The American Society for Nutrition Annual Meeting NUTRITION 2021 took place last week. This conference is an epicenter for the latest groundbreaking health and nutrition research, technologies, and products. We’re thrilled to have participated. Our team worked on three submissions for this year’s conference focusing on Latin restaurants. Read more below:
Our project director, Dr. Melissa Fuster, shared some preliminary findings from our listening sessions with Latin restaurants. Using the results from our scoping review, we asked our stakeholders what they thought about the strategies that restaurants have put in place to help customers make healthier choices.
As part of our work, we also examined how COVID-19 has been affecting Latin American restaurants. Two of our team members took the lead in presenting these findings, as part of their graduate thesis projects at Brooklyn College.
Elise Harrison looked at how Latin American restaurants have adapted in response to COVID-19. The poster presented how restaurants dealt with the onset of COVID-19, as well as their initial adaptations. These findings are helping us understand how COVID-19 affected offerings and the businesses, providing us with initial insights on how restaurants respond to crises.
Tara Frank conducted a follow up study, examining menus in Hispanic Caribbean restaurants, based on previous research. She evaluated menus before and during COVID-19 to determine the healthfulness of any changes, particularly to non fried main dish entrees and healthy main dish salads. She also calculated their healthy food availability scores to assess those changes. This research aims to provide NYC restaurants, particularly those with limited resources such as independently owned Hispanic Caribbean restaurants, with feasible ways to improve the healthfulness of their menus while improving the health outcomes of the community.
We look forward to continuing to refining the work presented and sharing insights with you. In this process, we are open to your comments and feedback. Reach out via this page or via email, LARiAProject@gmail.com.
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