Progress 10/01/11 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:This project takes a participatory, action research approach in partnership with Tribal communities, Urban American Indian communities, urban African American communities and practitioners of Chinese medicine. Cross-cultural engagement (CCE) is a form of community engagement, most often carried out within historical contexts of mistrust and misunderstanding between cultural communities and academic professionals. CCE is a relationship-based craft/scholarship developed over the past 22 years to create new paths to more open and informed inter-cultural sharing, exchange, interaction and knowledge production. CCE was developed to bridge incommensurate knowledge and systems of thought regarding human understandings of food and health relationships. Action research refers to the knowledge created in developing long-term relationships that build trust, mutual understanding and the intellectual space needed to bridge culturally different systems of thought, as well as in the process of navigation, negotiation and translation that occurs within intercultural interactions. This kind of knowledge seldom emerges from more transient and transactional relationships common to food and health programs and projects that originate outside the cultural context of "targeted" communities, then deployed within these communities. Knowledge generated within the intercultural space created by CCE is as relevant to nutrition, public health and agricultural science academic professionals as to the communities of indigenous, African American and Chinese medicine participants. Thus all these groups and professionals may benefit from the process of co-learning through CCE interaction and the action research process. They are therefore all considered "target audiences" for the purpose of this report. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The workshop entitled "Cultivating Moral Integrity in the Sciences through Cross-Cultural Engagement" was held at the 36th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform. The Qualey-Skjervold Professional Development Conference 2015 for the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Family Development focused on Cross cultural Engagement (CCE). The conference theme was "When Liberty and Justice Isn't 'For All'" and focused on cultural difference and epistemic justice in Extension work. The U of M College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) initiated the first Teaching Across Difference (TAD) Faculty Fellows program that included 16 faculty fellows and 7 graduate/post doctoral fellows completed in 2016. The theTADfellows program will continue with a second cohort and focus on cultural difference this upcoming year. The U of M Office of Public Engagement has held a series of conversations over the past 6 years through its Engaged Scholar Community Engagement Roundtable. I am a regular contributor and participant as the work of this project represents a significant resource. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Grounded in Extension/community engagement work, I have taught a variety of courses beginning in 1998. This includes AGRI 1000H Native American Ties to the Land, CFANS 1902 Ways of Knowing and Science, CSPH (Center for Spirituality & Healing) 5111 Ways of Thinking About Health, CSPH 5115 Cultural Awareness, Knowledge and Health, CSPH 5000 Cross Cultural Engagement in Health Education. In each, University students and cultural communities are brought together through a field trip/experiential learning pedagogy where learners experience cultural difference directly through field trip/on site learning as they develop their own critically reflective cultural lens and their intercultural capacity. In addition, the following sessions have been offered at conferences: Hassel, C. (2016) Barriers to Participation: Examining Nutrition Science through Cross Cultural Engagement. First Annual Native Nutrition Conference. Foushee, L. and C. Hassel. Landscapes of Conflict. First Annual Native Nutrition Conference. Hassel C. (2016) Cultivating Moral Integrity in the Sciences through Cross-Cultural Engagement. 36th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform. Public Engagement Scholarship Faculty Retreat: An Engaged Scholar Community-Academic Research Institute. Community Knowledge Production: The Medicinal Herb Network. Office of Public Engagement, Minneapolis, UROC, February 2015. Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, Science Studies Symposium: Reconsidering Nutrition Science, February 2015. Family Development Staff Development Conference, Chaska MN, April 2015. Hassel C. (2014). Reconsidering Nutrition Science: Vision Through a Cultural Lens. 4th International Critical Dietetics Conference, p12. Hassel, C. (2014) Reconsidering the Sciences: Vision through a Cultural Lens. 34th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform, p 103. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The perspective article was published: Hassel C. (2014) Reconsidering Nutrition Science: Critical Reflection with a Cultural Lens Nutrition Journal 13:42. http://www.nutritionj.com/content/13/1/42 Session proposals dealing explicitly with issues related to Native nutrition and CCE were drafted for submission to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for the 2017 annual meetings. We are now working on a half or full day pre-conference workshop for AND that would preceed the 2017 Annual Conference. Given the successful launch of the First Annual Conference of Native Nutrition in September, 2016 in Prior Lake MN (400 participants), we are refining the agenda to strategically position/build upon the efforts ongoing within Seeds of Native Health Campaign. In addition, tentative plans regarding development of an open access journal on Native nutrition is relevant to optimizing the approach to designing sessions for maximal impact at these national/international nutrition conferences. In classical Chinese herbal medicine and dietary therapy it is said that the flavor of a substance (as well as its color and aroma) is a direct manifestation and expression of the particular quality and activity of Qi inherent in that substance. The Chinese Materia Medica is, in part, organized around this principle. Properly discerning the organoleptic properties of a substance is therefore held to provide insight into the potential therapeutic properties of a substance as well as to provide a means by which those potential properties can be assessed as to their strength and clinical effectiveness. Descriptive Sensory Analysis is a set of procedures used within a sub-discipline of food science that acknowledges (and measures) the subjective experiences of taste, aroma and texture. Panellists are trained to define and identify organoleptic attributes of medicinal herbs and discriminate intensity of these attributes across different samples of medicinal herbs. This project explores the potential for correspondence of organoleptic attributes identified using descriptive sensory analysis with therapeutic properties described by classical CM theory. A lexicon was created for 8 medicinal herbs and one formula used in Chinese medicine practice with assistance from the University of Minnesota Sensory Center. Over 50 organoleptic descriptive attributes were identified in the lexicon. A workshop with over 40 CM practitioners was held in Seattle WA in 2014 to share the descriptive sensory analysis methods as a means of assessing medicinal herb quality from within Chinese medicine epistemology. The development of several tea beverage prototypes with cooling properties (Gopherade) was pursued over 2012 using a combination of chrysanthumum and Chinese mint, but was not further developed due to lack of further funding. The U of M College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) initiated the first Teaching Across Difference (TAD) Faculty Fellows program that included 16 faculty fellows and 7 graduate/post doctoral fellows completed in 2016. The theTADfellows program will continue with a second cohort this year. The purpose of TAD is to develop and evaluate a curriculum that prepares university scientists to more effectively engage and navigate cultural difference in research and/or teaching. A scholarship of teaching article that describes some of the learnings from TAD is in progress.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Hassel, C. (2016) Cultural Diversity and Critical Dietetics: A Practice of Cross-Cultural Engagement. J Crit Dietetics 3 (2):1-9.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Hassel, C. (2016) Barriers to Participation: Examining Nutrition Science through Cross Cultural Engagement. First Annual Native Nutrition Conference, p 49.
Foushee, L. and C. Hassel. Landscapes of Conflict. First Annual Native Nutrition Conference, p 49.
Hassel C. (2016) Cultivating Moral Integrity in the Sciences through Cross-Cultural Engagement. 36th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform, p 78.
