We sat down with Melanie Hingle just before Thanksgiving, and yes, pumpkin pie is on her plate. From there, Lisa and Laine explore Melanie's work in nutrition science and public health. She shares how her passion for nutrition began with a chance encounter and has grown to include multiple community partnerships. Along the way, she reflects on balancing work and life—whether through family meals or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Prepare to be inspired by her fresh perspective on health and community!
Announcer 00:00
* Music* Welcome to Wildcat wonder. Where we take you. Inside Arizona research breakthroughs, discoveries and advances happen so often at the University of Arizona, it can be a challenge just to keep up. We'll handle that for you. Join us as we explore the research innovation and awe inspiring work making a societal impact that maintains the U of A's reputation as a global leader. On this episode, meet Melanie Hingle, a nutrition scientist, public health researcher and community interventionist. Her work focuses on behavioral risk factors and lifestyle interventions to combat obesity and type two diabetes. A member of both the Arizona Cancer Center and the bio five Institute, she is passionate about improving access to healthy food and empowering communities to lead healthier lives. If that sounds like a lot, please know this 2023, women of impact honoree is a big advocate for work life balance. Our hosts are Lisa Romero, Associate Vice President of Research, communications and marketing, and Lane Kowalski, student writer and content specialist. Now let's turn it over to Lisa and Lane.
Lisa 01:04
Hi Melanie. Thank you so much for being here and our second, second podcast. It was really funny. When we were brainstorming people to have on, we were thinking about themes and and holidays and kind of related things. And we thought about Thanksgiving, and for some reason, I thought about you as we're entering into Thanksgiving season, one of our more gluttonous holidays.
Melanie 01:35
Food and nutrition...
Lisa 01:37
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I guess I'm just gonna break the ice right here and say, as a nutrition scientist, marrying Thanksgiving, what are some of your go tos? What are you? What are you? What are you looking forward to?
Melanie 01:50
Oh I'm already thinking about it. Pumpkin pie.
Lisa 01:53
Oh, good
Melanie 01:54
Which is actually nutritious if you think of me. Pumpkin not so much the sugar part, but the vegetable. And you can make it healthier with some whole grain crust and some nuts in the crust. That's definitely one of my favorites. I love vegetables, so the brussels sprouts and all the salads are a big thing. And gravy, that sounds really bad. That's not a nutritious thing, usually.
Lisa 02:15
But how do you turkey without gravy?
Melanie 02:20
Yeah.
Lisa 02:21
Oh, good. Well, I feel a little better
Laine 02:23
Me too.
Lisa 02:24
What, what we're planning for Thanksgiving now. So thank you for that.
Laine 02:27
This is the time to eat so
Melanie 02:29
Absolutely with family and friends
Lisa 02:32
Well, and I think that's something we really want to get back to on a serious note with you, is, is finding that balance? Because I think that's the key to, you know, trying to be healthy and have nutrition and exercise, but but realizing life, yes, life is life. So we want to get back to that. But another thing I learned about you and sort of preparing, I did not know you were a student worker in in the lab here in the 90s. I can relate to the early 90s college days. So yeah, talk about how that happened, and kind of then how that maybe that triggered what you're gonna do for the rest of your career.
Melanie 03:09
So I was not one of those students who came into college knowing what I wanted to do. And I thought, you know, I kind of bounced around different different majors I've decided for a while. And I thought maybe criminal justice or communication, business, you know, all that kind of the standard things. And then I bought a car, and I bought a car from somebody who was getting their master's degree in Nutritional Sciences, and they said, hey, you know what you should volunteer for in a lab. I work in a lab, and you should volunteer for us. And because I was interested in nutrition, I'd taken a basic nutrition course, which I thought was, oh, this is really good. I like this. I'm learning things very practical, yeah. And then that, in combination with meeting this person, who's Gale Welter Coleman, she retired from university a while ago. Thank you, Gale.
Lisa 03:53
Yea, shout out to Gale!
Melanie 03:56
And that's what brought me there. And then once I was as part of that lab, Linda Howe Cooper, who was a faculty member in Nutritional Sciences, who ended up being on my dissertation committee many years later, she was super encouraging and got me involved in an actual job job as a research technician. So I ended up working in the Department of Physiology for a while, and then Nutritional Sciences.
