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Presentation on "Recovery: The Key to Peak Performance" set for Friday, February 20, at 7PM, in 103 Reid Hall
Dr. Robert Portman, founder and former CEO and CSO of PacificHealth Laboratories, makers of Accelerade® and R4 Endurox®, will present on the history and future of nutritional interventions for recovery. The presentation is open to all and free of charge. |
Dr. Portman is the Managing Principal of Signal Nutrition, LLC, a nutrition technology company focused on the development of innovative science based products for sports performance and weight loss.
Prior to Signal Nutrition, Dr. Portman was founder, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at PacificHealth Laboratories. At PacificHealth Laboratories, he directed cutting-edge research defining the role that carbohydrate protein supplementation plays in improving muscle recovery and enhancing endurance performance. This research led to his creation of Accelerade® Sports Drink and Endurox R4® Recovery Drink.
Dr. Portman has co-authored, with Dr. John Ivy of the University of Texas, two books, Nutrient Timing and The Performance Zone. Nutrient Timing has been called “the next important nutrition concept in the 21st century.” He has also written hundreds of sports nutrition articles, frequently appears on TV and radio and has served as a nutrition adviser to many professional and collegiate teams, as well as Olympic and professional athletes.
Dr. Portman, a PhD in biochemistry is a holder of 11 patents. He is married to Jennifer, has three children, Emily, Jon and Abigail, and is an avid skier and cyclist.
The talk is sponsored by the College of Education, Health and Human Development, the Department of Health and Human Development, the Movement Science Performance Lab, and the Associated Students of MSU.
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Montana Nutrition and Physical Activity Program Awarded $4 Million Grant to Help Fight Obesity
A program devoted to fighting obesity and improving the health of Montanans has been awarded a federal grant that will total more than $4 million over a span of five years.
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The $823,955 per-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is nearly double the $450,000 amount the program had been receiving each year since 2004.
The program, called the Montana Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to Prevent Obesity and Other Chronic Diseases, is administered by Montana State University. It works to fight obesity throughout the state by partnering with other entities such as schools, day care centers and workplaces to promote healthy environments.
Major goals of the program, which began about four years ago after Montana became one of 28 states to receive the CDC grant, include increasing physical activity by making the environment more conducive to walking and biking; promoting breastfeeding; increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables; working on reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages; encouraging families to turn off the TV; and helping people understand the importance of caloric balance.
After gathering input from stakeholders across the state, the program released a state plan, detailing ways of achieving the goals of preventing obesity and other chronic diseases.
One example of the plan at work is Shelby, where the program works closely with local leaders to promote and measure healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors among adults and children.
The town of about 3,200 people added a fitness center to the community's civic center and hired a fitness trainer, which local businesses subsidized. The community also built a six-mile trail connecting the businesses, hospital, homes and schools. Restaurants say patrons are starting to order healthier food items, and major employers are partnering with health care providers to offer obesity prevention interventions at work, said Ninia Baehr, the program's manager.
"That story makes me hopeful," Baehr said. "I think our program has helped a lot in some communities and will continue to help."
Meanwhile, program administrators like Baehr continue to seek partners in the fields of education, transportation, planning, business, Extension Services, agriculture, parks and recreation, health care, tribal organizations, civic organizations and advocacy groups.
"I think we've had some successes in our pilot projects, and the additional money will allow us to enter into subcontracts in areas across the state," Baehr said. "We're hoping this extra money will allow us to do more of what we're already doing in more communities."
But communities are also fighting an uphill battle, she said.
"Rates of obesity in adults and children are continuing to rise across the country, including in Montana," Baehr said. "Kids are showing some of the health problems associated with obesity at younger and younger ages."
In 2007, the CDC reported that 61.8 percent of Montana adults were overweight or obese, and 23.4 percent of Montana high school students were overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.
Overweight and obese individuals have a substantially higher risk of illness from high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, certain types of cancer, and other chronic diseases, Baehr said.
"Fighting obesity in our state will only be possible through collaboration and partnership," Baehr said. "In order to make physical activity and healthy eating more a part of the everyday lives of Montanans, our own institutions - schools, day care centers, health facilities, worksites and tribal and community agencies - will need to find ways to promote these activities among the people whose lives they touch."
Ninia Baehr, (406) 994-5686 or niniab@montana.edu
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Towne's Harvest Readies for Second Year
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Towne’s Harvest Garden, a project organized and operated
by MSU nutrition and agriculture students, is gearing
up for its second year. This month at the Plant Growth
Center on campus, students will begin planting seeds, which will eventually be transplanted to the 2-acre
farm west of the MSU campus. |
According to Dr. Alison Harmon, “Last year the farm grew
10,000 pounds of food. Five thousand pounds went
to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank, and the rest went
to the 40 participating members.”
