New cooking classes at Weymouth Middle School are helping kids think twice about how to make a pizza crust and how to eat at home with new ingredients in their recipes. John Mullaney, the health class teacher said this idea came up after brainstorming ideas, and he discussed the idea of creating new healthier recipes with the school district's dietitian, Kelsey Massis of Chartwells Food Service. He wanted to help kids come up with new ingredients that use less sugar and less flour with his student's recipes while cooking in class. Mullaney hoped that kids would be creative, and they were. Students like Brook Pelley used skim milk and low-fat cheese in her macaroni and cheese, and Brook Ferbert who used a salsa that had a variety of fresh vegetables. Other students used ...
The Vision Zero Network conducted a case study to identify the key elements that distinguish Vision Zero from traditional approaches to traffic safety. What makes Vision Zero an innovative road safety policy with the potential to make our streets safe? Reframing traffic deaths as preventable
Focusing on system failure
Reducing the impact of collisions
Adopting a Safe System approach
Data-driven decision-making
Road safety as a community issue The U.S. often lags behind other countries in traffic safety. Read the case study ...
A new study from the University of Iowa is researching if obesity rates are affected in communities where restaurants label calorie counts on menus. Since 2011, the study has collected calorie-labeled menus from various restaurants where local ordinances require restaurants to publish calorie counts. Researchers have revealed that early evidence from the study suggest that the body mass index (BMI) has fallen over time in areas with required menu labeling, compared to nearby counties. However, David Frisvold, the main researcher and assistant professor of economics at the Tippie College of Business, said in an article that most of the early studies on local menu-labeling laws have evaluated items ordered at large chain restaurants and shows no to little changes in diner's ordering ...
It will take all sectors of society to solve the obesity crisis. That's why on April 12, 2016, Dr. Amelie Ramirez and the rest of the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions will conduct a workshop on how business leaders can get involved in fighting obesity. Tune in here for the free workshop, which is set for 9 a.m. EST Tuesday, April 12, 2016. The workshop will feature expert speakers and discussion on why and how to encourage the business community to be involved in obesity solutions, identify reasons why businesses might be interested in being involved, and demonstrate ways they can be engaged with a focus on community level multi-sector collaborations. Ramirez, director of Salud America! and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, is a member of the ...
Healthy cooking challenges are not just popular on TV. Now schools in Fairfax Count, Va. are cooking up healthier meals in the Real Food For Kids (RFFK)'s Culinary Challenge and Wellness Expo to change school menus, offering kids the chance to cook up something different, healthy and tasty. To help change school menus to offer more healthy and tasty foods, the challenges gives kids the chance to cook up something different, healthy and tasty and help sprout new ideas into the school menu, all while staying in school budget limits. Twelve Fairfax County Schools competed for awards in three categories, including Smart snacks, Grab 'N Go, and Makeover Lunch Challenge. The challenge was to make a meal that would work within the schools nutrition, portion and cost standards. ...
Montezuma County (12.2 % Latino), Colorado, was once well known for its blooming apple orchards. Back in 1904, three Gold Medals were awarded to the county at the St. Louis World’s Fair. But for years, these fresh apples weren’t always available to kids at local schools. Now, with the help of farm-to-school leaders like Sarah Syverson and other groups, Cortez Middle School is growing a garden and an entire apple orchard to bring new fresh foods to local school cafeterias and to the school’s farmers market.
Fresh Fruit and Produce and the Community
Awareness: Sarah Syverson, director of the Montezuma School to Farm Project (MSTFP) in Montezuma County, Colo., was proud of the school garden at Cortez Middle School (CMS). Established in 2013, the schools garden was a place ...
A study from Preventing Chronic Disease showed that after district-wide policies were implemented across Boston schools, students had less access to sugar-sweetened beverages. The data showed that after a ban of sugary drinks in 2004, 89.6% of all schools studied met beverage nutrition standards, with elementary schools showing the most compliance at 93.6 percent. Through the study, researchers also found that when these nutrition standards were met at 85.5 percent of schools studied, only four percent of students had little to no access to competitive beverages or sugary beverages at school. Rebecca S. Mozaffarian, MS, MPH of the department of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health explained in a recent article that these findings from the ...
Gaby Medina, a mom and health educator in the neighborhood of Westwood, in Denver, Colo. (79.36% Latino), didn’t have a lot of faith in the safety of local tap water when she arrived here from Mexico. Much of Denver's foreign-born population similarly distrust the safety of tap water. However, Gaby eventually learned to trust the water. She then took a big step to make sure her family, friends, and fellow residents across the community understand that tap water is far safer, healthier, and more affordable than sugary drinks.
Is tap water safe? Gabriela “Gaby” Medina is your average mom who wants to help her 10-year-old daughter and her family live happy, healthy lives. In Mexico, tap water is not always safe to drink. “Initially, yes, I was hesitant [about ...
Are you wearing green? Today is St. Patrick’s Day most commonly known among Latinos as the Irish 5 de Mayo. Here are three ways you can celebrate in a healthy way:
1. Drink a Licuado Verde (Green Smoothie)
This green smoothie packs vitamins and proteins that will give you an energy boost! Watch San Antonio-based celebrity Chef Johnny Hernandez demonstrate the recipe. https://youtu.be/4SzD8YVkxp4
2. Jog
Lace up your tennis shoes and go for an evening jog around your neighborhood. A 20-minute jog will give you the right amount of boost to get you through your day like a champ!
3. Dance
Play your favorite salsa/merengue tunes. Research has shown that dancing not only is good for your physical health but also for your mental health. Happy St. Patrick’s ...
