David Julian McClements, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Food Science, recently pulled off the academic trifecta: a major award, a publication in the journal Science and a profile in National Geographic for his work on getting the most out of kale.

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The sweep began with the news that the Institute of Food Technologists had awarded him their Distinguished Lipid and Flavor Science Award in honor of Stephen S. Chang, a recognition supported by the Stephen S. Chang Endowment Trust Fund and Taiwan Food Industries (Feeding Tomorrow Endowed).

The award honors an individual who has provided innovative contributions to the advancement of lipid or flavor science and technology and is given every other year by the Institute of Food Technologists, the leading professional scientific organization in the world for food scientists.  

“I am thrilled to receive this recognition for the career-spanning work I have done in lipid chemistry.” says McClements. “I am also extremely grateful to all the faculty, staff, students, postdocs and visiting scientists I have worked with while at UMass Amherst. Their contributions have been critical to any success I have achieved.”

At nearly the same time that the Institute of Food Sciences made their award public, Science published McClements’s co-authored paper, “Strategies for achieving healthy, sustainable, and equitable dietary transitions,” which reviews and suggests pathways to equitably transition the world’s food systems toward supporting sustainable, nutritious healthy dietary behaviors.

In addition to the major award and top-tier journal publication, McClements was also profiled by National Geographic for his co-authored work on how to get the most out of all the amazing nutrition kale has to offer by dressing it with olive oil and water.

As the profile details, many of kale’s most important nutrients are fat-soluble, which means that they don’t easily dissolve in the watery environment of the digestive tract. But when the kale is coated in a layer of olive oil, those same fat-soluble nutrients suddenly become much more available to the human body.

McClements’ research has found that it doesn’t really matter how you eat your kale—raw, steamed, sautéed, in a smoothie or as pesto—as long as it has a source of fat to bond with.