“What you drink can either positively or negatively impact your mind, your body and your health,” said Vish Vasani, a public health specialist with the Minneapolis Health Department, in a recent news article. “Low-income communities and communities of color are more likely to regularly consume sugary drinks.” Latino Teens are more likely to drink sugary beverages like sodas. Minneapolis has had a growing young Latino population according to an article in 2014. Unfortunately, the city is has also grown in rates of obesity according to Vasani. The state is trying to slim down on their consumption of sodas and sugary beverages with a statewide educational campaign, "Rethink Your Drink". The campaign has shown progress as restaurants are changing menus to include more healthy ...
The new results are out for the 2013-2014 years within the National Secondary School Survey Results. This survey shows the School Policies and Practices to Improve Health and Prevent Obesity findings since the 2007 studies began. Surveys from school administrators, mostly principals, were taken to measure the success and areas in need for progress in regards to diet and physical activity in schools. The major findings revealed that schools have been making noticeable efforts in offering students healthier foods and beverages for lunch, however, many students still have easy access to sugary beverages and junk foods. Very little progress was reported for increasing physical activity among students during or after school times. In fact, physical education requirements for high school ...
Chicago, Illinois ( 28.9% Latino) is growing towards healthy connections for students by helping them connect to farmers and healthy foods through their classrooms. More and more schools in the area are allowing students to visit local farms, write to farmers, and learn what it takes to grow and harvest healthy foods as farm to school grows in Illinois. Programs like Adopt a Farmer, or free curriculums like Seven Generations Ahead are helping students understand the importance of where their food comes from, and what it takes to grow healthy foods. Field trips taken to farms like Angelic Organics Learning Farm, or Windy City Harvest Youth Farm are helping students become the next generation of food leaders. Farm to School in Illinois is taking off with urban farms and community ...
Science teacher and now paid brand ambassador of McDonalds', John Cisna, has been rolling out his infomercial video to schools across America, informing them that McDonalds helped him lose weight. In Cisna's documentary, 540 Meals: Choices Make the Difference, his daily choices at McDonalds lowers his caloric intake to help him loose weight and he starts having a more active lifestyle. Walking up to 45 minutes a day, where before he did not exercise at all, and eating at or less than 2,000 calories, when his body type required more than 3,000 calories to stay at his body weight of 280 pounds, he informs kids about a 'healthier lifestyle'. However effective Cisna is at losing weight in his documentary, it is not a way to market healthy food and lifestyle choices to kids, explains ...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 50% of all post-Millennial youths will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes during their lifetime. Latinos are the group that is likely to be the most susceptible to the disease. Two nursing school students from Arizona State University (ASU), Tatianna Alvarado and Jamie Karch have taken on roles in a community-based diabetes prevention program aimed at Latino youths called “Every Little Step Counts.” “Many of my family members have diabetes and my mother is a type 2 diabetic,” Alvarado said. “The last year of high school I took care of her. I’d interact with her, told her what diabetes was … but there was only so much I could do as a daughter.” The program is funded by a $1.2 grant from the ...
Camp Cauliflower is a cooking camp in Novato, Calif., where young students are learning what healthy cooking looks like for one week. Created by 17-year-old high school senior, Elena Dennis, the camp encourages young students to create healthy meals from the garden to the kitchen. Students harvest, cut, chop and cook alongside their older peers throughout the classes, all while learning what it takes to create a well-balanced meal. Elena, interested in starting this camp to encourage healthier diets for younger classmates, wanted to use her passion for cooking and nutrition in her school. She set out to make her dream of Camp Cauliflower become a reality in 2014 by asking food and nutrition director of Novato School District, Miguel Villarreal to help her start her camp. After ...
Popular TV host and Chef, Tyler Florence, is trying to bring fresh produce to the greater population with his #DrinkGoodDoGood campaign. Florence says that people who are concerned about food deserts, should be brave and inspire each other to do something about food insecurity. All social media users are asked to take selfies and put them on social media with the hashtag #DrinkGoodDoGood, Naked Juice will then donate 10 pounds of produce to Wholesome Wave. To learn about this movement more, read the article on Civil ...
Working on helping schools connect with farming and growing fresh foods, the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) is asking staff and all early care education schools to take a survey for feedback for future work. This survey will help NFSN with future projects in networking and advocacy for communities looking to bring local food sourcing and food and farm education to schools and pre-schools. To take the survey, click here. To learn more about NFSN, click ...
Did you know your child could consume up to 31,260 calories of unhealthy school foods and beverages in just one year! That is approximately 8.9 pounds of weight gain per year, according to a new graphic called "Food At School Parties", produced by the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living. This graphic estimates the number of foods kids eat during one school year of school parties. It gives parents, teachers, and schools a closer look into how many unhealthy snacks are being served. Revealing that if students have more than forty plus parties in a school year, they will most likely consume at least one of everything ( a cookie, pizza slice, cupcake, juice box, serving of chips, etc.) at each party. Many families are not concerned with a few school festivities here and ...
