University of Rhode Island students Adam Silva and Heather Johnson wowed their audience at the Central Library in Cranston with their “Eating for a Better You” presentation on Monday night.

Silva, a biochemistry major at URI, and Johnson, a master of library and information science major at URI, joined forces to create an informative, interactive presentation which combined tips on nutrition and how to find out more about it at the library.

Silva and Johnson took turns throughout the presentation, highlighting important facts about healthy eating and nutrition.

“Eating for good health is different than going on a diet,” Silva explained. “Eating for good health is a way of holistically looking at foods for their nutritional value and their content, versus diet restriction and simply counting calories.”

Johnson gave some tips about how to eat for health, which included portion control and increasing the intake of healthy foods while decreasing less beneficial foods. She introduced the library’s database and went through each of the eight categories contained within, which pertain to health and nutrition.

The categories included: evidence-based reports, encyclopedias and reference books, fact sheets and pamphlets, news and magazines, drug and herb information, alternative sources, images and diagrams and videos and animation.

Together, Silva and Johnson included the audience on a discussion of what good nutrition is. They discussed a variety of topics, including carbohydrates and the difference between natural sugars and added sugars; fiber and the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber; fats and the differences between trans fats, saturated fats, poly unsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats; cholesterol and the difference between good and bad cholesterol; and sodium.

With each topic, Silva and Johnson gave very specific examples of good choices and lifestyle changes that can be incorporated into one’s eating habits in order to improve general nutrition. They spoke specifically about which foods contain which types of good and bad ingredients.

As a library scientist, Johnson recommended several cookbooks that can be found in the cookbook section of the library, including “Eat This Not That,” “The Dash Diet” and “The Flat Belly Diet,” for the recipes contained within or for the tips and information presented.

Silva and Johnson involved the audience in several hands-on activities to demonstrate their points, including an activity about sugary drinks, an activity about good fats and bad fats and an activity about daily allowances for fats.

As Johnson and Silva summed up their hour-long presentation, Silva left the audience with some important information to take away.

“The main idea here is to make a lifestyle change; to eat and drink for good nutrition and make choices that look at food content more than counting calories,” he said.