De-Mystifying Mealtimes and Nutrition - with Dianne Neumark-Sztainer - The A-Parently Podcast #28

Of all of the child-raising topics out there, childhood nutrition may be one of the most baffling.It’s something that most of us don’t have any formal education on (for instance is it a food-wheel or a pyramid?) and one where there are thousands of philosophies on.And it’s not just what to eat, how to get kids to eat takes your down a whole other rabbit hole of differing opinions.Dianne Neumark-Sztainer is here to help us cut through the noise and give families some extremely practical advice on how to not only make sure kids are getting what they need, but make it so that they get it in a way that feels good and promotes a positive narrative around food and body image.-Guest Bio:Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, PhD, MPH, RD, is a McKnight Presidential and Mayo Professor and serves as the Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on a broad spectrum of eating, activity, and weight-related outcomes including eating disorders, unhealthy weight control behaviors, body image, dietary intake, physical activity, weight stigmatization, and high weight status. She is dedicated to ensuring that her research has a positive impact on the health of the public, particularly our most vulnerable populations. In recent years, she has begun to explore yoga as a tool to address eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and obesity. Dr. Neumark-Sztainer is the Principal Investigator of Project EAT (Eating and Activity over Time), a longitudinal body of research on eating, activity, and weight status among two large cohorts that have been followed from adolescence through adulthood. She currently has an NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award for her research program and is the Principal Investigator for an NIH T32 Training Program in applied epidemiology to promote eating, activity, and weight-related health among youth and families from diverse communities, which provides training for the next generation of researchers dedicated to ensuring positive eating and weight-related health among the target population. Dr. Neumark-Sztainer has published nearly 600 scientific articles and written a book for parents of adolescents titled, “I’m, Like, SO Fat!”: Helping Your Teen Make Healthy Choices about Eating and Exercise in a Weight Obsessed World”, providing a synthesis of her research and guidelines for helping their children have healthy bodies and body images. Dr. Neumark-Sztainer has been active in several professional organizations including the Academy for Eating Disorders, the National Eating Disorders Association, and the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine. Selected awards include the Leonard M. Schuman Award for Excellence in Teaching from the School of Public Health, Academy for Excellence in Health Research from the University of Minnesota’s Academic Health Center, and an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health.