Research has proven numerous times that breastfeeding reduces obesity, helps babies fight infections, and lowers the risk of asthma. According to new research, children that were breastfed also behave better in school, Time Live reports. Researchers from Glasgow University conducted the study among 1,500 children from South Africa between the ages of 7 and 11 and concluded that those who drank breast milk for six months or more had an easier time behaving in school than those who were breastfed for less than a month. “The duration of exclusive breastfeeding of an infant has greater importance than previously realized in several areas of development," Tamsen Rochat of the Human Science Research Council in Durban told Time Live. Learn more about breastfeeding and Latinos ...
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 ...
Westwood Unidos and Re:Vision, two local organizations in the Westwood neighborhood of Denver, Colo. (31.2% Latino population) were already working to make the area a healthier place for families. Westwood Unidos organized local community members, like Fany Mendez, to teach fitness classes in their spare time wherever they could, such as schools, churches, and even bars. When Westwood Unidos learned about a small building that was going to be torn down on a piece of land recently purchased by Re:Vision, Westwood Unidos raised the money to transform the building into a community center named La Casita, with educational and physical activity classes taught by Mendez and local community members.
Westwood Families Not Active Enough
Fany Mendez, before she became the Coordinator of La ...
The Urban Institute's mission is to open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions through economic and social policy research. Health is high on the list, not only because of the ever-increasing healthcare costs and societal costs related to American's poor health-obesity, heart disease, diabetes-but health is influenced by numerous aspects of our lives, not just what happens in the doctors office. In the Urban Institute paints the picture of health in America in their The Picture of Health: At Home, at Work, at Every Age, in Every Community series, which was funded with support from the Lawrence & Rebecca Stern Family foundation, Inc. The Picture of Health project weaves research into storytelling, looking at numerous aspects of our lives that influence health. The ...
A new coalition has joined together as the Healthy Boulder Kids, aimed to help advocate healthier changes for kids in the state to have equal access to healthy foods and opportunities for activity. The group also is aiming to help prevent childhood health risks like diabetes and obesity and is submitting language for an excise tax on distributors of 2 cents per ounce on sugary drinks that contain at least 5 grams of sugar, high-fructose corn syrup or other added sweeteners per 12 fluid ounces. The measure would provide funding for programs that give greater access and opportunity for healthy foods and exercise for families and children living in Boulder. It would also not tax 100 percent fruit juice, vegetable juices (with no added sweeteners), milk products, liquid medicines, ...
According to the U.S. Military Processing Exam, 62,000 new recruits to the military were turned away in joining the military due to their weight. Juan Cardenas, a member of the Marine Corps junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) at Northridge High School, offered fellow students a presentation on healthier foods, nutrition, calories, and label reading. Sixteen year old Cardenas said in a local article, that he wasn't always the strongest and fastest kid, but was always the bigger kid, but now he is the kid that can "hold his own" and compete. Cardenas knows that eating healthy and exercising has helped him and hopes to show that to his peers. Latino kids are at higher risks for diet-related dieseases like obesity and diabetes, and according to the the local article, ...
Recently, the County Health Rankings for the state of California were recently released, and the figures revealed a great deal of information on the living conditions in the different counties. Marin County topped the list as the overall healthiest county in the state for the seventh year in a row. The study measured the overall health of counties measuring a number of factors including graduation rates, access to healthy foods, obesity, smoking rates, and teenage births. Marin County (15.74% Latino population) placed highest in life expectancy, had high rates of adults with good body weights, and low rates of violent crime and unemployment. “Community investments such as reserving land for open space and social norms around healthy eating and staying active have helped [Marin ...
Gaby Medina, a mom and health educator in the neighborhood of Westwood, in Denver, Colo. (79.36%), 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 Latino 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 Latina 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 ...
In the 1990's, with initial funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) committed to transforming the East Lake Meadows neighborhood. Atlanta (10.2% Latino) real estate mogul and philanthropist Tom Cousins then founded the East Lake Foundation (ELF) to support more broad goals of the neighborhood transformation, such as incarceration and the notion of place to improve life outcomes. The planning process took two years and the bulk of the project took ten, which included: replacing the substandard public units with high-quality mixed-income housing; creating an education hub with an early childhood education center, a charter school, and robust after school programming; revitalize a nearby private golf course to ...