|
Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Nutrition scientists, dietitians, nutrition educators, Master gardeners, urban American Indian community, Tribal community, African American community, European American learning community. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?At present, few academic professionals are inclined to risk stepping beyond the accepted boundaries of professional credibility to inhabit indigenous knowledge perspectives that are grounded in culturally different mental models and worldview orientations. The gift received in 2015 from the Shakopee Mdwakantopn Sioux Community will createNew Paths toward Intercultural Exchange: Working across Cultural Difference sessions at major national meetings such as Experimental Biology (nutritional science), annual meeting of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and/or the annual meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in 2016 or 2017 where such cultural dynamics are presented. This project is needed because at present education in food, nutrition and public health does not teach its professionals to: 1) Recognize the culture they bring with them into intercultural interactions; 2) Appreciate or understand how the power and depth of culture plays out in intercultural interactions with indigenous peoples; 3) Recognize and examine the cultural grounding of their professional training; 4) Identify and examine the dimensions of culture embedded in accepted approaches to scientific inquiry. More commonly, professionals are taught to normalize professional practice as somehow disconnected from culture, as transcending culture, or as an ultimate, de-contextualized reference point for understanding nutrition-related concerns regardless of cultural context. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In 2015, presentations and materials were distributed in three different statewide Extension Staff Devevelopment conferences (University of Minnesota Annual Conference, University of Minnesota Family Development Center Conference and University of Minnesota Health & Nutrition Program Staff Development Conference). In addition, presentation was made to a Union of Concerned Scientists gathering in Minneapolis. I also presented "Spanning Cultural Difference in Food and Health" at Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science Colliquium and at a University of Minnesota Institute for Advanced Studies panel on "Community-Engaged Scholarship". What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The gift received in 2015 from the Shakopee Mdwakantopn Sioux Community will createNew Paths toward Intercultural Exchange: Working across Cultural Difference sessions at major national meetings such as Experimental Biology (nutritional science), annual meeting of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and/or the annual meeting of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in 2016 or 2017 where such cultural dynamics are presented. This project is needed because at present education in food, nutrition and public health does not teach its professionals to: 1) Recognize the culture they bring with them into intercultural interactions; 2) Appreciate or understand how the power and depth of culture plays out in intercultural interactions with indigenous peoples; 3) Recognize and examine the cultural grounding of their professional training; 4) Identify and examine the dimensions of culture embedded in accepted approaches to scientific inquiry. More commonly, professionals are taught to normalize professional practice as somehow disconnected from culture, as transcending culture, or as an ultimate, de-contextualized reference point for understanding nutrition-related concerns regardless of cultural context.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The 2015 proposed Dietary Guidelines taking into account environmental impacts of food decisions signals a broadening of nutrition science disciplinary deliberations, in spite of the ultimate rejection of this broader concept of nutrition science at higher political levels. This project also proposes a broadening of nutrition science. The working hypothesis is that the nutrition science discipline would benefit from inquiry directed toward explicit examination of basic presuppositions and background assumptions underlying disciplinary inquiry. Such presuppositions to be explored include the taken-for-granted convictions to materialism, reductionism, mechanistic, thought and pervasive separation of subject-object dichotomies. In addition, implicit cultural values such as modern valuation of human control over nature could be explored. In 2015, the work of this project attracted additional resources in the form of a gift from the Shakopee Mdwakantopn Sioux Community. The purpose of the gift was to help build new paths to more positive cultural exchange between Native American leaders/practitioners and nutrition/dietary researchers. A significant barrier to improved nutritional health is that the cultural resources of indigenous communities have long been overlooked by Western science. In efforts to protect "scientific integrity", indigenous knowledge and understandings are all too often dismissed as "unscientific". Building new paths to more positive cultural exchange will help to explicate the need for further critical discourse within the discipline into presuppositions, background assumptions and core cultural values. I continue to work with the Cultural Wellness Center and the University of Minnesota Clinical and Translational Science Institute on developing a community/institutional ethics review board. The community review board advisory function is important as existing Institutional IRB protects only individual research subjects; it does not account for research impacts collectively experienced within cultural communities or upon the collective cultural integrity of non-academic communities.
Publications
|
Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Nutrition scientists, dietitians, nutrition educators, Master gardeners, urban American Indian community, Tribal community, African American community, European American learning community. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? I am in the process of proposing a subdiscipline of nutrition science that would explore its more implicit dimensions of epistemology that often go unexamined. This includes presuppositions, basic convictions and cultural values. Critical reflection directed to these dimensions could allow cognitive attachments to materialism, reductionism, mechanistic thought, naïve realism, control over nature and pervasive subject-object dichotomies between mind and matter, scientist and nature, experience and reality, among many others to become more available for critical consideration within the context of a rapidly changing world. The 2015 proposed Dietary Guidelines that take into account environmental impacts of food decisions signals a broadening of disciplinary deliberations. Environmental considerations are common to older, non-biomedical understandings. Culturally diverse food and health understandings otherwise dismissed as “unscientific” or held in abeyance gain value as alternative assumptive frameworks and cognitive models that can be temporarily inhabited for further intercultural reflection and insight. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? See publication. I also continue to work with cultural communities through my cross-cultural engagement model of reciprocity and partnership to exchange knowledge relevant to nutrition and health concerns, leading to a practice of engaged nutrition science. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? I am planning for a Conference with published proceedings targeted to nutrition science researchers that opens critical attention to nutrition science metaphysics/hidden subjectivities. I am working with CWC and U of M faculty to establish a community IRB Advisory Board, where researchers submit proposals to the Advisory Board for critical review. Conventional IRB is based upon protection of individual research subjects and not concerned with consequences or impact to cultural groups; The Advisory Board can inform researchers of these consequences that are otherwise invisible to researchers/research institutions.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Research article published in Nutrition Journal that proposes disciplinary inquiry into the "hidden subjectivities" of nutrition science. This publication serves as justification for a new branch of study within nutrition science that directs inquiry into disciplinary epistemology. The 2015 proposed Dietary Guidelines that take into account environmental impacts of food decisions signals a broadening of disciplinary deliberations. Such deliberations would benefit from inquiry directed toward explicit examination of basic presuppositions underlying disciplinary inquiry, such as materialism, reductionism, mechanistic thought, pervasive subject-object dichotomies, etc. It could lead to systems thinking, interdisciplinary collaborations with philosophy of science, etc. The lexicon for descriptive sensory analysis was further elaborated and presented to Chinese Medicine practitioners in Seattle WA, along with descriptive sensory analysis methods for assessing herbal quality in a manner congruent with the epistemology of Chinese Medicine. This quality assessment methodology is important because biomedical methods such as chemical fingerprinting and marker compound analysis represent a fundamentally different epistemological approach to medicinal herb quality that is limited within the context of Chinese medicine. While chemical analysis can provide useful information for herbal quality assessment with respect to product contamination, counterfeiting and adulteration it cannot usefully account for the unique and individualized approaches to efficacy of Chinese herbal therapy in a clinical context. Cultural Wellness Center (CWC): I am working with CWC and the University of Minnesota Clinical and Translational Science Institute on developing a community institutional review board advisory committee. The community Review Board advisory function is important as existing Institutional IRB protects only individual research subjects and does not account for research impacts as experienced within cultural communities or upon the cultural integrity of non-academic communities.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Hassel C. (2014) Reconsidering Nutrition Science: Critical Reflection with a Cultural Lens Nutrition Journal 13:42. http://www.nutritionj.com/content/13/1/42
|
Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Urban American Indian community of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Professional nutrition educators. Professional nutrition scientists. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The proposition of a cultural lens attempts to offer a different slant on existing ideas, a different way of looking at our existing disciplinary practices and modes of inquiry. It is designed to bring disciplinary attention to background assumptions that are routinely taken for granted as true, such as materialism, reductionism, mechanistic thought and pervasive subject-object dichotomies between mind and matter, between scientist and nature, between experience and reality. These ideas preceed scientific inquiry, they infiltrate and permeate scientific methods and thereby escape peer review. A cultural lens offers a means to redirect some disciplinary attention toward these ideas and bring them into the realm of professional inquiry and peer review. The project aims to encourage further conversation and discussion around these ideas, using the vehicle of a cultural lens. The goal is to create a critical mass of scientists within the field to engage in branch of discourse devoted to acknowledging and examining these "hidden subjectivities" that currently escape peer review. This kind of discourse is now lacking in nutrition science, but adopting a cultural lens would allow it to emerge and inform the collective mindset and thought patterns of the greater discipline. Professional development to support this work is now being developed that would encourage cross-cultural engagement (CCE) as a disciplinary practice. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? A paper is awaiting publication in Cereal Foods World; another is in review with Nutrition Journal. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? I am advocating for the following actions: 1) Require philosophy of science and history of science for students majoring in nutrition science. These courses accommodate a cultural lens and give future professionals a larger cultural context in which to situate existing concepts and principles of nutrition science. 2) Debate and contemplate the merits and implications of adopting a cultural lens. Create a branch of professional discourse that could inform nutrition science inquiry. A small cadre of nutrition scientists could pursue inquiry around hidden subjectivities of the discipline as the subject of professional discourse that would inform the larger disciplinary collective. 3) Consider adopting systems thinking and action research as complementary modes of inquiry. Both systems thinking [24] and action research [38] can accommodate a cultural lens and carry hidden subjectivities while complementing prevailing approaches to research. They could be considered within the branch of discourse described above.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
