More than 35 percent of adults in the United States are obese, according to the American Heart Association. Thanks to a recent grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Syracuse University and 13 other universities across the country are teaming up to create obesity prevention programs.

David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics associate professor of nutrition science and dietetics Tanya Horacek is part of the 14-university team that has received a grant worth $4.9 million from the USDA to create obesity prevention programs.

Horacek said she has been with the team of researchers for nearly 20 years and throughout their time together they have received the grant, which is for five years, three or four times.

“We try to do a good job of making sure we have enough time to plan a good intervention, recruit subjects and actually complete the study,” she said. “This initiative has different tiers that require different planning.”

The initiative is aimed at encouraging young adults to learn the skills necessary to live a healthy lifestyle.

During the first year of the study, a small group of students will be recruited to become experts on campus about the initiative, she added. After that, they will interact with students at the high school level and younger in order to promote living a healthy lifestyle.

The funding applies to an age range of two to 19 years old, but her team focuses on the top edge of that range, which are the young adults, she said. The intervention will “affect everyone on campus,” Horacek said, but will only be testing freshmen specifically.

The campaign the team created is titled “Get Fruved.” The term “Fruved,” is made up of letters from “fruits” and “vegetables.” said Sarah Colby, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee who is the head of the project.

Colby said the initiative harnesses the power of peer-to-peer interaction in an effort to get children, adolescents and college students to eat more fruits and vegetables and adopt healthy lifestyles.

“The college students are the ones developing the interventions and changing their campus environments so that those environments help support healthy behavior,” she said.

The grant makes it possible for the team to have a wider outreach, while allowing them to continue working on projects that have been successful in the past, she said.

Colby said the popular conception is that people do research for the sake of research, but that’s not necessarily true.

“The heart of this is that we’re going to improve health,” she said. “The reason why the research is important is that it is essential that we understand and document what worked and why it worked so that others can do the same or make it even better.”

Lynn Brann, a professor in the department of public health, food studies and nutrition, said in an email that Horacek’s team’s research is beneficial to everyone at SU.

Horacek’s research will also help students who participate in the study to gain knowledge and skills for their future careers, Brann said.

She said studies that include a thorough assessment of the environment, like the one Horacek and her colleagues are implementing, are crucial for having a better understanding of where to focus the efforts of nationwide obesity prevention.

Horacek said she wants to see the initiative grow and spread across the country, eventually allowing schools to monitor their environment and benchmark their progress with other schools.

Published on April 7, 2014 at 12:59 am

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306