I've had the privilege over the past 18 years to lead the Dairy Council of California Trends team. Created in the early 1980s, the team includes 10
staff members, most of whom are registered dietitians. We meet three times per year to review the trends in nutrition research, policy and communications. Other issues tracked include milk and dairy, school and health care environments, sustainability, food industry, health and wellness and social media.
Here is how the process works. Staff are assigned scientific journals, industry newsletters or popular press to track. They abstract articles relevant to our current issues list, as noted above. The abstracts are stored on a searchable database that compiles the articles by issue area. We meet several times per year to discuss the issues at a two day meeting.
At our most recent meeting in September, we discussed the following major ideas:
- Probiotics (healthy bacteria) are getting lots of positive play for their role in improving immunity and intestinal health, reducing serum cholesterol levels, preventing colon cancer and improving symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease.
- Research suggests that protein can help to control appetite, optimize muscle mass, help with blood glucose control, weight management, sports recovery and even bone health.
- Sustainability is a growing factor in consumer food choice decisions. The conversation is starting to broaden beyond environmental costs to also consider nutritional benefits. Specifically, researchers in Sweden have developed a “Nutrient Density-to-Climate Impact” index that factors nutrient contributions in to the quantification of a food’s carbon footprint.
- The 2010 Dietary Guidelines Technical Report identifies four shortfall nutrients in the American diet—calcium, potassium, vitamin D and fiber. Milk, yogurt and cheese are excellent sources of three of these shortfall nutrients.
For a variety of reasons, team members were especially passionate at this recent meeting, perhaps because we are all so opinionated about nutrition! As a result, an exciting and fun idea emerged. We decided to develop a new blog series on our Meals Matter website,
Meals Matter Moms. This is a venue for the Dairy Council moms—many of us are mothers—to share our success stories as well as our less than successful ventures in feeding our children as healthfully as possible.
The Trends process has been instrumental in the long term success of the Dairy Council of California. It is highly valued by staff and ensures that we maintain a proactive and innovative position.
Maureen Bligh, M.A., R.D.
Project Manager
Maureen Bligh, Registered Dietitian
About me:
Maureen Bligh is a registered dietitian and project manager for the Dairy Council of California. She manages online communication and social media efforts, an internal Nutrition Trends Team and develops online continuing education courses for health professionals.
Maureen's career in dietetics spans over 30 years and began in clinical dietetics and out-patient education at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. She provided nutrition education to people of all ages, especially diabetes education for children, pregnant women and adults.
She has passion for providing reality-based, nutrition education to help people enjoy a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods to lead a healthy life. She was delighted to recently discover that her commitment to family meals helped shape healthy attitudes and habits for her two teenage sons.
Follow Maureen on Twitter: @MaureenB_RD