A perspective article was written and submitted to Nutrition Journal entitled "Reconsidering Nutrition Science: Vision Through a Cultural Lens". The article advocates for a branch of nutrition science inquiry devoted to basic presuppositions and implicit background assumptions. A scholarship of teaching article was written that describes how teaching can be enhanced through cultural awareness.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Hassel, C. Nutrition Education: Toward a Framework of Cultural Awareness? Cereal Foods World 2014
|
Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: OUTPUTS: A new indigenous foods project Natives Empowering the World through Indigenous Food Environments (NEW LIFE)was developed as participatory action research initiative with the urban American Indian community in the Twin Cities. Two community meetings created a community board that bring indigenous knowledge and experiential knowledge to the initiative. A Food Experience Questionnaire based on a model from the Woodlands Wisdom Nutrition Program was revised in 2012 and tested with over 50 participants from the urban American Indian community in Minneapolis/St. Paul at five different community gatherings. Perennial foods with significance and meaning for the Anishinaabeg continued to be planted and maintained in 13 test sites across the White Earth Indian Reservation and in Hugo MN at the 10 acre Dream of Wild Health Farm. These plants will provide community access to 10 varieties of berries, hazelnuts and five species of plant medicines once common to the area but now scarce or absent. A total of over 5000 plants were started in the 13 test sites. Presentations to professional food and nutrition scientists pressed the case to direct inquiry into the mental models and images of reality constructed by scientific professionals that can have adverse effects in diverse cultural communities. At the University of Minnesota, cross-cultural symposium was held in St. Paul MN entitled "Landscape Health: A Dialogue with Diverse Knowledge Traditions", bringing cultural knowledge to 72 people at the day-long symposium. PARTICIPANTS: PARTICIPANTS: Partner organizations include: Dream of Wild Health an urban American Indian organization with an heirloom seed farm in Hugo, MN and NACDI, Native American Community Development Institute that works to build capacity in urban Indian communities of the Twin-Cities. The North American Water Office is a local indigenous non-profit organization chartered to educate people about solutions to environmental problems caused by society's wastes. The Cultural Wellness Center is a a non-profit community-based organization in the Twin Cities dedicated to developing cultural approaches for positively impacting community health. White Earth Tribal and Community College is an Anishinaabe controlled liberal arts institution in Minnesota. High Falls Gardens is an organization in Philmont, NY dedicated to domestic production of Chinese herbal medicinals in keeping with traditional Chinese Medicine understandings of Medicinal Herb quality. The American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Roseville, MN is a fully licensed and accredited school of Chinese Medicine with a fully functioning clinic and Chinese herbal pharmacy. TARGET AUDIENCES: TARGET AUDIENCES: The primary target audience for this work is the community of food and nutrition science research professionals, including public and private, registered dietitians, nutrition educators. The frames used by these professionals to construct mental models of reality are seldom examined or opened for collective inquiry. Lack of effectiveness in reducing incidence of diet-related disease suggests significant opportunity costs come with over-attachment to familiar, yet ineffective framing. The cross-cultural engagement (CCE) approach described here makes implicit frames more visible while generating knowledge in partnership with people from the urban American Indian community and youth, the urban African American community, with growers and small farmers interested in heirloom crop varieties and medicinal herbs, with White Earth Tribal Community College students, staff and youth, with local regional practitioners of Chinese Medicine. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Training in food and nutrition sciences can leave professionals holding so tightly to western/biomedical models that they fail to notice the knowledge and understandings held by cultural communities. Presentations in the Grains For Health Symposium and the faculty workshop at the University of Minnesota were designed to expose professionals to culturally different ways of knowing and to catalyze collective inquiry into the mental models and frames of reality imposed by professional scientists. Such inquiry represents a form of participatory action research to adapt/reposition/reframe academic research methods such that the process of scientific inquiry is more sensitive to the cultural knowledge systems existing within communities, less damaging to those cultural knowledge systems and, if possible, to contribute to the health and vitality of the many forms of knowledge lying beyond academic disciplines. The desired impact is expanded professional discourse in nutrition science where members develop capacities to view societal implications/impacts from diverse cultural and epistemological contexts. The community-based projects described here are developing capacity to preserve, protect and revitalize cultural food traditions and cultural knowledge of food practices that create health as recognized within the community context.
Publications
- Hassel, C.A. 2012. A Problem with Western Science. Whole Grains Summit 2012. Whole Grains & Health: From Theory to Practice, A13.
- Hassel, C.A. 2012. Getting to Synergy: A Place for Differences in Institutions. Whole Grains Summit 2012. Whole Grains & Health: From Theory to Practice, A14.
- Wang, X.S. 2012. A Bowl of Rice and Cup of Tea: Intercultural Perspectives on Health Effects. M.S. Plan B Thesis, University of Minnesota.
|
Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A Food Experience Questionnaire was pilot tested with 85 participants from the urban American Indian community in Minneapolis/St. Paul at three different community gatherings. Two tea beverages were developed based upon Chinese medical theory using domestically grown chrysanthemum and Chinese mint. Perennial foods were planted in 13 test sites across the White Earth Indian Reservation to provide community access to 10 varieties of berries, hazelnuts and five species of plant medicines once common to the area but now scarce or absent. A total of over 3000 plants were started in the 13 test sites. A cross-cultural symposium was held at White Earth Indian Reservation entitled "Nibi and Manoomin:Bridging Worldviews". The estimated attendance was 175 people at the three-day symposium, including over 60 University of Minnesota faculty/staff and over 100 from Native communities/reservations across Minnesota and the upper Midwest/Canada. Twenty-two symposium participants completed a two-hour preparatory workshop cultural identity and cross-cultural interfacing. During the summer, six U of M faculty went through a five session training workshop series on cultural identity, cultural self-study and cultural interfacing at the Cultural Wellness Center. PARTICIPANTS: Partner organizations include: Dream of Wild Health an urban American Indian organization with an heirloom seed farm in Hugo, MN. Medicinal Herb Network was formed in Minnesota to establish marketing, communication, and programmatic relationship between Chinese Medicine (CM) practitioners seeking quality medicinal herb products and medicinal herb growers looking for opportunities to diversify operations and increase profitability. High Falls Gardens is an organization in Philmont, NY dedicated to domestic production of Chinese herbal medicinals in keeping with traditional Chinese Medicine understandings of Medicinal Herb quality. The American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Roseville, MN is a fully licensed and accredited school of Chinese Medicine with a fully functioning clinic and Chinese herbal pharmacy. The North American Water Office is a local indigenous non-profit organization chartered to educate people about solutions to environmental problems caused by society's wastes. The Cultural Wellness Center is a a non-profit community-based organization in the Twin Cities dedicated to developing cultural approaches for positively impacting community health. White Earth Tribal and Community College is an Anishinaabe controlled liberal arts institution in Minnesota. TARGET AUDIENCES: The cross-cultural engagement (CCE) approach described here is partnership with people from the urban American Indian community and youth, the urban African American community, with growers and small farmers interested in heirloom crop varieties and medicinal herbs, with White Earth Tribal Community College students, staff and youth, with local regional practitioners of Chinese Medicine. However, the primary target audience for this work is the community of nutrition science research professionals, including public and private, registered dietitians and nutrition educators. It is within the nutrition professional realm that this project offers opportunities for professional training and development. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The projects described above were developed by communities who are working to improve the health of their communities by preserving/protecting traditional cultural foods and/or cultural food practices. Cross-cultural engagement (CCE) represents a form of community-based, participatory action research involving community residents concerned about food and health issues but bringing knowledge that does not correspond to scientific models. Training in food and nutrition sciences can leave professionals holding so tightly to western/biomedical models that knowledge assets in cultural communities not commensurate with biomedical understandings are under-valued or disregarded. The faculty workshops were designed to prepare professionals to better navigate cultural difference around knowledge of food and health. The results described here are attempts to adapt/reposition/reframe academic research such that the process of scientific inquiry is more sensitive to the cultural knowledge systems existing within communities, less damaging to those cultural knowledge systems and, if possible, to contribute to the health and vitality of the many forms of knowledge lying beyond academic disciplines. These results could lead to expanded dimensions of professional discourse in nutrition science wherein members develop capacities to view societal implications/impacts from diverse cultural and epistemological contexts.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
|
Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Work in cross-cultural engagement (CCE) continued with communities holding knowledge of food and health that is incommensurate with Euro-American models of inquiry. Working with Dream of Wild Health, an urban American Indian project protecting native heirloom seeds, foods and cultural lifeways and health practices, a food experience questionnaire was developed and tested with urban Indian youth and adults. Thirty-five program participants offered feedback through participatory action research in talking circles, an ethnographic approach to culturally appropriate focus group inquiry. A symbol, expressing these relationships developed by cultural Elders, was chosen to serve as the evaluative framework for a Minnesota Department of Health Reducing Health Disparities grant. Working with Medicinal Herb Network, the medicinal herb Salvia miltiorrhiza (Dan Shen) was tested using descriptive sensory analysis. In 2010, the Cultural Wellness Center (CWC) became a research site in a multi-center clinical trial investigating vitamin D supplementation on borderline hypertension in vitamin D deficient, urban, ethnic minorities in partnership with Allina and Massachusetts General Hospital. I served as a member of an oversight board and an advisory board that monitors the integrity of scientific procedures and conduct at the Minneapolis site as well as an independent researcher working with CWC to generate knowledge about protecting the community's interest as it participates in randomized, controlled-trial research. Work began on a project with the White Earth Tribal community entitled "Sacred Foods Equals Healthy Lives." Some 15-20 species of foods (fruits and nut) significant to the Anishinaabe were planted in test plots to recover access to important traditional foods. PARTICIPANTS: Partner organizations include: Dream of Wild Health an urban American Indian organization with a farm in Hugo. Medicinal Herb Network was formed in Minnesota to establish marketing, communication, and programmatic relationship between Chinese Medicine (CM) practitioners seeking quality medicinal herb products and medicinal herb growers looking for opportunities to diversify operations