Upcoming Event: Berkeley Soda Series

In an effort to raise awareness about the health and environmental impacts of soda and other sugary drinks, the Berkeley Healthy Child Coalition and several other local organizations are hosting Soda: The Series from September 4th through October 9th. The series of community events will include Berkeley leaders alongside speakers such as Dr. Robert Lustig (a renowned UCSF researcher on sugar), Raj Patel (award-winning writer, activist, and academic), and Anna Lappé (author and director of Small Planet Institute) discussing the science of sugary drinks, tactics of the soda industry, and disease prevention efforts. These events take place in the run-up to the November election, when Berkeley will vote on Measure D, a tax on sugary drinks.

Visit SodaSeries.org for more information and to download the flyer!

 

Upcoming APHA Webinar Series on Food, Justice, and Health Equity

As part of National Public Health Week, the American Public Health Association is hosting a 4-part webinar series on food, justice, and health equity. The first in the series is this Thursday, April 10th on “Food justice, Obesity & the Social Determinants of Health.” Speakers include Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH APHA President-Elect and Cecilia Martinez, PhD, Center for Earth, Energy & Democracy.

Here’s the description of this week’s webinar from APHA: Healthy communities depend on food environments that allow for access to healthy food. Where you live should not dictate how well you eat, or how that food is grown, but it often does. APHA President Elect, Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, discusses food environments as drivers of obesity and related diseases, as well as critical elements in achieving health equity. Respondent Dr. Cecelia Martinez of the Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED) will discuss community indicators for food justice.

Register here for the 4-part webinar series. Be sure to check out the other events on the NPHW website!

 

Upcoming Event: Michael Pollan Lecture in SF

Michael Pollan will be speaking in San Francisco on May 1st in a lecture entitled, “The Omnivore’s Solution: In Defense of Food.” 

Here’s the event description from City Arts:

For the past twenty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens, drugs and architecture.  An “ethical-eating guru” and fierce advocate of sustainable agriculture and living, Pollan is one of the most compelling voices on subjects ranging from environment to business to health.  He is the author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, and Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.  Pollan teaches at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. This program is a lecture titled The Omnivore’s Solution: In Defense of Food.

Buy tickets here soon!

TEDx Manhattan: Changing the Way We Eat

In case you missed it this past weekend,  or weren’t able to attend a viewing party, catch up on TEDx Manhattan’s Changing the Way We Eat by watching all the videos here. Speakers included Michel Nischan (of Wholesome Wave), chef Tom Colicchio, and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) (you can check out the full schedule here).

Upcoming Event: Taste of Cambridge 2013

It’s been a couple years since I attended Taste of Cambridge, but it was a great event the last time I went. This year’s was supposed to be held last night, but has been postponed until next Tuesday, June 18, 2013 due to weather. All proceeds go to local charities.

When: Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Where: University Park Common & Sidney Street

What to expect: Delicious food from local restaurants plus a beer and wine garden. Participants include 100 restaurants, from Upstairs on the Square to Lord Hobo, and local breweries like Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project.

Tickets start at $50 ($75 for VIP access) and include samples (as many as you can eat), 4 drinks, and other freebies. More info here.

Upcoming Events: Boston University Gastronomy Lecture Series

The Boston University Gastronomy Program just announced their Fall lecture series. All lectures are free and open to the public!

Can Food Save Washington? Inventing Terroir for the Nation’s Capital
Warren Belasco, Visiting Professor of Gastronomy
Monday, September 17, 6 PM, SHA Auditorium

Neurogastronomy: What is it, and why does it matter?
Gordon Shepard, Professor of Neurobiology, Yale University and author of Neurogastronomy
Wednesday, October 24, 6 PM, SHA Auditorium

Writing Food History – A Conversation
Kyri Claflin, Lecturer in Gastronomy, and co-author of Writing Food History: A Global Perspective
Monday, November 5, 5 PM, Fuller Building room 109, 808 Commonwealth Avenue

Around the Italian Table – a roundtable discussion of Contemporary Food Ethnography in Italy
Carole Counihan, Visiting Professor of Gastronomy, Rachel Black, Assistant Professor of Gastronomy and Valeria Siniscalchi, Associate Professor of Anthropology, EHESS
Monday, November 12, 6 PM, SHA Auditorium

For more information, contact gastrmla@bu.edu. I also encourage you to check out the BU Food & Wine Program, which offers cooking classes, demonstrations, and lectures on topics ranging from Julia Child to “Studies in Beer.”

Event TONIGHT: Affordable Care Act and the Supreme Court: The Future of Healthcare Reform

A last minute addition to your calendar! 

Tonight, the Boston Young Healthcare Professionals will host a panel discussion on the recent decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. Panelists include:

• Jan Bhatt, New England Health Institute
• Renee Landers, Suffolk University Law School
• Amy Lischko, Professor of Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine
• Regina Rockefeller, Nixon Peabody Health Services Group

Event Information:

• Where: Arthur M. Sackler Center for Medical Education at Tufts University, Room 114, 145 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111.
• When: TONIGHT, July 18, 7:00-9:00 pm
• Who: Members of the sponsoring organizations and their guests. 
• Tickets: Register here! General public: $12 in advance, $15 at the door; Event is free for BYHP Members with access code
• Format: Panel discussion and Q&A. There will be time for informal conversations and networking following the panel. 
• Questions? Contact Katie at katie@byhp.org

Jamie Oliver honored with Harvard Healthy Cup Award

Last month, chef Jamie Oliver received the Healthy Cup award from the Harvard School of Public Health, honoring his work in the area of childhood obesity. Jamie Oliver is a well-known celebrity chef whose recent work has focused on reducing childhood obesity in the U.S. and U.K. through his television series, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and the establishment of the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation to support U.S.-based obesity prevention. Jamie’s work has been instrumental in raising awareness about childhood obesity, specifically as it relates to school lunch programs. Congrats, Jamie – and keep up the good work!

Upcoming Event: The Weight of the Nation

This coming Monday evening, HBO will be screening the new documentary The Weight of the Nation in Boston. Following the screening, Boston-area experts, including Tufts researcher Dr. Christina Economos, will speak on a panel about some of the issues raised in the documentary. If you’re unable to attend the screening, check the HBO website for showtimes.

Here’s the description from HBO:

Bringing together the nation’s leading research institutions, THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION is a presentation of HBO and the Institute of Medicine (IOM), in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and in partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.

The centerpiece of THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION campaign is the four-part documentary series, each featuring case studies, interviews with our nation’s leading experts, and individuals and their families struggling with obesity. The first film, CONSEQUENCES, examines the scope of the obesity epidemic and explores the serious health consequences of being overweight or obese. The second, CHOICES, offers viewers the skinny on fat, revealing what science has shown about how to lose weight, maintain weight loss and prevent weight gain. The third, CHILDREN IN CRISIS, documents the damage obesity is doing to our nation’s children. Through individual stories, this film describes how the strong forces at work in our society are causing children to consume too many calories and expend too little energy; tackling subjects from school lunches to the decline of physical education, the demise of school recess and the marketing of unhealthy food to children. The fourth film, CHALLENGES, examines the major driving forces causing the obesity epidemic, including agriculture, economics, evolutionary biology, food marketing, racial and socioeconomic disparities, physical inactivity, American food culture, and the strong influence of the food and beverage industry.