Maria Silva is a registered dietitian and educator in St. Vincent de Paul’s bilingual Family Wellness Program in Phoenix (44% Latino). The program shares its services online on its website, and at local health fairs. But Silva noticed many local people had no Internet access or did not know about the health fairs. They missed opportunities to benefit from the program and free services offered. What other way could Silva promote program awareness and offer nutritional advice, healthy recipes, and healthy eating tips? She found the answer in an old-school magazine.
The Program and the Magazine
The Family Wellness Program began in 1999. It aims to boost the health of local Latino families, from a provision of medical and dental care to healthy lifestyle services for ...
Soda, sweet tea, energy drinks, sports drinks, all have something in common in Berkely, they are sugar-filled and taxed. The city's 1-cent-per-ounce excise tax, which began collecting taxes in March 2015, has now been shown to benefit public health efforts that helped support the tax. A new study, released Tuesday, 2016 in the American Journal of Public Health, reveals how over 2,679 people in low-income neighborhoods across San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, CA are increasing water consumption and decreasing soda consumption. Not only are people drinking more water, but millions of funds from the excise tax will now help schools with gardens and work to build more community nutrition and health efforts. Whether it's the soda tax or the awareness of the dangers of sugary drinks ...
Pete Garcia spent several years as a personal trainer in San Antonio, learning first-hand that many residents in at-risk parts of the city struggled with obesity and related health problems. So when Garcia became the city’s supervisor of athletics and programs, he wanted to develop and implement programs that would increase access to physical activity opportunities for at-risk residents across the city. With grant funding and the city’s formation of the Mayor’s Fitness Council a few years ago, Garcia was able to capitalize on partnerships and collaboration to develop the “Fitness in the Park” program to provide free fitness classes in parks in each of the city’s 10 council districts.
San Antonio Inactive and Unhealthy
Pete Garcia worked for many years as a personal ...
Schools with more Latino students are more likely to have fast-food restaurants and tobacco retailers within “easy reach” of them, according to a new study. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, analyzed more than 18,000 public schools and found that more than 50% of Latino-majority schools were within 800 meters of both tobacco and fast food outlets Only 21% of white-majority schools were. "Schools are places where we expect to be healthy, supportive environments for kids, but right outside the door (students) could be exposed to unhealthy influences," author Heather D’Angelo of Westat in Rockville, MD, said in a recent Reuters interview. "I was surprised that there were so many tobacco outlets near schools." In Latino neighborhoods in general, ...
The Advocate Sherman Hospital in the city of Elgin, Ill. (43.6% Latino) is the only hospital in the area that is offering the community healthier options, and now they are also taking a step forward to educate the community about the health risks of drinking sugary beverages. Since 2015, Advocate Sherman Hospital joined all hospitals in the Advocate Health Care system to offer healthier drinks in their hospitals giving patients, visitors and employees more low-sugar or no-sugar options. As part of the efforts to reduce consumption of sugary beverages like soda, energy drinks, and sports drinks, community outreach efforts to educate the public on the amount of sugar in beverages have also taken effect. People like Luis Villalobos, a nursing assistant with Advocate Sherman Hospital ...
Spending too much time in front of the TV may increase your risk of dying from a blood clot in the lung, the American Heart News reports. A Japanese study tracked 86,000 people for 19 years, and 59 died of a pulmonary embolism. This condition, stemming from inactivity, is caused by blood clots that travel to the lungs from the legs. Researchers found that pulmonary embolism death increased by: 70% among those who watched TV 2.5-4.9 hours (versus those who watched less than 2.5 hours)
40% for each additional 2 hours of daily TV watching.
2.5 times among those who watched TV 5 or more hours. Although the study examined Japanese adults, the findings may be very relevant for U.S. adults, who watch far more TV. U.S. Latinos may face an especially high risk. Latino ...
Getting school kids to try new vegetables is not always easy, but a non-profit organization is working with schools to get the word out about how "cool" eating vegetables can be for kids. Super Sprowtz is using healthy marketing, like videos, stuffed animals, costumes, and puppets with hopes to have kids try new vegetables at schools salad bars across the country. Characters like Oliver Onion or Suzy Sweetpea are just a few of the super hero puppets that make eating vegetables exciting. The non-profit has worked with the national campaign "Let's Move" and famous celebrities to market to families and kids about enjoying a healthier diet and being encouraged to "eat your super powers", which sounds more fun than "eat your vegetables". Sprowtz also works with Cornell University's ...
A new study shows how arrows directing grocery store shoppers may help them choose healthier foods. According to a study from the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, the use of six feet by three feet green arrows with text inside stating, "please follow this green arrow for a healthy heart, or a healthy weight" directed consumers to the fresh produce aisle and helped them choose more produce. These green arrows were part of a study on nutrition interventions using non-traditional marketing on the floor of a grocery store to influence consumers to choose healthier fruits and vegetables when purchasing foods, but not increase their overall budget for foods. "Considering that half of shoppers budgets are less flexible for unmet needs at the grocery store, we knew that we ...
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 ...
