DIPA’s finalist: learn more about Stephane Anzman-Frasca

Prof. Stephanie Anzman-Frasca is one of the finalist of the 3rd edition of the Danone International Prize for Alimentation for her project : “Evidence-based approaches from the developmental and behavioral sciences to promote healthy eating behaviors in naturalistic settings”

In many nations, the nutritional quality of the diet is low, with rejection of nutrient-rich foods like vegetables. There are extensive research devoted to promoting healthy diets, including efforts to increase access to healthy foods, provide nutrition education, and motivate adherence to recommended diets. However, efforts to promote healthy eating often pay little attention to a key motivator of eating behavior – taste.

Beginning early in life, food preferences are influenced by experience, and we learn to like the foods we are repeatedly exposed to in our environment, a factor influenced by our caregivers’ own food preferences and culture.

Stephanie ANZMAN-FRASCA plans to characterize young children with low willingness to taste and compare the effectiveness of several food preference learning strategies among these children. Her lab adapts, integrates, and applies evidence-based approaches from the developmental and behavioral sciences to promote healthy eating in naturalistic settings beginning early in life, and examine impacts of these approaches not only on eating outcomes, but also various aspects of whole-person health and well-being.

To implement this holistic approach, her team brings theory and methods from the developmental sciences to alimentation research, such as by testing impacts of parenting-focused obesity preventive interventions on other aspects of child development like the development of healthy emotion regulation.

Learn more about all finalists