Hello Mountaineers! I hope your first weeks of classes have been awesome and you
are making new and fond memories! College can be an exciting time for many students,
but it also can bring angst to others. It may seem overwhelming to adapt to the
hustle and bustle of a college schedule while trying to plan your meals around
what's offered in the dining halls and what you can eat between classes. And for
someone dealing with diabetes mellitus, these could be crucial changes. You may
have gone from planning and preparing your own meals to relying on whatever the
dining halls offer. However, do not fear, this blog was written with you in mind
to help navigate your diabetes in this new season of your life.
Welcome back, Mountaineers! I hope everyone had a great summer. As we adjust to being
back on campus and enduring the Morgantown traffic, we also are adjusting to new
schedules and new eating habits. In many cases, our first year of college is the
first time we are free to make our own food choices and have to learn to prepare
and plan our day around food. That can influence our diets to change significantly.
Welcome back, Mountaineers! I hope everyone is off to a great start to the spring
term. With the start of a new year and semester, I wanted to take some time to
discuss a new program we are offering, remind everyone of some nutrition resources
on campus and talk about all thing’s nutrition. Let’s dive in!
Historically, it has been thought that the effect food has on our bodies was limited
to strictly physical capacities, such as immune function, body weight or chronic
disease risk. In recent years, however, research has been shifting to suggest that
the impact food has on our daily lives may go far beyond the physical and can in
fact play a crucial role in our mental health as well. There is currently a large
amount of research being dedicated to exploring the relationship between the way
food is broken down for energy in the gastrointestinal tract and how the brain
is then able to utilize this energy for essential mental functions. It is becoming
clear that this relationship, commonly known as “the gut-brain axis”, is much more
complex than previously thought.
I hope this post finds you drinking some hot tea or other forms of hot deliciousness
as you enjoy this fall weather we are having in Morgantown. Because many of you
are recovering from midterms in recent weeks, I decided to pump the breaks on our,
at times, science-heavy blog posts and give you some history mixed in with a little
activism and perceptions related to body image (pretty light stuff, right?). Although
I am a registered dietitian and didn’t take a traditional history course in college,
I love learning about the history of nutrition and how it impacts us today. In
honor of this, I decided to dive into the history of body neutrality to give some
different perspectives, as well as tips related to this concept.
I can’t believe we are back in session! I have really enjoyed seeing more familiar
(and new) faces around campus this past week. The buzz of moving into a new space,
starting a new job or getting back into a learning environment fills me with anticipation
for a great semester to come. In case you are new (or someone that just needs a
refresher), I wanted to give a quick shoutout to some wonderful resources we offer
on campus.