and increase profitability. High Falls Gardens is an organization in Philmont, NY dedicated to domestic production of Chinese herbal medicinals in keeping with traditional Chinese Medicine understandings of Medicinal Herb quality. The American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Roseville, MN is a fully licensed and accredited school of Chinese Medicine with a fully functioning clinic and Chinese herbal pharmacy. Cloud River Mindfulness Centered Healthcare is the practice center for Chris Hafner, Lic Ac. The Cultural Wellness Center is a a non-profit community-based organization in the Twin Cities dedicated to developing cultural approaches for positively impacting community health. White Earth Tribal and Community College is an Anishinaabe controlled liberal arts institution in Minnesota. TARGET AUDIENCES: The cross-cultural engagement (CCE) approach described here is partnership with people from the urban American Indian community and youth, the urban African American community, with growers and small farmers interested in heirloom crop varieties and medicinal herbs, with White Earth Tribal Community College students, staff and youth, with local regional practitioners of Chinese Medicine. However, the primary target audience for this work is the community of nutrition science research professionals, including public and private, registered dietitians and nutrition educators. It is within the nutrition professional realm that this project offers opportunities for professional training and development. Training in many life, agricultural, and health science disciplines still can lead new members to hold so tightly to western/biomedical models for producing knowledge that the many ways of knowing found in culturally diverse communities are under-valued. Researchers in these scientific disciplines often struggle to engage communities in ways that effectively bridge cultural difference and respect the knowledge resources existing within these communities. Many professional researchers are taught to proceed by imposing experimental designs and methodologies that are seen as internally valid by their professional peers, yet viewed as inappropriate and/or disrespectful in diverse community settings. This opens the door to exploitation that represents an ongoing struggle for many cultural communities. Many cultural communities that have been ignored or disenfranchised would welcome the opportunity to work together with faculty with the sensitivity, courage and good heart to respectfully navigate deeper cultural worlds. Faculty development programs that cultivate the skills and disposition needed for CCE offer a means for building the institutional capacity for respectful and sensitive intercultural coursework and research. Such development work is not trivial, and will require significant investment of resources with a long-term focus. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The Dream of Wild Health talking circle data led to the development of a new nutrition education model for indigenous communities that includes mental, emotional and spiritual relationships to food in addition to the usual physio-chemical/behavioral dimensions. The descriptive sensory analysis work with the Medicinal Herb Network resulted in an additional nine descriptive attributes to the lexicon of medicinal herb quality communication for Minnesota herb growers. We now have a lexicon containing over 65 attributes, trigeminal and/or aftertaste sensations compiled from the study of five individual medicinal herb species and one simple herbal formula used in Chinese medicine. The contemporary food system has left communities within the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation (Reservation) Gaa-waabaabiganikaag with an abundance of cheap, calorically dense convenience foods that contribute to the persistence of diet-related chronic disease. "Sacred Foods Equals Healthy Lives project reflects a community-based approach that draws upon the food gathering heritage and Anishinaabe culture as vital resources to a recovery and restoration of health to Anishinaabe people, families and communities. The results described here are attempts to adapt/reposition/reframe academic research such that the process of scientific inquiry is more sensitive to the cultural knowledge systems existing within communities, less damaging to those cultural knowledge systems and, if possible, to contribute to the health and vitality of the many forms of knowledge lying beyond academic disciplines. These results could lead to expanded dimensions of professional discourse in nutrition science wherein members develop capacities to view societal implications/impacts from diverse cultural and epistemological contexts.
Publications
- Hassel, C.A. Learning to bridge different ways of knowing: The Dream of Wild Health American Indian seed garden project as mentor. CURA Reporter 40(1-2):11-15, 2010.
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A lexicon was developed for sensory description and characterization of the Chinese medicinal herb species Huo Xiang (patchouli)and Qing Hao (mugwort). This is part of an ongoing project to develop a lexicon of sensory attributes that can be learned by growers of medicinal herbs in Minnesota. A lexicon with over 50 different terms has been developed describing organoleptic qualities of Chinese medicinal herbs. The lexicon is used to communicate and enhance quality of medicinal herbs as understood by practitioners of Chinese medicine. A cross-cultural symposium on protecting wild rice (manoomin) was held in August bringing together Anishinaabe ricers, elders and scientists with researchers from the University of Minnesota. Three strategies emerged as a means to protect this resource, including more open and frequent communication between University personnel and Tribal communities and to pursue research collaborations between tribal communities and University students and staff. A collaborative proposal was developed to test consumer acceptance of manoomin as compared to cultivated wild rice. Antioxidant activity, polyphenolic content and flavonoid content of heirloom varieties of indigenous beans and market varieties of beans were analyzed as grown under identical environmental conditions from seed. No significant varietal differences were observed. A proposal was developed to explore the effects of human culture on crop-host (corn-smut) relationships on an American Indian farm. Principles of cross-cultural engagement were introduced at a pre-conference AACC workshop. Faculty from diverse disciplines explored a somatic apprenticeship along with shared reading, dialogue, and workshops to explore potential approaches to and impacts of embodied methodologies on the process of scholarly inquiry. PARTICIPANTS: Wang, Xiaochun, MS student. Noble, Emily, MS student. Adamek, Maggi, PhD White Earth Tribal Council Medicinal Herb Network Dream of Wild Health Network TARGET AUDIENCES: University of Minnesota faculty & staff Northern Minnesota Tribal communities Medicinal Herb Network Twin Cities urban Indian communities PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Since 1990, U.S. herb growers have been growing approximately 300 species of Chinese or Asian botanical medicines. The sensory-based lexicon described above is coherent with Chinese medicinal theory and therefore useful for communicating medicinal quality as understood within the context of Chinese medicine. The lexicon offers practitioners of Chinese Medicine (CM) a means through which to communicate understandings of quality to growers, who can use these understandings to optimize quality and add value to their product. Principles of cross-cultural engagement (CCE) can be applied through faculty development to help research faculty build more positive and productive collaborative research relationships with Tribal members. CCE is consistent with the University of Minnesota commitment to "Reimagining Equity and Diversity" and identified core values of social justice, community engagement, and accountability. Embodied methodologies project is laying groundwork for the development of first-person research methodologies in nutrition.
Publications
- Aguirre-McKibbin, F. 2009. Imperial Discourses on Mexicah Cultures: Deconstructing Geneologies of Misinformation About Mexicah Communities. PhD dissertation. University of Minnesota. 198 pp.
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Work on elucidating attributes associated with Chinese medicinal herbs continues. Our approach uses descriptive sensory analysis procedures (a sub-discipline of contemporary food science) in service to CM theory by communicating understandings of medicinal herb quality congruent with basic CM principles. This approach avoids the problems of deferral to chemical and pharmacological analysis, which are ancillary to CM theory. Results obtained thus far suggest that a vocabulary of organoleptic (taste, smell, appearance) quality descriptors may be developed and used to create understandings of quality consistent with CM theory. Chinese medicinal mint (Bo He) chrysanthumum (Ju Hua), and a simple herb formula (Shao Yao Gan Cao Tang) have been tested. Some 40 different attributes have been articulated by descriptive sensory analysis. Indigenous bean varieties were grown and antioxidant capacity measured and compared with commercial bean varieties grown in similar conditions. A faculty development protocol for cross-cultural engagement has been developed as an initial pilot project specifically designed to develop interculturally competent scientists. A cohort of ten self-selected faculty will commit to a two-year mentoring process that includes a cultural immersion experience, extended interaction with cultural elder/mentor, and peer group support. A group of cereal scientists was exposed to the need for cross-cultural engagement at an international scientific session. A cross-cultural engagement workshop for the 2009 international conference is scheduled. Planning for a 2009 cross-cultural symposium on wild rice continues with reservation communities and University faculty. Knowledge of cultural interfacing is being developed in partnership with the Cultural Wellness Center. PARTICIPANTS: Chris Hafner, L. Ac. Practitioner of Chinese medicine Christian Fetsch, L. Ac. Practitioner of Chinese Medicine John Pirog, L. Ac. Professor, Minnesota College of Oriental Medicine Dream of Wild Health Audrey Maretzki, Ph.D. Penn State University Ladi Semali, Ph.D. Penn State University Bruce Martin, Ph.D. Penn State University Paul Schultz Traditional Healer White Earth Indian Reservation Joe LaGarde, Administrative Associate, White Earth Tribal Council Powderhorn/Phillips Cultural Wellness Center American Association of Cereal Chemists TARGET AUDIENCES: American Association of Cereal Chemists PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
In a world of shrinking resources, spiraling costs and developing disease resistances, the Western biomedical paradigm is reaching the awareness that it has never been alone as an effective healing strategy. Saving lives, communities and our environment in the new millennium must involve understanding, cooperation and synthesis among the world's healing disciplines. New approaches to interfacing health care theory, practice and knowledge production are emerging. Training in the biomedical sciences still can lead its members to hold so tightly to western/biomedical models for producing knowledge that the many ways of knowing found in culturally diverse communities are under-valued. Faculty need developmental training in cross-cultural engagement so they can gain the skills needed to work across diverse worldview orientations. Cross-cultural engagement is slowly taking a place within the research university land-grant tradition. CCE work challenges foundational, sub- unconscious and unexamined presuppositions. CCE offers a means through which cultural diversity can have a direct and positive influence upon the core functions of the academic enterprise.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Increasing consumer concerns about the quality and safety of medicinal herbs imported from China has led to development of interest in domestically grown medicinal herbs used in classical Chinese medicine. This year, we developed a lexicon for sensory description and characterization of a Shao Yao Gan Cao Tang formula. This work compared domestically grown formulas with imported, commercially available products. We found significant differences among the products we tested for the following 15 of the 25 attributes; sweetness, bitterness, astringency, honey, beef broth, kohlrabi, hay, grassy, toasted, caramel, white pepper, roasted nut, burnt, bitter aftertaste, and sweet aftertaste. Work continued on applying transformational learning theory to cross-cultural engagement classroom pedagogy. A manuscript is in preparation. Several presentations were given to make the case for examining metaphysical presuppositions that lie beneath and constellate current nutrition science
methodologies. A community food system grant was developed with Powderhorn/Phillips Cultural Wellness Center in South Minneapolis. The proposal included dimensions of food and health relationships that now lie beyond the access of biomedical science. The scholarship of cross-cultural engagement continues to emerge.
