Dr. Jacqueline Berning, Professor and Dietitian, to Discuss Food as Fuel
Friday, February 20, 10:30 am in Johnson Center 314—the next event in North Park’s Campus Theme, ‘What Is Food?’
Chicago (February 19, 2015) — Last year, Dr. Jacqueline Berning, professor and chair of health sciences at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, took a few dozen young men grocery shopping. It was part of an award-winning project, “Cooking with the Buffalos,” that aimed to teach football players from the University of Colorado how to shop, prepare, and cook nutritious food that would provide the proper nutrients to optimize athletic performance.
She showed them how to read food labels, calculate calories from fat, and examine ingredients. Berning then brought the food back to a kitchen and taught the players how to prepare it.
“What happens is a lot of young people don’t know how to shop or basic cooking skills, so they turn to pre-prepared food,” Berning says. “Most athletes are motivated to increase their performance, and this project provided them an opportunity to improve their performance through food.”
This Friday at 10:30 am, Berning will visit North Park University to give a lecture about eating for optimal performance on the field and in the classroom. She will focus on the physiological side of food—the energy necessary to maximize potential in all facets of life.
It is the next event in North Park’s yearlong Campus Theme, which brings the North Park community together for a series of events, lectures, and discussions around a central question of the human experience. A tradition for more than a decade, this year’s question, “What Is Food?” marks a different approach from year’s past.
“Traditionally, the Campus Theme has been about a value or idea, for example, ‘What Is Community?’ ‘What Is Justice?’ ‘What Is Peace?’" said Dr. Karl Clifton Soderstrom, associate professor of philosophy and the director of the Campus Theme program. “This year we wanted to address something more tangible. Eating is a daily human experience that all of us share. It is the most provocative of questions because first, it is so fundamental to human life, and second, because it bears directly on other values that we care about here at North Park—justice, compassion, community, theology, and cultural diversity.”
In addition to her work with the University of Colorado football team, Berning has also served as nutrition consultant for the Denver Broncos, nutrition coordinator for USA Swimming, and sports dietitian for the Cleveland Indians and the Colorado Rockies.
She is the author and editor of several books, including Training Nutrition and Nutrition for Sport and Exercise. She earned her PhD in nutrition at Colorado State University, and is a registered dietitian and certified board specialist in sports dietetics, as well as an advisory board member at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.
While much of Berning’s work deals with nutrition for athletes, she also stresses the importance of proper eating for optimal performance in the classroom and beyond. Much of what happens on the field, in the classroom, and in life, comes down to solving problems. The preparation for solving those problems is essential.
“If class starts at 8:00 am, how many students show up without breakfast and expect to have the brain to be able to recall all the things that they’ve been studying?” Berning asks. “It’s like driving your car to campus with the empty light flashing at you. Once it starts flashing you haven’t got very much time until it shuts down and stops. How many students are still showing up with no fuel and wondering why they can’t focus or figure out particular problems?”
All Campus Theme events are free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.northpark.edu/campustheme.
Use @npunews to follow North Park University News on Twitter. Learn more about North Park University.