Lisa 04:16
Oh my gosh, so cool.
Melanie 04:18
So buying a car, yeah,
Laine 04:24
What grade were you in?
Melanie 04:25
I think I was in. I think I was a sophomore, maybe in college, and yeah, so I need a car, and there you go. But that experience, you know, the undergraduate research experience, and that's obviously carried through what I do today, because I do research, and I'm a strong proponent of all of our programs. KEYS being a major one that involves people from very early but then all of our UROC programs are the undergraduate research programs we have here. So great. I've met so many great students there. I did not do a formal program like that, but I wish I had, yes, it was so good.
Lisa 04:58
Yeah, but I think you're right. I think your experience there makes you realize the value of that, and really clarifies things for even if it's in the opposite direction, as you said, with all of these, you know, keys and other programs that are so great, even in high school, and then much less the undergrad, more formal programs, I think sometimes they'll even go, Yeah, I hated that, but that's that's progress too, right?
Melanie 05:20
Knowing what you wanted, yeah, you don't want to do. Yea.
Laine 05:24
So you were originally a student at U of A and then you went to other places for, you know, other schooling, and then you came back. So why did you come back?
Melanie 05:32
Came back a lot of times, yeah, three time U of A grad.
Laine 05:35
It's a magnet.
Melanie 05:36
Yeah, the first time what I left was because of a nutrition training. And so to become a dietitian, which is I thought I wanted to do that for my career, you have to complete an internship. And the internship is a professional one. It's not related to schooling. And so you have to go somewhere, typically, because there's very few spots available. And I thought, Okay, well, the one I want to go to somewhere in California, because I wanted to leave Arizona and just experience a new a new place. I applied to a couple of them there and matched with UCSF, which is in San Francisco, and really great Medical Health Sciences Campus. That's what they their graduate campus. And got super experience in in working at the hospital there for the year. So I left, and then I knew I didn't want to live in San Francisco, wonderful city. So cold. Sorry, everybody.
Laine 06:24
That's true!
Melanie 06:24
That's fake cold because I'm from Arizona.
Lisa 06:27
Sixty is cold! *laughs*
Melanie 06:29
I couldn't do it, but a beautiful area, and I learned a lot. So I'm like, I'm going to come back, and I think figuring out what to do, I still had my connections here from working as an undergraduate student, and so there was a space for me as a research coordinator, and I'm like, oh, that's going to work for a little bit and figure out what's next So, and that was the first time. And then then I decided to get my public health degree while I was here, and because I thought I need to branch out and figure out what I want to do and learn about things, and public health was important. And then ended up staying for my PhD for various other reasons. And then I left again. The second time I went to did my postdoc at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, which is the biggest medical center in the United States, I think Texas Medical Center, and a whole different experience. Worked in a USDA center there. A building with wonderful people, and learned all about behavior and why people eat, what they eat, and how to motivate people to eat.
Lisa 07:24
Fascinating.
Melanie 07:25
To not eating certain things. So, yeah, also great experience. But then, you know, two sons, my home, family here, my husband has family here. We love the outdoors, yeah, so it keeps calling me back. So
Lisa 07:36
Yeah, all those things are pretty much time.
Laine 07:40
Speaking of getting people motivated to eat, right? You've been a nutritional scientist for 15 years, so can you kind of give an overview of your work and what you you've done during that time?
Melanie 07:49
Yeah, sure. As a researcher, I focus a lot on health promotion, and in particular, diabetes has been the one of the conditions I work on, because it is so directly related to nutrition and to your and to weight management and to exercise, and all the things that I've been a part of in my in my research and in my schooling, as well in training, and I've spent my a lot of my time working with kids and families, but and primarily working in partnership with communities to help them implement programs that help people support health so I don't deliver them myself, but I work with people like the YMCA, for instance, has been a long time partner, and right now I work very closely with the El Rio Community Health Center and the Community Food Bank of southern Arizona, terrific community organizations as well serving Tucson and that all in the areas around us, and those partnerships are really critical to my work, because I again, that's who's delivering the things to all the people you know, and where people are like what you know, people don't come here to do programs a lot of the time. It's very intimidating, because the campus, we actually have difficulty recruiting people sometimes to studies that happen here. So really glad to be a part of that team, and we truly are partners in what we develop. So I am not the lead. I am kind of the research lead, but everybody else are experts in their own right, and we work in kind of co-develop things together. So that's how I've spent my time, and a lot more recently, is intersected with food insecurity, nutrition insecurity, so happy to talk more about that too.
