Susmita Chowdhury, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition at FIU’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, has received the 2026 Early Career Nutrition Seed Funding Program Pilot Grant from the American Society for Nutrition Foundation to expand her research on nutrition and obesity-related health outcomes.
The competitive $10,000 grant, supported by the National Pork Board, will fund Chowdhury’s project, “Pork Intake Patterns and Obesity in Adolescents: A Longitudinal Analysis Within the CRUNCH Study.” The award was presented during the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting, NUTRITION 2026, in Washington, D.C.
The project builds on Chowdhury’s doctoral research examining how dietary behaviors change during the first year of college and how those changes may be associated with body composition and sleep. Through the CRUNCH Study — Consumption of Refined and Ultra-processed Nutrition and College Health — she is studying changes in the consumption of ultra-processed foods, particularly snacks and beverages, and their relationship with measures such as weight, body mass index, body fat percentage and sleep.
“The first year of college is an especially important period because students are making more of their own food choices while also adjusting to changes in sleep, physical activity, stress and daily routines,” Chowdhury said. “If we can better understand how eating habits change during this time, and whether those changes are linked with changes in health, we may be able to identify behaviors that could be addressed earlier.”
CRUNCH follows first-year FIU students between the ages of 18 and 20 across their first academic year. Chowdhury and her research team recruited 305 students and completed baseline data collection on diet, body composition, sleep, physical activity and stress within two weeks, allowing the study to capture participants’ measures near the beginning of the academic year.
The new grant allows Chowdhury to use the CRUNCH dataset to examine pork consumption in greater detail, including how much participants consumed, the types of pork products they ate and how their intake changed over time. The analysis will explore whether different patterns of consumption are associated with obesity-related outcomes.
The funding will support dietary data processing and classification, statistical analyses and the dissemination of findings through scientific presentations and peer-reviewed publications. It also gives Chowdhury experience leading a funded research project as she works toward an independent career in nutritional epidemiology and chronic disease prevention.
“Receiving this award at this stage of my Ph.D. is especially meaningful,” Chowdhury said. “It gives me the opportunity to build on the work I have already started and explore new questions using the CRUNCH Study.”
Chowdhury credits Cristina Palacios, professor and chair of the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition, with helping shape her development as a nutritional epidemiologist. Under Palacios’ mentorship, she has gained experience developing and implementing the CRUNCH Study, managing complex dietary data and communicating research findings. She has also led and mentored a team of 10 volunteer research assistants who supported participant recruitment and data collection.
Now an FIU Dissertation Fellow, Chowdhury hopes the findings from CRUNCH and the grant-supported research will ultimately contribute to practical nutrition strategies for young adults and prevention efforts aimed at reducing obesity and chronic disease risk before unhealthy patterns become established.