A study by Cornell Prof. David Levitsky, nutritional sciences, studied the phenomenon of the fabled freshman fifteen and found that freshman tend to gain around four to six pounds in the first 12 weeks of college. In a new study on North Campus, Victoria Garland ’12, biology and society, and Louise Mendes ’12, psychology and nutritional sciences, are looking at the correlation between nutrition education and weight gain in freshmen during the fall semester.

Elisabeth Rosen '12 has major beef with genetically modified foods, and their adverse effects on human health.

Prof. Edward Buckler, plant breeding and genetics, uses statistics to identify more nutritious corn breeds. A Sub-Saharan corn variant with a 16-fold increase in vitamin A is scheduled to be deployed in 2014.

Rare but deadly Listeria bacteria is transmitted through faulty food packaging and poses threat to consumers.

Today, America is in the midst of a health crisis: the leading cause of death is heart disease, two-thirds of the nation’s adults are obese and increasing proportions of children are being diagnosed with Type II diabetes. These health problems threaten a new generation of Americans, and as a consumer-mentality pushes Americans toward prescription drugs, retired Prof. T. Colin Campbell, nutritional science, advocates that the healing process must begin with a fork and knife at dinner tables.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new $2 million initiative to encourage students to make healthier choices in the lunchroom. Half of this money has been granted to Cornell researchers.

 “It’s a pleasure to be a teacher,” said Professor Levitsky, nutritional science and psychology.  Levitsky has been at Cornell since 1968 – that’s over 40 years! But Levitsky was not always on this path. “I didn’t want to go to college; I wanted to be a TV repair man.”  Now, Levitsky writes poetry about the digestive system while studying the eating habits and nutrition of university students. 

It’s back to the gridiron for us Cornellians, both as students and as fans of that great American tradition — football. But the NFL has been closer to Ithaca during the offseason than you might think.

The New York Jets came to nearby Cortland, N.Y., over the summer for training camp, staying in the area from July 31 to Aug. 22. With only one more game left on the preseason schedule before New York’s opener at Houston Sept. 13, the Jets named highly touted first-round draft pick Mark Sanchez as the starting quarterback just last week.

For more than a handful of food industry executives, T. Colin Campbell, nutritional sciences, is public enemy number one.

“It’s really between me and the dairy industry,” he said.

Campbell is the son of a dairy farmer and the first in his family to attend college. He grew up glugging milk like any good Virginian farm boy. Why, then, is he a self-described heretic in the nutrition community?

Campbell is a professor emeritus in nutritional sciences, but he is known worldwide for his best-selling book The China Study. Co-authored by Campbell’s son Thomas ’99, The China Study places Campbell’s most famous project within the context of his research at large.

Prof. Dan Brown ’81 knows peanut butter, and he knows nutrition. “It’s tasty, and [people] like to eat it,” he explained. “I mean, who doesn’t like peanut butter?”

Brown’s research revolutionized the production of a peanut-based treatment for malnutrition in Haiti. His research improves many aspects of agriculture and nutrition, aiding people around the world.

Brown, an expert of toxicology, nutrition and animal science, studied the negative impact of toxic compounds that harm both animals and humans. Most recently, he studied aflatoxins — poisonous substances produced by mold found in common foods like peanut butter.