Dr. Gilliland and HEAL Team attends NRC 2018 forum, “Unpacking Food Literacy”
- Post by: Moe
- 9:07PM Nov 15, 2018
- No Comment
Dr. Gilliland and HEAL members attended the NRC 2018 forum today where they gave a presentation on our novel smartphone app called SmartAPPetite which provides users with credible information about local foods (e.g., seasonality, nutrition, preparation, vendors) to ‘nudge’ users to make healthier, smarter choices about what they buy and consume.
Increasing food literacy is an important health promotion strategy to enable healthy eating and may help reduce the burden of obesity and chronic disease. Growing concerns about unhealthy eating habits, including consuming too many processed food and beverages and the lack of food literacy in children, youth and adults inspired the theme for NRC’s annual forum this year to focus on “Unpacking Food Literacy”.
The HEAL Team came together with health professionals, service providers, educators, students, researchers, government decision makers and other food literacy champions to showcase our innovative SmartAPPetite program and initiative, and to share our latest research to ultimately help consumers make healthier food choices.
The presentation consisted of a report on:
- The background research (e.g., focus groups, pilot studies, food environment audits) informing the development of SmartAPPetite,
- findings of a pilot intervention study with adolescents in London, Ontario, and
- ongoing research.
Pictured below: Mariam Ismail (left), Angela Piaskoski, Drew Bowman, Bianca Ziegler (right)
