With a dining service ranked among the best in the country, a town with numerous popular restaurants and our very own campus food truck, food is important to students. While good eats abound, Bowdoin’s dietician, Dr. Anne-Marie Davee, reminds students to think about the nutrition behind the nourishment.
Dr. Davee has worked at Bowdoin for three years. She is a registered dietician licensed in Maine and has degrees from the University of Maine at Orono and University of New England.
An avid runner, she has participated in twenty marathons and even ran in the first women’s Olympic marathon trials in 1984 behind Joan Benoit Samuelson, a Bowdoin grad who went on to win the gold. Davee still participates in triathlons.
Davee says her athletic background spurred her passion for working with youth, students, and athletes.
She says, “I enjoy working with athletes, particularly with teams to get that competitive edge with sports nutrition.”
She works with athletes from several different teams, including tennis, crew, and cross-country, suggesting nutrition recommendations to improve their performance.
In addition to working with athletes, Davee is available to meet with any student who is interested in nutrition. She often works with students who are gluten-free, vegetarian, lactose intolerant, or those who are trying to gain or lose weight.
“I really work hard to help them understand how to best nourish their body,” she says. “Every student who comes to see me will get an individualized plan tailored to their needs.”
Many seniors meet with her to discuss how they will make healthy choices once they’ve graduated.
“The most important thing I’m trying to work with students on is having a healthy body image and a healthy weight,” she says.
With trendy diets and new nutrition research being constantly presented in the media, it can often be difficult to discern fact from fiction.
Davee’s strongest advice to students is to follow the “My Plate” model, which puts forth the idea that half of one’s plate at meals should be fruits and vegetables, a quarter should be protein, and the final quarter should be grains, preferably whole.
Davee says that it’s important for students to remember that grains, which tend to get flack for being unhealthy, are necessary for the body. Additionally, those late-night snacks do count. Are multiple grilled cheeses consumed at Super Snack really the best choice?
Davee says: “We really need to think about what the is food doing inside our bodies when we make our food choices.”
Davee commends Bowdoin Dining Services as an “outstanding food service,” as it provides an array of options for people with different dietary needs.
Furthermore, she believes that Bowdoin students care about making healthy choices. After all, she says, “To perform mentally and physically, we need good nourishment everyday.”