Dr Claudia Campbell — Nutrition matters
She is quite petite, but her energy, commitment and passion speak volumes when it comes to the nutrition for bariatric patients and children.
Dr Claudia Campbell, 38, told All Woman that while growing up in Mount Regale, St Mary, she lived the typical rural life which encompassed walking three to four miles to get to the bus stop for school, going to the spring for water, and to the river for fish.
During this time she says she remembers being sick only once as a child — an illness which started out as gastroenteritis and spiralled into further complications which hinged on how she was fed as a toddler.
As a result, today she champions the cause of paediatric nutrition and focuses her research on early life factors and how they contribute to lifestyle practices as the years progress.
“Early life factors that can affect children include a mother’s nutritional status before getting pregnant and after pregnancy. If the mother is overweight, it is likely to affect the child,” Dr Campbell said. “In Jamaica we have serious weight issues with our children, and not many of us are focused on addressing the problem. I work closely with children, as the rates of non-communicable diseases among them are climbing and we need to curb it. For me, growing up was playing outside, picking mangoes, and the lifestyle has changed, which is why we’re having the issues we’re having.”
Dr Campbell, who holds a diploma in education with focus on secondary education from Mico University College; a Bachelor of Education in secondary education focusing on family and consumer studies from the University of Technology; and a master’s and doctorate in nutrition from the University of the West Indies, also works closely with bariatric patients through Island Laparoscopy.
This, she says, is more rigorous, as it requires more discipline since after bariatric surgery the patient’s life changes completely.
She says she enjoys it, as she has done a substantial amount of research surrounding people being overweight and obese, and it helps her to better understand the individuals who undergo the surgery.
On this basis, she explained that there are many perceptions that need clarification.
“I want to help change the perception that an individual’s weight is linked to their health status. We tend to look at a person and say they’re big, so they’re unhealthy. There are other parameters that need to be assessed.
“They may be weighty, yes, but their blood pressure is normal. Nutrition is a lot more than that, and not only fat people need nutritional advice. There are people who are slim that come to me, and when I measure them, their waist is out of the range, and the central adiposity, where the weight shows in the waist, is dangerous,” Dr Campbell explained.
Also the consultant clinical nutritionist within the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Dr Campbell is involved in research to look at the wellness of our police officers and to ensure that the prevalence of non-communicable diseases within the JCF does not rise.
She has also worked with the Tropical Medicine Research Institute and Solutions for Developing Countries (SODECO), where she credits much of her growth to Professor Terrence Forrester’s tutelage.
In the past, she has been involved with the mentorship programme YUTE, which focuses on assisting inner-city children and helping them adjust to the world of work.
In her down time she plays lawn tennis, goes to the gym, enjoys cooking, and hopes to come out one day with a line of Jamaican nutritional products that use everyday food.
“I am only as good as I tell myself I am, and that’s what I tell myself every day,” she said.
