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Dear Friends,

Thank you for supporting the Nourish Program at UTHealth School of Public Health to outsmart disease. Your generosity allows us to teach our students and community how to grow, cook, and eat foods in healthy ways, bettering and saving lives in Houston, the state of Texas, and beyond.

Our Nourish Program builds upon UTHealth’s longstanding commitment to education, research, and community-based interventions.

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A report to those who support the Nourish Program

at UTHealth School of Public Health

U T H . E D U / G I V I N G

The frequency of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity is rising among Texans, making prevention more important to our quality of life. Sadly, while many of these conditions are preventable through healthy diet and lifestyle choices, they are among the leading causes of death and disability.

Outsmarting DiseaseT H E H E A L I N G P O W E R O F N U T R I T I O N

LETTER CONTINUED FROM COVER

Because of your contributions and advocacy over the past year, UTHealth’s

efforts in preventive care have increased in the community. Last year,

with special guests Texas State Senators John Whitmire and Joan Huffman,

we unveiled state-of-the-art facilities, which include a holistic garden,

a research and demonstration kitchen, and a simulation lab. Together, the

garden, kitchen, and lab provide unmatched opportunities to learn and

experience “seed-to-plate” nutrition and its effect on well-being—from

workshops on growing healthy food to classes teaching patients how

to prepare meals that supplement their treatments.

During the past year, these facilities allowed us to

Train dietitians from hospitals in the Texas Medical Center

to identify malnutrition.

Create two culinary medicine courses for McGovern Medical School

students and a nutrition training program for physicians. Integrating

preventive nutrition into medical practice can make a significant impact

on health and well-being. Medical students were particularly

enthusiastic about the courses; more than 100 students expressed

interest in the 16 openings for one class.

Increase our dietetic intern class size by more than 30 percent. This

is important because there are not enough training program openings

nationwide to meet the demand for dietetic interns. We are one

of only nine Master of Public Health programs in the nation with a central

mission to educate and train future health leaders to address

preventive nutritional health initiatives.

Provide culinary education classes and garden workshops

to promote wellness. These classes are free to students, staff, and

faculty at UTHealth and other Texas Medical Center institutions.

Offer a peaceful space for patients and their visitors, many of whom

tell us they enjoy walking through our garden, to experience the beauty

and healing effect of nature.

As we look to the future, we wish to use the kitchen to train teachers

to deliver nutrition education programs and to train community

members in healthy cooking techniques. Talks are also underway

to develop courses for a healthy gut and to prevent diabetes

in collaboration with McGovern Medical School and UTHealth School

of Dentistry.

Your support has grown our program into one of the most innovative

culinary literacy programs in the world. After our initial year of building

the program and assembling a team, we are beginning to see the

fruits of your generosity. The Nourish Program is establishing UTHealth

School of Public Health as a world-class living lab for culinary

education and research, and I am confident it will make a measurable

impact in the health and well-being of communities across Texas.

Thank you for your partnership in this extraordinary work.

Sincerely,

Laura S. Moore, MEd, RD, LD

Director of the Nourish Program

Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living

UTHealth School of Public Health

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Elements of UTHealth’s Nourish Program

H O L I ST I C G A R D E N

The holistic garden, located adjacent to UTHealth School of Public Health, is overseen by Dietetic Internship Program faculty and a social horticulturist who uses plants to improve physical and mental health. The garden is open to all Texas Medical Center visitors who want to enjoy the scenery or participate in gardening courses.

R E S E A R C H A N D D E M O N ST R AT I O N K I T C H E N

The research and demonstration kitchen, another resource available to the community, allows faculty and students to teach healthy cooking techniques through culinary education classes, often using produce picked from the holistic garden. The high-tech kitchen includes training tools such as overhead cameras, which allow participants to see the preparation practices up close.

S I M U L AT I O N L A B

In the simulation lab, students learn and practice clinical nutrition skills with a lifelike advanced patient simulator named “Mr./Mrs. Sims.” Instructors control the simulator to replicate a range of symptoms from medical conditions such as malnutrition, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The ability to practice hands-on patient skills can help students gain confidence in their overall knowledge and training.

