On this page please find some of the former projects the N.I.C.E. lab has been involved in. If you would like more information about any of these projects please contact Dr. Catherine Coccia at ccoccia@fiu.edu.
Urban Vegetable Project
This project was a collaboration between the Urban Vegetable Project in conjunction with the FIU Upward Bound Math and Science Program and the N.I.C.E. team to develop theory based nutrition education programming for high school students participating in a urban-farm based curriculum. This program was implemented over the course of 2 summer sessions (5 week/each) and as a result participating students increased their nutrition knowledge, increased their average fruit and vegetable intake and increased their physical activity levels.
Crego, Z., *Almeida, A., Coccia, C. (2017). Urban Vegetable Project: Increasing nutrition knowledge, fruit and vegetable intake, and physical activity in adolescents pilot study. Paper presented at the annual AND Food & Nutrition Conference and Expo, Chicago, IL, October 2017
Earle, S., Matthysse, A., Alsaffi, A., Lara G.C., Coccia, C. (2018). Urban Vegetable Project 2: Changing Health Behaviors in Adolescents. Paper presented at the annual AND Food & Nutrition Conference and Expo, Washington D.C., October 2018.
Tweeting for Nutrition Project
The primary goal of this student research project was to determine if the social media platform Twitter could be used to provide basic nutrition information for NCAA student athletes. Nutrition education utilized the Health Belief model and MyPlate recommendations to create messages aimed at athletes for 6 weeks. The results indicate a 6-week nutrition intervention delivered solely through social media resulted in increased nutrition knowledge (t=-2.23; p=0.035), reduced fat intake (t=- 1.57; p=0.13) and decreased BMI (t=2.32; p=0.027) in student athletes. In conclusion, social-media based nutrition education may provide university-based strength and conditioning coaches and other sports practitioners with a tool for widespread and timely access to students in order to facilitate healthy dietary behaviors.
Coccia, C., Fernandez, S., & Altiti, J. (epub ahead of print). Tweeting for nutrition: Feasibility and efficacy outcomes of a 6-week social media-based nutrition education intervention for student athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000002500.
Food Selfie Project
This project used the social media platform Instagram to see if posting pictures of your food impacts your self-regulation. The study consisted of 42 dietetic students randomly assigned into 3 groups: 1. Food log only, 2. Food log and food photos & 3. Food log, food photos and a brief survey. Feasibility and efficacy were measured by participation and pre/post survey for food log completion. In groups 2 and 3, Instagram participants were shown to have a significant decrease in intake of carbohydrates, protein and overall calories from pre to post-test.