Nutrition Department feeds minds at science festival

Episode # 97
Uploaded: May 9, 2012
Running Time: 1:57:15

CROWN: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

When most people think of healthy eating, they don't imagine a delicious dinner and dessert. So the NIH Clinical Center's Nutrition Department worked on changing perceptions at the 2nd annual U.S. Science & Engineering Festival. As they prepared a healthy and tasty meal and dessert, they focused on teaching the audience about MyPlate – the Department of Agriculture's tool for eating healthy. Jennifer Widger, a Nutrition Department manager and registered dietitian, explains:

WIDGER: MyPlate is taking the five basic food groups – the dairy, protein, grains, fruits and vegetables—and making sure that you try to get a little bit of that on every plate and in every meal.

CROWN: David Folio, chief of CC's Nutrition Department, says the MyPlate icon is simple to use and the goal of the presentation is to encourage others to be inspired to cook healthier foods that are creative and fun to eat.

FOLIO: To show that you can eat this way, in a simple way, with foods from your grocery store. You don't have to be an executive chef to do this.

CROWN: And the Clinical Center's Executive Chef Robert Hedetniemi agrees.

HEDETNIEMI: I would say jump in with both feet. Get something in your pantry. That's the first step, okay. The battleground is in the supermarket. Bring the stuff home and when you have it in your pantry, you might be more included to actually take the step to one day and actually experiment...And if you make a mistake, it's a bump on the road to success.

CROWN: From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Ellen Crown, at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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