Today we had another guest speaker by the name of Melissa Alfano, the director of Athens and Perry county WIC. WIC stands for Woman, Infants and Children, and it is a supplemental food program for pregnant, breastfeeding. and postpartum women, but also infants and children. There are other criteria that WIC includes for one to receive their benefits such as residency of Ohio and the county, but also nutritional risk. Some of the purposes of WIC is to improve pregnancy outcomes, reduce infant mortality, and provide infants and children with a healthy start to life. Funding for WIC is 100% federal funding. Monitoring and evaluation is also done at the federal level, however every 2 years there is a state dietitian who comes to monitor Perry and Athens WIC program. Some programs that WIC does are as follows: nutrition education and classes, breastfeeding classes/education, supplemental foods (iron-fortified and Vitamin C rich), Farmer's Market coupons, and younger and older solids classes. Food packages are pretty specific and can include peanut butter, beans, eggs, cheese, fish, tofu, baby food/infant cereal, and fruits and vegetables. A couple of things I found interesting was that WIC is pro-breastfeeding and will not promote formula in their program. Also, WIC is not just for mothers and children but also single fathers or father who also need helping raising children.
During the webinar, we talked about cancer and its importance in the United States today, but how not only genetics can be a risk factor, but also nutrition and physical activity. The webinar was done by a woman named Cheryl Rock, PhD, RD from the American Institute for Cancer Research. There are many clinical trials being done in order to examine diet modification can have an affect on breast cancer occurrence. There are many studies being done such as: epidemiological studies, animal models, cell culture studies and clinical studies/feeding studies. In my opinion, we will see a huge movement of research on nutrition and cancer in the upcoming year. She also talked about phytochemials that help reduce cancer risk and progression. Lastly, another term that Dr. Rock brought up was diet's influence genetic and epigenetic events. This is a very interesting study that I look forward to hearing from in the future. How dietary patterns can influence our genetics; so for instance what the mom eats may affect the baby's future.
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