Having access to clean drinkable water and healthy fresh foods is vital in ensuring children grow up to be a healthy weight. New funds from the state's congressional delegation recently announced that $2.1 million in funds will go to help position new AmeriCorps members into volunteer services for the state. One organization called the Washington County Youth Service Bureau Boys and Girls Club, will help to ensure children of veteran and military families grow up to be a healthy weight. They will receive $325,000 for 26 volunteers, that will help to implement initiatives to help prevent childhood obesity in the state. More funds will also be used to help position AmeriCorps members in addressing problems in affordable housing, water quality, and veteran affairs. To ...
A new government study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that teens are preferring water more often than soda. According to a recent article, the CDC surveyed teens in 2015, finding 74% of students drank one or more glasses of water a day, and 26% of students reported not drinking any sugary soda at all in seven days, up from 19% in 2007. President of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Michale Jacobson explained in the article that many campaigns have been educating parents and kids about the harms that soda consumption can lead to in one's health, leading efforts to reduce sugary drinks in schools, public vending machines, and with soda taxes, limiting students on these options and helping them to cut out sugary drinks from their ...
For decades artificial sweeteners have been a sugar substitute especially among Latinos and all people who have diabetes, but according to a new study, sugar alternatives may cause people to eat more and sleep less, Univision reports. For their research, investigators from Australia gave sucralose (a chemical present in many artificial sweeteners) to fruit flies and mice and discovered that both of these animals consumed more calories than those animals in a real sugar diet. According to the investigators artificial sweeteners cause a neuronal disequilibrium when the brain is tricked into thinking the body is consuming real sugar but the calories are not existent; thus forcing the brain to send the message to the body to eat more. “These results show us that food 'sugar-free' ...
The state of Alaska has started the "Play Every Day" campaign to help boost physical activity and reduce sugary drink consumption among families across the state, where two out of three Alaskan adults are now overweight or obese and one out of three Alaskan children are overweight or obese. The new campaign asks kids to drink more water and understand that they don't need sports drinks to play sports. Public service announcement videos for families are also available on the campaign's website, talking about the sugar content in drinks. Posters inform students that even one sweet beverage a day, like a powdered drink, can lead to cavities, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes. The goal of the campaign is to help reduce consumption of drinks that have added sugars, but also to ...
As visitors entered the public library in Clyde, Ohio, (5.9% Latino) students from Ohio State University (OSU) are encouraging them to think about the sugar amounts in their favorite sports drinks, coffee drinks, and juices, according to a local news article. The presentation was part of the "Rethink Your Drink" campaign aiming at helping library visitors to understand how sugary drinks impact their health. The presentations showed how Monster energy drinks contain 54 grams of added sugar or in regular terms, 14 packages of sugar, explained Katie LaPlant, the extension office's educator, according to the Fremont News Messenger. Research shows that consuming the added sugars in soda, sports drinks, and some juice drinks are linked to tooth decay, heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes ...
Various cities throughout the nation are thinking about soda taxes or working on reducing beverages like energy drinks, and unnatural juices in schools, and city vending machines. Now Raley's, a privately owned and family operated supermarket chain in West Sacramento will be removing name-brand sodas from their stores. The 121 stores are located in Northern California and Nevada under four names: Raley's Supermarkets, Bel Air Markets, Nob Hill Foods and Food Source. A recent article explains the decision to remove these type of beverages from the store was to advance their vision of health and wellness, wanting to "make it easier" for their costumers to make healthier choices. Latino kids ages 0-5 consume more sugary drinks than their peers, and about 74% of Latinos have had a ...
New reports reveal that childhood obesity rates are declining and the national diet is improving.
According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, communities of color and low-income are more likely to be hit by higher rates of childhood obesity, however, states across the nation have shown signs of progress! For example, Georgia has seen a 10.8% decline in obesity among children ages 2-4, New Mexico has also seen a 15.1% and 11.1% decline in overweight and obesity among children, and in a Wisconsin school district, a report shows a combined overweight and obesity decline of 30.2%.
How are these communities ensuring healthy weights for kids?
Communities are building a culture of health by working together to increase consumption of healthier foods and beverages and increase physical ...
Two years ago San Francisco, Calif. tried to put a two-cents-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages, the proposal failed at 54.4% of the vote falling short, now trying again the proposal looks at a penny per ounce tax with proceeds going towards health programs. The proposal for the new tax was set to be placed on the ballot last month, but signatures were turned into late, according to a recent article. A warning label law on the health risks associated with consumption of soda is still being considered in San Francisco as well. Advocates of these new efforts towards soda tax laws reveal the evidence to their communities and council members of the high amounts of sugar in many soda or sweet drinks, which have no nutritional value, are the leading causes of diabetes and obesity among ...
The City Council of Stockton, California (32.5% Latino) has unanimously passed a new ordinance to reduce sugary beverage consumption among kids. The ordinance will require all restaurants in the city that offer kids meals to offer water and low-fat milk as the only default beverages. Cities across the country, in Davis, Calif, Philly, Illi., Denver, Colo., Virginia and more, are working on reducing sugary beverage consumption among kids and teens, as soda's and energy drinks with high sugar content have been shown to be the products that contribute most to added sugars in a child's daily diet. Research shows that about 74% of Latinos have had a sugary drink by age two. Having measures that reduce sugar consumptions at early ages of childhood, may help the healthy choice become ...
