability to synthesize literature; (2) improve the efficiency of research spending; and (3) impact commerce and the economy by providing the technology and services needed to enhance the cost-effective development of food products that benefit cognitive health.

Institution: Swansea University

Principal Investigator: Hayley Young, PhD

Year: 2024

This work was supported by the IAFNS Cognitive Health Committee.