PARTICIPANTS: Minnesota College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Inter-institutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge, Sensory Center, Sah-Kah-Tay, Paul Bloom, David Andow, Joe LaGarde, Paul Schultz, Karl Lorenz. We are planning a cross-cultural symposium on "Protecting the Manoomin (wild rice)". This will be a symposium collaboration that attempts to bridge colliding world views around wild rice.
TARGET AUDIENCES: As the scholarship of cross-cultural engagement emerges, the target audience for these efforts shifts back to University researchers in agricultural and health sciences. In this sense, the developmental work is within the scientific societies and academic communities to become more open to and inclusive of the diverse epistemologies and cosmologies found beyond academic halls.
Impacts
An emerging scholarship pivoting the relationship between culture and science asks professional scientists to develop skills in "cross-cultural engagement" (CCE) as a prerequisite to engaging in research. In CCE, professional scientists temporarily put aside the impulse to force all of nature into the orthodoxy of Eurocentric scientific paradigms, or to automatically impose these knowledge structures upon a situation as though they are the only means to gain any legitimate understanding of the world. As every human society has developed ways of knowing nature in order to survive, scientists learn to step into epistemologies grounded in very different presuppositions of how the world works. This engagement entails navigating foreign cosmologies that lie beyond the access of professional training now provided by most scientific disciplines. Although this practice may seem de- stabilizing, it allows for three significant outcomes not afforded by scientific inquiry as it
now dominates agricultural and health sciences research. First, the cultural context (presuppositions and paradigms) of Eurocentric epistemologies become more visible, enabling a more critical appraisal of their limiting and constraining features. Extending critical inquiry to the metaphysical dimensions of scientific paradigms can enhance professional capacity for self-correction. Second, diverse epistemologies that exist beyond the boundaries of Eurocentric disciplines are more empathetically understood within their own cultural context, minimizing the distortions created when forcing conformity with existing professional paradigms. This can minimize errors associated with erroneous interpretations of "outsider" knowledge. Third, new forms of more appropriate trans-cultural inquiry can begin to emerge as problems are reframed from different metaphysical perspectives.
Publications
- Hassel, C. 2007. Can cross-cultural engagement improve the land-grant university? J of Extension. 45(5). http://www.joe.org/joe/2007october/a7.shtml
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Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06
Outputs
A food system assessment was initiated with Powderhorn/Phillips Cultural Wellness Center in South Minneapolis. The assessment included physical mapping of grocery and food service establishments in the Powderhorn/Phillips neighborhoods. The assessment also included Elder Circle focus groups to identify foods deemed culturally appropriate and contribute to good health, yet are not accessible to neighborhood residents. Results indicate a number of foods that may be introduced by local entraprenuers associated with the Midtown Global Market (MGM). MGM is a community-wide effort to create an international themed, owner-operated, fresh and prepared food global marketplace on the first floor of the Midtown Exchange, a major historic renovation project in South Minneapolis. The Medicinal Herb Network conducted a Pao Zhi workshop for local Chinese medicine practitioners. Pao Zhi is a subdiscipline of Chinese herbal medicine in which herbs are cooked using various methods to
improve the quality (clinical efficacy and safety) of medicinal herbs used in Chinese medicine. Pao Zhi is essential to developing domestically-grown, high-quality Chinese medicine formulations. Constructive realism was identified as a branch of philosophy of science that gives theoretical support and grounding for the practice of cross-cultural engagement (CCE). The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity was identified as theory within the Intercultural Studies sub-discipline that supports CCE as a more interculturally competent form of scholarship than conventional nutrition science.
Impacts
Community-based knowledge has been undervalued as an asset to address societal food and health problems. For example, many dimensions of health are subjectively experienced and therefore escape scientific evaluation. By interacting with people who do not depend on western science, cross-cultural engagement (CCE) brings to food and nutrition alternative perspectives, ideas and practices for innovation and discovery. New educational approaches include diverse worldviews and ways of knowing about food and health. CCE also helps to identify the presuppositions that frame, and therefore limit, the practice of science. Inviting consideration for other forms of knowledge opens new possibilities in teaching and research. Taken seriously, CCE also has the potential to transform the culture of Land- Grant research universities.
Publications
- Hassel, C. 2006. Woodlands Wisdom: A nutrition program interfacing indigenous and biomedical epistemologies. J. of Nutrition Education and Behavior 38(2):114-120.
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
Cross-cultural engagement (CCE) is a distinct type of community-based participatory research, involving citizens who bring knowledge that does not correspond to scientific models. Over several years, much has been learned about how Land-Grant universities can better engage in scholarship with citizens who have been underserved or marginialized. This involves accomodating knowledge found within communities and developing the ability of academic professionals to shift their frame of reference as they interact with stakeholders. Some of these findings have been published as the "craft" of cross-cultural engagement. In addition, work on the scholarship of cross-cultural engagement has focused on the metaphysical presuppositions taken for granted in nutrition science research. Because CCE brings to the table stakeholders who do not share some of these presupposed ideas, it represents a way for scientists to better identify what they take for granted. Once identified,
critical discourse can help scientists to better understand how conventional nutrition science is limited or constrained by what they often taken for granted. For example, medicinal herb quality can be understood through the pharmacology of isolated bioactive ingredients, but it can also be understood holistically using human sensory capacity and principles of Chinese medical theory such as Qi and Yin/Yang. The scholarship of CCE represents a means to interface different forms of knowledge that presuppose different ideas about how the world works. CCE thus recalls the science of metaphysics toward problems of food and health, offering a means to transform diversity of perspective into potential for much-needed innovation and discovery. CCE also broadens classroom education as an application of transformative learning theory. Different forms of knowledge represent different conceptual lenses through which to study food and health, exposing students to the diversity of worldviews they
will likely encounter in a globalized society. CCE can cultivate the capacity of students to shift their frame of reference to accomodate different ways of understanding the world. Finally, much work has focused on CCE as a means to link diversity issues within Land-Grant research universities to innovation and improved quality of teaching, research and engagement. Diversity plus CCE can equal a path to improved institutional quality.
Impacts
Cross-cultural engagement (CCE) is a distinct type of academic work, involving citizens who bring knowledge that does not correspond to scientific models. Community-based knowledge has been undervalued as an asset to address societal food and health problems. For example, many dimensions of health are subjectively experienced and therefore escape scientific evaluation. By bringing diversity of perspective to academic work in the form of community-based knowledge, CCE enhances opportunities for innovation in food and health issues. Taken seriously, CCE also has the potential to transform the culture of Land- Grant research universities. Inviting consideration for other forms of knowledge opens new possibilities in teaching and research. CCE offers a means to bring cultural diversity to the core of the academic enterprise. It brings a source of alternative perspectives, ideas and practices for innovation and discovery, and novel educational approaches that are inclusive
of multiple worldviews and ways of knowing.
