California’s rural communities face physical, geographic, social, and economic barriers to good health. High obesity rates in rural areas point to the need for healthier eating and drinking habits. CA4Health, in collaboration with ChangeLab Solutions, developed Reach for More: Healthier Beverage Vending for Government Agencies in Rural Settings to help communities assess their current procurement and vending contracts and policies. This guide outlines the context, steps, and relationships necessary for successfully implementing healthy vending in rural settings. While the guide is geared towards rural communities in California, any rural community in the U.S. could benefit from from information shared. Download the guide ...
Obese Latinos struggle more than four times as much with binge eating disorder than the overall population, according to a post by The Bella Vita Eating Disorder Program. Why is binge eating a problem for Latinos? Dr. Patricia Pitts, founder and CEO of The Bella Vita, mentions three reasons: Acculturation (the adjustment to a new culture). "The negative effects of acculturation to American culture on diet and substance use are emerging in the research. Acculturation also carries health risks for both obesity, type two diabetes, and cardiovascular disease."
Income. "Low-income individuals must deal with barriers to affordable, quality fruits and vegetables, walking or exercising in unsafe neighborhoods, and finding the time to engage in healthy eating habits while struggling ...
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) released a new study on retail stores’ promotion of candy, soda, and other unhealthy foods at checkout. The study, “Sugar Overload: Retail Checkout Promotes Obesity,” found that a wide array of chain stores—ranging from supermarkets and drug stores to hardware and toy stores—push sugary and salty junk food on people as they wait in line. The study recommends that non-food stores stop selling food and drinks at checkout and that food stores adopt nutrition standards for the foods they sell at checkout. Click here to learn more and to download the one-page summary or the full ...
The HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Eat Healthy – Be Active workshops are now available in Spanish. Each workshop promotes evidence-based health information and learning materials for Spanish speaking consumers to make informed decisions related to nutrition and physical activity and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Materials are designed for people with limited health literacy. Order “Eat Healthy—Be Active” workshop materials in Spanish and ...
What foods are available in the home, what parents consume, and eating meals together as a family are important in improving urban-dwelling Hispanic children’s diet quality, according to a study by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Children who had sugar-sweetened beverages available in the home and watched television during family meals were more likely to score low on the Healthy Eating Index than children who had fruits and vegetables available and ate with their family—without the TV. Read the whole study ...
Although some communities have already seen obesity rates drop, many still lack access to healthy foods and safe places to play. This is especially true for rural communities, where obesity rates remain higher than in urban areas. To equip rural communities with the tools they need to fight childhood obesity, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Leadership for Healthy Communities has developed the Rural Childhood Obesity Prevention Toolkit. With this toolkit, readers can learn more about what puts rural youth at risk for becoming overweight or obese. The toolkit also provides insight into specific policy actions that can serve to improve active living and healthy eating in rural communities. The Rural Childhood Obesity Prevention Toolkit features two sections: Part 1: ...
It's no secret that restaurants' kids' meals tend to be unhealthy. What if local communities could ensure that kids' meals in their neighborhoods only offered food geared towards kids that was nutritious? NPLAN, a project of ChangeLab Solutions, has developed a model ordinance to help jurisdictions regulate the nutritional content of children’s meals sold at restaurants in their communities. Our Model Healthy Children’s Meals Ordinance provides local governments with a way to steer restaurants toward providing healthier options for children by setting nutrition standards for children’s meals. Using this model legislation, communities can choose to regulate the nutritional quality of either the entire children’s meal or the beverages served to children as part of a ...
A pilot program to encourage Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries to purchase healthier foods led to a 26 percent increase in fruit and vegetable consumption among participants, according to a final evaluation released last week by the Department of Agriculture. Between 2001 and 2013, the Healthy Incentives Pilot refunded SNAP beneficiaries in Massachusetts with 30 cents for every benefit dollar spent on fruits and vegetables. Read the final report summary ...
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides more than 8 million low-income pregnant women, new mothers, infants, and young children with monthly nutritious foods, nutrition education, and increased access to health care. 41% of WIC participants are Latinos. The WIC food packages were revised in 2007 to align the authorized food with the latest nutrition science and guidance, and the revisions were viewed positively by a majority of participants. As seen in this report, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests the revised WIC food packages have favorable impacts on dietary intake, breastfeeding outcomes, and obesity rates. In addition, emerging studies suggest an important role for WIC in improving neighborhood food ...
