Latino kids face dire rates of obesity, diabetes, and related conditions. Can you be a Salud Leader for kids? Salud America!, a Latino childhood obesity prevention network, is recruiting Salud Leaders to join a national movement to start and support healthy changes in communities and schools. A Salud Leader is a parent, school personnel, or community leader who drives healthy changes like working to unlock playgrounds for use after school hours, pushing for healthier food options, starting a farmers market, removing sugary drinks from daycares, etc. If you sign up, you get (for free): A spot on our national Salud Leader map.
The ability to connect with other local leaders and see trending policies and stories.
Customized data about the health issues in your area (a ...
Latino kids need your HELP! Over 39% of Latino kids are overweight or obese in the U.S., and many have poor access to fresh fruits and vegetables and face rising diabetes rates. Let’s tweet about what you can do to become a Salud Leader for Latino kids! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: How YOU Can Be a “Salud Leader” for Latino Kids”
TIME/DATE: Noon CST (1 p.m. EST) Tuesday, March 22, 2016
WHERE: On Twitter #SaludTues
HOST: SaludToday (@SaludToday)
CO-HOSTS: Community Commons (@CommunityCommon) & Moms Rising (@MomsRising) Be sure to use the hashtag #SaludTues to follow the conversation on Twitter! #SaludTues is a weekly Tweetchat about Latino health at 12p CST/1p ET every Tuesday and hosted by @SaludToday, the Latino health social media campaign for ...
March 16 is National Kick Butts Day—a day for kids and teens to take a stand against smoking. According to national data, 95% of smokers began smoking before turning 21 and more than 11% of Latino adults are current smokers. How can you raise awareness? Join the movement today by sharing your story on social media using #IKickButts and check out the live gallery of leaders kicking ...
A new study reveals that a whopping 60% of what we eat in the U.S. is considered "junk food" loaded with fat, salt, and sugar that we’re not supposed to eat, NBC Health reports. The study reports that this is evidence of why two-thirds of Americans and why 60% of Latinos in the U.S. are overweight or obese. "The most common ultra-processed foods in terms of energy contribution were breads, soft drinks, fruit drinks, and milk-based drinks; cakes, cookies, and pies; salty snacks; frozen and shelf-stable plates; pizza and breakfast cereals," Dr. Carlos Augusto Monteiro of the University of São Paulo and colleagues there, and at Tufts University in Boston, wrote in their report. The study found that just under 650 calories of the average 2,000 calorie-a-day-diet were from fruits ...
A new study found that moderate-intensity dancing can lower a person's risk of dying from heart disease, which disproportionately affects Latinos, Reuters reports. The study included questions about frequency, duration, and intensity of dancing and walking over a four-week period. Only about 3,100 of the 48,000 people surveyed reported dancing of any intensity, and nearly two-thirds said they walked at any intensity. In the study's follow-up, heart disease had caused 1,714 deaths. People who reported moderate-intensity dancing and walking were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those who did not. “It is not surprising that moderate-intensity physical activity is protective against cardiovascular disease mortality,” lead author Dafna Merom of the University ...
Latinas who eat more processed meat (about a strip of bacon a day) had almost double the risk of breast cancer than Latinas who ate little or no meats, according to a new study, the Sacramento Bee reports. The study, led by the University of Southern California (USC) and one of the few to explore Latinas' meat consumption, found that Latinas who consumed daily more than 20 mg of processed meats, like sausage, bacon, and lunch meat, were 42% more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than Latinas who consumed less. The researchers didn't find a similar difference among white women who ate more processed meat. Addressing causes for the higher cancer risk among Latinas was not part of the study. The authors and researchers were solely focused on exploring whether eating ...
Caffeine is a daily part of life for many Americans. Almost 85% of the adult population drink at least one caffeinated beverage a day, according to data. Latinos drink the most—67% of all Latino adults drink at least one a day, NBC Latino reports. But how much caffeine is safe? March is National Caffeine Awareness Month, a good time to learn about this popular alkaloid commonly found in coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, and now found in unexpected places such as ice creams and over-the-counter pain medicines. Caffeine, which acts as a stimulant on the central nervous system, is found naturally in over 60 plants, like coffee beans, tea leaves, and in cacao (the base for chocolate). It also can be produced synthetically. Moderate consumption has some positive ...
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 ...
On average, Americans are not getting enough sleep according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The study found that, on average, over 60% of Latinos ages 18 to 60 get the recommended hours of sleep compared to Whites (67%) and African Americans (54%). “As a nation we are not getting enough sleep,” said Dr. Wayne Giles, director of CDC’s Division of Population Health. According to the CDC, sleeping less than 7 hours each day is associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, and mental distress. “Lifestyle changes such as going to bed at the same time each night; rising at the same time each morning; and turning off or removing televisions, computers, mobile devices from the bedroom, can help ...
