March Lecture: Maternal Nutrition

What’s affecting local women’s food choices and its impact on future generations

“Eat healthy,” you hear it all the time; doctors, media, and friends encourage us to eat better for our health. It is easy to say, but it is not always easy to do. A group of community members participated in a project; taking pictures of things that help them eat healthy as well as things that make it harder.

Oregon Health and Science University’s Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network recently finished a research project on what affects maternal nutrition in Clatsop County. This was a “Photo Voice” project where 10 women took pictures of their food environment, in an attempt to identify the barriers and facilitators to good nutrition.

OHSU Research Assistant and Community Liaison Julia Mabry, is taking the resulting presentation around Clatsop County to those interested in food, medicine, and health. She will be the speaker at our lecture this month (March 2015).

“The results are moving, compelling and personal. The women’s stories about healthy eating are important for the public to hear,” Mabry said.

The presentation will cover why it’s important to study maternal nutrition and its effect on epigenetics, or chronic illness in the future. It will also address how personal behavior fits into the larger context of our environment. How our society’s food environment could change for the better will be up for discussion.

Beers to Your Health, our monthly food and wellness lecture happens Thursday March 12 at the Fort George Brewery Lovell Showroom, located at 14th and Exchange Street in downtown Astoria. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the talk starts at 7 p.m. This event is free and open to all ages.

Food and the Future