The holidays bring more requests for food donations to help needy families at this time of the year, so ensuring the health of donated food is important, given the growth of obesity nationwide. “Providing healthier foods is important not only for our own families, but also for those who receive donated foods over the holidays,” said Dr. Sue Cunningham, assistant professor and program coordinator of the Dietetics and Nutrition Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Here are some tips for healthy holiday food donations from Dr. Cunningham and Dr. Carmen Roman-Shriver, director of the aforementioned Dietetics and Nutrition Program: Consider foods that are dense in nutrients, such as canned or dry beans or lentils, whole-grain pasta, rice, ...
Bailamos is Spanish for, “Let’s dance.” But in Cathy Bohnak’s Spanish class in Medina Valley High School in Castroville, Texas, students don’t just learn the term—they perform it. In class, students dance and march along to a pair of student-created dance videos while they recite and practice Spanish vocabulary words. “This is a fun way to get exercise and learn Spanish vocabulary at the same time,” Bohnak said. The dance videos are part of a schoolwide plan to get Medina Valley students moving. In addition to the Spanish class, activities to get students moving have been implemented in math and science classes, too. Several teachers also volunteered to host a video-led exercise session for students before school and a Salsa dance class after school. The ...
Rosemarie Burgos and Melanie Benitez were a bit nervous. The two teens—on a night when their friends might be home watching TV—were about to stand before the Common Council of New Britain, Conn., and argue that the city should plan to re-open pools to boost local physical activity options. But they came prepared. Months before that Sept. 8 city meeting, Benitez, Burgos and other Latina teens joined a pilot project led by the Community Health Center and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) through Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children. As part of the project, the girls took photos of parks and the closed pools littered with trash and graffiti, interviewed kids, parents and city officials on the need for ...
How does... A group of Latina teens get city leaders to boost activity in parks? (Page 1)
Spanish class get kids up and moving? (Page 3)
Cristina Barroso help Latinos' activity, body-image perceptions? (Page 5) Find the answers and more in the latest Salud America! E-newsletter. Also find out the latest in Latino childhood obesity policy, news and updates on Salud America! Salud America! is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation network to pevent obesity among Latino kids. The network is directed by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, which developed SaludToday. To sign up to receive Salud America! E-newsletters, go ...
Check out this Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) blog about Unity Health Care, which runs a health center in a Washington, D.C., area that is home to many recent Mexican and Central American immigrants: A 2008 study showed that, among the Latino population in DC, 60 percent of kids were overweight or obese—a staggering number, and one that Unity wanted to address.
On Wednesday morning at APHA, Dr. Eleni O’Donovan explained how they did.
O’Donovan and her colleagues began by adapting the national program We Can (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity and Nutrition) to fit the needs of their center. They identified ways they could help local families, who were already coming to the health center for other services, eat healthier foods and be more active. Using ...
The Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is joining others around the nation to improve Latino health as we recognize World Diabetes Day and on Nov. 14. Diabetes and obesity are some of top health issues facing Latinos in South Texas. The IHPR's South Texas Health Status Review identified obesity and diabetes disparities in the region, our Salud America! network targets Latino childhood obesity, and our SaludToday blog continues to highlight the latest research in these areas. Find out more about our efforts to improve Latino health here. Find resources on diabetes in English or ...
The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity's new report, Fast Food FACTS: Evaluating Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing to Youth, includes more information about fast-food ads seen by Latino and black youths. As reported by the Multi-American blog:
There is considerable evidence that exposure to marketing for fast food is even higher among African American and Hispanic youth. African American youth view almost 50% more TV advertisements for fast food than do white children and adolescents. Although differences in advertising exposure can be attributed in large part to the greater amount of time that African American and Hispanic youth spend watching television, fast food restaurants appear to disproportionately target African Americans and Hispanics with their marketing efforts. ...
Children as young as age 2 are seeing more fast food ads than ever, and restaurants rarely offer healthy kids’ meal choices, according to a new study by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. The new evaluation, the most comprehensive study of fast food nutrition and marketing ever conducted, studied marketing efforts of 12 of the nation’s largest fast food chains, and examined the calories, fat, sugar and sodium in more than 3,000 kids’ meal combinations and menu items. The study is being presented today at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting. Some alarming findings include: Out of 3,039 possible kids’ meal combinations, only 12 meet the researchers’ nutrition criteria for preschoolers. Only 15 meet nutrition criteria for older ...
Salud America!, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that is dedicated to reducing childhood obesity among Latinos, will be featured prominently at the upcoming American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting from Nov. 6-10, 2010, in Denver. If you're at the APHA Meeting, please attend the Salud America! session at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 8, 2010. Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America!, will lead the session, which will introduce the program and the challenges and potential solutions to Latino childhood obesity. Then you'll hear from a trio of Salud America! pilot researchers: Drs. Shari Barkin, Emma Sanchez and Cristina Barroso. Dr. Larry Green, Salud America! National Advisory Committee member, will serve as session respondent. Since its ...
