MAINE’S GREAT NUTRITIONIST

The University of Maine could hardly have made a better choice when it decided to award a doctor of science degree to Katherine O. Musgrave, professor emerita of food science and nutrition, on Saturday at its 204th Commencement.

Her long teaching and research career in human nutrition has drawn national attention to the university, helped spread wisdom about healthful living throughout the country, and, best of all, has educated generations of Maine’s children and their parents on eating a healthy breakfast and continuing through the day with a balanced diet and adequate outdoor exercise.

Ms. Musgrave retired from the UMaine faculty in 1985, but she hasn’t noticeably slowed down since then. She continues to teach and counsel students through the university’s Division of Lifelong Learning, as well as working with local physicians to advise patients on healthful eating habits. In 1991 the American Dietetic Association named her the outstanding nutritionist in the country.

She said she saw her honor Saturday as a way to express her hope that the students will try to promote social justice and an even distribution of resources so that every man, woman and child will have food security. She could have added, in her Tennessee twang, that she hoped to see increased development of lifestyles that promote good health and neighborhoods in which youngsters can walk to school and play outside safely.

Through the decades, in lectures, newspaper columns and one-on-one consultations, she has urged such practices as “defensive eating,” meaning watching serving sizes, eating and drinking foods that are nutrient-dense rather than calorie-dense and exercising more. She has always advised that going without breakfast is a sure way toward overeating during the day. She says that hungry students tend to be lethargic in class, often gulp down a soda and a snack, and head toward a lifetime of obesity and bad teeth.

She is always ready to suggest a nutritious meal, such as low-fat baked beans, cole slaw, gingerbread or cornbread and a glass of milk or cottage cheese.

She sees no need for food fads such as the current vogue for low-carb diets, insisting that more than half of our diet should be carbohydrate, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. She thinks these fads will die out, like all others. She has objected for years that many insurance companies, while paying thousands of dollars for hospitalization, wouldn’t pay $30 to $50 for an individual nutritional assessment and design of a nutrition care plan by a registered dietitian. She says they have improved some but still have a way to go.

Still, at 86, she remains optimistic, seeing increased public support for such moves as getting sodas out of the schools and making school cafeterias laboratories for good socializing and good eating. All she wants for her future is go right on teaching and seeing patients and promoting the teaching of healthful practices.