Research and Teaching Interests

Rena Mendelson MS DSc RD has taught in the School of Nutrition at Ryerson for more than twenty years. She was Director of the School and has served at Ryerson as the Associate Vice President Academic and Dean of Graduate Studies. Rena was the principal investigator of the Ontario Food Survey and is working on a study of the obesogenicity of the Canadian landscape. She chaired the Board of the Canadian Council on Food and Nutrition, was a member of the Transitional Council of the Ontario College of Dietitians and acts as the Nutrition Section Head for the Canadian Obesity Network. Her research interests include:

�         The quality of web based nutrition information

�         Clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of obesity

In the MHSc. program, Dr. Mendelson is involved in designing and teaching:

�         NC 8102 Theoretical Approaches to Nutrition & Health Behavior

Recent Publications

Books authored

Mendelson RA and Mendelson S (2005) Food to Grow On, Harper Collins

Papers in refereed Journals

Ward H, Tarasuk, V, Mendelson, R  (2007) Adiposity, education, and weight loss effort are independently associated with energy reporting quality in the Ontario Food Survey, Public Health Nutrition 10(8):803-809.

Schneeman, BO and Mendelson RA (2002) Dietary Guidelines: Past experience and new approaches, Journal of the American Dietetics Association; 102(10):1498-1503.

Ward, H, Tarasuk, V and Mendelson R (2007) Socioeconomic patterns of obesity in Canada: modeling the role of health behaviour" Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism 32:1-11

Ward, H, Tarasuk,V , Mendelson R and McKeown-Eyssen, G. (2007) An exploration of socioeconomic variation in lifestyle factors and adiposity in the Ontario Food Survey through structural equation modeling. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity4:8;1-12

Mendelson R (2007) Think Tank on School Aged Children: Nutrition and Physical Activity to Prevent the Rise in Obesity. Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism. 33:1-5.

Mendelson, R, Martino R, Clarke C et al. (2007) Dietary Intervention for the Treatment of Obesity in “Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment and Prevention of Obesity” CMAJ April 10 Supplement CMAJ 176(8) S1-S3.

Papers in refereed Conference Proceedings

Anderson, GH, Akhavan T, Mendelson RA (2006) Food Ingredients that may cause Obesity: Sugars and Sweeteners, In: Novel food ingredients for weight control, Ed. Professor C.J.K. Henry publishing Oxford Brookes University, UK (Chapter Book), in press

Ward,H., Tarasuk, V., Mendelson, R., and Eyssen, G.  (2005) Socioeconomic factors, diet, physical activity, and adiposity in the Ontario Food Survey.   Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour, Volume 37, Supplement 1: SNE 2005 Annual Conference Proceedings

Mendelson, R.A. Anderson, GH, Brown, Helen, Chappell, Janet and Valerie Tarasuk, (2002) Barriers to Changing Food Selection in Food Selection edited by GH Anderson, John Blundell and M. Chavez, published by Danone Institute (Paris)

Conference papers read

Mendelson, R.A. “Dietary Interventions for the Treatment and Prevention of Obesity” Canadian Diabetes Association Annual Conference (Toronto) Oct 19.2006

Mendelson, R.A. “Dietary Treatment of Obesity” Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Annual Conference (Ottawa) Nov 19, 2005

Mendelson, R.A. “Obesity as a Public Health Concern” Health Promotion Ontario Annual  conference (Mississauga) Oct 24, 2004

Mendelson, R.A. Anderson, GH, Brown, Helen, Chappell, Janet and Valerie Tarasuk (2003) Report of the Ontario Food Survey