Qualifications: Bachelors, masters, and doctorate in nutrition; registered dietitian and licensed in Rhode Island, USA
About: Mary is a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University.
Mary M. Flynn, PhD, RD, LDN is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Clinical) at Brown University and a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital, where she has worked since 1984. She is the outpatient dietitian at TMH for oncology, Men’s Health, Kidney Stone Center, and the medical clinic. Her main research interest is how food can be used as medicine and her main food of interest is extra virgin olive oil, which she has been researching since 1998. In 2013, she founded The Olive Oil Health Initiative of The Miriam Hospital at Brown University that has a mission of educating the public and medical community on the health benefits of olive oil. She has developed a plant-based, olive oil diet that she has tested for weight loss in women diagnosed with invasive breast; in men with prostate cancer for weight loss and improvement in components of the metabolic syndrome; and to decrease food insecurity in food pantry clients. She has been on the board of the RI Community Food Bank since 2005. She collaborated with the RICFB in a study that provided a cooking program of her plant-based, olive oil recipes to food pantry clients. The study showed that use of the recipes for 2-3 main meals per week decreased food insecurity, body weight, and money spent on groceries. She received a strategy grant from the RI Foundation to develop the cooking program for type 2 diabetes. The results of the pilot study showed significant decreases in fasting blood glucose and body weight after three months of follow-up.
She is co-author of the books LOW-FAT LIES, high fat frauds and the healthiest diet in the world (Lifeline Press, 1999) and A Pink Ribbon Diet (Da Capo Press, October 2010) which is a weight loss program and cookbook for women who have had breast cancer based on her research of the plant based, olive oil diet that she has developed. Her website is: www.medfooddiet.com.
Research/Areas of Interest: Health benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, including improvement in body weight; how food can be used as medicine; improving food security in low-income populations
Website: www.medfooddiet.com, https://vivo.brown.edu/display/mflynnph
Email: Not available
