From Science to the Supper Table: Nutrition at the Heart of Diabetes Care with Dr. Hertzel Gerstein and Ms. Keri Howell

Diabetes is one of the fastest-growing health challenges worldwide, affecting approximately 589 million adults between the ages of 20-79 years and shaping the way we think about diet, lifestyle, and long-term health. While advances in medicine have transformed treatment, nutrition remains one of the most powerful tools for both prevention and management. Dr. Hertzel Gerstein is an Endocrinologist and Professor at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton, where he holds the Population Health Research Institute Chair in Diabetes. He is also the Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute, former Director of the Boris Clinic Diabetes Care and Research Program, and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Gerstein pioneered and firmly established international long-term patient-important cardiovascular outcomes trials as the norm for clinical diabetes research. Throughout his career, he’s received many awards, including the 2012 Canadian Diabetes Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2022 American Diabetes Association’s Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Diabetes Research Award. Ms. Keri Howell is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator with Diabetes Care Guelph. She is also a member of the PEACH Sustainable Food Services Committee and has contributed to the Sustainable Food Services Business Case and Implementation Guide. She has dedicated her career to exploring the personal, cultural, and community-focused aspects of nutrition, emphasizing that nourishment extends beyond physical health to emotional and spiritual well-being. Ms. Howell believes that integrating nutrition into patient care requires an understanding of what food means to each individual and asserts that when patients see their cultural foods represented and have autonomy over their food choices, their health outcomes improve. In this episode, Dr. Gerstein and Ms. Howell discuss how nutrition shapes the prevention and management of diabetes. This episode is sponsored by CONTOUR NEXT.