Memberships cost $425. In return, members receive
bags of produce for 14 weeks for a family of
four. For summer 2008, Towne’s Harvest will increase its
membership to 55 families. They also plan to sell excess produce
at the Farmer’s Market.
Dr. Harmon announced that the garden has just received
a $12,000 grant from the Montana Department of Agriculture’s “Growth through Agriculture” program, which will
allow them to purchase a new well and also pay to film a
documentary about the project.
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Steps to a New You: Food and Eating, Physical Activity, and Body Image
For the last few years, the
push to do something about
our nation’s obesity problem has
been front and center. Many
people are focusing solely on trying
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| lose weight rather than
achieving a healthy lifestyle. Educators
in Wyoming, Idaho, and
Montana have joined together
to offer “Steps to a New You” to over 200 participants. The
7-session program uses a variety
of approaches such as education,
hands-on experiences, pedometers,
and other record-keeping tools to
help participants develop new attitudes
and behaviors related to
food, physical activity and body
image. Dr. Lynn Paul, Food and
Nutrition Extension Specialist, has
seen important results with “Steps to
a New You” in three areas: food and
eating; physical activity; and body
image. Dr. Paul notes that participants
are eating more fruits, vegetables,
and whole grains, drinking less
pop, and ordering fewer super-sized
items. Besides increasing their physical
activity, many noted they were not as
concerned by what others thought about
their body size and shape.
As one participant said, “I’ve learned
how to take my time to enjoy my food instead
of having it just be a hand-and-arm
movement.” |
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| Nutrition Sen$e for Montana School Districts |
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The Montana Team Nutrition
has provided mini-grants to school
districts to support student organizations
in offering healthful foods and beverages at their
student stores through the Nutrition SEN$E Project. It
was funded by a 2001 USDA Team Nutrition grant which
funded eighteen school districts around the state. The grants
ranged from $500 to $3,000 and reached over 10,000 |
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students. The long term impact of these grants helped support the addition
of popular, low cost, healthy items being offered for sale at student-run
stores, student training in safe food handling practices, inventory
and cost control, and the development of a resource guide,
called “Nutrition SEN$E: Students Encouraging Nutritious Snacks
Every Day.” This resource provides technical assistance to student
organizations on how to successfully promote and sell healthful foods
and beverages in student stores and can be downloaded at www.opi.mt.gov/schoolfood/nutritionsense.htm. |
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Early Childhood Distance Education Program Funded
Laura Massey, Associate Professor in Early Childhood Education/Child Development has received a grant from the US Department of Education for $1,040,816. |
The Early Childhood Education Distance Partnership Program (ECEDP) is beginning the first year of a four-year, 1.2 million project designed to assist Head Start teachers complete their bachelor's degree. Funded by the Office of Indian Education, this program is designed to help Montana Tribal Head Start programs meet the recently established requirements set by the National Head Start Association and Congress, which demand that at least 50% of all Head Start teachers obtain a bachelor’s degree in the Early Childhood Education field by 2010. This grant will fund tuition and fees, a laptop computer, and 3 years of home internet service for up to 25 Head Start teachers who have completed their AA degrees in Early Childhood Education. The Early Childhood Education Program at MSU will provide two years of upper division ECE courses delivered via Web-CT through the Burns Center and MSU in order for students to complete their 4-year degree.
The ECEDP is a collaborative partnership among Montana State University and six of the seven Tribal Colleges and their respective Head Start Programs. Initiated by Dr. Massey in 2000 following the 1998 Head Start Act, the ECEDP has already successfully graduated 2 separate Head Start teacher cohorts, with a third cohort near completion. An Associate Professor in HHD as well as a Project Director, Dr. Massey has hired Christine Lux to help manage the program. Massey and Lux will work with teachers and administrators from Tribal Head Starts and Tribal Colleges from 6 of the 7 Montana Reservations. For further information, you can contact Dr. Massey at lmassey@montana.edu. |
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| Office of Population Affairs Awards Grant to HHD |
Elizabeth Rink, Assistant Professor in Community Health, received a grant for $299,960 from the federal Office of Population Affairs. The grant will elucidate the individual, social and environmental factors that appear to have the greatest influence on American Indian men’s sexual and reproductive health.
Individual characteristics such as knowledge of contraceptive methods and sexually transmitted infections; perceptions of pregnancy; perceived risk of STIs; perceptions of abstinence, monogamy and contraceptive use will be examined in the study. The project will also look at social dynamics such as relationships with family and peers; culture; religion; and relationships with sexual partners. Characteristics of, access to, and utilization of family planning services will also be examined.
The project will study Native American men aged 18-24 living on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana and will run from October 2007 to September 2009. |
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