The Platte County Citizen’s new columnist Denise Sullivan’s goal is to provide readers with information on improving and maintaining good health.
As the field specialist for nutrition and health at University of Missouri Extension, her program responsibilities are in Platte and Jackson counties.
“Within the Urban West Region (Platte, Clay and Jackson), I work closely with my colleague Melissa Cotton, who provides nutrition and health programming for Jackson and Clay counties,” Sullivan said. “We utilize a regional approach for many of our programs, particularly while we are still doing virtual programming.”
Before coming to MU Extension in 2017, she worked as a family and consumer sciences agent with K-State Research and Extension in Leavenworth County, where she did programming in nutrition, family life and family finance. She was previously a 4-H Youth Development agent in Texas with Texas Agrilife Extension.
She is sharing her Plants on Your Plate column with the Citizen to inspire people to include more fruits and vegetables in their diet, because this is a key component to healthy eating. Sullivan chooses a fruit or vegetable to focus on each month and provides a little history, key nutrients, why the nutrients are important from a health perspective, and she provides cooking hints and a recipe. “Different preparation methods can make a huge difference in many vegetables,” Sullivan said. (Previous columns can be can be found online at kcgmag.com.)
As people become more aware of the benefits of eating healthy, they are looking for information that can help them choose better options for their lifestyles.
Sullivan has always enjoyed food and cooking, and her interest in nutrition and health has grown significantly over the last 15 years. She has focused on her on-going professional development in nutrition and health relationships, particularly after close family members began to experience chronic health conditions.
“I think that there is a heightened interest in healthy eating and I think there are a variety of reasons for that,” Sullivan said. “First, is a general interest in knowing where your food comes from, and the popular local food movement. I think that COVID actually heightened this interest with people taking up or returning to gardening. Another reason is the growing evidence of the relationship between eating and lifestyle habits and certain chronic diseases, particularly diabetes and heart disease.”
The last year of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity for people to skip fast-food and spend time on home-cooked meals.
“I definitely think that people have been eating at home more and I hope that it’s been healthy,” Sullivan said. “During the initial quarantine, nutrition specialists and FNEP educators across the state created Cooking Connection healthy cooking videos to guide families to healthy recipes. These videos can still be found on Facebook at https://bit.ly/39pAXQF
MU Extension offers a variety of research and evidence-based programs. Some of the signature programs created at MU include: Stay Strong, Stay Healthy, a strength training program for older adults; Taking Care of You, a stress management program; Health Information for Men; and Strength in Numbers, which uses a lay leader approach to take nutrition and health topics to organized groups. MU Extension also works with community partners to provide the Stanford University created Chronic Disease Self-Management programs and Walk With Ease walking program from the Arthritis Foundation.
Sullivan has always had an interest in Extension programs from her time growing up with 4-H.
“My own Extension agents were amazing mentors and set me on my career path,” Sullivan said. “Though not an option today, I was able to choose a college major in Extension Home Economics, which mirrored the coursework of an Education major, however instead of student teaching, I did a summer internship in an Extension office. The profession of Home Economics is now known as Family & Consumer Sciences.”
Eating healthy can be challenging for busy families, but planning and pre-prep in quantity can make quality meals much easier.
“Take a full day on the weekend, or whenever you have a large chunk of time and prepare a week’s work of meals,” Sullivan said. “Involve the family if you can. When we take the time to create our own ‘fast food’, we can avoid the drive-through or carry out.”
She also recommends that for optimal good health, people should eat a breakfast that includes at least three food groups, reach for fruits, vegetables or nuts for snacks, ditch soda and choose water, and get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day.
During the pandemic, teaching people about healthy diets has been virtual, and challenging for Sullivan.
“Technology issues, like bandwidth and platform familiarity, adds a level of complexity to our educational efforts,” Sullivan said. “And because I like being with people, I miss that personal touch, but we are finding a balance with high tech-high touch. My favorite part of working for MU Extension is the variety of the job and the ability to organize my efforts somewhat independently, within a framework. I love helping people and watching people learn and improve their lives.”