Publications
- Hassel, C.A., Hafner, C.A., Soberg, R. and Adelmann, J. 2005. Medicinal herb quality in the United States: Bridging perspectives with Chinese medical theory, in: Eating and Healing, A. Pieroni, ed., New York, Haworth Press.
- Harala, K, Smith, C., Hassel, C., and Gailfus, P. 2005. New Moccasins: Articulating research agendas through interviews with faculty and staff at native and non-native academic institutions. J. Nutr. Ed. Behav. 37(2):67-76.
- Garrido, D.J., Auger, S., Rendon, S. and Hassel, C.A. 2005. Nutrition through another lens: Indigenous knowledge in nutrition education. J. Nutr. Ed. Behav. 37(Suppl 1):S35.
- Hassel, C.A. 2005. The craft of cross-cultural engagement. J of Extension 43(6) #6FEA1. http://www.joe.org/joe/2005december/a1.shtml
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
Cross-cultural engagement (CCE) is a distinct type of community-based engagement, focusing on citizens with knowledge created beyond the boundaries of conventional scientific thinking. CCE uses participatory action research to create trust, build relationships and develop research agendas with citizens who have not been involved in the work of research universities. The craft of CCE is critical because many attempts by the academy to be inclusive are experienced by others as assimilation, not multicultural inclusion. By focusing on diverse ways of constructing knowledge, CCE can benefit both stakeholders and research universities by including the ancient perspectives of Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, Indigenous knowledge systems as resources to address issues of diet and health. Amidst concerns about medicinal herb safety and quality, a Medicinal Herb Network was organized to develop locally grown, high quality medicinal herbs by bringing together medicinal herb growers
and Chinese Medicine (CM) health-care practitioners. The Network has pursued research consistent with CM theory by using descriptive sensory analysis to identify and characterize quality attributes of medicinal herbs. Intensity scores of certain medicinal herb attributes correlate with quality of samples as assessed by knowledgable CM practitioners. The Woodlands Wisdom Nutrition Project has developed a curriculum model that places indigenous knowledge of nutrition alongside biomedical perspectives in Tribal Colleges. Preliminary evaluation data suggest the model can improve accessibility of biomedical concepts for Tribal College students. Work with the Dream of Wild Health Network demonstrated eight varieties of heirloom beans with high antioxidant activity compared to common market bean varieties as measured by Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity. A children's gardening curriculum using narrative from an Elder's perspective was developed and evaluated. A survey instrument was
developed to assess nutrition science student beliefs about basic assumptions of scientific materialism and commonly held assertions about science.
Impacts
Cross-cultural engagement (CCE) is a distinct type of academic work, involving citizens who bring knowledge that does not correspond to scientific models. Although non-scientific knowledge is often considered off limits for scientific disciplines at research universities, the practice of CCE embraces ancient knowledge understandings of food and health (including Chinese Medicine, Indigenous knowledge, Ayurveda) as valuable resources for solving societal problems. By bringing diversity of perspective to academic work, CCE enhances opportunities for innovation. Greater innovation can generate solutions to societal problems and lead to wealth creation for communities. Expected impacts include: A source of alternative perspectives, ideas and practices for critical consideration, innovation and discovery stimulated by bringing together divergent ways of knowing, novel educational approaches that are inclusive of multiple worldviews and ways of knowing, and bringing
cultural diversity to the core of the academic enterprise.
Publications
- Hassel, C. 2004. Can diversity extend to ways of knowing? Engaging cross-cultural paradigms. Journal of Extension 42:2.
- Hafner, C.A., Hassel, C.A., Soberg, R., Adelmann, J., Fetch, C. 2004. Toward bridging perspectives with integrity. Reg. Chinese Herb. Med. J. 3(3):4-12.
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
The Medicinal Herb Network continues using Chinese medical theory as a basis for evaluating medicinal herb quality. Two medicinal herbs have been characterized according to the procedures of descriptive sensory analysis, and a dictionary of descriptive terms is being developed to discern quality as understood by Chinese medical theory to help growers find a way to add value to locally-grown products. Antioxidant analysis was conducted on ten different indigenous bean vareities provided by Dream of Wild Health. Each of the indigenous varieties of beans has tested higher in antioxidant capacity than corresponding market varieties. The Woodlands Wisdom project continues to explore cross-cultural perspectives of research into food and nutrition issues. These findings will be helpful in creating research that better reflects the interests of and contribute to the desired outcomes for tribal communities as they work with large non-Native research institutions.
Impacts
The research described here involves integration of knowledge from marginalized communities that does not necessarily fit with a scientific model or worldview. Recent calls for inclusion of more diversity and engagement from land-grant institutions requires engaging paradigms of knowledge production to enhance diversity of perspective and innovation to better address pressing problems of society.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
The Medicinal Herb Network continues using Chinese Medicine as a means to understand medicinal herb quality. This work illustrates the possibility of developing a dictionary of quality descriptors that is simultaneously grounded in Chinese medical theory and employs descriptive sensory analysis procedures used within a sub-discipline of food science. The dictionary may be used to create a common understanding of quality that would offer growers a means to target growing and processing protocols, thereby adding value and quality to locally grown medicinal herbs. The Woodlands Wisdom project has explored cross-cultural perspectives of research through a series of interviews. This project involved exploring some of the philosophical ideas and unique approaches that conceptualize the research process within institutions that conduct research with Native American communities (i.e. tribal colleges, universities, and a public health department). These findings will be
helpful in creating a more equitable process of research that will better reflect the interests of and contribute to the desired outcomes for tribal communities as they work with large non-Native research institutions. Ten different indigenous, heirloom crop varieties of beans were grown with the Dream of Wild Health Network, a local seed-saver program.
Impacts
Recent calls for inclusion of more diversity and engagement from land-grant institutions have significant implications for the quality of academic work. The research described here involves integration of significant and essential knowledge from diverse systems of knowledge production. These examples suggest that engaging multiple paradigms of knowledge production can enhance diversity of perspective and innovation to better address pressing problems of society.
Publications
- Hassel, C.A., Hafner, C., Soberg, R., Adelmann, J., Haywood, R. (2002) Using Chinese Medicine to understand medicinal herb quality: An alternative to biomedical approaches? Ag. & Human Values 19(4): .
- Carr, T.P., Wood, K.J., Hassel, C.A., Bahl, R., Gallaher, D.D. (2002) Raising intestinal contents viscosity leads to greater excretion of neutral steroids but not bile acids in hamsters and rats. Nutr. Res 22:
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Progress 01/01/01 to 12/31/01
Outputs
The Medicinal Herb Network has embarked upon an effort to employ the Chinese Medicine knowledge system as a means to communicate more coherently about medicinal herb quality, especially relating to value added processing. A preliminary project was completed to develop a lexicon of quality descriptors through organoleptic (sensory) assessment using Mentha haplocalyx. The Woodlands Wisdom project has developed a food and nutrition curriculum, a model for cross-cultural science education, and is funded for implementation at Tribal Colleges. A study of cross-cultural resesarch methodologies was conducted to determine cross-culturally appropriate food and nutrition research. A nutrient analysis of indigenous heirloom crop varieties was conducted with the Dream of Wild Health Network, a local seed-saver program.
Impacts
The Medicinal Herb Network has developed standards for herb quality using the Chinese Medicine system. The Woodlands Wisdom project has developed an innovative cross-cultural approach to teaching and outreach in food and nutrition sciences.
Publications
- Hassel, C., O'Kelley, K., Gailfus, P., Brummel, A., Ramczyk, L., Wold, A., and Price, M. 2001. Woodlands Wisdom: Tribal Colleges take action to improve community health across North America. Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education 13 (3) pp.36-38.
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Progress 01/01/00 to 12/31/00
Outputs
The Minnesota Medicinal Herb Network has completed growing trials for 17 species of medicinal herbs, spun off a medicinal herb growers cooperative, completed a health-care practitioner survey on use of medicinal herbs in Minnesota and has begun sensory-based quality standard development for growers and value added processing. The Woodlands Wisdom project has completed one round of Tribal College-based community forums. A food and nutrition curriculum including biomedical and indigenous science perspectives is being developed. A project administrative office has been established at the University of Minnesota with internal funds. Indigenous crops (corn, squash, beans, wild rice) are being investigated for nutritional value.
Impacts
The Minnesota Medicinal Herb Network has provided information to better understand demand for medicinal herbs in Minnesota among health-care practitioners. The Woodlands Wisdom project is gaining national attention as a model of engaged partnership among 1862 and 1994 land-grant institutions.
Publications
- Medicinal Herbs Market Research. Prepared for Minnesota Grown Opportunities Project by Cooperative Development Services. 30 East 7th Street, Suite 1720, St. Paul MN 55101. June 29, 2000.
