Bites By Beth

🍓Ten years ago, I joined a coalition that believed something simple but radical: that a corner store could be a place of health, not just convenience, packaged foods, lottery, or to***co. This week, I joined the Buffalo Healthy Community Store Initiative in celebrating a decade of proving that right. 🥒

🥕 I joined this work back in 2016, fresh into my role at BNMC , and I have watched this coalition grow from an idea into 16 stores, 30+ partner organizations, and thousands of neighbors and households who now have a closer, more affordable path to fresh produce, healthy snacks, and even their blood pressure checked while they grab groceries. This work is not easy and does not have a straightforward path – its why it took a village to complete. 🫑

😀 Proud to have been part of this from the beginning. AND also holding space to feel that this 10-year anniversary was disheartening at the same time. 🥺

Because here's the math nobody's talking about: Over 40% of certain neighborhoods in Buffalo's East Side already faced food insecurity. That was BEFORE last year's federal budget eliminated SNAP-Ed nationwide, the exact funding stream behind the cooking demos, recipe books, and in-store nutrition education at programs like our local Healthy Community Store Initiative. Add in a $6 billion cut to SNAP, new work requirements, and tighter eligibility, and you get fewer dollars in people's pockets to spend on the fresh produce our local corner stores worked so hard to stock. 🍎 🍍 🫐 🍊 🍌 🥝

The stores are still there. The apples and fresh foods are still in the cooler. But the infrastructure that made this work, the education, the purchasing power, just lost its biggest funding partner.💔

"Food as Medicine" does not work if you do not have access to food…

Call your senators this week and ask them to: Restore SNAP funding cut last year. Reverse cost shifting onto states. Reverse expanded work requirements. Reject further benefit and eligibility cuts. Protect nutrition assistance for seniors, kids, veterans, and working families.

Food access is health infrastructure. Don't balance budgets on the backs of hungry families. Find your senator here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

🍎💪 Let's continue to work towards building a healthier Buffalo, FOR ALL. 🍓❤️

Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. is convening the Lifestyle Medicine in Practice workshop, on Thursday, June 4, 2026, gathering the boldest minds in the future of how true HEALTH care is .

📍 Zoom
📅 June 4, 2026 | 11:30 AM–1:00 PM
🎟️ Reserve your spot here:
https://lnkd.in/eXfCJuAx

What is Lifestyle Medicine, you say? Let's the , because the perception out there is all :

1. People think, "It's not real medicine." 🏥 People assume it lacks clinical rigor. In it is a board-certified medical specialty with its own base, fellowship , and data comparable to pharmaceutical for conditions like type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

2. People think, "It's only for prevention." 🍎 Many assume it's something you do before you get . The evidence shows it is equally as and even restoration for existing chronic disease, not just risk reduction.

3. It frames everything as "patient responsibility." 😷 The assumption is that doctors just tell patients to change their and leave them to figure it out. Lifestyle Medicine actually involves , clinical delivered by trained providers. (I'm getting my board certification in it right now, alongside hundreds of other providers).

This summit is for every leader in the health and well-being space who knows the status quo isn't the ceiling and wants to learn more....

Whether you're steering a health system, architecting a corporate wellness strategy, caring for patients on the frontlines, or investing in your own longevity, no matter where you sit in the health and well-being ecosystem, this summit delivers insights you can actually use.

This complimentary summit will show you exactly:
💰 Proven outcomes from real-world case studies
📈 How Lifestyle Medicine supports outcomes, cost, experience, and equity
🏆 Where the opportunity is and how to seize it
🌍 Lead on population health and health equity, with receipts to show for it

📍 Zoom
📅 June 4, 2026 | 11:30 AM–1:00 PM
🎟️ Reserve your spot here:
https://lnkd.in/eXfCJuAx

Keynote: Leanne Mauriello
Panelist: Ted Barnett, MD, FACLM
Panelist: Alisha Lall, MD, DipABLM
Panelist: Shikha Joshi, MD, DipABLM
hosted by

For ✨️ International Day of Action for Women's Health ✨️, let’s talk about the women’s health gap. 👭

In the United States, we love to say we have the best health care in the world… but when it comes to women’s health? The data tells a very different story. 🏥

👩‍🍼 The U.S. maternal mortality rate is dramatically higher than peer high-income nations. In 2022, the U.S. had about 22 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, while many peer countries had fewer than 5. 😮

In 2023, Black women in the U.S. had a maternal mortality rate of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with 14.5 for white women, more than three times higher. Black women are dying because systems are failing to listen, failing to respond, and failing to protect them. 😮 😮

🤰 Andd the CDC estimates that more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable. Meaning these are warning signs, system failures, outcomes of delayed care, dismissed symptoms, poor access, bias, underfunding, and gaps in clinical response. 😮 😮 😮 😮

And the women’s health gap does not begin or end with pregnancy.

Women are 50.5% of the U.S. population, yet women’s health research remains underfunded, and women continue to experience poorer outcomes in several areas of care. The National Academies also notes that women may live longer than men, but they spend more years living with poor health and disability.

