Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
| When: | Tuesday, October 19th, 2021 |
| Time: | 1:30 pm — 2:30 pm |
| Location: | |
| Audience: | Anyone |
| Contact: | odscience@carleton.ca |
It is increasingly common for foods to be processed with added sugars, which can be hidden even in foods like yogurt and cereal that we recognize to be nutritious. Sugar is made up of two molecules, glucose and fructose, and while glucose is an essential energy source vital for survival, fructose has emerged as a driver of the obesity epidemic. Fructose also tastes the sweetest and increases food palatability, so it is increasingly common for foods to be processed with fructose-based sweeteners.
In this Science Café, Melissa Chee, an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience will discuss how dietary fructose can target the brain to alter connections that promote feeding and respond to hunger. For more information visit Cheelab
Presenter
Dr. Melissa Chee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Carleton University. She earned a PhD from the University of Alberta and then moved to Boston to complete a post-doctoral fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School, where she remained as an Instructor in the Faculty of Medicine before joining Carleton University.
Dr. Chee has established a dynamite team of undergraduate and graduate researchers at Carleton University to investigate the neurobiology of obesity and nutrition. Her research program has two arms. One is focused on basic science research to identify brain circuits that control eating behavior, and the other elucidates psychosocial factors like mental health outcomes that impact eating behavior and food choice.
Dr. Chee and her team is engaged with the Ottawa community to promote active living in part through their annual fundraiser walk/run called Brain Freeze that raises funds for a local Ottawa charity and promote exercise as a prophylactic for strong physical and mental health. That said, her team is unapologetically enthusiastic about snacks and can’t wait to return to in-person lab meetings to share snacks again.