Lisa 09:27
I would love to you know for better or worse, Arizona is one of the most diverse states in terms of Population and Population Health, and you know, it's always this,especially as a university and as a land grant university where we're trying to make sure that what we're doing is helping our communities and our state. I guess my question is, is, what have you learned? I mean, because even within a small geographical area, Southern. Arizona, for example, you're dealing with different types of communities and needs and challenges. What are a couple of things you've learned? I'm sure there's a million, but just some of the things that have stood out that you thought, Oh, this is gonna work, and for that reason, maybe it was more challenging, and maybe vice versa.
Melanie 10:19
Yeah. Well, first of all, I've learned absolutely keep your your agenda in check and at the door, because nobody cares about, yeah, right. So I think that they care about what they care about, yeah, and they're there at the organization to get a particular thing done or because they have a need, and that is not my need, you know, and my my agenda. So I need to leave that behind. If anything, our partnerships, our partners, must be the ones leading and what they need, and what the patients and clients and people who come to them need is number one. So that's how I approach my work. And if it's not working for them, it's not working for me, it shouldn't be working for me, right? And so the university, I mean, we have such a wealth of technical expertise here and knowledge and resources that I feel like it's our obligation to lead in that way and really support the people doing that, that frontline work, yeah, and the people who go there. So having not only our partners, co participate and CO develop, but also the people who go to the organization, right? So we always include the patients and clients and people who are representative of the populations with whom we work in our work, because they are the best position to tell us what they need. Yeah, it's not me.
Lisa 11:33
Yes, but I don't think you that's that's not as common thinking as I think it should be, especially in academia, you know, you're right, we, we don't know what everybody needs. And that's that's very refreshing. What has been one of your biggest wins in these community programs? I mean, maybe it's small, maybe it's big, I don't know, but just something that you went, Okay, I this is making a difference.
Melanie 11:59
Yeah, I think, I think probably our program called Fresh, which is food and resources expanded to support health. A very long...
Lisa 12:08
Acronym of course *laughs* yes that's pretty good though.
Melanie 12:12
Fresh is good. It has a positive connotation. This is a program we developed with the Food Bank and El Rio. Over the last maybe six years, we've been working on different kind of versions and different studies, many studies related to this, and now having a National Institutes of Health funded trial that's ongoing, and we'll we'll learn more next year how that's all turning out. But the the win there has been the mentions by the leadership of these organizations, by people, by partners, you know, being a part of this, like, so invested for for so many years, and then patients and clients like, saying, "Hey, I heard about this thing, and can you tell me more about it?" So, like, to me, that's, that's great. That means it's not like, Oh, we don't want to do that. Or, No, it's valuable. People are trying to figure out how to make it a sustainable part of the program. Can you prescribe, you know it's our next step, can we prescribe this program, which is basically a medically tailored groceries program and and nutrition support to patients who are who have diabetes or who have a diet sensitive condition, and will that help improve their health? And will that, and that's sort of what we're trying to figure out right now. Will it change their healthcare utilization? Will it reduce their financial burden? Will it, you know, a lot of questions related that that's very, that's probably one of my most things I'm excited about only because the length of the work, the quality of the relationships we have built up, and the, you know, the trust kind of in the community, I feel like is really, really rewarding.
Lisa 13:39
Yeah, that's very rewarding, especially living here for your life, this being your community too.
Melanie 13:44
It is my community.
Laine 13:50
So, you've done past work with El Rio as well, with, I think it was familial obesity as well. Can you kind of tell us about that work as well?
