Gardening Experience

Garden Tour
Location: Garden

Our team opened up the wasteland this afternoon between 12 to 13pm. The picture is our job today! We are group C. This is my first experience of gardening. It was very fun but I feel very tired now.

Later at 6:30pm, I arrived the CFI's "gardening101 workshop", presented by Lisa. She told us lots of tips for gardening. For example, blueberries should be planted in acid soil, tomatos need more space because they are very easy to get lots of diseases. Providing opportunities as well as knowledge for people live in Athens to garden by themselves are really helpful and thoughtful.

American Dairy Association-Midwest

Speaker: Michael Sieminski, RD, LD
Nutrition Communications Manager

Program: American Dairy Association

Purpose: On behalf of US dairy farmers, drive increased sales of, and demand for, U.S. dairy products and ingredients.

Funding source: Dairy Farmers in Ohio; West Virginia & Dairy Check fund.




National Dairy Council: Leader in nutrition research, nutrition education, childhood nutrition and communication since 1995.





3-A-Day of Dairy:
was created as a simple reminder for families to get 3 daily servings of milk, cheese or yogurt for stronger bones and better bodies. Dairy provides nine essential nutrients, including calcium, potassium, phosphorus, protein, vitamins A, D and B12, riboflavin, and niacin (niacin equivalents).



5 aspects about what they do:
I. Nutrition Affair
It plays an important role in protecting 3 and promoting 3. The aim is to protect good food, and support for 3 servings/day; to improve bone health and avoid osteoporosis; DASH Diet; Child Nutrition; lactose intolerance, et al.
II. Schools Marketing
Expanding breakfast, fuel up to play, new look of school milk, and refuel with chocolate milk are the five programs for this.
III. Marketing and Business Development
Marketing and business development serve as resource to retailers, and increase dairy's availability in food services.
IV. Industry Image & Relations
The goal for this is to maintain and build public confidence in dairy industry including its farmers and products; share the value of and build support for the checkoff program.
V. Communications and Media
The most important thing for nutrition message is to know the audience. The best way to advertise depends on different populations. Language used in nutrition survey should be straightforward, understood, and focused. Lecture or presentation, demonstrations, videos, games, role playing, and case studies are common ways for delivering the message.

Role of RD:
Form partnerships with other stakeholders; develop marketing tools and handouts for consumers.

Three servings of dairy foods provide a powerful package of nine essential nutrients —including calcium, potassium, phosphorus, protein, vitamins D, A, B12, riboflavin and niacin (niacin equivalents)— that help keep bones strong and bodies healthy. Mr. Sieminski has 4 yrs marketing and advertising experience. As a dietitian, he acts different from other traditioanl dietitians. From his experience, I find that there are many ways to help people keep healthy. Conducting beneficial programs and introducing nutrition knowledge to public by media may be more siginificant. Large population who do not have time, opportunity or awareness to see a dietitian could also benefit by those dietitians like Mike.

Agriculture and Food security in China.

On tuesday, we had a disscussion about the garden tour last week at the beginning of the class. Actually I have never grown anything before. Because I was born and grow up in a big city of China, the majority of opportunities I had for knowing how vegetables grow happen during the time I took train to travel when I was very young. My mom told me what are corn, wheat, sorghum, millet, rice, eggplant, cabbage and so forth. Thanks to our neighbor when we were living in bungalow 20 years ago, I got another way to know the growth of vegetables. She cut out a garden plot which was only about 4 or 5 square meters in the area; cultivated tomatos, chilies, sunflowers, eggplants, and daylilies. but what I can see in China now are numerous lagescale greenhouses surrounding busy cities.

Nowadays in China, the overwhelming majority of people live in buildings and do not have time nor place to gardening themselves. And as is known to all, China is a country with a large population but less arable land, only 7%of the world's arable land but have to feed 1/5 of the world's population. Since 1978, Chinese government issued the household contract responsibility system; cancelled the state market monopoly of agricultural products, and of price controls over most of agricultural and ancillary products; allowed farmers to develop diversified business and set up township enterprises. Besides policy, the other contribution to the success of conquering hunger in China is the development of science and agriculture. The research achievements in hybrid rice is worth mentioning. Yuan Longping, internationally regarded as the "father of hybrid rice", rewrote the history of rice cultivation in China in the second half of the 20th century.