We deserve PMOS/PCOS care, endometriosis care, heart care, mental health care, menopause care, fertility care, and chronic disease care that actually reflects the bodies we live in.

And closing the women’s health gap is not just about adding more pink ribbons, panels, and performative actions. 🎗️

It is about building a health care system that listens to women, studies women, believes women, protects women, and funds the science that helps women actually live well, not just live longer.

Today, do one thing for your health: schedule the appointment, ask the question, request the lab work, track the symptom, get the second opinion, or stop normalizing pain you’ve been taught to ignore.

PCOS just got a new name, and it changes everything. 🚨

After more than a decade of research, and input from 22,000 patients, clinicians, and researchers across the globe, a landmark global consensus published in The Lancet made it official. Polycystic o***y syndrome (PCOS) is now polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. PMOS. !!!

One letter change.... A massive shift.

The old name pointed at the wrong thing, cysts that were never actually cysts, and left up to 70% of people undiagnosed and undertreated. The new name finally tells the truth about what this condition actually is: a complex, whole-body hormonal and metabolic disorder that deserves serious, comprehensive care. 💛

And yes, PMOS feels a little weird to say after years of PCOS. That's valid. Change is strange, even when it's overdue.

Swipe through to understand what changed, why it matters, and what to know going forward if this is your condition. 👉

Save this and share it with someone who needs to see it. 🔖

📚 Learn more from these trusted sources:
The Lancet (original consensus paper): https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00717-8/fulltext
Endocrine Society: https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2026/pcos-name-change
NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medicine: https://www.nyp.org/healthmatters/pcos-is-now-polyendocrine-metabolic-ovarian-syndrome-pmos-why-the-change

Changing WHAT people eat is SO much MORE than choices.

It's about designing the systems and that make healthy choices easy, , and . This is the core of what I've spent a decade building at Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc.

I'm excited to announce this June I'm speaking at Vital Signs, a clinical conference at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland.

Hosted by my colleages at , Laurie Kortowich, and team, this conference brings a much-needed public health and lens to clinicians committed to creating meaningful change for their and .

If you work in healthcare, , or health and want practical that actually change at scale, I'd love to see you there.

Vital Signs Clinical Conference · June 16–18, 2026 · Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH · CME Credit Pending

https://lnkd.in/eW53gPA4 or link in bio

Use code LEARN2026 to save $50 off registration

LinkedIn This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

ONE 👏 WEEK 👏 OUT 👏 from Women’s Health Night, and I cannot WAIT 🔥✨

One of my favorite parts of bringing this night to life? Designing a fertility-supportive menu for every phase of your cycle with our incredible co-hosts 🙌 https://square.link/u/gSz41UAh

Yes, your food can actually work with your hormones, not against them.

We’re talking habits and meals that support: ✨ progesterone + luteal phase balance ✨ estrogen metabolism + lighter, easier cycles ✨ reduced inflammation + stable blood sugar ✨ real support for brain ↔ o***y communication + gut health

TRUTHHH .....your cycle is uniquely yours!! But your body’s needs? Those are powerfully universal 💫

No matter where you are in your journey, optimizing hormones, managing symptoms, or thinking about fertility, this night is for YOU!

And the menu… 👀 Let’s just say it’s next level. You’ll have to be in the room to experience it.

Grab your seat. Bring a friend. https://square.link/u/gSz41UAh

Plan to make your hormone health feel simple, supported, and delicious 💃🥂 Love, Beth 💛

THIS is what community looks like 🔥

BNMC Community Connections Day was a success! Niagara Medical Campus

We saw health advocacy in action...
Conversations turn into solutions...
And resources meet real people, in real time, exactly where they are!

From powerful discussions on health equity… to hands-on workshops… to actual Food as Medicine you could taste, this day brought our vision to life in a way that felt energizing, inclusive, and deeply impactful.

This is how change happens:
➡️ When community-based organizations, healthcare, research, and residents come to the same table
➡️ When access turns into action
➡️ When we stop just talking about health, and start building it together

To everyone who showed up, spoke up, volunteered, partnered, and poured into this day, thank YOU. This is just the beginning.

✨ The Wellness Table: Chapter One ✨

🌿Join me at the table on Thursday, April 9 | 5:30–9 PM for an evening dedicated to women’s wellness, hormones, nutrition, and community!

💛 Start with fertility curated menu of food and drinks

💛 Explore the book Woman Code with dietitian

SPOILER: You DO NOT need to read the book in order to attend!

💛 Breakout sessions on pelvic floor health with , mindfulness and stress management

💛 Connect with local farmers and producers— , , and learn about fresh, local food!

🎟 Tickets: $60 | Each guest leaves with a take-home gift from and 🫶🏼🤗

✨ If this event is a hit, we’ll continue with additional chapters to explore more specific wellness topics!

Reserve your spot and nourish your mind, body, and community!

🤗 Register now: through the link in our bio! Or use this link: https://square.link/u/gSz41UAh

RSVPs are due by April 1st or until sell out! Spots are limited!!