News from SUNY Cortland

For more information contact: Jennifer Wilson, 607-753-2232

National Nutrition Educator Barbara Lohse to Discuss Improving Low-Income Diets on April 23

CORTLAND, NY (04/17/2008; 1134)(readMedia)-- Barbara Lohse, an expert on public policy and nutrition who is affiliated with Pennsylvania State University, will address reaching people on the lowest end of the economic spectrum with information and assistance relating to their diets on Wednesday, April 23, at SUNY Cortland.

Lohse, who manages and directs the Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Tracks and Pennsylvania Nutrition Education Network, will begin her talk, titled “Policy Issues in Nutrition Education for the Very Low Income,” at 6 p.m. in Old Main, Room G-12.

Sponsored by the Public Administration and Public Policy Program of the Department of Political Science, the lecture is free and open to the public. The presentation is supported by the Campus Artist and Lecture Series.

Lohse, whose public educational programs are run out of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, has an extensive background in nutritional sciences and community outreach as a scholar, teacher, consultant and community activist.

Her recent work encompasses educating Americans — especially low-income Americans and those on food stamps — about good nutrition. Much of her recent work has dealt with adolescents and young adults, precisely the age demographic of most colleges and universities.

Her lecture will address the complex issues of policy involved in working with low income Americans in order to improve their nutritional habits. The talk is most timely given the rates of obesity, illness including diabetes, childhood ailments among poorer citizens and the rising cost of food.

Lohse received her bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry and her Ph.D. in nutritional sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A nutrition education researcher and teacher with numerous publications, presentations and grants to her name, she conducts research in applied nutrition behavior research and is the associate editor of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Lohse is a co-author in 2007 of “Associations Between Eating Competence and Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers” and “Measuring eating competence,” which appeared in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Lohse has written about research on fruit and vegetable intake by low-income adults and on education about healthy weight. Her “research-to-practice” column in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior has included information on nutrition education for adolescents and on food stamp-related nutrition education.

The Pennsylvania nutrition programs overseen by Lohse have been supported by $29.2 million in funding. They aim to educate the public about its eligibility to receive the government Food Stamp benefits and to foster positive behavioral changes related to nutrition and physical activity. Lohse works with federal and state agencies administering the Food Stamp program and state nutrition programs. She has also directed a Department of Agriculture grant of $93,000 for preventing obesity in young adults.

For more information, contact Mary McGuire, assistant professor of political science, at (607) 753-4806; or Henry Steck, Distinguished Service Professor, at (607) 753-4807.

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