Virginia Messina, MPH, RD - Nutrition Matters, Inc.
Virginia Messina, MPH, RD is a registered dietitian with a masters in public health nutrition from the University of Michigan. She has taught nutrition at the university level, was a foods and nutrition specialist for the Michigan Cooperative Extension Service and was director of nutrition services for George Washington University Medical Center. She works on a number of projects with the American Dietetic Association's Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice group, served as editor of the newsletter Issues in Vegetarian Dietetics, is editor of a series of fact sheets on vegetarian nutrition produced by ADA and is co-author of the ADA's 1997 position paper on vegetarian diets. Ms. Messina is widely quoted in the media, writes for a number of publications and is a regular contributor on plant food issues to Encyclopedia Britannica. She is a co-founder of the peer-reviewed journal Vegetarian Nutrition: An International Journal and serves as editor for online and print resources for this publication. Ms. Messina is also senior editor of the international newsletter Vegetarian Nutrition and Health Letter, and is co-owner of the first Internet list serve to address vegetarian issues from a scientific perspective. She is co-author of The Vegetarian Way (Crown Books, 1996), The Dietitians Guide to Vegetarian Diets: Issues and Applications (Aspen Publishers, 1996), The Simple Soybean and Your Health (Avery Publishers, 1994), and has co-authored two vegetarian cookbooks, The Vegetarian No-Cholesterol Barbecue Book (St. Martins Press, 1994) and The Vegetarian No-Cholesterol Family Style Cookbook (St. Martins Press, 1995).
Reed Mangels, PhD, RD - The Vegetarian Resource Group
Mark Messina, PhD - Nutrition Matters, Inc.
Mark Messina, PhD, is a nutritionist with a masters degree in nutrition from the University of Michigan and a doctorate in nutrition from Michigan State University. He was employed by the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health where he identified research needs in the area of diet and cancer prevention. He was responsible for allocating funding for research into the effects of soyfoods on cancer prevention. Dr. Messina also headed the NCI's Designer Foods Program which focused on developing foods high in phytochemicals with anticancer activity for use in research. He writes extensively on the health benefits of soyfoods and on plant-based diets and has given more than 100 presentations to both consumers and professionals on these topics. He is quoted regularly by the media. Dr. Messina co-edits and writes a regular column for The Soy Connection a newsletter sent to 70,000 dietitians. He organized and chaired two international symposia (held in Tucson, AZ and in Brussels, Belgium) on "The Role of Soy in the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Disease." Dr. Messina is co-founder and editor of the peer-reviewed journal Vegetarian Nutrition: An International Journal. He is also a senior editor of the international newsletter Vegetarian Nutrition and Health Letter. He is co-author of The Vegetarian Way (Crown Books, 1996), The Dietitians Guide to Vegetarian Diets: Issues and Applications (Aspen Publishers, 1996), and The Simple Soybean and Your Health (Avery Publishers, 1994).
