Let's cut through the confusion about nutrition.
Among general public and health professional audiences alike, people tell me they appreciate the way I highlight the common threads among studies on diet and cancer, weight and overall health issues, and then weave them into a message of clear steps people can confidently practice in their own lives.
Speaking & Media Kit
Popular Speaking Topics
I create every presentation to meet individual program needs. The topics below can be shaped for audiences of the general public, or built with added depth on research for health professionals.
Getting Past Headline Hype
There’s no shortage of headlines with “must do” and “never do” steps for healthy eating. It’s not only overwhelming to try to pay attention to them all, it’s made even more confusing because the messages often conflict with one another! In this presentation, we will look at examples of what’s “hot” in the headlines, and examine these ideas in light of current nutrition research and recommendations. Examples might include:
- Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory diets – what we see in the lab and what human evidence supports
- Headlines proclaiming must-eat or can’t-eat foods for cancer prevention
- Issues when targeting weight loss: the 3500 calorie myth, intermittent fasting and unsupported expectations
- Contradictory messages about whole grains and fiber, fats versus carbs or what defines a Mediterranean diet
For health professionals, we’ll discuss how to share the science in understandable ways when patients ask about what they see in the media or from “Dr. Google”.
Amidst all the individual studies and headlines, what are the current major nutrition recommendations for heart health? We’ll walk through key points, and the science and research behind them, and explore practical strategies to meet each recommendation. These can serve as realistic targets on which patients and professionals alike can focus to avoid becoming overwhelmed by today’s abundance of available information. For example, we can explore:
- Saturated fat: does it still matter? What about headline-making choices like coconut oil?
- Carbohydrate: evidence on choices that are and are not heart-healthy
- Blood vessel health: nutrients and natural plant compounds that may play a role
- Weight-related issues like the obesity paradox and metabolically unhealthy normal weight
Plant foods play a key role in recommendations to reduce risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. But what does this mean? We will explore several different patterns: research behind them and ways that they can be used or adapted to create eating habits that lower risk of both cancer and heart disease as part of a long-term healthy lifestyle. For example, we can look at:
- Mediterranean diet in its multiple forms, and what seem to be essential elements
- DASH diet: what research shows, how to really put it in practice
- Nordic diet, and research on how efforts to keep the best of cultural traditions and realistically reshape others can make a difference for health
- Eating patterns from Asia, India and beyond as we see how the kind of eating that research now links to health and longevity has been part of the culture for generations
- How ethnic foods and flavorings can make everyday eating more exciting
People will leave with ideas for how to adapt the lessons learned to make their usual meals more healthful. Instead of searching for one “best” path, let’s explore how each of us can make individual best-fit choices.
Cancer Prevention & Cancer Survivorship
Does it seem that eating to lower your risk of cancer requires overwhelming changes? It doesn’t have to be that way! Research identifies a diet rich in plant foods as a vital step to reduce cancer risk. In this program, we’ll examine research related to the shift from Americans’ traditional meat-centered diet to eating habits that provide more cancer protection, and then turn to the question of how we can shift our plates in that direction. We will look at current American eating habits and attitudes as we try to identify what kinds of changes are needed to maximize cancer protective factors and make appropriate portion choices easier. Terrific as a two- or three-hour workshop or breakout session, this can also be condensed to a shorter program.
The most recent landmark report on diet and cancer concluded that once cancer treatment is concluded, the recommendation for cancer survivors is “If able to do so, and unless otherwise advised, aim to follow the recommendations for diet, healthy weight and physical activity” developed for cancer prevention. We will look at those recommendations and how they can be realistically and enjoyably implemented, within the context unique to cancer survivors.
Intersections of Cancer Prevention & Heart Health
For multiple reasons, people diagnosed with or at risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes or cancer may also be at risk of the others. We’ll create a foundation for effective strategies, drilling down to understand metabolic conditions that link this disease triad, such as lipids, inflammation, insulin resistance and hormones produced in body fat. Framed by evidence-based nutrition and physical activity recommendations, we’ll examine specific food choices and strategies we can weave together into practical and effective diet and lifestyle choices to address all three elements of this triad.
In this session, we will walk through current major recommendations to reduce cancer risk and promote cardiovascular health, focusing on cancers and aspects of cardiovascular health most relevant to women. We’ll then synthesize these recommendations into practical strategies women can use to promote overall health.
For health professionals, the science and research behind the recommendations will be examined to help develop patient-appropriate talking points to support nutrition counseling.
Healthy Living in Practice
Whether out loud or silently in our head, we all “talk” to ourselves every day. For many people, that self-talk can have powerful effects in either supporting healthy behavior changes or sabotaging them. In this presentation we’ll look at five of the most common patterns of self-talk – Critic, Comforter and others — that can deter efforts to create a healthy lifestyle. We’ll talk about how to recognize when they are sabotaging you, and how to turn them around to become part of your support network.
How you perceive and use food can make a profound difference in your ability to create and maintain healthy eating habits that work for you. If food is your fuel, then certain choices and patterns work better than others. If food is your friend, you may be vulnerable to using food for emotional support or for “recreational eating”, which can pose a challenge for weight control and health. If food is your foe, you may be so tied up in a view of what’s “bad” for you or its calorie load that you miss the enjoyment of healthy eating. Solutions to all these issues are within your reach.
Snapshot of Some Clients
- Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics
- American Association of Cardiovascular & Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR)
- American College of Lifestyle Medicine
- American Heart Association
- American Institute for Cancer Research
- City of Hope National Medical Center
- Columbia University
- Indiana Cancer Consortium
- International Olive Council
- McGraw-Hill Companies
- NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
- National Lipid Association
- Nutrition Dimension
- Oncology Nursing Society
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