Hybrid rice is the first technology that is exported to the U.S. in 1970s. By using this technology, output of rice was tripled. More than 40 countries in the world are using this technology today. We know that food security concern two aspects: enough foods and nutrious foods. Thanks to hybrid rice, enough foods is guaranteed. Another problem is how to deal with nutrition prolems. Causations for malnutrition in China are highly related to residing location and income level. In western poor provinces and rural areas, micronutrient deficiency is common; in urban areas, negative effects from junk food is the main reason for food insecurity. Chinese people never stop researching and improving on agriculture. Agricultural biotechnology is a way of reducing micronutrients deficiencies. Levels of certain micronutrients are higher in biofortified crops. China has shown greater speed in the development and commercial introduction of transgenic plant varieties, though, as of 2001, it had been unwilling to allow the sale of transgenic plant foods directly to consumers. The Chinese have made efforts to create crops with resistance to disease, drought, and insect pests. Such improvements could enable China to expand its supply of arable land. China has officially moved from being an international aid recipient (1980-2005, April), and become a donor nation, now that it no longer requires assistance from the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP). China was the third largest food donor in 2005, accounted for more than half of the overall increase in food donations in 2005. The successful story of China proved the words of Chairman Deng-"science and technology is the first productivity". That is to say, science and technology are the essential things need to be developed firstly to guarantee food security. I don't know if there are also these kinds of greenhouse for veggetables. I think there should be, but not usual compare to China. In China, the prices of vegetables are about only 1/10 of those of meats for the same weight. But it is not the same satuation in the U.S. That is to say, Chinese people are more freely to eat vegetables so that more vitamins and minerals could be intaken. In the U.S., people who do not have enough money to spend on foods always choose meats rather than veggetables, because meats, in the same weight, have much higher calories and fat than veggetables. This will absolutely cause obesity and other health problems related to food insecurity. My point is that coordinating the agriculture market, reducing the price of vegetables, producing more veggetables, seem to be most important, basic and significant.

For the second section of class on tuseday, we had a lecture from Dr.Holben about the measurement of food insecurity. 18-item core module is a survey-based classical method to measure food insecurity in the U.S. since 1995. It is conducted by CDC of the U.S. There are 18 questions in the survey. This is really a significant way to control and supervise the nutrtion status of American people. The responses to this 18-item food security survey module were used to classify households into 3 categories of food security status:
1. Food secure: households that show no or minimal evidence of food insecurity..
2. Food insecure without hunger: food insecurity is evident in the household concerns and in adjustments to household food management including reduced-quality diets. Little or no reduction in the household members’ food intake was reported.

3. Food insecure with hunger: the food intake for adults and children in the household has been reduced to the extent that they have repeatedly experienced the physical sensations of hunger.

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On the same day, I also noticed that the CFI placed an announcement in the fourth floor of baker center. Nothing could be more important than foods to human.

Garden Tour

Thursday, April 16
Garden Tour

Instructor: Dr. Holben, Patty
Location: Athens Community Garden



It was really a nice day. Maria, Yang and I arrived the Athens Community Garden at about 12:15pm. Yang and I met a very nice lady-Mary Smith. She was gardening there and told us lots about gardening vegetables. We recognized strawberry, green garlic, and learned how to eat rhubarb--a kind of fruit we have never heard of before. The picture above is rhubarb.

At about 12:30pm, everybody arrived and Dr. Holben began to introduce the garden. This garden is mainly sponsored by Community Food Initiatives (CFI)
Dr. Holben also introduced us lots of vegetables growing in the garden, showed the plot we are expected to finish our final project on, and assigned the land occupation of each group.

The purpose of this program, as Patty said, is to get more people garden themselves and growing their own foods. Patty was another important instructor that day. She was graduated from Ohio University last year from Environmental Biology. Now she is an assistant manager of community garden. All products growing in this garden are organic. Horse manure is used as fertilizer. Free tools for gardening are provided. The garden is divided into five zones and each zone has its independent water system. People come here to garden must obey some rules to ensure the healthy of vegetables. No smoking and washing hands beofore come are required. Only $35 for individual gardener, $50 for group, more than $100 for business. That is to say, individuals are encouraged to take this exciting experience. 10% of whole production is required to donate back to CFI. This is just a little rewarding to CFI to thank the opportunity it give us.

This program is meaningful because it not only help people experience the wonderful life, but also important for food security. All foods are organic, so people can eat safe and nutritious food by laboring themselves. Wow, a old Chinese saying come to me suddenly, "earn our own living by our own hands, we will be well-fed and well-clothed."(Mao Zedong, 1939). Classical philosophy of life will never go out of fashion. I really hope I could have a garden some day in future so that I could enjoy the happiness of gardening as well as feed myself well.

