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Nutrition411: The Podcast, Ep. 16

What Does the Latest Research Reveal About the Impact of Food Insecurity on Health and Nutrition?

Lisa Jones, MA, RDN, LDN, FAND

This podcast series aims to highlight the science, psychology, and strategies behind the practice of dietetics. Moderator, Lisa Jones, MA, RDN, LDN, FAND, interviews prominent dietitians and health professionals to help our community think differently about food and nutrition.

In this podcast episode, Lisa Jones interviews Nicole Rodriguez, RDN, NASM-CPT, about food access and disparities, including food insecurity in the New York City public school system and the impact of “meatless Mondays,” and “vegan Fridays” on students. This is episode 1 of a 4-part series. 

Additional Resources:

Listen to episode 2 in this 4-part series.

Lisa Jones, MA, RDN, LDN, FAND

Lisa Jones, MA, RDN, LDN, FAND, is a registered dietitian nutritionist, speaker, and author (Philadelphia, PA).

Nicole Rodriguez, RDN, NASM-CPT

Nicole Rodriguez, RDN, NASM-CPT, is an award-winning registered dietitian nutritionist, co-founder of Step Bite Step, co-host of the Food Bullying podcast, and brand partner with American Dairy Northeast, the New York Beef Council, Bush Brothers and Company, General Mills, Wish Farms, California Leafy Greens and Bayer Crop Science (New York Metro area). 

 

TRANSCRIPTION:

Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Nutrition 411, the podcast. A special podcast series led by registered dietician and nutritionist Lisa Jones. The views of the speakers are their own and do not reflect the views of their respective institutions or Consultant360.

Lisa Jones: Hello and welcome to Nutrition411: The Podcast where we communicate the information that you need to know now about the science, psychology, and strategies behind the practice of dietetics. Today's podcast is part of a series of short episodes on food access featuring a Q&A with Nicole Rodriguez. It is my honor today to have Nicole here. Nicole is an award-winning dietician nutritionist based in the New York metro area. In addition to serving a diverse clientele via her telehealth-based practice, she is also the co-founder of Step by Step, a weight loss and physical activity program.

Nicole is passionate about empowering individuals to feel good about the abundance of food choices at their fingertips and utilizes her co-hosting duties on the food bullying podcast to do just that. When Nicole loves working one-on-one with clients towards their health goals, she also helps spread the word about food via her brand partnership, which has included American Dairy Northeast, the New York Beef Council, Bush Brothers and Company, General Mills, Wish Farms, California Leaf Greens, and Bear Crop Science. So I'm excited today because we are going to be talking about uncovering the latest research on this topic and the trend that it has in dietetics. Well, it's not really a trend, I feel like we've had food access issues for as long as I've been a dietician at least. So I want to open it up with the first question, and that really is food access disparities. Can you talk a little bit about your experience with what the latest research reveals about the impact of food insecurity on health and nutrition?

Nicole Rodriguez: Yeah, so this is a subject really near and dear to my heart because I spent my DFN years, those years gaining the necessary schooling to sit for the RD exam as well as my internship. I spent a lot of that time in what is literally the poorest congressional district in the country, in the South Bronx, volunteering and doing outreach, working farmer's markets, all of these different things. So just setting the stage there. I always have that population in mind, and we know that in the post-COVID times, we know just in the general climate that we're in right now, that access is an issue. We know of course, that food prices are an issue, but we also, Lisa, have this really wide popularization of plant-based diets. Am I right? Do you notice this same, I think you're probably noticing this same, I'm sure you're noticing this same trend and what we're seeing here in New York City is that that trend is arguably becoming a barrier to access specifically in New York City schools.

So you might've heard many years ago that they were enacting meatless Mondays in New York City. Do you remember when that was rolled out? And more recently, not only are we doing meatless Mondays in the New York City schools, by the way, I no longer live in New York City, but I am adjacent. So not only are they doing meatless Mondays, but now they are doing a vegan Friday in New York City schools. So on the surface, Lisa, we know a lot of the benefits of a plant-based diet. We know that increasing your fruit and vegetable consumption is a fantastic idea. We know that making sure we're meeting fruit and vegetable requirements is something that a lot of us are not doing. There's only about 10% of the population doing that. However, what's underpinning all of that is that now we have school children who are being denied other nutrient-dense foods, not only once a week, but now twice a week.

So again, when we're talking about some of these children living in some of these places, like the South Bronx when they go to school, those are arguably the most nutrient-dense meals that they're getting in the day. And when we talk specifically about Friday and Monday, we don't know what they're getting on a Saturday and Sunday. So now potentially they have four days lined up in a row where they're not getting access to things like meat, dairy, and the like.

