The Department of Foods and Nutrition has had a strong presence in calcium nutrition since the mid 1980s. Additional hires have expanded the expertise to include vitamin D and relationships to health that extend beyond bone to cancer, hypertension, body fat, and diabetes. Currently, topics related to calcium and Vitamin D are two of the most funded nutrition areas because of their broad relationship to health and the prevalence of deficiencies in the U.S. and around the world.
Current Research
The longest-standing funded program in the department is Camp Calcium which studies calcium metabolism in adolescents. Data from Camp Calcium were used to set the DRIs for adolescents in 1997 and subsequent data will likely be used to individualize calcium requirements by gender and race. Research projects span from clinical studies on calcium metabolism, lactose intolerance, calcium intake and body fat, and an educational intervention on improving calcium intake and bone gains; to animal studies of bone quality and animal and molecular models of calcium absorption; to genetic profiling of vitamin D receptors.
Contributors in the Department
Engagement
The breadth and depth of bone health research being conducted in the Department of Foods and Nutrition is well documented. Critical to nutrition and health research, such as the bone health work, is dissemination of the research results and concepts to targeted public audiences. Currently, research is being conducted to test tailored educational intervention to improve the bone health of adolescents. If the hypothesis is correct — that the intervention does improve bone health — the educational materials must be made available as widely as possible to the target adolescent audience. For all bone health research findings, Purdue Extension provides a unique national dissemination network for educational programming through Consumer and Family Sciences and 4-H/Youth development county-based educators. Other national dissemination groups will be utilized, for example: YWCA, Girl Scouts, and public school teachers for use in their classrooms. Measurement of knowledge, attitude and behavior intent will be made to determine the effectiveness of the educational curriculum.
Learning
As a significant area of research and engagement in the department, learning activities in bone and calcium have been incorporated into the curriculum. The core graduate course has approximately one-third of the first semester devoted to bone, with metabolism of calcium, minerals, and vitamin D integrated with bone biology. In addition, an upper-level graduate bone team-taught course has been established with Purdue faculty and collaborators from both Indiana University and Eli Lilly.
Publications in Last Five Years
Total number publications (62) or projects (14) with collaborators related to Bone, Calcium, and Vitamin D.
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Other F&N
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Other Purdue
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IUPUI
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Other
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Publications |
8
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5
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15
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60
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Research Projects |
21
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36
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14
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43
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Current Funding
- Botanicals Center
- NIH
- USDA
- IFAFS grant
- Dairy Management, Inc.
Potential Funding
Resources
- Clinical, animal, and cell culture laboratories
- Mineral analysis laboratory - AAS, ICP-OE, ICP-MS
- 2 Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometers
Active research projects
- Improving bone health in adolescence through targeted behavioral intervention
- Reversing milk adversion
- Intestinal calcium absorption: Molecular mechanisms
- Diet, vitamin D status, and prostate cancer prevention
- Defining vitamin D status in the elderly
- Role of dairy products in weight loss: a multi-center trial; the bone side
- Parent influences on calcium intake among preadolescents
- Calibration and validation of a semi-quantitative food frequency among adults
- Effects of indigestible carbohydrates on bone
- Calcium metabolism in adolescent boys
- Component interactions for efficacy of functional foods
- Effects of milk components on calcium absorption
- Oral contraceptive use, calcium intake and bone
- Sodium intake and calcium retention in adolescent girls
Collaborators
- David Burr, PhD, IU School of Medicine
- David Elmore, PhD, Department of Physics
- Scot Going, PhD, University of Arizona
- Roseann Lyle, PhD, Health Kinesiology
- Velemir Matkovic, MD, Ohio State University
- George McCabe, PhD, Department of Statistics
- Rachel Novotny, University of Hawaii
- Munro Peacock, MD, IU School of Medicine
- Charles Turner, PhD, IU School of Medicine
- Marta Van Loan, PhD, University of California - Davis
- Meryl Wastney, PhD, Kinetic Modeling Services
- Michael Zemel, PhD, University of Tennessee
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