Who Am I?

My name is Karrie Heneman. I received a BA in Human Biology at Stanford in 1999 and a PhD in nutrition at UC Davis in 2004. From 2004-2007, I worked as a post-doctoral scholar at UC Davis for the Food Stamps Education Program. I implemented nutrition and garden programs at elementary schools and studied how they increased fruit and vegetable consumption among the students and families. I became research faculty at UC Davis in 2008 and taught and continued to conduct research until I became pregnant with my second child, John. It became clear to me that without local family and a husband who worked a very demanding job, I needed to stay home and raise my children. I am currently a stay at home mom of four and I use my nutrition training on a daily basis. I have started a small business that aims to help moms feed their families. I feel like many moms today crack under the pressure of social media and diet trends. They either choose to force their children to adopt extreme eating plans such as paleo or keto, or they just give up and feed their children junk. I have spoken to moms groups about raising children to become confident and smart eaters, who know that there are no bad foods, but that sometimes foods (those loaded with salt and sugar) need to be consumed in moderation. I encourage them to provide their families with easy, inexpensive meals, that are home made. For example, when my husband is gone, we eat cheese sticks, whole wheat tortillas, frozen vegetables, and fruit.