Articles by Amanda Merck

Study: Rice May Cause Diabetes

May 9, 2016

Eating white rice may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes -- a condition that affects millions of Latinos, according to a recent study by Harvard University, Univision reports. For the study, researchers reviewed “four earlier studies involving more than 352,000 people from China, Japan, the United States, and Australia who were tracked between four and 22 years.” At the end of their review, researcher Qi Sun and his team concluded that individuals who have three to four servings of rice a day were 1.5 times more likely to have diabetes than those who ate less. “People should try to make a switch from eating refined carbs like white rice and white bread to eating more whole grains,” Sun told Time magazine. Experts believe the high glycemic index in rice is to ...

Cities Design Gender Into and Out of Public Spaces

May 9, 2016

The public domain has been long dominated by men, while the private domain is left for women. (nowhere, except Target bathrooms, is inclusive of individuals who identify otherwise.) In 2004, Maya Barkai began collecting images of crosswalk light symbols from cities around the world, which turned into the project "Walking Men Worldwide." Only about 10 out 180 symbols are gendered female. "Creating female crosswalk icons — even if it requires us to use imperfect, clichéd markers of femininity — is inherently valuable because it challenges the male-centeredness of our public space," according to one source. In the spirit of inclusivity, some would argue that creating male-female gender binaries is not the solution, because it excludes trans and gender nonconforming people. ...

Infographic: Tiempo Sedentario

May 5, 2016

Active Living Research translated their popular Youth Sedentary Time infographic into Spanish. This infographic features evidence on trends in sedentary behaviors among youth and their impact on obesity. Findings presented in this infographic come from a related ALR research review. Learn more about how sedentary behavior impacts obesity here. Copy and Share: Watching television & other screens (while sitting) increases the risk for obesity in kids. http://salud.to/1WajPmY @SaludToday pic.twitter.com/TyIBU4NRp8 Copy and Share: Ver la tele aumenta el riesgo de obesidad. http://salud.to/1WajPmY @SaludToday ...

Are Your Children Walking/Biking to School?

May 4, 2016
Salud America

Data from the National Center for Safe Routes to School show that children who walk or bike to school have a lower risk for diseases that affect Latinos disproportionately such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. To raise awareness of the health and academic benefits of walking/biking to school Safe Routes organizes the National Walk/Bike to School Day. Take a look at the events happening in your community go here. Also, watch how this #SaludHero pushed for policies to make it easier and safer for children to “bike train” or walk to school in Fairfax, ...

Kaboom Play Everywhere Challenge

May 3, 2016

http://www.880cities.org/doablecity/hidden-assets/

Starting May 3, 2016, Kaboom will award $1 million in prizes through their Play Everywhere Challenge, in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Target, Playworld, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Play Everywhere Challenge is a national competition for community-driven solutions that integrate play into everyday life and unexpected places, like sidewalks, vacant lots, bus stops, open streets, and beyond. Applicants should consider replicable, scalable innovations in city redevelopment and design that will help make play easy, available, and fun for kids and families. Cities are prime settings for innovative active spaces initiatives because city design impacts human behavior, thus cities have the ...

WINNER: Health For Kids, By Kids

May 3, 2016

Do kids have the power to change America’s “fattest” city? Yes! A group of middle school students created a healthy eating and activity program to teach elementary students in Corpus Christi, Texas—once dubbed the nation's fattest city. Now they've won the Salud America! #SaludHeroes video voting contest! Watch their winning video or read their story about how Sarita Damaraju, Doug Hagemeister, and other students planned, mobilized support for, design, and implemented their for-kids, by-kids educational program "Mission FitPossible" across Corpus Christi Independent School District. The program includes nutrition education videos, “Fitness Jeopardy,” jump rope contests, fitness challenges, and a 5K event over 10 weeks. “Seeing kids actually get excited ...

Breast Milk Linked to Significant Early Brain Growth in Premature Babies

May 2, 2016

A team of researchers studying preterm infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Louis Children’s Hospital found that premature babies whose daily diets consisted of 50 percent breast milk had more brain tissue by their due dates than premature babies who consumed significantly less breast milk. One notable finding is that researchers didn’t distinguish between milk from the babies’ own mothers and milk donated by other women. Breastfeeding has numerous positive effects on children, one of which is reduce risk for obesity. The researchers plan to follow these babies through their first years of life to look at their growth and motor, cognitive, and social development, because researchers believe they will be able to determine the effects of early exposure ...

Complete Parks Playbook in Spanish

May 2, 2016

Latino communities often lack access to safe parks and green spaces, thus are less physically active and at increased risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic diseases. ChangeLab Solutions now offers the Complete Parks Playbook in Spanish, Los sistemas completos de parques, to help decision makers in Latino communities assess and improve their park system. Decision makers cannot determine park access by park existence alone, but they must take into account numerous factors: how people travel to parks; how parks are designed; what types of activities and amenities are provided; how, by whom and when parks are used; what types of plants and trees are planted in parks; how parks are maintained; and how parks are funded. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the ...

Minnesota Bill Proposes that the DOE Employs a Swimming and Water Safety Specialist

April 29, 2016

UPDATE on February 2016 post Minnesota DOE Releases Statewide Swimming Resources Inventory and Work Group Reports: Now What?. On April 6, 2016, Minnesota Representative Karen Clark introduced HF 3830, and Minnesota Senator Patricia Torres Ray introduced companion bill SF 3472, directing the Department of Education to employ a swimming and water safety specialist and appropriate money. This comes after the Minnesota Department of Education report on swimming resources inventory. Section 1. SWIMMING AND WATER SAFETY SPECIALIST. The Department of Education must employ a swimming and water safety specialist to develop a model kindergarten through grade 12 swimming and water safety curriculum and implementation guidelines, and develop and provide professional ...

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Amanda Merck

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