BOONE—Working with the Western North Carolina Folic Acid Campaign, the Appalachian Student Dietetic Association (ASDA) at Appalachian State University is helping prevent neural tube defects.

ASDA members present education sessions to groups at Appalachian and in the community using materials provided by the N.C. Folic Acid Council (NCFAC). In return, ASDA receives $30 from the council for each education session presented. The students then earmark the majority of those funds to programs designed to promote the health and well being of children living in Boone.

Appalachian State University students in the Appalachian Student Dietetic Association have contributed $600 to a AdFit, a community-based program designed to promote health and fitness in overweight youth. ASDA members (left to right) Laura DeStafeno, Alaina Walker, Rebecca Tobin, Stefanie Falkner, Melissa Cook, and Kimberly Atwood presented the contribution to Dr. Jeffrey Soukup (center) from Appalachian’s Department of Health Leisure and Exercise Science and a partner in the AdFit project.

ASDA recently allocated $600 from NCFAC proceeds to sponsor two adolescents in the AdFit program in Boone. AdFit (adolescent fitness) is a multi-disciplinary effort among the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System, the university and local physicians to encourage total body wellness and fitness for overweight youth between 10-14 years of age.

“The folic acid project serves as a model program which provides students the opportunity to educate members of the community about an important nutrition-related topic, receive money for their hard work, and in turn donate this money to other nutrition-related causes,” said Dr. Lisa McAnulty, associate professor of foods and nutrition and advisor for the ASDA.

“Given that many pregnancies are unplanned and the fact that many women of child-bearing age are unaware of the importance of folic acid before and during pregnancy, the goal of the campaign is to educate women of child-bearing age in Western North Carolina about the importance of folic acid in the prevention of neural tube defects (NTDs), which result in incomplete closure of the spine and/or poor brain development,” said McAnulty. “North Carolina was previously identified as having one of the highest incidence rates of NTDs in the nation, and it has been estimated that nearly 50-70 percent of NTD cases could be prevented by adequate folic acid intake prior to and during pregnancy.”

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