Do kids have the power to change America’s “fattest” city? Yes! A group of middle school students created a healthy eating and activity program to teach elementary students in Corpus Christi, Texas—once dubbed the nation's fattest city. Now they've won the Salud America! #SaludHeroes video voting contest! Watch their winning video or read their story about how Sarita Damaraju, Doug Hagemeister, and other students planned, mobilized support for, design, and implemented their for-kids, by-kids educational program "Mission FitPossible" across Corpus Christi Independent School District. The program includes nutrition education videos, “Fitness Jeopardy,” jump rope contests, fitness challenges, and a 5K event over 10 weeks. “Seeing kids actually get excited ...
By May next year (2017), convenience stores, movie theaters, supermarkets and chain food establishments will officially have calorie labels for consumers, helping them to see the healthy choice easier. Many restaurants including Starbucks, Panera, McDonalds and Subway and others have all already added calorie labels to menus , however, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) released the final guidance for all food establishments to have implemented policy changes by early May 2017. According to the FDA Americans eat and drink one-third of their calories away from home. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, children eat almost twice as many calories when they eat a meal at a restaurant compared to a meal at home and says the measure could help prevent 41 ...
Marketing to kids has been a long debated topic as cartoon characters, TV shows and smartphone game apps have been shown to influence kid's food choices. Quebec has had restrictions on child-targeted food ads since 1980's according to a recent news article and now Toronto wants to follow suit as well to help decrease risks of childhood obesity and diabetes. The board of health voted on Monday, April 25, 2016, to ban commercial ads to children under 16 years of age. The city's Medical Officer of Health reported in the same news article that 29 percent of kids in grades 7-12 were overweight or obese, and one in five students eat sugar or salty snacks more than three times a day. Latino kids are often more likely to see unhealthy ads for unhealthy foods and sugary ...
Students consume up to half their daily calories at school. WATCH and VOTE for new Salud America! #SaludHeroes who push healthy food and physical activity at school by April 29, 2016, and be entered in a random drawing to win a FREE T-shirt and jump rope! #SaludHeroes at school are: School Navigators. Rocio Muñoz helped embed bilingual, bicultural health navigators to increase parents’ access to health services into elementary schools in Corvallis, Ore. Breakfast is Back. Michaelie Love, a high-schooler in San Antonio, Texas, worked with her school to get a cart to make eating breakfast easy, healthy and cool. BMX Fun. School principal Doug Johnson used biking and a sweet BMX trail to make physical activity fun for elementary students in Mountlake Terrace, ...
This March, Grow Hartford Youth, a youth led group that works to give youth a voice, launched the "10 Slices of Justice" campaign for Hartford Public Schools in the downtown Hartford Public Library. The launch was held within the Hartford Arts & Activism Fair, where youth stood up with their campaign to help discuss solutions for problems they see within their school lunches, like small portion size, and quality of lunches. The campaign was all youth led, and where students were able to talk about what were the issues in their school lunches. They discussed the points of the "10 Slices of Justice" campaign, including changes they wanted to see like bigger portions, better quality foods made from scratch, variety of local options, culturally appropriate foods, and more ...
A new campaign from the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles is working to help the communities of Santa Monica, CA (14.1 % Latino) increase consumption of water and learn why it's important to drink water instead of sugary beverages. The campaign, called "Water: The Healthiest Choice" is hoping to help parents' increase their knowledge of the health benefits of drinking water instead of sugary beverages, especially for their children's health. Research has shown that sugary beverages, when consumed daily, increase the risk of diet-related disease in kids and adults. Latino kids often consume many sugary beverages, and with each sugary drink consumed the risk of becoming an obese adult jumps to sixty percent. The campaign suggests some ways to help parents to help kids drink more ...
Too many infants watch TV for more than 25 minutes a day and few babies get regular tummy time activity. Guidelines advise no TV watching by kids younger than 2 and 30 minutes a day of tummy time activity for babies, according to our new infographic on early childcare and kids. The infographic is part of the new Salud America! Healthy Weight research package on the latest data and recommendations on how to ensure kids reach a healthy weight by kindergarten. Share this infographic today! Salud America! is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded national childhood obesity prevention and communication ...
Across America, public health leaders in different states across the nation are pushing for various ways to address a rising childhood obesity epidemic. One big issue is sugary drinks. Sugary beverage consumption on a daily basis has been proven in research to be linked to higher risks of health related diseases. Follow #SaludTues to tweet with us on Feb. 2, 2016, as we unveil the results of a new study focusing on kids and sugary drinks. Participants will discuss problems, solutions, and new studies on sugary beverages and kids. We will share research packages that include helpful infographics. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Sugary Beverages & Kids”
DATE: Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016
TIME: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT)
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag ...
Moms who are obese give birth to kids who are 1.8 times more likely to be obese than kids of healthy weight moms. But, when moms exercise moderately during pregnancy, kids are less likely to be overweight, according to our new infographic on healthy moms and kids. The infographic is part of the new Salud America! Healthy Weight research package on the latest data and recommendations on how to ensure kids reach a healthy weight by kindergarten. Share this infographic today! Salud America! is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded national childhood obesity prevention and communication ...
