Newly appointed Assistant Professor of Population Health and Disease Prevention Matthew Landry, PhD, RDN believes that education and awareness are key to better community health and well-being. He also believes overall wellness is a result of a combination of factors: diet, sleep, and physical activity. It was the interdisciplinary, person-centric nature of public health that originally drew him into the field. Specifically, it was a class on Nutrition, Education and Counseling at Louisiana State University that sold him on pursuing a career in nutrition sciences and health promotion. The course asked the question: How do we get people to change their diets? What’s in it for them?
Landry’s path toward academia partly stems from having a family of teachers and his overall love and curiosity for the sciences. Armed with a doctoral degree in nutrition sciences and experience as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, he is ready to grow UCI Public Health’s nutrition and wellness expertise and course offerings. He’s looking forward to connecting with other faculty members across the UCI Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences and creating collaborations that will ultimately help underserved sectors of our population and prepare a public health workforce that can address issues such as food and nutrition security and health equity.
One such project Landry is embarking on is what the transition of fatherhood can do to a person’s health. “We’ve always focused on maternal and child health, and we’ve forgotten about the father,” he said. “Poor diet and physical inactivity are correlated with risk for cardiovascular disease. So, if a father used to exercise and eat well, pausing those activities can increase his risk for cardiovascular disease down the road.”
Addressing our country’s diet-related policies
At face value, food intake is a very personal, independent activity, but Landry points out that in the U.S., American diets are very much dictated by policies and not science. Take, for example, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans or the DGAs. These guidelines are updated every five years, which appears frequent, but not much changes from year to year. It’s mostly simple word changes so as not to aggravate large food manufacturers.
Federal and state policies apply to food access as well.
Unfortunately, good nutrition and access to healthy food for lower-income communities often comes down to government assistance.”
– Matthew Landry, PhD, RDN
“Unfortunately, good nutrition and access to healthy food for lower-income communities often comes down to government assistance. One of the few benefits that the pandemic illuminated was how critical federal assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are in getting healthy food into the hands of families who can’t otherwise afford nutritious options,” said Landry.
“The pandemic also expanded access to several food assistance programs. There are now talks at the federal level of expanding the National School Lunch Program to provide healthy, free school meals to all students, regardless of income. The demand and need are there, and research shows that food insecurity in children is associated with negative health outcomes and poor academic performance,” he added. “Quality, accessible nutrition is an effective public health intervention.”
Beyond Landry’s work in food insecurity and nutrition, he believes we’re entering a new phase in the field that must take planetary health into account. “Our food production systems have sustainability implications that must be reflected in the DGAs. This would include trending more towards a plant-based diet,” he said. “We also need to address the lack of diversity and inclusion in our guidelines. We simply don’t have enough data and participation from communities of color in diet-related studies; therefore, our guidelines don’t reflect the nation’s growing diversity or the health risks that communities of color face.”
Drawing inspiration from exercise in nature
Landry finds peace and solace in being outside. You will find him frequently running around the UCI campus and he loves national parks, with Yosemite being among his favorites. He’s very much looking forward to exploring the food scene in Orange County and Los Angeles. When asked about his favorite recipe: “I can make a good lentil chili that has the essence of meat but is strictly vegetarian. Most chronic diseases are preventable with good diet and nutrition. It’s simple tweaks to a person’s diet, such as less red meat, that can make all the difference in one’s health.”
