Food That Is Great-tasting and Healthy: Q&A With Nutritionist Jackie Bertoldo

Stories From the Field

Food That Is Great-tasting and Healthy: Q&A With Nutritionist Jackie Bertoldo

Traditional approaches to promote wholesome eating have focused on the nutritional qualities and health benefits of foods like vegetables, but new research from the Stanford Mind & Body Lab, conducted with Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE), has shed light on the importance of taste and flavor as drivers of healthy food choices.

In a Q&A with SPARQ, Jackie Bertoldo, senior manager of nutrition performance and wellness for R&DE, discusses the impact of this research on her organization’s efforts to support healthy food choices in Stanford’s dining halls.

SPARQ: What was it like to partner with the Stanford Mind & Body Lab to conduct research in the dining halls?

Bertoldo: Stanford Residential & Dining Enterprises is proud to support the academic mission of the university by partnering with students and faculty interested in advancing healthier, more sustainable food choices through innovative programs and research. The dining halls at Stanford are a living laboratory — dynamic learning environments where applied research is bridged with operational innovation. Our ongoing partnership with the Stanford Mind & Body Lab has allowed us to explore the impact of dining initiatives like menu labeling in order to develop best practices that can be applied here at Stanford and at university dining programs all over the country.

SPARQ: How did the Stanford Mind & Body Lab’s research influence the description of foods at Stanford?

Bertoldo: The Twisted Carrots and Dynamite Beets study was truly transformational for R&DE Stanford Dining. The insight that how we name foods could have a significant impact on which foods students select prompted us to redesign our labeling program to emphasize the delicious aspects of our healthy menu items. Students have been thrilled with the new labels and we’ve received a lot of inquiries and positive feedback from other universities interested in implementing menu labeling initiatives of their own.

SPARQ: As a nutritionist, have you adopted a more taste-focused approach to promoting healthy foods?

Bertoldo: Over my career I have spent countless hours trying to motivate people to make healthier food choices. The work that we have done with the Stanford Mind & Body Lab has helped to confirm what I intuitively experienced in the field — that generally the more I emphasize the health aspects of a food, the less enthused people are to eat it. I think that the negative perceptions people have of healthy food lead many to think that they have to choose between eating something that tastes great and eating something that is good for them. But the reality is that you can have both! At R&DE, we put a lot of effort into making highly pleasurable healthy foods so it feels very natural to promote how delicious these foods are. In addition to our labeling program, we’ve incorporated this approach into all of our nutrition education efforts, including student consultations, tasting tables, and The Teaching Kitchen @Stanford. My hope is that these collective efforts will begin to positively shift people’s mindsets about healthy foods and enhance the enjoyment they get from making better food choices.

SPARQ: What advice would you give to other university dining programs or food service operations that are interested in this approach?

Bertoldo: I would emphasize that these strategies require very little additional effort to implement in your environment. Most dining operations are already naming and labeling the foods they serve, so all it takes is a bit more intention around how these foods are being described. Our team had a lot of fun coming up with new names for dishes on our menu. It’s also not enough to make healthy food sound delicious; it needs to taste great, too. This is an excellent opportunity for nutritionists to partner with chefs when developing recipes and menus to create healthy options that are packed with flavor. It’s a very exciting proposition for the food service industry because the potential for impact is enormous. As co-founder of the the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC), R&DE works with 55 university partners to amplify the impact of these evidence-based solutions by influencing the 700,000 meals served across the MCURC every day and the 15 billion meals these students will eat over the course of their lifetimes. These students will become tomorrow’s leader, entrepreneurs, customers, and parents, exponentially scaling the impact of their food choices and health mindsets far beyond their collegiate experience.