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Future doctors get prescription for cooking classes

“Everybody eats, but that doesn’t mean they do it well,” says Jeanne Piga-Plunkett, MS, RDN, LD, Director of the Dietetic Internship Program at UTHealth School of Public Health.

Wesley McWhorter, MS, RDN, LD, a Chef and DrPH student in the Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health, works with Piga-Plunkett to guide McGovern Medical School students through a Culinary Medicine course. The eight-week elective is designed to teach students about food and nutrition through hands-on training.

Conducted in partnership with the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University and delivered through the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at UTHealth, the course spans eight, three-hour cooking classes designed to teach students to understand nutrition. Once they become physicians, these students will likely encounter patients whose poor diets put them at risk for chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, and cancer.

“If these students or physicians have five to 10 minutes with their patients, instead of giving a prescription, they might be able to tell them about a low-sodium diet and how they can lower the amount of sodium they take in on a regular basis,” Piga-Plunkett says.

The program focuses on the Mediterranean diet, which reduces the risk of heart disease thanks to its focus on whole grains, legumes, fruit, vegetables, lean meats, and healthy oils. In addition

to getting a better grasp on nutrition, students learn culinary skills to prepare healthy meals.

“In our low-sodium class, we really teach them how to put the salt shaker aside and look at fresh herbs, dried herbs, marinades, and different ways to release flavors out of foods, such as roasting, deglazing a pan,” adds Laura S. Moore, Director of the Nourish Program.

While the program’s curriculum is didactic, Moore says the course and the process of cooking allow students to renew their appreciation for food.

“[Cooking] is sensory,” she says. “It’s owning the recipe. It’s taking time. Eating should be mindful.”

4 This story by Shanley Chien first appeared on the Texas Medical Center’s website at tmc.edu/news.

Dietetic intern finds her calling in nutrition

Studying nutrition was an acquired taste for Amanda Hostler, MPH, RDN, LD. Initially an education major for her undergraduate degree, she developed an interest in nutrition, decided to switch majors, and enrolled at UTHealth School of Public Health.

“I ultimately decided that it was more important to be in a career that I truly enjoyed being a part of every single day,” says Hostler, now a registered dietitian in the Texas Medical Center.

She chose the school’s program for its emphasis on the connection between nutrition and public health. The school offers a dietetic internship in conjunction with a Master of Public Health, teaching students not only about the importance of healthy eating to fight illness and improve well-being, but also how better nutrition can influence an entire population.

“I find this to be a very distinguishing characteristic of this program, which allows students to gain knowledge and skills that most nutrition professionals otherwise do not have,” she says.

Hostler was a recipient of the Laura S. Moore & Don Sanders Scholarship, which provides financial support for dietetic interns. Moore and her husband, Don, established the scholarship and provided significant funding to create the program’s holistic garden, simulation laboratory, and demonstration kitchen.

“As an out-of-state student, I am especially grateful for the opportunity to have received this generous scholarship,” Hostler shares. “I will always carry that gratitude with me.”

She says the unique aspects of the dietetic program offer vast learning opportunities that exceed what other programs have available. She appreciated working alongside dietitians in different specialties because it provided a glimpse of the career options available before she graduated.

“The constant demand of this program requires focus, organization, drive, and independence, all of which are transferable skills in preparation for and transition into a future career,” she says, adding that between graduate-level courses, volunteer events, meetings, and seminars, the program helped her grow professionally and personally.

“It challenges your individual weaknesses and ultimately turns them into your strengths, constantly reminding you to seek areas of self-improvement.”

“Everybody eats, but that doesn’t mean

they do it well.”Jeanne Piga-Plunkett, MS, RDN, LD

Director of the Dietetic Internship Program UTHealth School of Public Health

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Lucy Lengfelder’s love of health and nutrition started on the couch.