Melanie 13:58
Yeah, sure it was, these were moms at risk of diabetes because of having gestational diabetes. So this is a condition that some sometimes people get in pregnancy. It goes away after pregnancy, so when they deliver the child, then it's resolved. But it's a signal, because it means that that woman is at higher risk of getting diabetes, type two diabetes, down, down the road, later in life, and so we know this is a good time to intervene, because people it's on their mind a little bit, but not only that, but that of the of their child who was in the womb when they had diabetes, also at risk by by virtue of being in the womb exposed to cell signals and glucose levels and things that kind of turn on and off risk in the body, plus the circumstances that create extra risk for diabetes, can also be environmental. And so the the home environment, the community, the family environment, are also critical pieces of prevention. And so we thought, okay, family a base program. Would make sense El Rio. This came from El Rio, you know, we have a need for we have pediatric clients who are at risk of moms who care, you know, and dads and grandparents who care about this and want to be part of a program. So we, again, co created this program, and it went on until COVID brought it to a screeching halt, and we, you know, we finished up as much as we could. We have a paper we published together about it. There's pieces of it that El Rio has taken and used the curriculum and ultimately decided not to continue with that particular program, but different versions, and they've kind of integrated some of that in their in their clinics. So we did learn a lot together, and then we kept working together on this other project I mentioned.
Laine 15:43
How did COVID kind of halt your work with the community?
Lisa 15:47
All of it.
Melanie 15:51
It was probably a good year because we weren't allowed to so there were a lot of U of A restrictions and human subjects restrictions. But then there's community restrictions. So El Rio was not allowing people in, and the food bank was not allowing people in. And I work with, in partnership with some tribal communities as well, through another project, nobody came in. So nothing happened. It was, it was, it was a tough time. Yeah, it was actually, it's taken probably the entire time up until now, to and even now, I still feel like it wasn't kind of what it was before my program and because I work in
Lisa 16:25
Momentum in research is everything. Yeah, it was tough. It was tough on research everywhere, for sure, I'm going to ask a question based on something personal, but I think that you know your answers can help frame for a lot of people. And that's this idea of so we're talking about genetics and the familial obesity, and although that was, you know, for a specific population or community, I have some horrific diseases in my family genetically that, you know, we're trying to prevent right now. And I am working with a through this, this, I have to be on a medication, and I'm working with a medical, I guess I don't know what interventionist something with, you know, trying to come up with a diet, and, you know, nutrition and all of those things based on this medical condition. And I mean, you know what I'm probably gonna say, like, I have every good intention and I want to do it, and I know I need to do it. And I come from a very like, healthy background, I exercise, I, you know, my mom didn't allow me to have sugar cereal my entire life, like that level, that level of insanity, my children had fruit and vegetables on their table from, yeah, the time they could breathe. So I, you know, I, and I'm, you know, I have the luxury of education and resources around me that a lot of people don't have. So I know it's all, I know that the right answers, but it is so hard. Even for me, it is so hard because you don't have time, you don't, you just don't have time you want to, and it's hard. So, yeah, all you know in a nutshell, like, how do we find that balance between this extremism that people think about when they think about, oh my god, nutrition? Yeah, you know, nutrition equals diet. And I like, how do we get to a place where we want to embrace nutrition but aren't so scared because of the extreme feelings about it?
Melanie 18:34
Oh, that's a big question.
Lisa 18:36
It is. It is, and not expecting, you know, perfect answers. But I think every, everybody struggles with that to some degree, that balance.
Melanie 18:43
Absolutely, yeah, well, I'll tell I'll tell you my thoughts in a couple of ways. So one, one thought, so why people eat? What they eat starting with that right. Number one, it's easy, convenience, it in front of me. Number two,
Lisa 19:01
It's easy. It's in front of me. Oh, money, money!
Melanie 19:06
What are we thinking on the top three? What's the third?
Lisa 19:09
I don't know.
Melanie 19:10
Tastes good.
Laine 19:10
Oh, that's true!
Lisa 19:11
Yeah. Well, yeah, tastes good
Melanie 19:14
Health is way down the list important, but way down the list. Yeah. And, and so it's really, I think we have to keep that in mind and go easy on ourselves when we're thinking about that. Another thing, I was at a meeting in Yuma on Tuesday, and we were talking about this very topic there, how do we help people eat healthy and address this convenience and cost thing? And I think you have to make it easy to do that. You have to make it. You have to have it in your house. You have to, you know, hopefully your family's on board with that too. Yeah, structure your life in a way that helps you.
Lisa 19:50
Yeah, try different meals...
Melanie 19:52
The environment influences all the time. And so, yeah, this is a huge question.
