Talking nutrition with Sue Spring

Sue Spring may be an experienced knitter and long-distance mountain hiker, but Noble Horizons has invited her to talk about another one of her areas of expertise: nutrition and health.

She will give a speech, “Eating Well As We Age,â€� at Noble’s Lifelong Learning Center  on Thursday, March 25, at 2 p.m. She will address healthy aging through exercise and good eating habits.

Spring, who at 65 hiked the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain, Ga., to Mt. Katahdin, Maine, has completed all that she has put her mind to.

“You can do anything you want in life as long as you have a goal,� Spring said. “There is so much you can have if you’re after it.�

The consultant dietitian, now 71, operates her own practice, Spring Nutrition Consulting Service. Each week she visits Noble Horizons in Salisbury, Geer in North Canaan and the Hillcrest Educational Centers in Lenox and Great Barrington, Mass., where she works with the staffs to make sure the residents are getting what they need for good health.

“I look at all the technical, behind-the-scenes information to make sure residents are well taken care of on the medical side of nutrition,� Spring said. “When I am asked, I will talk with the residents, families or staff.�

When visiting residents, Spring will make sure their weights are stable, their bodies are hydrated, they’re getting enough to eat and their skin reflects good nutrition. She will also assess the patient by taking blood samples to monitor protein nutrition, cholesterol levels and cell count.

According to Spring, the best way to maintain good health throughout life is to exercise frequently, monitor fat intake, try to eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible and, in addition to a multivitamin, to take in enough calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12.

Another key nutrient, often overlooked, is water, which keeps things moving throughout the body, she said. Spring says people should drink an average of about 2 liters of water a day.

One-third of Spring’s week is spent at Hillcrest, where she works closely on the meal plans for the young residents, who tend to have varying eating habits. Many of the students at Hillcrest are on medications that alter their sense of hunger by making some feel full and others feel as though they can’t eat enough, she said.

“Much of my job involves moderating the children who tend to overeat and working with the children who lose their appetite,� Spring said.

Spring received her Bachelor of Science degree in food technology from Ohio State University and her Master of Science in food technology and food microbiology from the University of Massachusetts. In her 40s she went to the University of Connecticut to become a registered dietitian of the American Dietetic Association.

When asked what would be the best food to eat on a regular basis, Spring said, “Pizza made in a sensible way.� Made from scratch using a whole-grain dough, pizza could deliver grains, protein, vegetables and dairy all in one serving.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less