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Progress 01/01/99 to 12/31/99
Outputs
The Minnesota Medicinal Herb Network was developed to bring together expertise among growers, herbalist health care practitioners and others to explore the production, processing, marketing and use of botanicals for improving both landscape and human health. In 1999, a medicinal herb growers cooperative was conceived and formed. Proposals were developed and submitted to support botanical alternatives to antibiotic use in animal agriculture, and to develop standards for medicinal herb quality based upon organoleptic assessment. The Woodlands Wisdom project has begun implementation of a holistic, culturally responsive food and nutrition program which reclaims American Indian pedagogy. Tribal College-based community forums are being conducted to develop the framework for these academic, technical and outreach programs.
Impacts
A medicinal herb growers cooperative was formed in Minnesota in 1999. The Woodlands Wisdom partnership has begun to connect reservation communities to Tribal Colleges and the University of Minnesota.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/98 to 12/31/98
Outputs
This work began with the study of nutrients and food components that are thought to influence plasma cholesterol concentrations, but has evolved to a study of alternative medicine therapies and nutrition practice. Previous work has explored the effectiveness of functional food components and dietary supplements marketed as lowering blood cholesterol. These products, which include plant medicinals, began appearing in the marketplace in 1997. At the end of 1998, over a dozen such products were readily available to consumers. Electronic Extension publications have been developed to examine the scientific basis for these products on cardiovascular health. This work has led to a broader interpretation of the concept of health. A University of Minnesota Extension Service initiative entitled "Food as Medicine"served as the organizing framework further exploration. Discussions among internal and external University stakeholders suggested that controlled experimental studies
as an exclusive measure of efficacy may be limited by indicators of disease status as experimental endpoints. A network linking growers of plant medicinals with licensed health care providers using these herbal medicines was funded to begin in 1999. The network has begun the task of crafting recommendations for a definition of quality in the production and use of plant medicinals. This is an example of a project where significant components of subject matter expertise lie outside the Land-grant University setting.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- HASSEL, C.A. 1998. Animal models: new cholesterol raising and lowering nutrients. Curr. Opin. Lipid. 9:7-10.
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Progress 01/01/97 to 12/31/97
Outputs
This work examines nutrients and food components that are thought to influence plasma cholesterol concentrations. One thrust is helping to understand how specific saturated fatty acids act to raise plasma cholesterol levels. In this work, saturated fatty acids differing in carbon chain length are exposed to cultured liver cells in the presence of LDL cholesterol; the metabolic response of cells is then observed. Results show that fatty acids alter the cellular uptake of LDL cholesterol; this is associated with changes in liver cell cholesteryl ester content. Another thrust of this research attempts study dietary fat sources designed to improve nutritional value to consumers. A human subject clinical trial has been completed in which postmenopausal women have consumed "designer fats" (animal fats with reduced cholesterol content modified fatty acid composition) to address this question. Studies show that dietary intake of "trans" fatty acids can be reduced by use of
"designer fats" in this population of postmenopausal women. A new aspect of this work is to explore the effectiveness of dietary supplements marketed as lowering blood cholesterol. Such products began appearing in the marketplace in June of this year. At the end of 1997, a half-dozen such products are readily available to consumers. A series of electronic Extension publications has been initiated which examines the scientific basis for these products.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- HASSEL, C., MENSING, E. and GALLAHER, D. 1997. Dietary stearic acid reduces plasma and hepatic cholesterol concentrations without increasing bile acid excretion in cholesterol-fed hamsters. J. Nutr. 127:1148-1155.
- LABAT,J., MARTINI, M., CARR, T. ELHARD, B., OLSON, A., BERGMANN, S., HAYES, K.C., SLAVIN, J., and HASSEL, C.A. 1997. Cholesterol-lowering effects of modified animal fats in postmenopausal women. J. Am Coll. Nutr. 16:570-577.
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Progress 01/01/96 to 12/30/96
Outputs
This work examines nutrients and food components that are thought to influence plasma cholesterol concentrations. One thrust is helping to understand how specific saturated fatty acids act to raise plasma cholesterol levels. In this work, saturated fatty acids differing in carbon chain length are exposed to cultured liver cells in the presence of LDL cholesterol; the metabolic response of cells is then observed. Results show that fatty acids alter the cellular uptake of LDL cholesterol; this is associated with changes in cellular cholesteryl ester content. Another thrust of this research attempts to study dietary fat sources designed to improve nutritional value to consumers. A human subject clinical trial has been completed to in which postmenopausal women have consumed "designer fats" to address this question. Studies show that dietary intake of "trans" fatty acids can be reduced by use of "designer fats" in this population of postmenopausal women. A third thrust of
this work studies of a cholesterol-lowering dietary fiber source, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC). Studies in animals show this compound reduces cholesterol absorption and increases cholesterol excretion from the body. This compound appears to be a potentially useful over-the-counter cholesterol-lowering food/ pharmaceutical product for human consumption.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- HASSEL, C., MENSING, E. and GALLAHER, D. 1996. Dietary stearic acid reduces plasma and hepatic cholesterol concentrations without increasing bile acid excretion in cholesterol-fed hamsters. J. Nutr. In press.
- CARR, T.P., GALLAHER, D. D., YANG, C-H. and HASSEL, C.A. 1996. Intestinal contents viscosity reduces cholesterol absorption efficiency in hamsters fed hydroxypropyl methylcellulose. J. Nutr. 126:1463-1469.
- REICKS, M., STOEBNER, T., HASSEL, C. and CARR, T. 1996. Evaluation of a decisioncase approach to food biotechnology education at the secondary level. J. Nutr. Ed. 28:33-38.
- SCHMIDT, K., GALLAHER, D., CARR, T., and HASSEL, C. 1996. Relationships between viscosity of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and fecal bile acid and neutral sterol excretion in hamsters. FASEB J. 10:A256.
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Progress 01/01/95 to 12/30/95
Outputs
Investigation continues to establish the specific saturated fatty acids that raise plasma cholesterol levels. A human subject clinical trial has been completed to determine whether alteration of animal fat sources through oil processing technology influence changes in plasma lipid concentrations. Postmenopausal women have consumed "designer fats" to address this question. Results indicate that cholesterol-reduced animal fats, including milkfat, lard and beef tallow significantly reduced plasma total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, compared to unmodified fat sources. Cholesterol-reduced animal fats blended with small amounts of high-linoleic safflower significantly reduce plasma total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and total/HDL cholesterol compared to unmodified fat sources. Studies are now underway to determine dietary intake of "trans" fatty acids in this population of postmenopausal women. In other experiments, Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), a
hypo-cholesterolemic dietary fiber source, increased fecal neutral sterol output in hamsters, and appears to be a potentially useful over-the-counter cholesterol-lowering compound for human consumption.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- HASSEL, C., MARTINI, M., LABAT, J., CARR, T., ELHARD, B., OLSON, A., BERGMANN, S. AND SLAVIN, J. 1995. Cholesterolemic effects of modified animal fats in postmenopausal women. FASEB J. 9:A979.
- LABAT, J., MARTINI, M., OLSON, A., BERGMANN, S., SLAVIN, J. AND HASSEL, C. 1995. Diet and blood lipids in postmenopausal women. FASEB J. 9:A978.
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Progress 01/01/94 to 12/30/94
Outputs
Investigation continues to establish the specific saturated fatty acids that raise plasma cholesterol levels. A human subject clinical trial is nearing completion to determine whether alteration of animal fat sources through oil processing technology influences changes in plasma lipid concentrations. Postmenopausal women have consumed "designer fats" to address this question. Preliminary results indicate that cholesterol-reduced animal fats, including milkfat, lard and beef tallow significantly reduce plasma total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, compared to unmodified fat sources. Cholesterol-reduced animal fats blended with small amounts of high-linoleic safflower significantly reduce plasma total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and total/HDL cholesterol compared to unmodified fat sources. In other experiments, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), a hypo-cholesterolemic dietary fiber source, reduced cholesterol absorption efficiency in hamsters, and
appears to be a potentially useful over-the-counter cholesterol-lowering compound for human consumption. Nutrition education in public schools (8th - 11th grades) via the decision-case method continues. Three decision cases have now been developed and piloted in the Minnesota Public School system. Students have responded favorably to this form of education and were especially positive of how the method connected food and nutrition information to real-world problems.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
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Progress 01/01/93 to 12/30/93
Outputs
Investigation continues to establish the specific saturated fatty acids that raise plasma cholesterol levels. The Mongolian gerbil was investigated as an animal model. Dietary cholesterol raised LDL and HDL cholesterol levels. Individual saturated fatty acids did not influence plasma cholesterol levels. A human subject clinical trial is underway to determine whether alteration of the overall dietary 18:2/14:0 fatty acids can be correlated with changes in plasma lipids. Postmenopausal women are eating "designer fats" to determine whether animal fats can be modified to induce favorable changes in plasma cholesterol levels. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), a hypo-cholesterolemic dietary fiber source, reduces cholesterol absorption efficiency in hamsters, and appears promising as an over-the-counter cholesterol-lowering compound for human consumption. Studies using the Hep G2 cell line show that dietary oxysterols can reduce intracellular cholesterol biosynthesis
while increasing intracellular capacity to esterify cholesterol (ACAT activity). The composition of lipoproteins secreted by treated cells may alter lipoprotein cholesterol composition in a manner believed to increase atherogenicity. Nutrition education in public schools (8th-11th grades) via the decision-case method continues. Two decision cases were developed and piloted in four sites within the Minnesota Public School system.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- GALLAHER, D.D., HASSEL, C.A. and LEE, K.Y. 1993. Relationships between viscosity of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and plasma cholesterol in hamsters. J. Nutr. 123:1732-1738.