Food Insecurity in the U.S.

Tuesday, April14
Instructor: Dr. Holben


We had a class on food insecurity in the U.S. this tuesday. Dr. Holben provided us an overview of food insecurity status in the U.S. Food security could be defined as: "access by all people, at all times to sufficient food for an active and healthy life...[and]includes at a minimum: the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways." I noticed that the USDA has recently published the latest US hunger statistics: 35 million people live in households that have either "very low or low food security". To put it more simply and bluntly, 12% of the total US population doesn't have enough to eat.


Combining with videos that Dr. Holben showed us in the class, I am really astonished by the fact. Some videos from news report showed that lots of people in Ohio are living in poverty and food insecurity. I noticed that long sequences were waiting for the aids from Food Bank. Those poor people often show up with all their families. Maybe foods for aids are assigned in personal distribution--the more people show up, the more foods a family can get. However, the foods gained by people from aids could hardly satisify their nutrition needs. I have ever had a opportunity to be a volunteer for Food Bank in Logan, Ohio. I observed that foods we prepared in Food Bank were mostly cheap foods that not nutritious. Crackers, canned meat, canned corn, and peanut butter are still deeply kept in my mind. Poor people who do not have enough money to eat well are those do not have good job and high income. A poor family in the video cried because of low income and hunger.

Erin Brockovich, which is a movie acted by Julia Roberts, described the food insecurity problem exist in the household of a divorced women with no job, bad sanitation, little saving, and 2 kids. Through the life of Erin, the importance of work is attentioned again.

Health and Nutrition Policy-Part 2

Instructor: David H. Holben

On this Thursday, firstly we continued to study the Nutrition Policy in the U.S. We mainly studied the process of policy making. To give us deep impression about how a nutrition policy can be made, Dr. Holben played a interesting cartoon video. Policy making, as was said in the class, is the process by which authorities decide which actions to take to address a problem or set of problems. The policy cycle explained details about this. Problem definition and agenda setting, formulate alternative, policy adoption, policy impletation, policy evaluation, then policy termination or a new cycle again till the policy can be made. I have never heard of nutrition policy making before, so this class interested me a lot. And I am very honor to know the process of policy making or something about law making in America through a vivid way-cartoon. I have learned a little about policy in the U.S. when I was in high school in China, but nutritional policy is really a new term to me. I think public health and policy making are comprehensive and perfect in America. As a nutrition student who might be step into the society soon, knowledge in major courses is not enough; how to involved in the society, how to utilize the significance of knowledge I learned in university, understanding the process how the whole system is conducted are equally important.

Secondly, community needs assessment was disscussed. The steps of community needs assessment are very important: 1. define the problem; 2. set the parameters of the assessment; 3. collect data; 4. analyze or interpret data; 5. share the findings; 6. set priorities; 7. choose a plan of action. This is related to our final project of this course. And our group, after discussion, found out a leader to guide us on gardening. We also initially decided to take the pregant women as our target population for research. More details about the final project will be disscussed in the following weeks. I am looking forward to having a big harvest for my first gardening experience and having a really awesome community nutrition project with my group members.

Health and Nutrition Policy-Part 1

Instructor: David H. Holben.

On this Tuesday, we had lecture on health and Nutrition policy (Chapter6) in class. Dr. Holben introduced what is nutrition policy, relationships among Nutrition Research, Monitoring, and Policy making, and NNMPPR. Many offices are dedicated to national nutrition policy, such as Healthy People 2010, CDC, USDA, FDA, and so forth.

The U.S. Congress passed legislation (PL101-445) that established the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Program (NNMRRP) in 1990. NNMRRP is the set of activities that provides regular information about the contribution that diet and nutritional status make to the health of the U.S. population and about the factors affecting diet and nutritional status. The activities of NNMRRP are jointly coordinated by USDA and the DHHS. Today, the NNMRRP includes more than 50 surveillance activities that monitor and evaluate the health and nutritional status of the U.S. population.

The goals of NNMRRP includes: 1. provide the scientific foundation for the maintenance and improvement of the nutritional status of the U.S. population and the nutritional quality and healthfulness of the national food supply; 2. collect, analyze, and disseminate timely data on the nutritional and dietary status of the U.S. population, the nutritional quality of the food supply, food consumption patterns, and consumer knowledge and attitudes concerning nutrition; 3. indentify high-risk groups and geographical areas, as well as nutrition-related problems and trends, to facilitate prompt implementation of nutrition intervention activities; 4. establish national baseline data and develop and improve uniform standards, methods, criteria, policies, and procedures for nutrition monitoring; 5. provide data for evaluating the implications of changes in agricultural policy related to food production, processing, and distribution that may affect the nutritional quality and healthfulness of the U.S. food supply.

