Dr. T is featured in LiveWell podcast discussing stress eating and weight stigma. Additionally, she shares tips for creating long-lasting habits for a healthy lifestyle. You can listen now by scanning the QR code attached or by visiting http://healthy.ucla.edu/livewellpodcast/
Dr. T is featured in a “Day in the Life of” segment in new book that has recently come out titled Becoming a Health Psychologist! Becoming a Health Psychologist talks about what is involved in being a health psychologist, what a health psychology career entails and how to reach that goal.
Over the summer a Japanese broadcasting corporation, NHK, came to UCLA to film a documentary that will be based on the origin of food. Here is a behind the scenes look of what was filmed!
Previous research has suggested that stigma from other people is what meat eaters may fear when switching to a plant-based diet. In a new Daily Bruin article, Daniel discusses a contrasting finding. He states: “Concerns that a vegetarian diet may not taste good or may not be as healthy were the main barriers to giving up meat.” Check out the full article here.
DiSH Lab RA, Jane Tan, has been awarded the 2019-2020 UC Global Food Initiative Fellowship. Here is what Jane had to say about it, “My project is inspired by the cluster course I took during my freshman year. Previously, I am mainly interested in nutrition and eating behavior. The course introduced me to the environmental impact of food systems that I have never thought about before. During the course, I researched the current organic agricultural system in the U.S. and analyzed its effectiveness in achieving sustainability. With my interest in nutrition and eating behavior, I want to extend my project to investigate how to provide nutritious food to a broader population with sustainable practices and to promote healthy eating habits through the GFI fellowship program.”
Congratulations again Jane!
DiSH Lab RAs Kiran Cherian and Jasmine Williams have been awarded the 2019-2020 UC Global Food Initiative Fellowship. Here’s what Jasmine had to say about it, “The Global Food Initiative Fellowship is a space for UC students to collaborate ideas to further work on individual projects, and complete research in order to reach a larger goal of reducing sustainability and nutritiously feed a world population. The initiative allows for students from all UCs to recognize problems and solutions provided thus far, as well as gather students from the same university to work in unison on those issues. My role as a GFI fellow is to continue Dr. Tomiyama’s lab work under the hypothesis: food insecurity status will lead individuals to self-report high ratings of food palatability, especially towards high calorie foods. I will be looking closely into this in order to explore differences in food preferences between food insecure and secure groups.”
Kiran also added, “The UC Global Food Initiative Fellowship funds student-generated research studies and projects that are related to food issues. As a GFI Fellow for the coming academic year, I will be provided with a monetary award of $1000 to support the research project that I plan to work on, which is a nationally representative survey that assesses existing relationships among food insecurity status, stress, and eating behaviors. In addition, I will be able to attend UC-wide activities and interact with GFI Fellows from the other UC schools.”
Congratulations again Kiran and Jasmine!
We are having a new graduate student, Kristen Lee, join us here at the DiSH Lab this year! After graduating from UC Berkeley, she spent a few years working in the nonprofit and education industry before making her way to the DiSH Lab! Broadly, Kristen is interested in the biopsychosocial influences on eating behavior as well as the role that food plays in shaping our social relationships and identities. When she’s not in the lab, Kristen loves working in the community garden and growing her own plant babies, hiking/backpacking, and experimenting in the kitchen.
Alyssa Choi, who has been the exceptional manager of the DiSH Lab for the past 2 years, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship! This fellowship is extremely competitive and prestigious, awarded to outstanding graduate students across the country who are pursuing research-based degrees in various disciplines.
Alyssa officially accepted an offer to attend the San Diego State University & the University of California, San Diego joint doctoral program in Clinical Psychology, where she will be joining the Chronic Illness Research Laboratory at SDSU headed by Dr. Vanessa Malcarne. We are so proud of Alyssa and all of her accomplishments thus far, and this fellowship adds to her already steep career trajectory.
Thank you for being such an amazing lab manager Alyssa, and though we’ll miss you we can’t wait to hear about all your future success!!
Megan Tan, a former DiSH RA, will be attending a Doctorate program for Physical Therapy this Fall! She had several offers, and has chosen to attend George Washington University to pursue her Doctorate in Physical Therapy.
Here’s what she had to say: “I’m excited to announce that I will be attending George Washington University this fall to pursue my Doctorate in Physical Therapy. I learned so much during my two years as an RA in the DiSH Lab. I am so grateful for the support I received from Dr. T and my mentors, Jenna and Jolene. I feel so lucky to have been surrounded by intelligent, curious and positive individuals throughout my time in the lab. I took 2 gap years to work in health consulting, but am very excited to get back to the clinical side of healthcare. Along with treating patients, I hope to utilize the skills I learned in lab and conduct research related to diet, stress and musculoskeletal diseases. UCLA has given me so many opportunities, and the DiSH Lab is definitely one I’ll never forget!”
Congratulations again, Megan!
DiSH grad student Daniel was recently named a recipient of the 2019-2020 Marvin Hoffenberg Fellowship in American Politics & Public Policy.
Here’s what he had to say: “This fellowship is awarded by UCLA’s Race, Ethnicity, Politics & Society (REPS) Lab and provides recipients with funding to conduct experimental research on the psychology of race, ethnicity, and/or politics. With this funding, I will be conducting an experimental study on the link between race and vegetarianism. Evidence exists to suggest that people associate vegetarianism with Whiteness — that is, they view being a vegetarian as a stereotypically White dietary behavior. In my study, I will investigate the effect of racial identity on openness to going vegetarian among Black people.”