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Amanda Merck

Merck completed her MPH with a concentration in Physical Activity and Health. She curates content for Salud America! (@SaludAmerica), a Latino childhood obesity prevention project based at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. She focuses on the latest research, resources, and stories related to policy, systems, and environmental changes to enhance equitable access to safe places for kids and families to walk, bike, and play.

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Articles by Amanda Merck

Get Snap-Happy and Celebrate National School Breakfast Week!



Do you and your kids eat breakfast? Research shows that when kids have a nutritious breakfast, they do better academically and have less risk of obesity-related diseases. Unfortunately, about half of low-income students don’t eat breakfast, a recent study shows. For National School Breakfast Week (March 7-11), we at Salud America! (@SaludToday on social media) are using social media to promote healthy breakfast at school and at home for Latino and all kids. We invite you to snap a picture of you and/or your child having breakfast at home or at school and share it using #SaludNSBW / #NSBW16 on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for your chance to win a T-shirt and jump rope! Salud America!, a Latino childhood obesity network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and ...

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8 Jobs that Can Harm Your Heart


Heartache

Eight professions are among the most challenging to a person's heart health—salesperson, administrative support staff, police officers and firefighters, transportation/material movers, a grocery/consumer store employee—according to new research, CNN reports. American Heart Association researchers studies health habits of over 5,500 people age 45 or older who did not have a history of heart disease or stroke. The habits include: blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, fitness levels, diet, smoking, and obesity. Most salespeople surveyed were determined to have poor eating habits (68%) and poor cholesterol levels (69%). Of administrative staff, less than 21% met recommended physical activity standards. Despite the fitness standards of many police and fire departments, ...

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Move It Monday’s Monday Mile Toolkit to Start a Walking Group



The Monday Mile is a fun way to jump-start your week with a healthy dose of physical activity. Starting your own Monday Mile walking group is easy. Here’s seven steps you need to get going: Map your Monday Mile: Pick a starting point for your group to meet. Easily create a mile-long walking route using MapMyWalk or Gmap-Pedometer. Announce your Monday Mile: If your school or workplace allows it, send an announcement via interoffice or school-wide email. Also consider creating a Facebook group for your group and encourage participants to join. Mark your route: Consider marking your route with Monday Mile Markers: Place markers at the ¼, ½, ¾ and 1 mile points. Meet and Mile: Show up on time, greet participants and enjoy your Monday Mile! Log those Monday Miles: ...

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Toolkit for Neighborhood Groups that Want to Improve their Food Environment



Sarah Custer, a fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center, worked with community leaders in New Orleans and healthy corner store advocates nationwide to develop the toolkit: Healthy Corner Stores for Healthy New Orleans Neighborhoods: A toolkit for neighborhood groups that want to take action to improve their food environment. The toolkit discusses: The role of small neighborhood stores Challengers for corner stores 12 healthy corner store strategies Access the toolkit through Tulane Prevention Research Center here. Copy and Share: 12 strategies for nbrhd groups to improve their food environment. @TulanePRC toolkit 4 corner stores. http://goo.gl/0woaJp ...

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Why Some Latinas Are ‘Going Vegan’



Several Latinas are praising the health virtues of "going vegan" after formerly eating meat, according to a recent Miami Herald column. These include Carolina Quijada, vegan chef of LovinGreens, Jeanette Ruiz, who conducts the Planted in Miami podcast, and Desiree Rodriguez, a ricanvegan.com blogger. Although a plant-based diet is a break from typical Latino tradition, the column indicates that these Latinas chose that lifestyle to boost fitness, overcome sickness and hypoglycemia, and prevent cancer and heart disease. “I wish there was more awareness for [Latinos]," Rodriguez told Miami Herald columnist, Ellen Kanner, a vegan herself. "A lot have the same diseases my family has. It’s so common—I hear them comparing medications. I feel like going vegan is a simple ...

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World Day of Physical Activity (Dia Mundial De Ativadede Física)



April 6, 2016 is the World Day of Physical Activity, and Portal Agita encourages you, your family, and your institution to organize physical activity-based events to celebrate this date. Although physical activity guidelines vary slightly across the globe, the primary message is consistent: Physical Activity is Health! Adults should accumulate at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day and children should accumulate at least 60 minutes per day. Additionally, everyone should limit time spent sitting. Click here for Portal Agita's 10  tips to participate in the World Day of Physical Activity. Copy and Share: 10 tips to plan activities for World Day of Physical Activity on April 6, 2016 http://goo.gl/1IDHMv  ...

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Warning: Obesity Can Lead to High Blood Pressure in Kids


latino kid at doctor

Children and teens that become or stay obese may face up to three times the risk for developing high blood pressure, according to a new report from the HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research in Bloomington, Minn. This has strong implications for Latino children, nearly 40% of whom are overweight or obese, compared to about 32% of all U.S. children. For the study, the researchers collected data on more than 100,000 children and teens in California, Colorado, and Minnesota—which have growing Latino population segments—between 2007 and 2011. During the study, 0.3% of the kids developed high blood pressure. The researchers found that kids ages 3-11 who went from overweight to obese had more than twice the odds of developing high blood pressure during the short ...

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WINNER: Growing Nutrition (and Business)


Ana Suffle school garden

Question: How do you teach kids about farming, nutrition, and business all at the same time? Answer: A school garden! The "El Jardin, La Cocina y El Mercado" school garden at Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas, teaches students how to farm and grow plants like their ancestors, how to prepare healthy traditional Latino favorites, like nopales, and how to learn business skills by selling their produce at their own market. The garden just won the Salud America! #SaludHeroes video voting contest! Read their story or watch their winning video about the steps they took to plan, mobilize support for, design, and implement the garden, which is a outgrowth of collaboration among teacher Anna Suffle, school and district administrators, a local policymaker, and community groups and ...

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Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation Developed Transportation Platform



In September 2015, Denver's Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC) adopted a transportation platform which provides a collaborative framework for residents and decision-makers to discuss transportation policy positions: communications/transparency, planning and funding, safety/health, walkability, bikeability, transit, and parking. Denver's Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC) was founded in 1975, to ensure residents and neighborhood organizations are informed and engaged in the public policy and decision-making process, and currently represents about 100 neighborhoods throughout the city. See three of 88 positions in the transportation platform below: Communications / Transparency  Denver and other transportation agencies should adopt comprehensive data-driven ...

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