Lisa 19:56
Yeah. I mean, I think that's going to be a big, uh. If to make strides in that, I think we're gonna, you know, change a lot of health opportunities for people. But that's a huge challenge.
Melanie 20:09
Honestly, everything you know, because, like, I think in America especially, the things are working against us, because the food advertising and we have, like, very cheap, tasty processed foods available all the time, time ago we are time ago we're busy. Yes, it's hard. It's six o'clock at night, and then, oh, now it's for dinner. And so having a plan is really helpful too, but all this has to come together. And, yeah, it's hard. I just want to acknowledge it is.
Lisa 20:35
Thank you. On that note. We're going to take a quick break, and I actually do, I think we want to talk to you a little bit about other countries, and, you know, again, that sort of fight we have, yeah, with with the United States diet. So we'll be right back.
Announcer 20:51
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Lisa 21:29
Well, on our break, we were talking about Tucson being the city of gastronomy, and that makes it even more difficult to keep nutrition in mind. But yeah, we we got it. You were, you were giving us some good feedback of balance and expectations.
Melanie 21:46
And I drink beer. We make beer at our house. We brew beer. So I drink beer, I eat donuts. It is not a problem. But I think it's the majority of what you're doing that is really influencing. And so most of the time. You know, the healthier kind of and that can be tasty too. Healthy doesn't mean...
Laine 22:06
Yeah, you said that one of the misconceptions was that sometimes people think you're vegan.
Melanie 22:10
Oh, I know!
Lisa 22:12
That is so funny. But again, to the extreme views, when you say nutrition, that's what people jump to. That's again, back to that my stream is,
Melanie 22:23
And I'm very, I am careful, you know. So I don't really a whole lot out, like fast food kind of things or processed, but I definitely enjoy food. I have no restrictions, actually, with my diet. And so I think it's, yeah, it's interesting.
Lisa 22:34
It is interesting. Well, maybe that leads us into, I know, another initiative that you're really invested in right now, and, you know, with a national connection, and this concept of, you know, Food Is Medicine, that's very intriguing to me, and talk a little bit more about, you know, the vision for that, and the partnerships and kind of what's happening with that.
Melanie 22:57
Yeah, kind of on several fronts. So one of them is related to the research I'm doing, since that is medically tailored, groceries are kind of a Food Is Medicine program, and I didn't come up with that phrase. That is a national kind of effort going on trying to address people's risk for chronic diet, sensitive illness in different ways and different intensities. So there's medically tailored meals out there, and groceries like what we do, and then there's more health promotion programs that you'll get, you know, if you're a school child, for instance, and there's like, kind of national health nutrition programs. So all of that's going on, people are trying to figure out, how do you make food a thing you can prescribe to people, instead of, in addition to, you know, if you need medicine, you need it. But can we reduce people's usage of some medicines. Can we have it complement that in a way that's hopefully more affordable, actually better, you know, healthier, prevent things before we have to manage them. That's all kind of the motivation of that.
Lisa 23:54
I mean, is it to the point I was just making if I could pick up my medication that I'm taking to prevent something. And also 10 things, yeah, 10 grocery items that you're interested that is on this list of 100 things that I'm supposed to figure out myself. Oh my gosh. I mean, yeah, that would be, that would be amazing.
Melanie 24:14
That's a big piece of what we're doing. We're contributing to that part from an evidence base. And then and the outreach and education side, we have a culinary Medicine Initiative here at U of A that is funded by Nova Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company, and that is helping us partner with Cooperative Extension and College of Medicine, Phoenix and the libraries and in our school Nutritional Sciences and Wellness. We created an open education resource in culinary Medicine, so like a free textbook. We had students co-write it with us, my faculty, colleagues. Thank you, everybody. We're at the end. It will be published in January. Press books, actually, so there's a free publishing platform that we have a subscription to at the U of A.
Lisa 25:02
That's amazing. I do not, and I need to, and you need to come back.
Melanie 25:05
I'm happy to talk about it. And a shout out to Cheryl Casey, who's our open education resource librarian here. Awesome person. Thank you, Cheryl. So that is happening with our initiative. And then, in addition to that, my colleague, Dr. Shad Marvasti in Phoenix, a family medicine physician, has offered an elective to medical students for several years now, in combination, again, with extension and some of our faculty to help students wrap their heads around nutrition.
