Mad cow disease. Fast food. Ephedra. Childhood obesity. Health concerns about these topics have attracted wide press, yet few have examined their genetic consequences. Where do the lines of nutrition and heredity cross? Do genes dictate our destiny? Or are we what we eat?
A distinguished group of science and nutrition experts will explore these issues and more during “Nurturing Our Nature,� a free, one-day public symposium on Sunday, Feb. 8, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the De Neve Plaza Conference Facility on the UCLA campus.
“How much do our genes ordain our future health, and how much is influenced by what we eat?� said Dr. Edward McCabe, director of the UCLA Center for Society, the Individual and Genetics. “Our symposium will filter the latest findings on vitamins, aging, supplements and nutrition, and explain how to enhance our vitality while reducing the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.�
The panel will address a broad spectrum of nutritional and scientific issues, including:
· The single best nutritional investment you can make.
· How governmental dietary guidelines are written and whether you can trust them.
· Which vitamins and supplements you should take and which ones you should avoid.
· How poor nutrition can lead to Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
· Whether Web-based genetic tests for nutrition are a scam or the wave of the future.
· Can we convert nutritional knowledge into widespread behavioral change?
· More effective government regulation of food and health supplements.
Gregory Stock, director of UCLA’s Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, will moderate the program, which will feature Dr. Stephen Straus, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health; Marion Nestle, chair of nutrition and food studies at New York University and author of “Food Politics�; Dr. David Heber, director of UCLA’s Center for Human Nutrition and author of “The Resolution Diet�; Bruce Ames, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of California, Berkeley; and Dr. Irwin Rosenberg, dean of nutrition sciences at Tufts University and editor of Nutrition Reviews.
Sponsored by the UCLA Center for Society, the Individual and Genetics, “Nurturing Our Nature: Genomics, Diet and Nutrition� is the second in a series of annual symposia about controversial issues emerging from the genomics revolution.
For more information on UCLA’s Center for Society, the Individual and Genetics, please call (310) 206-7896 or go to www.arc2.ucla.edu/csig/index.htm.
-UCLA-
ES035