“I watched a couple documentaries about how people made lifestyle changes to lessen the severity of their diabetes and similar chronic diseases, and it really changed my perspective,” she says.

Now Lengfelder, a dietetic intern who is also earning a Master of Public Health at UTHealth School of Public Health, spends much of her time covered in dirt as the student manager of the school’s holistic garden. The garden, along with a state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen and simulation lab, form the cornerstones of the school’s Dietetic Internship Program.

In addition to training interns like Lengfelder to become registered dietitian nutritionists, the program educates the community, patients, and health care providers about how to use nutrition to fight disease and promote health—everything from teaching cancer patients how to cook meals that supplement their treatments to conducting research that will influence public health policy.

“We have instructors with a culinary and food service background and instructors who are more focused on research,” she says. “You get a very unique blend of perspectives that you might not find elsewhere.”

Lengfelder wants to help change the broader food system infrastructure, which she says is the only way to truly affect a population’s overall health. She appreciates that, in addition to practical skills like cooking and gardening, the program has taught her how to evaluate current health research on her own, a crucial skill for her future practice. And she finds special meaning in the moments that remind her why she started on this path.

“I’ll get visitors from MD Anderson Cancer Center who say they come to Houston once a month for treatment, and they always want to come see the garden because of how much better it makes them feel,” she shares. “Little talks like that make it feel like I am contributing to something far beyond caring for plants.”

Student plants career as dietitian at UTHealth School of Public Health

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We are grateful for our dedicated volunteers who help to maintain, water, and plant in the holistic garden. If you are interested in volunteering, please email Laura S. Moore, MEd, RD, LD, at Laura.S.Moore@uth.tmc.edu.

Outsmarting diseases through preventive nutritional health initiatives are among the many ways that UTHealth’s community of experts is solving the greatest health challenges of our time.

To learn more about how we are discovering breakthrough methods for the prevention and treatment of disease, please contact:

UTHealth Office of Development

7000 Fannin Street, Suite 1200Houston, Texas 77030713-500-3200

uth.edu/giving

We are honored to partner with you to save lives and make life better. Together, we are making groundbreaking discoveries and bringing quality patient care to our communities.

Harvesting health: UTHealth’s holistic garden

It is hard to believe that the Texas Medical Center, a bustling area filled with traffic and pedestrian noise, offers a soothing spot to relieve stress and learn how to use diet to minimize the risk of diseases. However, generous support from donors like you has brought just that. Nestled next to UTHealth School of Public Health, the holistic garden offers a place for repose and learning, not only for students, faculty, and staff, but also for local hospital patients and their visitors.

The garden, filled with a diverse array of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, is designed so that anyone can participate in the act of gardening and be in contact with nature while learning more about nutrition and the preventive health values of food.

Here’s a peek at what you can find in UTHealth’s garden.

T O M A T O E SScientific Name | Solanum lycopersicum

High in lycopene and vitamins A and C,

tomatoes are great for preventing lung,

stomach, and prostate cancer.

W A T E R M E L O NScientific Name | Citrullus lanatus

Did you know that watermelon

has more lycopene than tomatoes?

F I G SScientific Name | Ficus carica

Figs are an excellent source

of magnesium, manganese, and

heart-healthy polyphenols.

C O R NScientific Name | Zea mays

Corn is high in pantothenic acid,

manganese, and vitamin C. Fun fact:

Fresh corn is a vegetable, and dry

corn is a grain.

S W E E T & C H I L I P E P P E R SScientific Name | Capsicum annuum

Capsaicin helps to reduce

pain-causing chemicals.

C A R R O T SScientific Name | Daucus carota sativus

One cup will meet your vitamin A

needs for six whole days!

B E E T SScientific Name | Beta vulgaris

The beet greens are an excellent

source of potassium.

A M A R A N T HScientific Name | Amaranthus

The new kale! Amaranth contains

slightly more protein than quinoa and

is more nutritious than other gluten-

free grains.

B L U E B E R R I E SScientific Name | Cyanococcus

One cup has more antioxidants

than any other berry or other types

of fruit.