Lisa 25:33
That's so important, yeah.
Melanie 25:35
Because actually, all kind of, for the most part, health professions students don't get nutrition training, which is terrible, because they're the ones interacting with all of us when we get sick, or to help prevent some of that, you know, maybe before we get sick. And so that part has been super helpful for those students. Yeah, we want to kind of expand on on several fronts, including other health professions have an interprofessional exchange, and then rural parts of our state are where we've been focusing some of our efforts, because those are, you know, the medically underserved areas a lot of the time, many, very much physician shortage, healthcare provider shortages, and still need to know about this nutrition thing too that we're promoting. So it's been a really great experience to have kind of been able to try all that out. And now we want to, want to press the gas on them.
Lisa 26:22
I love the idea of the curriculum integration. That's a game changer too, because they don't, it's just not, it's physiology. That's it.
Melanie 26:31
We get about 19 hours typically. And I think our colleges of medicine hopefully do a little bit better than that, certainly Phoenix and I think Tucson as well as working on it.
Lisa 26:39
But yeah, that's, that's that's a game changer, though, yeah, for sure.
Laine 26:43
And back to the the Food Is Medicine initiative. You recently went to D.C. and met with Admiral Rachel Levine, yeah. How did that go? Because your work is going to be integrated.
Melanie 26:52
Thank you. Yeah. I was connected through actually, someone living in Tucson, is her comms director, Adam Servanna, and reached out because of our work being featured in the alumni magazine. Yeah, so it was a Tucson connection that got me there. But yeah, I got to go to HHS headquarters in D.C., right on the mall, and meet Admiral Levine, who's a lovely person. And yeah, she interviewed me for just a few minutes about this work. And has a has actually her office, her being the lead of this has some nutrition folks who are putting together a bunch of resources on Food Is Medicine. So there's a site that they've kind of all these how to, how to measure this, how to think about it, how to, you know, kind of have partnerships in this area. And so I was really inspired by talking with her and some of her staffers, because I think our next step as a Food Is Medicine initiative is to partner with multiple sectors. So I already, in a way, do that, you know, work with nonprofit partners and wonderful people, academia...who else, though, because it has to be more than us. Yeah, I'm a very small operation. And even with National Institutes of Health funding, we can't, we can't have the scale that we want to have, right? So that's what our next step is, figuring out who are these partners? What can we do together?
Lisa 28:07
That's amazing. I mean, it just reminds me of, it's probably not exactly the same, but kind of. My sister works for a company that is a fitness, fitness maintenance company, essentially. But, yeah, they go into the big companies and Citibank or whatever, and they're not employed by Citibank, but they that their agreements, their relationships with them, allow them to go in and, you know, help the employees. And so I mean that kind of thinking is embedding that thought and that expertise in in other areas and businesses or industry, or whatever too.
Melanie 28:41
We have complimentary things to offer each other, right? Yeah, that's really cool, yeah.
Laine 28:53
Alright. Okay, so I think we wanted to talk about some of the public misconceptions that surround nutrition. So can you kind of...
Melanie 29:07
Do you have another hour and a half?
Laine 29:08
...exactly right, especially with like technology and stuff like that, because you began your career at a time when technology was really taking off, so how does that play a role?
Lisa 29:16
Is it helping or hurting? Yeah. TikTok nutrition...yeah, my daughters are right in that range. I'm like, no.
Melanie 29:29
Look how much reach that people have, which is wonderful. Yet a lot of not everybody, but a lot of the influencers are people on they have an agenda. They're selling something. They're promoting something. It's a it's a livelihood for them, but in a in the most kind of sinister social media way, which is numbers of people liking and following. And that means you have to be kind of provocative in a way that might make you unintentionally, hopefully, I'm going to give people benefit of doubt, exaggerate the benefits of something or other, or overstate things. Because, you know the if it sounds too good to be true, it is, yeah, right. It's just not. There's not going to be, I'm sorry, a pill or anything like that to solve all the...there's just not.
Lisa 30:17
I thought you were going to end with that announcement!
