Oral History with Dr. Kathy Kolasa, professor emeritus of nutrition, Brody School of Medicin
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Kathryn M Kolasa
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This provides a link to a recording of an oral history interview. conducted by Laupus LIbrary librarian, Melissa Nasea, of Dr. Kathy Kolasa professor of nutition, Brody School of Medicin, recorded in October, 2013. She is asked about her early life in Detroit, her career choices, and move to East Carolina University and then transitioned to faculty in the School of Medicine. She talks about the weekly food and nutrition column she started writing for the Daily Reflector in 1986 and continues into the 2020s.. Other topics covered in the interview include attitudes of medical students toward nutrition, food deserts, hospital healthy food environments, healthy vending, and nutrition myths popular in the early 2000s.
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Oral History with Dr. Kathryn Kolasa, https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/57076 , Octobe26, 2013
Dr. Kolasa was interviewed by Laupus Libarian,Melissa Nasea, for the Oral History project. She was not given questions in advance. The recording is 53 minutes long and starts with her answering a question about her early life in Detroit, and hwo she chose the field of nutrition,followed by comments about what brought her to eastern North Carolina and details about the column she has written weekly since 1986 for the Daily Reflector, and how she moved from chair of the Food and Nutrition Department to a faculty member in Family Medicine, The Brody School of Medicine. She talks about her relationship with the Laupus Librarians, and the changes in the medical school curriculum in nutrition. She describes the food habits of eastern NC that helped the population survival in the early days, but now contribute to the burden of disease experienced in eNC. She noted in the first ever state nutrition survey, North Carolina a leader in nutrition at the time, conducted a nutrition assessment in 1970. The findings in the east were of malnutrition/undernutrition. The term "obesity" never appears in the document. In general it indicated that the population did not have enough to eat. As food became more available the practices of adding sugar and frying in fat which had provided survival benefits now were contributing to chronic illness.She reflects on the Healthy Food Environment program established at Vidant Health (now ECU Health) and some of the food and nutrition myths found in eNC.