Julie Nicoletti on Wellness and Nutrition

On November 12, students and faculty gathered in Smith Theater for a Health and Wellness Hall focused on nutrition, led by Julie Nicoletti, Boston Bruins nutritionist and founder of Kinetic Fuel. Ms. Nicoletti founded Kinetic Fuel in 2008 as a performance-based nutrition company focused on optimizing athletic performance, health, and well-being while reducing the risk of illness and injury. 

“The goal of this morning’s presentation is to challenge you to become more mindful about the choices that you make every day and to become more aware of how those choices make you feel,” Ms. Nicoletti began. “We are only aware of about 10% of the choices we make regarding food each day.”

In her experience working with professional, collegiate, and high school athletes, Ms. Nicoletti sees various levels of commitment to nutrition and is keenly aware of how nutrition directly impacts performance and health. She explained that the focus of her talk would not be an effort to force anyone to make dramatic changes, but rather to provide information about various foods and what they do or don’t do for the body. “I’m going to try to give you the answers to the test. If you’re motivated to make better choices, you’ll know what you’re looking for,” she said.

Ms. Nicoletti discussed common foods and food groups, whole foods and processed foods, macronutrients and hydration, caffeine and ideal intake. “For each meal, choose your protein and then add two colors,” she advised. This means that a prime example of a nutritious meal is a protein, whether beef, chicken, beans, or tofu, among others, and then two or more fruits or vegetables that bring color to the plate. If the plate is all beige, that is not a well-rounded or nutritious meal. “Whether you are an athlete or not, student, faculty, or staff, the basis of this information applies to all of us, because we all eat every day.”

Ms. Nicoletti’s Hall is the latest in a series of Health and Wellness Halls focused on physical, mental, and emotional health and care.