- HASSEL, C.A. 1993. Nutritional implications of fat replacers. Cereal Foods World 38:142-144.
- ADDIS, P.B., WARNER, G.J. and HASSEL, C.A. 1993. Dietary lipid oxidation products. Are they atherogenic. Can. J. Pharmacol. 9 Suppl.B:6B-10B.
- GALLAHER, D.D., HASSEL, C.A., LEE, K.Y. and GALLAHER, C.M. 1993. Viscosity and fermentability as attributes of dietary fiber responsible for the hypercholesterolemic effect in hamsters. J. Nutr. 123:244-252.
- HASSEL, C.A. 1993. Cholesterolemic effects of individual dietary fatty acids. CAOCS Proc. 9:13.
- HASSEL, C.A. and CARSON, C.A. 1993. Dietary fats, blood cholesterol and heart disease: I. Identifying high-risk Minnesotans. Soc. Nutr. Ed. Abst. 18:33.
- CARSON, C.A. and HASSEL, C.A. 1993. Dietary fats, blood cholesterol and heart disease: II. Educating high-risk Minnesotans. Soc. Nutr. Ed. Abst, 18:33.
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Progress 01/01/92 to 12/30/92
Outputs
Investigation continues to establish the specific saturated fatty acids that raise plasma cholesterol levels. Preliminary experiments indicate that the Mongolian gerbil may be a superior animal model to the hamster. Stearic acid was shown to reduce both plasma and liver cholesterol in hamsters, relative to other saturated fatty acids. A human subject clinical trial is underway to determine whether alteration of the overall dietary 18:2/14:0 fatty acids can be correlated with and affect changes in plasma cholesterol. Studies are nearing completion to determine whether hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), a hypocholesterolemic dietary fiber source, reduces cholesterol absorption efficiency in hamsters. Human studies show that dietary oxysterols are absorbed from food sources. Follow-up studies using the hamster indicate that 5,6 epoxycholesterol accumulates in liver tissue and that dietary cholesterol appears to facilitate hepatic accumulation but not through enhanced
5,6 expoycholesterol absorption efficiency. Studies using the Hep G2 cell line show that dietary oxysterols can reduce intracellular cholesterol biosynthesis while increasing intracellular capacity to esterify cholesterol (ACAT activity). In addition, oxysterols can overcome the effects of the ACAT inhibitor CI-976. The mechanistic explanation for this finding is being pursued. Nutrition education in public schools (8th - 11th grades) is being conducted through the decision-case method for the first time.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
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Progress 01/01/91 to 12/30/91
Outputs
Experiments were conducted to determine the specific chain lengths of saturated fatty acids that raise plasma cholesterol levels in hamsters. In the presence of dietary cholesterol, myristic and palmitic acids were the dietary saturated fatty acids with the most potent effects in raising plasma cholesterol levels. A second study tested the cholesterol-lowering effects of various viscosity grades of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) fiber. High viscosity fiber sources decreased total plasma and liver cholesterol levels, suggesting that viscosity is important in the cholesterol-lowering effects of soluble fiber sources. Human studies have provided evidence that dietary oxysterols are absorbed from food sources. Follow-up studies using the hamster indicate that 5,6 epoxycholesterol accumulates in liver tussue. These observations were confirmed when it was shown that feeding radiolabeled oxysterols resulted in accumulation of radioactivity in the live and more
specifically within hepatocytes. Additional studies suggested that dietary oxysterols are converted into bile acids. Studies using the Hep G2 cell line show that dietary oxysterols can be delivered to cells via LDL receptor-dependent and independent mechanisms where the oxysterols may be converted into bile acids, and that the oxysterols reduce slightly the intracellular HMG-CoA reductase activity.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- WARNER, G.J., HASSEL, C.A., ADDIS, P.B. and JIA, X.H. 1991. Delivery of exogenous cholesterol oxidation products to Hep G2 cells by LDL. FASEB J. 5:A949-.
- HASSEL, C.A., GALLAHER, D.D. and GALLAHER, C.M. 1991. Plasma cholesterol - lowering effects of treated carrot fiber in the Golden Syrian hamster. FASEB J. 5:A1081-.
- LEE, K., GALLAHER, D.D. and HASSEL, C.A. 1991. Cholesterol lowering by hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and guar gum with different viscosities. FASEB J. 5:A1082-.
- BERNARD, B., HOLMAN, R., HASSEL, C., JOHNSON, S. and WEISDORF,S. 1991. Essential fatty acid deficiency in abetalipoproteinemia. Abst. No. 24935, Soc. Ped. RES.
- EMANUEL, H.A., HASSEL, C.A., ADDIS, P.B., BERGMAN, S.D. and ZAVAROL, J.H. 1991. Plasma cholesterol oxidation products in human subjects fed a meal rich in oxysterols. J. Food Sci. 56:843-847.
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Progress 01/01/90 to 12/30/90
Outputs
Investigations establishing the utility of the hamster animal model continues. Apalm oil and cholesterol containing purified diet raised total plasma and HDL cholesterol but failed to increase LDL cholesterol levels. Experiments are planned to determine the specific chain lengths of saturated fatty acids necessary to raise LDL cholesterol levels in hamsters. A second study tested the effects of methylcellulose fiber and guar gums of differing viscosity and fermentability on hamster lipoprotein profiles. High viscosity fiber sources decreased total plasma, HDL and liver cholesterol levels, suggesting that viscosity is more important than fermentability in explaining the cholesterol-lowering effects of soluble fiber sources. Human studies have provided evidence that dietary oxysterols are absorbed from food sources. Follow-up studies using the hamster indicate that 5,6 epoxycholesterol accumulates in liver tissue; dietary cholesterol appears to facilitate hepatic
accumulation. Studies initiated using the Hep G2 cell line show that dietary oxysterols can be delivered to cells, possibly via the LDL receptor mechanism. Statewide survey data collected from 1240 Minnesotans using the Minnesota Extension Service (MES) indicate a need for additional nutrition education about fat, cholesterol and heart disease. Consumers indicate a willingness to make lifestyle changes but are lacking sound nutrition information, often confused and misinformed.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- EMANUEL, H. A., HASSEL, C. A., ADDIS, P. B., BERGMAN, S. D. and ZAVAROL, J. H. 1990. Presence of cholesterol oxides in postprandial lipoproteins of human subjects. J. Food Sci. in-press.
- CARSON, C. A. and HASSEL, C. A. 1990. Coronary heart disease: A survey of adults conducted through the Minnesota Extension Service. Soc. Nutr. Ed. Abstr. 15:7.
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Progress 01/01/89 to 12/30/89
Outputs
Investigations establishing the golden syrian hamster as useful animal model forthe study of dietary factors on lipoprotein metabolism have been initiated. A preliminary experiment examined the effect of dietary cholesterol on lipoprotein profiles. Dietary cholesterol significantly increased total blood cholesterol, and subsequent lipoprotein analysis revealed that the majority of this increase was associated with high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Studies continue to determine effects within specific HDL subfractions. A second experiment tested the efficacy of a fiber source (methylcellulose) in moderating increases in HDL induced by cholesterol feeding. No statistically significant reduction of HDL cholesterol was achieved, although HDL particle composition was significantly altered. Work continues to further elucidate dietary fiber-induced alterations of HDL particles. In a series of human experiments, it was determined that feeding cholesterol oxidation products
(COPS) in the form of spray-dried eggs results in postprandial increases in both plasma and chylomicron associated COPS. These observations suggest COPS are absorbed from food sources. The metabolic fate of COPS, once absorbed, is now being investigated using the hamster animal model.
Impacts
(N/A)
Publications
- NO PUBLICATIONS REPORTED THIS PERIOD.
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