Melanie 30:24
I've wanted to create a class for a long time that is all about social media and nutrition and kind of like helping people understand, how do you sift through misinformation and know fact from fiction? Again, I used to do a long time ago, coach people who were first starting out running, running, distanced. And I did, I did a lot of that for and just listening to first time people kind of getting out, getting active, and then how to manage their nutrition. There were so many misconceptions that really helped me kind of wrap my head around like, Okay, what? What do people just starting out in this journey need to know? Want to know? And that's our students, too in a lot of ways. Sure, you know, they're just learning about this. How do we give them the tools, the science, habits of mind? I feel like it's like some critical thinking in there, and then just some where do you go for information that's, that's, that's a really tough one these days. We're all in our own kind of bubbles of information.
Lisa 31:18
Well, and when you, when you seek a source of information online or on social media, you're going to be reinforced with that same source. So, I mean, that's going to be true, because that's all you see.
Laine 31:30
So then where should we be looking?
Lisa 31:32
That's a great question.
Melanie 31:33
I mean, I think seeking out expertise is still the thing. So going to, you know, knocking on the door of the school of nutritional sciences. We're here at the university. You're just a person out there who doesn't have ready access. You know, I'd say, I mean, dietitians, there's a lot of groups that that are sound information. The government is still good. It's very general, the guidelines that come out of the government and USDA. You have to tailor it for you. And that's the part that I feel like. That's where the kind of the expertise comes in, that people can help you. But just knowing that none of that stuff on on Tiktok is generally probably a thing that's gonna help you in the long term. Again, maybe short term it will. There's a lot of I could put you all on a specific way of eating that would radically change you probably, you know, in the course of, like, six weeks, two months, then what? Yeah, so maybe you'd achieve your goal, you know, whatever that is. But then...
Laine 32:30
How do you stay there?
Melanie 32:31
How do you stay there? And that's the part that I'm interested in. Like, what happens on long term? Anybody can do stuff in the short term.
Lisa 32:36
The health versus the weight and the diet.
Melanie 32:39
Find something you like. So, as far as like diet, you know, eat things that are tasty, right? People eat because it's tasty, convenient, cheap or affordable. Those are all important factors when you're planning your own diet, or you're not going to be able to sustain it, and the health is definitely should be a priority for everybody, but, but if you're active, it's finding things that you like to do with people who are fun. That's, that's what helps you be active. Or bundling, like your activity with something that you enjoy, like listening to a podcast.
Lisa 33:08
Well, work life balance is a good segue, because I also understand that you maybe aren't running as much, but you have taken up very interesting hobbies for that work life balance. Tell us a little bit about that outlet.
Melanie 33:21
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So fun.
Lisa 33:24
Oh, what made that the logical choice after running?
Melanie 33:29
I did run, you know, a competitive amateur for a very long time, distance, half marathon, marathon distance, and I walked off the last race, 2019, the course, and, like, I got to do something else, because I'd been kind of doing it. It was a habit. But my friends had sort of moved off into different things. Some of them went and did ultra marathons. I couldn't join them on that journey. No, thank you. Good. Good job, everybody. But, other people, just injuries. Things change. You know, people change in your groups.
Lisa 33:56
And unfortunately, we get older.
Melanie 33:58
And that happens as well. So I thought I need something else. So I was talking to a colleague because I thought this would be a good time to do self defense. It's something that I always thought about. I'm like, oh, you know, I'm a woman and self defense, and you're just going to hear that message. But what does that really mean? And so I was talking to Parker Anton, who is a colleague who has a black belt in Jiu Jitsu. He is very much a martial artist. And I said, What do you think I should do? And he and he's like, "Oh, I think you'd like Jiu Jitsu. And here's the person you should go talk to." And so I went to the school, and it was, I had no idea what it was. Showed up on day one, and I'm like, "What is this?" Oh, oh, wow. This is a lot different. You know, it's grappling, it's submission grappling. So it's, you're wrestling people, wow, and trying to choke them out or break a joint. That's like the end game there.
Lisa 34:43
I may be getting the name of your...
Melanie 34:50
So I just just really enjoyed it, and it's the puzzle of it. So this is a very long term sport, kind of like academia. It takes a long time to be proficient, like decades. You know decade or more and and it's a puzzle. It's like chess, because what you do is in response to your partner, and it's always different, even though you know techniques and there's concepts and you know rules, but it's very much a different game every time you go and train. So it's just, it's great. So I train at Sonoran Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Midtown.
