Featured Post from Texas Christian University

Experts in the Media: Eating Habits of People Who Grew Up Poor

Sarah Hill, Ph.D, professor of psychology helped reporters explore how early life poverty continues to foster food preferences and mental associations around eating.

Sep 29, 2025

2 min

Sarah Hill, Ph.D, professor of psychology, contributed insights to an AOL article, “Eating Habits of People Who Grew Up Poor,” exploring how early life poverty continues to foster food preferences and mental associations around eating. The piece examines why many adults raised in low-income households feel “unnatural” when switching from inexpensive comfort foods to fresh produce and how habits formed in scarcity can linger long after financial hardships subside.

Hill emphasizes that these patterns aren’t just personal quirks but deeply ingrained coping strategies.

“For someone who rarely saw fresh fruits or vegetables growing up, the cost, smell, even the way they cut or cook produce, can feel foreign,” she wrote.

The article also discusses how scarcity conditioning can lead to behaviors like eating beyond fullness to avoid waste, attachment to “cheap staples” or resistance to change in diet, even when healthy choices are available. Hill argues that recognizing these habits with compassion, as adaptations rather than flaws, is key to promoting lasting healthy change.

Sarah Hill is currently a researcher and professor at TCU, lead research advisor at 28, and a thought leader in the area of women’s hormones and sexual psychology. Sarah’s groundbreaking research has resulted in more than 80 research publications. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Scientific American, The Economist, and on television shows like Good Morning and The Today Show.

See her profile here.

The full article is available here:

Looking to know more - simply click on Sarah's icon below to arrange an interview time today.

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Sarah Hill

Professor, Psychology

Dr. Hill specializes in research on women's sexual psychology, sex hormones, and the birth control pill.

Women's PsychologySex HormonesThe Birth Control PillInterpersonal RelationshipsMenstrual Cycle

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Fewer Essays, Fiercer Odds: The New College Application Math

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As summer temperatures climb, so does interest in cucumbers — crunchy, hydrating, and long rumored to be a “negative-calorie food” that burns more energy to digest than it provides. It's a claim that circulates every year in diet culture, but it isn't true. The New York Times recently set out to separate the nutrition science from the myth, and turned to registered dietitians for a clear-eyed answer. Dr. Gina Jarman Hill is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Christian University. A Registered and Licensed Dietitian, she has worked as a clinical and consultant dietitian and is a member of the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition (HEN) and Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine dietetic practice groups. Her teaching and research center on food and sustainability, nutrition ecology, community nutrition, and public health — with particular expertise in food security, urban agriculture, and hunger. She earned her BS, MS, and PhD in Food and Nutrition from Texas Tech University and was named the Texas Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' Outstanding Nutrition Educator in 2017. Dr. Hill was recently featured in The New York Times article “How Healthy Are Cucumbers?” by Amanda Schupak (July 13, 2026), which examines what cucumbers do — and don't — offer nutritionally. Read the full article here. A 10.5-ounce unpeeled garden cucumber, for instance, contains just over one cup of water and 45 calories. Gina Jarman Hill, a professor of nutritional sciences at Texas Christian University, said there is a common misconception that cucumbers are “negative-calorie foods” — meaning they contain fewer calories than it takes to burn digesting them. “There’s no such thing as a ‘negative-calorie food,’” she said, but because the number of calories in cucumbers is so low, they’re about as close as you will get to one. As long as you’re mindful of what you pair them with, Dr. Hill said, there is no reason to curb your cucumber consumption. Dr. Hill is available to speak with media on nutrition myths, food security, sustainable and urban agriculture, community nutrition education, and healthy eating on a budget — timely topics as outlets continue to cover diet trends, food waste, and seasonal eating. To arrange an interview or request a comment, click through to Dr. Hill's profile below.