SCAN Symposium Session 2016: The Body of Evidence: Evaluating Research to Enhance and Sustain your Practice

This week’s blog post features Mark Kern, PhD, RD, CSSD Professor of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences at San Diego State University.  His presentation is titled: “The Body of Evidence: Evaluating Research to Enhance and Sustain your Practice.”  This presentation will describe the importance of evaluating various kinds of research studies including cell culture, animal studies, descriptive epidemiology, analytic epidemiology, and clinical human trials with an emphasis on using all kinds of research to evaluate the total body of the evidence. Four studies in various research categories will be used as teaching examples. One study will be from each of SCAN's 4 signature areas: sports, cardiovascular health, wellness and disordered eating/eating disorders. Strengths and limitations of each study will be highlighted as will the importance using the scientific literature as the basis for enhancing the practice of dietetics.    

SCAN Symposium Session 2016: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Empowering Patients to Make Changes That Last

Twenty-Three (23) CPEUs for the Symposium program will be requested from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). CPE from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is also anticipated.

This week’s blog post features Mary Jo Parker, MS, RDN, CDN and Sherry M. Farrow, PhD.  Their session is titled: “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Empowering Patients to Make Changes That Last.”  Health related behavior change is difficult to sustain long-term. In order to maximize the potential for lasting change, behaviors need to be linked to what is personally meaningful to the individual, and individuals need tools to cope with the discomfort associated with shifting their habits.  Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically supported and highly effective behavioral treatment that focuses on assisting individuals to clarify their own compelling reasons for change, to become more aware and present through mindfulness practice, and to take goal-directed action.  ACT is well-suited to working with people with various presenting problems, be it disordered eating, eating disorders, or difficulty managing chronic illness, such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. This presentation will provide an overview of the ACT model and will introduce several tools and techniques that participants can apply in clinical settings. Experiential exercises will be utilized to demonstrate the utility of the model.   

SCAN Symposium Session 2016: Small School Sports Nutrition: Keys to Developing a Sustainable Sports Nutrition Program

Twenty-Three (23) CPEUs for the Symposium program will be requested from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). CPE from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is also anticipated.

This week’s blog post features Christine Karpinski, PhD, RD, CSSD, LDN and Susan Kundrat, MS, RD, CSSD, LDN.  Their session is titled: “Small School Sports Nutrition: Keys to Developing a Sustainable Sports Nutrition Program.” This presentation will provide a 'blueprint' that includes tangible models, protocols and tools  to develop a collegiate sports nutrition services program on a limited budget.  Examples of tools offered include practice protocols, budget and proposal development, negotiations, and programming recommendations.  Expanded and updated data on the state of small school sports nutrition programs will be presented in addition to new UWM athlete data.  Participants will leave this presentation with the knowledge and tools necessary to not only provide nutrition services to programs on a limited budget, but  to sustain and grow programs into a  full-time position. The greatest opportunities for sports nutrition programming for SCAN members are at the small Division I, Division II, and Division III member schools because of the great number of athletes and athletic programs.    

SCAN Symposium 2016, Portland, Oregon: Prescriptions for Sustainable Health, Performance and Practice

Twenty-Three (23) CPEUs for the Symposium program will be requested from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). CPE from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is also anticipated.

This week’s blog post features Amby Burfoot, editor of Runner’s World magazine.  Amby won the 1968 Boston Marathon, and has been a Runner's World editor continuously since 1978. The author of numerous books, including the just-released "First Ladies of Running," he has run more than 110,000 miles in his career, including 53 consecutive Manchester CT Road Races on Thanksgiving Day.

Amby’s presentation titled: “Where the Rubber Meets the Road…and the Dining Table” will discuss the science and applications and experiences of a lifetime runner (69 yrs old; 110,000 miles), Boston Marathon winner (1968) and 35-Year Runner's World editor.  The presenter will describe all the dietary views and approaches he has seen, and tried, during his long marathon career. Among other things, he was a human-subjects guinea pig in the first trials of an early sports drink. He explains who (and what) he trusts, and doesn't trust, and how various nutrition "experiments" have worked for him. He also characterizes the views and attitudes of Runner's World's 2-million-plus monthly readers, now more than half female.