At noon every Thursday, ASU doctoral students and faculty researchers pack into a small conference room to hear the latest in health research.
These hourlong presentations are part of a weekly seminar series sponsored by the ASU School of Nutrition and Health Promotion held in the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative building.
“We have things from the nutrition side of the fence, from the physical activity side of the fence,” said Steven Hooker, nutrition and health associate director, who organized this semester’s seminar series. “We try to have a mix so that at some point in time during the semester, the attendees find something interesting.”
Nutrition graduate student Jessie Green will present this week’s seminar about her research on the effectiveness of an Affordable Care Act policy that requires restaurants with 20 or more locations post calorie information.
In her research, Green found that of the McDonald’s customers she surveyed from 29 locations within a 25-mile radius of downtown Phoenix, those who reported seeing calorie information purchased 150 fewer calories.
Another key finding in Green’s research was the amount of disparity she saw in who reported using the calorie information provided.
Most previous studies focused on only surveying individuals in one particular area, but the sample group Green used was able to capture and represent a very diverse population.
“We were really looking at how menu labeling and public policy might be benefiting some individuals more so than others,” Green said.
Higher-income and higher-educated individuals reported using calorie information most frequently, according to Green’s research. Despite this disparity, having calorie information posted proved to be an overall effective strategy for reducing national weight gain.
“Based on our findings, we’re trying to get the FDA to finalize menu-labeling guidelines and propose nutritional education campaigns,” Green said.
While these presentations are open to the public, the primary target audience is doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty, Hooker said.
“We really want to get our doctoral students connected with the types of things that they’re interested in to perhaps spur their research here or their job search later,” Hooker said.
Each session tends to draw about 25 to 30 attendees, according to Glenn Gaesser, associate director of health promotion.
Gaesser says attendees can expect to see topics that cover “generally diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle habits” for the remaining seminar sessions.
This semester’s weekly seminar series is the fourth in a collection of series that began in fall 2012 and will wrap up on May 1.
Contact the reporter at kkwestga@asu.edu