As is described above, NNMRRP plays a very significant role in coordinating the relationships between nutritional and dietary status of the U.S. population and scientific research. Knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of population may reflect the possible causations for food insecurity. And suggestions from nutritionists based on the nutritional status of population could help solve the problem. Another example is between nutrient intake and supplement use. Nutritionists collect data about nutrient intake and nutritional status of population by using surveys of the program. After analized the data, suggestions about special nutrient supplement will come up. For instance, if people in a certain community appear to have more osteoporosis than usual, calcium supplement should be fortified.

April 2-A Glimpse into Community Dietetics

Today, two speakers came into our class. The first is Francie Astrom, who works for Wellworks at Ohio University. She explained the role of the registered dietitian (RD) working in a wellness program. This program is supported partially by University wellness funds, and primarily by merberships fee. The aims of this program include providing wide variety of programming, helping people to reach optimal health, improving people's health status, and reducing risks of diseases. Types of services and programs include fitness center (Ping Center in OU), massage, personal trainers, wellness coaching, worksite wellness, blood pressure and cholesterol screening, and other screening for preventing certain diseases such as cancer, response to requests, nutrition programming, body composition, heart works, family and coummunity programs such as pumpkin fest, and risk reduction. Any OU faculty or staff member and their dependents, OU retirees and their dependents could join the program for free. Community members and corporate members could join the program at low prices.

Nutrition programming at the wellworks is very important. As Francie said, the RDs are integral to success of wellness program, they provide date nutrition information such as diet magazines, they review and interpret current literature. The Wellworks program provides both individual nutrition services and group nutrition activities. For individual nutrition services, individuals could get ntrition education or counseling at very low prices ($15 for 30min), easy access (convenient parking), disordered eating, computerized dietary analysis. For group nutrition activities, Wellworks provides presentations to offices, departments and corporate members, cooking and nutrition education programs, grocery store tours, and Five-A-Day the wellworks way.

I would like to be a volunteer someday because joining the program could bring lots of benefits to me. It could broad my understanding of the role of nutrition and health promotion, give me chances to know variety of individuals and make contribution to nutrition education among individuals or groups, deepen my knowledge of nutrient content of foods throughout dietary recommendations. I believe that practicing is the best way to understand knowledge I learn from class.

And "wellworks" program is very helpful for keeping OU faculty and their family healthy, because it is totally free for them. But one limit of this program is that it may miss lots of undergraduates. As reported by Francie, this program is not totally free for undergraduate students, for those who do not have adequate money for living, this program may make them lose the good opportunity to get better health.


The second speaker was a very beautiful young lady-Heidi Anderson. She states that she is not a traditional RD. She works in Wellwork program of OU now. Her work is focusing on health coaching, health education, coordinating presentaions, marketing, quarterly newsletter, and planning in groups. I think she really act more like a epidemiologist than RD. Her education background explained this-she is a MPH. Well, this is so similiar to me. I was major in public health for undergraduate, and stepped into nutrition area now. In my opinion, nutrition is a branch study of public health. What nutritionists do everyday are mostly what epidemiologist should do. Nutritionists play very important roles in controlling diseases, especially in the primary and secondary preventions. For example, telling people how to prevent diseases by adjusting their diets before getting diseases is primary prevention, screening cancer, obesity by testifying blood pressure and cholesterol of potential patients before syptoms appear is secondary prevention. Planning, organizing, directing, controlling, coordinating are five functions of epidemiological managers and administrators. Heidi acts mostly like a epidemiological manger in her daily work. I got evoked by Heidi's career experience. I believe my education background in public health could benefit me much in my nutrition career in future.

First Day of Community Nutrition

It was really a wonderful start for the class on Tuesday, March 31. I think community nutrition is a study about acessing people's health and nutrition status in some certain communities, recording the data into certain databases of the government, and providing suggestions for their diets basing on the results. Community nutrition is very useful and meaningful in primariy prevention and secondary prevention of public health field. And dietitians play a significant way in people's daily lives.

I hope I could learn how to help people maintain their well being in communities as a nutritionist, what nutrition inventions could be taken and their roles of controlling chronic diseases.

In this class, a pleasant surprise to me is that I will participate in gardening. I'm looking forward to having a big harvest with my parterners at the end of this awesome quarter!