Highlights:
- University of Florida awards $349,250 in Food is Medicine research funding through the PLANTMED Seed Funding Program.
- New UF Food is Medicine projects advance nutrition science in areas including diabetes, cardiometabolic health, family wellbeing and Parkinson’s disease treatment.
- UF launches statewide research innovations to encourage healthy diets, including aiming to create antioxidant-rich sweet corn, using marigold supplements for chickens to produce vitamin-A rich eggs and piloting community health programs.
To support and accelerate research for the new University of Florida Food is Medicine Initiative, UF is announcing six winners of a seed funding program to support research teams looking to focus on chronic disease prevention and management through food.
The UF Food is Medicine Initiative is an interdisciplinary education and research effort to use nutrition for diet-related chronic disease prevention and management. The initiative is led by UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and includes nearly 200 faculty from 10 UF colleges.
This initiative is designed to have the greatest impact and scale quickly and widely.
“UF has unmatched faculty capacity to improve our health and prevent chronic diseases through the food on our plates, and by connecting medical doctors with plant scientists, we are developing new and better food options to make us all healthier,” said Damian Adams, UF/IFAS associate dean for research.
The initiative is funding six new projects for a total of $349,250 in research funding that spans from horticultural sciences, diabetes research, community health and Parkinson’s research. The projects involve researchers working together from across UF’s ecosystem via the UF Food is Medicine Initiative and funded by the UF/IFAS Projects Linking Agriculture and Therapeutic Medicine for Every Diet (PLANTMED) seed funding program, supported through a grant from the UF Vice President for Research and dedicated to implementing the stated goals through research, teaching and Extension. Supplementary funding will also be provided through partnerships with other UF units, including funding of two projects by the UF Diabetes Institute and one project by the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health.
“Healthy bodies start with good food, and Food is Medicine starts with plentiful access to nutritionally dense fruits and vegetables,” said Scott Angle, UF senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and head of UF/IFAS. “The PLANTMED program is all about funding those initiatives, both research- and education-focused, that will bring new ideas to light and more fruits and vegetables to our plates.”
The six funded projects range from nutrition pilot projects across the state to potential Parkinson’s treatment using velvet beans to studying how sweet corn can improve cardio-metabolic health.
“Training future health professionals to understand the role of nutrition in disease prevention is essential,” said Anne Mathews, associate dean at the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. “Through our partnership with the College of Medicine, we are working to integrate Food Is Medicine principles into medical education and clinical training, helping ensure nutrition becomes a routine part of patient care.”
Some of the proposals focus on nutrition education. One such project will use the Books & Cooks program, a partnership with UF/IFAS and the Lastinger Center for Learning’s New Worlds Reading initiative. The program will expand from family nutrition and wellbeing for residents with low incomes to include community input and diabetes prevention education.
“UF/IFAS Extension plays a critical role in translating Food Is Medicine research into real-world impact,” said Karla Shelnutt, UF/IFAS associate dean for Extension engagement. “Through our statewide Extension network, we are able to bring evidence-based nutrition strategies directly to communities, healthcare partners and families across Florida.”
Other proposals, such as a horticultural sciences project using sweet corn and potatoes, aim to change the nutritional quality of certain foods. The goal of the project is to find and breed varieties of yellow sweet corn and specialty potatoes that have higher levels of antioxidants that can reduce the risk of chronic disease.
The funded projects are as follows:
- Bay2Health: Food-as-Medicine Pilots in Pinellas & Miami-Dade
Amount: $53,000, with additional funding by the UF Diabetes Institute
Researchers: Jaehyun Ahn, Cora Best, Xiaoying Li and Yenan Zhu
- Addressing Family and Community Health and Wellbeing Through Books & Cooks
Amount: $65,000, with additional funding by the UF Diabetes Institute
Researchers: David Diehl, Anne Mathews, Jeneé Duncan, Osubi Craig, Miranda Badolato and Karla Shelnutt
- Enhancing Carbohydrate Quality Metrics of Sweet Corn and Specialty Potato: A Novel Approach to Improve Cardiometabolic and Cognitive Health
Amount: $70,250
Researchers: Lincoln Zotarelli, Wendy Dahl, Marcio Resende, Dawn Schiehser and James Colee
- Personalized Carbohydrates for Human Disease Control and Prevention
Amount: $75,000
Researchers: Catalin Voiniciuc, Wendy Dahl and Wenjun Xie
- Developing Carotenoid-Rich Marigold Feed Supplements Using Precision Breeding Approaches to Improve Egg Yolk Color and Nutritional Quality
Amount: $50,000
Researchers: Heqiang Huo, Gilles Basset, Gary Butcher, Mica McMillan and Isaac Vincent
- A Food-is-Medicine Approach to Parkinson’s Disease: Developing Standardized Velvet Bean Cultivars and Natural Dietary Enzyme Inhibitors for Accessible L-DOPA Therapy
Amount: $36,000, with additional funding by UF Health’s Fixel Institute
Researchers: Kelly Balmant, Jeongim Kim, Guodong Liu, Marcio Resende, Adegbola Adesogan, Kari Basso, Gregory Hudalla and Michael Okun
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ABOUT UF/IFAS
The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.
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