Rutgers Opens Food, Nutrition and Health Center
"Overall, our mission is to make New Jersey that healthy state and a model for the nation. We believe that now is the time, and the institute is the place, to build a culture of health in our society," says Peter Gillies, Ph.D., founding director of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health.
The New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition, and Health (IFNH) is now open on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, N.J., to focus on ways to prevent childhood obesity and obesity-related disorders such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer -- especially relevant in New Jersey, which has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in the nation. Peter Gillies, Ph.D., founding director of the New Jersey Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health, discusses its work in a video posted on the institute's website.
Researchers at the new institute will focus on pre-emptive nutrition and lifestyle changes to "reset health trajectories and offset the increasing costs of healthcare," according to IFNH.
It is envisioned as an interdisciplinary research center for Rutgers scholars, policymakers, students, and parents to advance, educate, and promote issues of nutrition and wellness. "Overall, our mission is to make New Jersey that healthy state and a model for the nation," Gillies says in the video. "We believe that now is the time, and the institute is the place, to build a culture of health in our society."