The Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Mon, Dec. 29, 2008
By Joseph Hannan
Why are many young children now developing health problems usually associated with overweight adults? How can they learn portion control? What are the best low-calorie diets?
Those questions and more will drive research at Rutgers University's new Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health at the Cook Campus in New Brunswick, N.J. - an addition made possible in part by a recent $10 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Scientists will focus on shrinking bulging waistlines in and around Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.
Robert M. Goodman, executive dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers, said that although Tufts and Cornell Universities had similar research organizations, an interdisciplinary academic approach would set Rutgers' institute apart. "This is the only place in the country that is doing it in this integrated, comprehensive and deliberately approached way," Goodman said. "The scope and the comprehensiveness of what we're trying to do is unusual, if not unique."
Rutgers will supplement the Johnson grant with $55 million, according to a statement. Goodman estimated the cost of creating the institute at $100 million.