Idaho State University’s Blanton receives nutritional research grant from Idaho Beef Council; study volunteers needed

Idaho State University dietetics assistant professor Cynthia Blanton has been awarded a $91,000 grant from the Idaho Beef Council and is looking for 75 female undergraduate students to participate in her study.

Blanton is studying the effect of nutrition on cognitive performance. She will track female undergraduate students ages 19 to 30 for 16-week periods over the next 20 months, completing the study within in two years

The ISU dietetics professor previously completed a study that demonstrated that poor nutritional status negatively affected cognition in university women.

"Now I am performing an intervention to test how to solve the problem," Blanton said.

The women study participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: One that eats beef and another that eats non-beef meats.  At the beginning and end of the study the volunteers will complete cognitive tests and will also have their blood drawn to test their nutritional status.

In between, volunteers will receive three meals a week at the Dietetics Foods Laboratory located in Albion Hall, the north wing of the ISU College of Education. The volunteers who complete the entire 16-week study will receive $135.

For more information on the study or to volunteer, contact Blanton at blancynt@isu.edu or call (208) 282-3953.  The ISU Family Medicine Clinical Research Center is also participating with the study by helping to recruit students. Prospective volunteers may also contact the clinic’s Katie Gamble at katieg@fmed.isu.edu or (208) 282-2257.

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