Confronting the Epidemic through Nutrition Research and Policy

Thursday, June 18 to Friday, June 19, 2009
Washington, D.C.

Antonia Demas, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the Food Studies Institute, based in Trumansburg, N.Y., a nonprofit devoted to improving the long-term health and education of children. Her curriculum, Food Is Elementary, has been used successfully in more than 1,500 schools in more than 30 states.  Because of her excitement about the learning and health improvements that occurs among children when they have positive, sensory-based, hands-on experience with food, she has devoted herself to engaging in research to document this observation scientifically. Dr. Demas has worked in various capacities for 38 years developing food-based curriculums and teaching food studies in a variety of educational settings with people of diverse ages, as well as ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Dr. Demas is also a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Demas has a doctorate in education, nutrition, and anthropology from Cornell University. Her dissertation won two national awards for Excellence and Creativity.  She consults throughout the U.S. and abroad and trains and certifies teachers as food educators.

Presentation Title: Nutrients: The Missing Link in Education, Baltimore: A Case Study

Objectives:

• Understand concepts concerning the energy needed to produce food
• Compare a whole foods plant based diet with an animal diet in terms of energy use
• Compare a plant based versus an animal based diet in terms of nutrients
• Realize the role education must play in educating the school community about food and nutrition issues and that it must start early
• Understand that it is possible to feed school children  a health promoting diet that is sustainable for the planet

Outcomes:

• Participants will understand the amount of energy in terms of fossil fuel and other resources that are used to produce our food

• Participants will understand that a plant based diet is very efficient in terms of land and resource use

• Participants will learn that a well designed plant based menu containing whole foods will benefit their health

• Participants will advocate for public education beginning at an early age concerning food, nutrition, and agriculture issues

• Participants will understand that children deserve to be fed health promoting foods produced in a sustainable manner

Accreditation: Jointly sponsored by The George Washington University and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

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