Robert Russell
A national conference on nutrition would make Americans more aware of the importance of healthy eating, a key academic leader on nutrition told congressional aides at a briefing last week.

“People believe nutrition is important to health but they do not act on those beliefs,” said Robert Russell, a physician who is professor emeritus of medicine and nutrition at Tufts University. He noted that a White House conference on hunger had led to improvements in anti-hunger programs.

Speaking at a briefing last Wednesday organized by C-FAR, the National Coalition for Food & Agricultural Research, Russell added that improving eating habits and fighting obesity “is not going to be simple” because “you need a whole systems approach,” including diet and exercise.

He said some of the issues on the cutting edge of nutrition research are the effects on maternal feeding and child eating, how the nutritional content of school lunches compares with packed lunches, how decision-making ability affects weight control, and the health differences between children who are breast-fed and formula-fed.

Russell noted that there are many advantages to breast feeding, but that formula-fed children develop faster.