The Magic of Mushrooms

Presented by the Berry Good Food Foundation, the Future Thought Leaders series is an engaging portfolio of multidisciplinary programs that present varying viewpoints on sustainable food-related topics. For their 10th program with UCTV, the focus is mushrooms.

Mushrooms play a crucial role in our natural ecosystem; they have been used medicinally by indigenous cultures for centuries, their nutritional value and hearty fiber make them an excellent meat substitute for chefs, and the mainstream medical community is evaluating psilocybin benefits in combating PTSD, anxiety, addiction, and other conditions.

Michelle Ciccarelli Lerach hosts spiritual healer Matthew Alvarado, Mindful Mushrooms owner Ivo Fedak, CEO of M2 Ingredients Jan Hall, Mark Kalia, M.D., Gordon Saxe, M.D., Ph.D., UCSD, environmental scientist Danielle Stevenson, and co-owner and chef at The Plot and Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub Davin Waite for a discussion on the amazing impacts of mushrooms. Learn how mushrooms are grown, how modern medicine is embracing their many uses, and how cutting-edge chefs are imagining how they appear in restaurant dining rooms.

Watch The Magic of Mushrooms: Revolutionizing the Future of Food, Farming and Medicine – Future Thought Leaders Series Presented by the Berry Good Food Foundation .

Bone Health: Beyond Supplements

“This is what I learned when I thought I knew everything already about healthy eating and living,” says Vicky Newman, MS, RDN. Her informative talk goes beyond the basics of calcium intake for bone health to highlight the importance of a healthy diet combined with physical activity. Learn about the exercises that increase weight bearing and strength in addition to activities to improve your balance. Get insights into what a bone-healthy diet looks like and how to work with your doctor to minimize medications that could be taking a toll on your bones.

“Boosting Bone Health to Prevent Injury and Speed Healing” marks the 2019 return of the Stein Institute for Research on Aging lecture series to UCTV. For more with Vicky Newman, and to view the complete archive of lectures, visit https://uctv.tv/stein/.

Watch — Boosting Bone Health to Prevent Injury and Speed Healing – Research on Aging

Trust in Nutrition Science

Can scientists research nutrition if they take money from the food industry? Nutrition scientist and author Marion Nestle has long been concerned about the way food company sponsorship influences (or, at best, appears to influence) the outcome of research on nutrition and health. She says that the idea that one food or food product has a big impact on health doesn’t really make sense, yet we see these claims all the time.

Marion Nestle sat down with Laura Schmidt, UCSF Professor of Health Policy, for this lively conversation that explores the conflicts of interest behind food studies funded by food corporations, the proven biases they create from the get-go, and how this directly affects the way we eat. They also talk about how to be more aware of misleading publications about nutrition and how to identify industry-funded research.

You’ll also get a preview of the upcoming dietary guidelines and hear more about global food systems. Find out how Marion knows there are industry “spies” at most of her talks – confirmation of this came about through the Russian hacking of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Nestle is the author of ten books, most recently “Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat” and “Food Politics 2018: Food Industry Influence on Nutrition Research.”

Watch — Food, Nutrition and Politics: A Conversation with Marion Nestle

Food Industry Manipulation

Do you want to find out how various food and beverage manufacturers have manipulated science and public health policy over the last 50 years? Now you can with the new searchable archive of food industry documents at the UCSF Industry Documents Library. The Food Industry Documents Archive https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/ is a brand-new collection of over 30,000 documents related to the food industry and its impact on public health.

This new archive builds on the long history at UCSF of caring for those suffering from obesity and helps researchers get at the root causes that contribute to the disease. This archive comes at an important time as researchers and policy experts take great strides to address problems of industry influence on our health, food and human rights. Data is powerful in creating change and now documents that the industry wanted secret are safe and available.

Existing archives of Chemical, Drug, and Tobacco Industry collections at UCSF have saved millions of lives. The future research with the Food Industry Documents Archive materials will have a dramatic impact on human health and policy changes.

Find out more about these documents that highlight marketing, research, and policy strategies used by food companies and trade groups, and reveal the communications and connections between industry, academic, and regulatory organizations.

These two programs feature speeches and presentations from the unveiling of the archive.

Watch UCSF’s New Food Industry Documents Archive, Part 1
Watch UCSF’s New Food Industry Documents Archive, Part 2

Why Diets Don’t Work, and What Does

Diets make bold claims: drop 15 pounds in four weeks! Shed that stubborn belly fat! Get the abs you’ve always wanted! But, for most people, diets just don’t work. In fact, studies show the vast majority of dieters who do lose weight end up right back where they started, or even heavier, after five years. Neuroscientists and science writers Sandra Aamodt and Darya Rose break down the road blocks to sustained weight loss, and how your own brain is sabotaging your success. Rose explains how you can skip the crash diets and create long-lasting changes through the science of forming new habits. Her step-by-step approach makes the daunting task of creating a healthier, happier you seem simple.

Watch The Diet Trap: Why You Should Never Go on a Diet Again, and What To Do Instead.