Lisa 35:20
Nice shout out to them as well.
Laine 35:23
So you've been doing it for four to five years now, so you're kind of like it at an intermediate level. Do you have any favorite moves? Or any favorite techniques? Would you like to show us?
Melanie 35:33
Sure, I can show you. Just come to Sonoran, I'd be happy to. No, not really favorite techniques. But I just love learning. You know, I think I'm, that's why I'm here also in my job.
Lisa 35:43
I was gonna say, it does sound like that's, that's, you know, your work life balance, it still involves your brain and the way that you need to, you need to process, yeah, I mean, but...
Melanie 35:55
Some of my coaches have been like, put that aside. It's good that, you know a lot of stuff, but now you gotta, you know that the practice part of it is what really, that's what makes you proficient at it, right? So the doing of it. And I just love that I go there, and I get to see my friends, and then just have a fun time for an hour and a half and not think about anything.
Lisa 36:11
Well, you can't, right? You have to be in that moment.
Melanie 36:14
And also, the other cool thing about jiu jitsu is that you can you train with people who are all different sizes. You know, men and women are in there, and some people are very large, and you could still do a move and and in some ways, you know, you're kind of equivalent, because if you know the technique, and you're doing it correctly, and you're into that part, it's really fun. It's really great.
Lisa 36:33
Good for you. I think, I mean, But all joking aside, it makes all the difference when you find something that you you can just leave all the stress for a minute at the door and focus only on that. That's really great, really important. So I think you know, this has been amazing. I thank you...
Melanie 36:53
It was my pleasure!
Lisa 36:54
...for doing our Thanksgiving edition, thinking a little bit about nutrition, but also pumpkin pie. And I think I want to end with a question. You know, we're kind of trying to ask everybody we know, science, research, innovation, is so much about curiosity and creativity and wonder, if you will, and that's so prevalent here at the university. I've been really lucky to meet people for all these years that you know, just yeah, the brain, your brain, their brain is just amazing, because you're always wondering and you're seeking. And have you had, you know, as you've been through this, just some "aha" moment that has happened to you, as you know, you pursued some idea or some dream, or you've just gone, oh, that now I understand why, you know, I've been doing all this.
Melanie 37:51
Maybe not so much about the questions that I'm investigating, which are always fun and interesting to me, but more about the process. And then, when I was, when I was first starting out, I was really worried about being a researcher, and this is a common student question that I get to are concerned, is that, what if I don't have any other ideas, like, what am I going to do next? How am I advancing science? Because there's so many sciences...I was so nervous about that, and then I realized finally, like, oh no. Like things, it just happens. It kind of flows, like you meet people, and it's about meeting people,working on a team, collaborating, putting yourself out there in that way, and just and but I just love meeting people and understanding what they get excited about, too, you know. So that's what I find, is like, the "aha," is like, oh, it's not really about me trying to rack my brains in the corner, in a dark room, you know, all by myself. It's about talking to people and bouncing ideas off of them and learning what is important for them. And then also, what can they do that is complimentary to what I do? It's not about one person.
Lisa 38:53
I love it too. When you say or somebody around you says, I have my team knows this about me. My favorite line is, "I have an idea." And the, literally, the best thing in the world is when you know, you ask something actually comes out of that worthwhile, not again, not for you, but that is meaningful for some other purpose. And that's, that's one of the best things about, about working in the university, I will say, is you can, as long as you're willing to do it.
Melanie 39:20
And the students are also the best, you know, and that's why, because that they contribute so much to what we do, like research.
Lisa 39:27
We couldn't do it. We couldn't do anything here without them. Yeah? Well, thank you so much. Yeah, really, really nice talking to you, and we appreciate all you do here. And we will reach out for some some more tips and tricks.
Laine 39:47
Thanks. Thank you so much.
Announcer 39:49
Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Wildcat Wonder, the podcast where we take you Inside Arizona Research. If you enjoyed what you just heard, just send it to a friend, colleague, or maybe shared on social media. Remember to follow the Office of Research, Innovation and Impact on your favorite platforms, and if you have a good suggestion for a person or project to feature on an upcoming episode, email research@arizona.edu. Bear down!