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People care deeply about health; however, with so many complicated messages from health experts and contradicting messages from food manufacturers, as well as lack of access to affordable healthy food, it can be very difficult for families to make truly healthy choices. Latinos, in particular, face additional barriers to access healthy food, thus face higher rates of obesity and related chronic diseases.
The City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health) launched a new ¡Viva Health! Eat well, feel great. Come bien, sientete bien. campaign in March 2017 to target the biggest public health threats of this generation—obesity and diabetes. Obesity is linked to numerous burdensome chronic diseases and diminished quality of life, and diabetes can lead to blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure, and death.
In Bexar County, (59.5% Latino), 14.2% of adults have diabetes, compared to a national average of 9.3%.
The 2017 campaign focuses on nutrition education and uses as its central image, the ¡Viva Health! plate, and its three core messages in English and Spanish:
1.) Fill half your plate with fruit and vegetables every meal, every day
2.) For portion control, use a smaller plate
3.) Drink water, not sugary drinks
All ¡Viva Health! campaign resources are free, to assist Metro Health and other programs unite in how nutrition is communicated to the public, connecting the desire of people to feel great, with the foods they eat as the vehicle to get them there.
Simplifying health messages and ensuring that messages are culturally relevant is critical to combat unhealthy targeted messages from sugary beverage manufacturers, unhealthy snack food manufacturers, and baby food manufacturers.
“It’s unacceptable that Latino preschoolers see dozens of unhealthy snack food ads on Spanish-language TV, and that’s not even counting what they see on English-language programming,” Ramirez said.
Warning labels on sugary drinks, for example, impact teens sugary drink choices.
Spread the word and raise the bar for clear, honest health messaging from your health department as well as from food and drink manufacturers.
By The Numbers
1
Supermarket
for every Latino neighborhood, compared to 3 for every non-Latino neighborhood
