Latest news with #MEDI
Business Wire
12-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Aramark Collegiate Hospitality Launches MEDI: A New Mediterranean Dining Experience
PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aramark Collegiate Hospitality is launching MEDI, a new Mediterranean dining solution designed to bring the vibrant and healthy flavors of Mediterranean cuisine to campuses across the nation, it was announced today. Aramark's proprietary 2024 DiningStyles Survey found that Mediterranean cuisine ranks among the top three most commonly requested special diets by students and also ranks in the top five favorite cuisine requested by all survey respondents. 'We take listening seriously; it allows us to provide the hospitality our campuses deserve,' said Jack Donovan, President and CEO of Aramark Collegiate Hospitality. 'We have incredible culinary innovators, dietary experts, and field teams who all come together when we see the need for a new campus dining solution.' MEDI has already been successfully introduced at several pilot schools, including Assumption University, Holyoke Community College, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, University of Hartford, and Hardin-Simmons University. These institutions have embraced MEDI's unique offerings, providing students with a fresh dining experience. 'With the growing national popularity and demand for Mediterranean-inspired dining options, MEDI offers an on-trend, plant-forward, relatable, affordable, and flexible option for our guests,' said Chef Tim Zintz, Director of Culinary Development. 'Our pilot sites gave us the opportunity to tweak details and survey scores and comments confirmed the success of our new concept.' Menu Highlights MEDI's menu features a variety of bowls, salads, fresh produce, scratch dressings, grilled naan, and seasonal hummus. Signature dishes include the Chicken Shawarma Grain Bowl, Falafel Greek Salad, Lemon Curry Chicken Bowl, Gyro Wrap, and Lamb Meatball Bowl. Guests may also create their own meals with customizable options, starting with a base of fresh greens, grains, legumes, or grilled naan, and adding their choice of proteins, seasonal vegetables, and dressings. Sides and desserts include naan, falafel, baklava, and tahini chocolate chip cookies. Feedback from students at pilot schools has been overwhelmingly positive. In particular, menu flavors and the ability to customize were highly rated. 'The MEDI concept has been a wonderful, flavorful, and healthy experience at Assumption. It brings a new, and creative option to our dining experience and opens the menu of possibilities,' said George F. Kuntz III, Director of Student Engagement and Leadership at Assumption University. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans and legumes, and healthy fats like those found in olive oil, nuts, and seeds. Research has shown a connection between long term adherence to the Mediterranean diet and a reduction in the risk of chronic diseases and an increase in longevity. About Aramark Collegiate Hospitality Aramark Collegiate Hospitality is a premier provider for hospitality ecosystems in higher education, renowned for its commitment to the whole student and enhancing student life through exceptional culinary experiences and innovative dining solutions. With a presence in more than 275 colleges and universities, Collegiate Hospitality uses data driven consumer insights to curate experiences to meet the unique needs of each campus, fostering a vibrant community with diverse and inclusive dining offerings. This intentional integration of campus identity, world class hospitality, and professional opportunity provides a foundational path to student success. Connect with Collegiate Hospitality on LinkedIn. About Aramark Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) proudly serves the world's leading educational institutions, Fortune 500 companies, world champion sports teams, prominent healthcare providers, iconic destinations and cultural attractions, and numerous municipalities in 16 countries around the world with food and facilities management. Because of our hospitality culture, our employees strive to do great things for each other, our partners, our communities, and the planet.
Associated Press
18-02-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Scientists Decode Diet From Stool DNA
SEATTLE, Feb. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scientists have developed a breakthrough method to track diet using stool metagenomic data. Developed by researchers at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), the new method, called MEDI (Metagenomic Estimation of Dietary Intake), detects food-derived DNA in stool samples to estimate dietary intake. MEDI leverages stool metagenomics, which refers to sequencing all the DNA present in fecal samples (including microbial, human, and food-derived DNA). This non-invasive, data-driven approach offers an objective alternative to traditional food diaries and questionnaires, which are still the gold standard in dietary assessment but can suffer from misreporting and compliance issues. 'For decades, nutrition research has depended on self-reported diaries and questionnaires – approaches that require a high degree of effort and compliance from research participants. How many strawberries did I eat two days ago? Did I have one glass of orange juice with breakfast, or two?' said Dr. Christian Diener, lead author of the study. 'MEDI provides a solution by analyzing food-derived DNA in gut metagenomic samples, offering a convenient alternative that shows good agreement with known dietary and nutritional intake patterns.' Key Findings: An Alternative to Questionnaire-Based Diet Tracking: Leveraging a database of more than 400 food items and over 300 billion base pairs of genomic information, MEDI accurately detected food intake patterns in infants and adults, and across two controlled feeding studies. MEDI Connecting Dietary Intake to Nutrition: MEDI converts the relative abundance profile of specific food items into nutrient profiles, assuming a 100 gram portion. These nutrient profiles show good agreement with data from controlled feeding studies. Identified Diet-Related Health Risks: Without food logs, MEDI pinpointed dietary features linked to metabolic syndrome in a large clinical cohort. 'Our study represents a major leap forward in how we track diet and its impacts on human health,' said ISB Associate Professor Dr. Sean Gibbons, senior author of the study. 'With food-derived DNA signatures in stool, we now have a powerful way to measure diet and microbiome composition from the same sample, which will expand our understanding of the forces shaping the human gut microbiome, personalized nutritional responses, and disease risk.' With further development, MEDI could transform nutrition science, epidemiological studies, and clinical trials, allowing researchers, doctors, and individuals to track diet-related health risks with unprecedented ease. The full study is published in Nature Metabolism and can be accessed here. For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact ISB's media team at [email protected]. About ISB Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is a collaborative and cross-disciplinary non-profit biomedical research organization based in Seattle. We focus on some of the most pressing issues in human health, including aging, brain health, cancer, chronic illness, infectious disease, and more. Our science is translational, and we champion sound scientific research that results in real-world clinical impacts. ISB is an affiliate of Providence, one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare systems in the United States. Follow us online at and on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, and Instagram.
