TTU Nutrition & Metabolic Health Initiative

The Power of Beef in a Healthy Diet!

Fuel your body with beef! Join us for live cooking demos, delicious tastings, and expert advice on incorporating beef into a healthy lifestyle.
📆Saturday, April 11th, 2026
⏰11 AM- 1 PM
📍TTU DFW
4201 State Hwy 161, Suite 250, Irving, TX 75038

Student Providers are Texas Tech University students with a strong interest in clinical health-related fields who deliver high-quality care to patients and research participants at the Nutrition and Metabolic Health Initiative (NMHI) Clinic. They actively support clinic operations by assisting with patient visits, including body composition assessments and metabolic health testing. Student Providers demonstrate proficiency in essential clinical skills, including patient communication, professionalism, teamwork, and collaboration with healthcare and research professionals. They further distinguish themselves through community engagement, leadership in clinic activities, and participation in clinical research initiatives. Serving as a Student Provider represents a commitment to professionalism and excellence in clinical practice.

So grateful for the opportunity to attend our Clinical Connections event with Dr. Allison Childress 🤍✨
We had meaningful conversations about professional development and took a deep dive into our CliftonStrengths results. This assessment helps identify your natural talents and strengths—giving insight into how you think, work, and connect with others. Knowing your results can help you grow with confidence, improve teamwork, and make the most of what makes you you.
So inspired to keep learning, growing, and becoming better providers every day 💪📚💫

In collaboration with TTU’s STEM Core for STEM Excursion day, NMHI’s Community Outreach Team held an event at NMHI titled “A Nutritious and Delicious Proposal”🍎 🥗 to increase food exposure with elementary and high-school students this past October. Students created fun, delicious, and nutritious dishes to pitch to NMHI judges in which the most creative and well-explained nutritious dishes were chosen to “invest” in. 🧠

Through this activity, NMHI’s Community Outreach Team hoped to not only promote trying new foods but also attach a fun and creative approach to unfamiliar foods as well as promote nutrition education. ✨🏆🍽️

NMHI kicked off the holidays with our annual Holiday party! 🎄✨
It was such a blast getting to hang out with everyone and celebrate the season together. ❤️
One of the highlights? Our baby-photo guessing game 👶😂
Nothing brings a team closer than trying to figure out who had the cutest (or funniest!) baby pics!
Feeling grateful for good people, good laughs, and a great end to the year. 🥰
❤️

The INCH Lab, supervised by Dr. Hefner, in collaboration with Dr. Dhurandhar and Dr. Hegde, proudly presented their research at ObesityWeek 2025! 🧬✨
Their study, “Sexually Dimorphic Response to Diet-Induced Metabolic Dysfunction–Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), previously known as fatty liver disease,” explored how male and female C57BL/6J mice respond differently to a high-fructose, high-cholesterol, high–saturated fat diet over a 20-week period. This work helps shed light on early metabolic changes that may guide future sex-specific treatments.
Key takeaways:
💡 Males showed faster and more severe MASLD onset, even when accounting for baseline differences—a pattern similar to what is observed in humans.
💡 Females accumulated ~7% less liver fat and required far less insulin to regulate glucose during oral glucose tolerance tests.
💡 100% of males vs. 40% of females developed hepatosteatosis, despite similar increases in fat mass.
💡 Emerging evidence points to estradiol-linked FPR2 expression as a potential protective mechanism in females—a direction the team aims to explore further.
A huge thank you to for having us at this incredible conference, and be sure to check out for more updates and tag NMHI in the conversation!
NMHI is proud of this team’s dedication and contribution toward advancing more personalized, sex-specific approaches to understanding and treating metabolic disease. ❤️‍🔥

Exploring the Integration of Diet and Exercise in Health and Disease” brought together two incredible minds in kinesiology—Dr. Kembra A. Albracht-Schulte and Dr. Danielle Levitt—who broke down how nutrition and movement work hand-in-hand to keep us healthy, prevent chronic disease, and improve quality of life.
Always thankful for opportunities that help push us to grow, learn, and see the bigger picture in kinesiology and health science.

🍫🎃 Let’s unwrap the truth about everyone’s favorite Halloween treat — Reese’s Cups!
The Good: Peanut butter = a little protein + healthy fats 💪
The Bad: Also comes with about 22g of sugar… aka your energy spike’s ghostly twin 👻
Verdict: Totally fine to enjoy a cup (or two 👀), but maybe not the whole bag — your future self will thank you!
Trick or treat yourself responsibly 😎
⚫️

🧠✨ This week, NMHI hosted a Clinical Connections event diving into the powerful link between nutrition and psychology! 💭🥗
Students and professionals joined experts from Texas Tech University — Mr. Tristen Hefner, Dr. Marleigh Hefner, and Mr. Eli Halbreich — to explore how mental health, stress, and motivation shape our eating habits and weight management.
From the physiological and psychological factors influencing behavior to interdisciplinary strategies for more effective interventions, this session offered incredible insight and networking opportunities. 🌟

🌮 Let’s Taco ’Bout Mental Health! 🌮
TTUHSC Lubbock students joined us for a fun and meaningful event focused on promoting mental wellness! Students visited our interactive info table packed with helpful tips, tools, and campus resources to support their mental health. 💭✨.
Students were able to get their height and Body Composition measured! This shows the amounts of fat, muscle, and bone in the body. It gives a clearer picture of health and fitness than just weight alone. From learning new ways to manage stress to discovering how to stay balanced and connected, everyone walked away with valuable insights!🌯💪
Let’s keep the conversation going and continue to support one another on our wellness journeys. 💬