So, unfortunately, we have this paradox. We know that plant-based in some ways can be really, really good. But then we also see, and you can link this in your show notes, we do also have some evidence that perhaps putting these kinds of restrictions on children are not optimal for their growth either. So, as far as what the latest research reveals, we don't yet have the data of what this is going to look at long-term in this very small concentrated population. But we do have data from 2021 that points to maybe this is really just a limit of access. And I think there are conversations we can have about how can we do better. How can we maybe be encouraging consumption of plant-based foods, but not putting such strict parameters around it?

Lisa Jones: Yes. And I love what you said about the four days, because that is, so when you put in perspective of saying four days, that is so eye-opening.

Nicole Rodriguez: Yes.

Lisa Jones: And I do think that the plant-based trend is flooding the market. So not only is it, and as a dietician, I speak from this viewpoint, I go to the market and there's like another product that popped up and I'm like, "Oh, I didn't know about this product," so now I got to go look it up. So it's even hard as a dietician from my viewpoint to keep up. So, I can't even imagine for a consumer, somebody that's not trained the way we are. How are they keeping up with all these new products? And then now they're announcing, okay, there's a vegan Friday. So I thank you for sharing that because that is an eye-opening statistic, and I like the fact that you told us where you came from and you cited that it was the poorest congressional district population. So from that viewpoint, I would love to hear from you if you could share a story from that time.

Nicole Rodriguez: Oh gosh.

Lisa Jones: That would be great.

Nicole Rodriguez: Yeah. There are so many, but there's one in particular that comes to mind. So I did some volunteer work in some schools, and one of them was a school for children who maybe couldn't be in the traditional school for whatever reason, and some of them were girls who were pregnant as teenagers. That was a portion of the population there. And I went and taught Nutrition Ed, but also had the opportunity to interact with some parents. And there was a parent who told me that we think about sugary snacks, we think about chips, we think about all of these things, and we're supposed to be like, "Oh, no, no, no, don't have these things." And this mother put it to me in this context. She said, "I would rather have these things at home that I know my daughter wants because I don't want her taking the risk of going down to the corner store. I don't want her to take the risk of walking there. I don't feel it's safe."

And that's really a stark reality. So when we start to peel back some of these layers of what access looks like, it's not only, okay, do I have access to A, B, C, D food? We could talk about that all day, but then we have to talk about whether is it safe to go get that food. Another example is many people living in SROs, Single Room Occupancy housing. We might say something like, "Oh, well just prepare..." Lisa, how many times in our career have we said something like, "Oh, well just microwave some oatmeal." That's inexpensive, or just heat this up on the stove, and maybe there's not even a stove to be had. So maybe there's a hot plate, but not a full setup of something. So we talk about access, it's not just about what's accessible economically, it's also about what is literally physically accessible, and that looks different in a lot of different places. So is that the norm? Thankfully, that's not the norm across the country, but we do need to be aware that in some cases, that could be the norm.

Lisa Jones: Yes, it's so true. And the fact that you were in the poorest district, that gives you this great experience to say, okay, now, because you've seen, I guess, the most basic, you're saying somebody didn't have a stove, they just use a hot plate. What do they do if they don't have either a hot, you've probably seen an example of not even having a hot plate too. So in that situation, the most difficult situation that you've been in from that experience, you can take that, what you applied there, and to give guidance to any dietician that has a similar experience. So how has that impacted the future recommendations that you've given since then?

Nicole Rodriguez: I really try to meet people where they're at and not make assumptions. I think it's so easy to make assumptions about what people have, of what people can and can't do. And the truth of the matter is that sometimes any little improvement is still an improvement. And it really taught me, one, you can't just go from zero to 60, and you really have to be very careful of demonizing ready-prepared foods, take-out foods, fast foods, things that might not be deemed "healthy" or even nutrient-dense, but sometimes that's really what someone is working with. So just being really cognizant of not bringing my own ideas of what maybe the media says is healthy or what someone who's only working with, what a very well-heeled clientele says is healthy, or even my own version of what is healthy, but taking all of those different factors into account.

Lisa Jones: Yes. And I love what you said about meeting people where they're at because that's really an excellent takeaway from what we were just discussing.

Nicole Rodriguez: Literally and figuratively.

Lisa Jones: Yes.

Nicole Rodriguez: You could be having that conversation. Sure. Where are you at a stage of readiness for change, but also literally, where are you doing your shopping? Where are you making your food purchases? What exactly does that look like? And that's really applicable to any patient. It just makes a lot of sense to get into the nitty-gritty of all of those things with someone. So you could really, really help them get to be where they want.

Lisa Jones: Yeah, so true. And thank you for sharing your wisdom on talking about the latest research and trends in dietetics on food as access and disparities. So I appreciate that.

Nicole Rodriguez: My pleasure.

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