“Diet and Cardiovascular Disease:
Fact, Fuzzy and Fiction”
Alice Lichtenstein, D.Sc.
April 20, 2015
This evening’s presentation will review the current cardiovascular disease risk reduction guidelines, with specific emphasis on
aspects that have engendered controversy, including amount and type of fat. Additionally, current controversial diet related issues that frequently appear in the popular press which have served to confuse rather than clarify the issue, will be explored.
About the Speaker:
 Alice
Lichtenstein, D.Sc. is the Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy in the Friedman School, and Senior Scientist and Director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition
Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, both at Tufts University. She holds a secondary appointment as Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine and an honorary doctoral degree
from the faculty of Medicine, University of Kuopio, Finland. Dr. Lichtenstein completed her undergraduate work at Cornell University, received a master’s degree in nutrition at the Pennsylvania State University, and earned a masters and doctoral degree in
nutrition from Harvard University. She received her post-doctoral training in the field of lipid metabolism at the Cardiovascular Institute at Boston University School of Medicine. At the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University
Dr. Lichtenstein’s research group focuses on assessing the interplay between diet and heart disease risk factors. Dr. Lichtenstein is a member of the American Heart Association, where she serves on the nutrition committee and was past-chair, and a member
of the American Society for Nutrition. Dr. Lichtenstein served as the vice-chair of the Examination of Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols and as a member of the Sodium Intake in Populations Assessment of Evidence panels for the Institute
of Medicine. She recently served as vice-chair of the 2013 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Treatment of Blood Cholesterol to Reduce Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk in Adults, member of the AHA/ACC Guideline on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk,
and vice-chair of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Dr. Lichtenstein is currently member of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine.
Discussant:
 Elsa-Grace
V. Giardina, MD, MS is Professor of Medicine at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University and Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Giardina
is recognized nationally as an expert on cardio-active drugs and has been a member of the Cardio-Renal Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Pharmacology study section of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Her current research and educational focus is on women’s health, cardiovascular risk, and the impact of obesity on intergenerational cardiovascular health and disease. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College, and received her medical doctorate from New York
Medical College, and MS from the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University. She is the founder and director of the Center for Women’s Health in Cardiology in the Department of Medicine. In 2014, she was selected as a Public Voices Fellow at Columbia
where she has written op-ed pieces concerning familial obesity and the prevalence of cardiovascular risk for young women. She has mentored a generation of students in the discipline of women’s health and has been acknowledged for excellence in education by
being named to the Virginia Apgar Society at Columbia University. Dr. Giardina is a Trustee of the New York Academy of Medicine.
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