Toolkit: How to Start a Walking School Bus at Your School



Morning physical activity boosts health and academic success! A walking school bus program increases pedestrian safety, reduces neighborhood crime, increases school attendance, and reduces hydrocarbon emissions from traffic. Sadly, Latinos often lack access to safe routes to schools, parks, or other destinations, thus are disproportionately burdened by health disparities and pedestrian fatalities. You can make a difference by starting a walking school bus. The Safe Routes to School National Partnership and California Department of Health created this step-by-step guide outlining how to plan and implement a walking school bus for your school. The toolkit includes proven tools, tips and resources for a fast and easy start. Here is your toolkit - Step-by-Step: How to ...

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Healthy Kingsport Initiative Keeps Kids Healthy & Hydrated



TimeNews  recently reported about how water bottles, hydrations stations, morning miles and a new playground are all a part of a bigger movement to get kids healthy in Sullivan County, Tenn where over 72.9% of adults are overweight or obese. A new campaign that works with the schools is taking root and helping to bring clean and easily accessible hydration stations for students to drink more water. called the Live Sugar Freed campaign is a local health and community leader effort to combat the high rates of type 2 diabetes and obesity in the Tri-Cities regions. The campaign is all about water over sugary beverages, 17, 200 bottles 37 water bottle refilling stations. The campaign, called the Live Sugar Freed campaign, is a local health and community leader effort to combat the ...

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New Study: Two Sugary or Artificially-Sweetened Drinks A Day Increase Diabetes Risk



Sugary beverages like soda, energy drinks, sweetened teas, lemonades, coffees and fruit juices are known to be an unhealthy daily drink and some say they are becoming the next big tobacco, as researchers continually find their link to elevated chronic health risks. Now new study put on by researchers at the Karolinska Institute have found that not only do sweetened beverages heighten the risk for diabetes, but also artificially-sweetened beverages had similar risks in study results. In fact, higher consumption for these two types of drinks increased a higher risk for type 2 diabetes by 20%. The researchers reviewed over 2,800 Swedish adults compared to adults with diabetes cases, and all results were adjusted for various measures. The results found that possible direct adverse ...

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Australia Estimates Implementing a Soda Tax Would Achieve A 14 Times Return on Health Care Expenditures



Many countries are talking more about reducing sugary beverage consumption after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on October 11th, 2016 it's suggestion to tax all sugary drinks by 20 percent to help reduce consumption. Now talks in Australia have bubbled up around reducing sugary drink consumption, as The Green Party campaigned announced a policy to tax sugary drinks at the recent federal election, reports Foodtank. The country currently stands at a 63% rate of obese or overweight adults and a 27% rate of children that are overweight or obese. The estimated billions in money saved on health care expenditures could benefit the direct cost of overweight and obesity expenditures. A longitudinal study also showed, that over $15.8 billion dollars are spent ...

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Santa Fe Mayor Wants to Actively Decrease Soda Consumption



Santa Fe, New Mexico (51.2% Latino) is still struggling with increasing rates of obesity among children and adults, where reports detail 28.8% percent of adults in the state are obese and 25.6% of kindergarten students were obese or overweight in 2015. The 2015 report from the New Mexico Childhood Obesity Update, revealed that third graders and kindergarten rates of obesity have decreased by 10.6% over six years, but the majority of students in New Mexico, namely Hispanic students, have experienced very little decline in rates of obesity over the last six years. Many in school efforts around healthier foods, and physical activity helped decrease the continued rising rates of childhood obesity, but now other efforts around sugary drink consumption are being discussed. Mayor ...

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Portugal Plans Sugar Tax on Sodas



After the World Health Organization suggested a 20% tax on sugary beverages for all countries, Portugal announced three days later a plan for a sugar tax on soft drinks for 2017, estimated to raise 80 million euros for public health services. Sugary drinks other than sodas like flavored milks or fruit juices will not be taxed, however all sodas are planned to be taxed that have a sugar content above 80 grams per litre. Back in November 2015, Portugal's center-right government tried to introduce a tax on sugar, drinks and foods that contained high amounts of sugars or too much salts but the efforts fell unnoticed. Trying again the political battles will fuel out the battle to determine the sugar tax and ultimately impact the future health of their country. Continued ...

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CSPI Urges Popular Hotels & Convention Centers to Support Healthier Meal Options



Millions of people attend conferences and conventions throughout the world every year and eat whatever is on the planned list for meals. Unfortunately, a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) found that there are very few "healthy" options in regards to menu options at these large hotel and convention centers. Reviewing over 70 hotel properties in the 25 largest U.S. cities, CSPI found most options that were considered "healthy" were not based on specific nutrition criteria. In fact, some meals labeled as "healthy" included desserts or pastries, which are often high in fat, calories or sugars. Fortunately, soft drinks were often in most hotels not included in the beverages included in conference or meeting catering options. On the other hand, ...

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New Zealand Doctors Want To End Sales of Sugary Drinks



Since the recent announcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) that all countries should implement a 20 percent soda tax to help reduce worldwide health risks linked to sugary drink consumption, many countries and health advocate groups have started talking about various new sugary drink reduction policy initiatives. Now a group of Doctors, researchers, and public health advocates have joined together with the goal of eliminating sugary drinks from New Zealand by 2025. The group, FIZZ, which stands for "Fighting Sugar in Softdrinks", states on their website their justification in ending sales of sodas is due to the tide of evidence that implicates consumption of sugary drinks with common health risks like type-2 diabetes, rotten teeth gout, and cardiovascular ...

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5 Perfect Tips to Stay Healthy for Dia de los Muertos, Holiday Season


latino halloween kids trick holiday

Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are a few days away. Thanksgiving and Christmas after. Yup, holiday season is upon us. That's why, as holiday parties and performances stack up on busy calendars, pediatrician Diana Bojorquez of Kaiser Permanente has five big tips to keep Latino adults and kids healthy and happy, and lower their risk of weight gain and associated health issues. 1. Get enough sleep. It’s important for everyone to maintain a regular shut-eye schedule – sleep restores and repairs our bodies, not to mention plentiful sleep helps with weight loss and mental capacity, among other health benefits. Adults should get 7 to 8 hours of sleep, and children need more, with very young ones needing as much as 12 hours nightly. 2. Prevent illness. There are little things, ...

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