Students Use Healthy Marketing To Help Decrease Diabetes Rates

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Healthy marketing can help people purchase more produce, shows a recent study, but it also can help people who speak different languages see the healthier choices in stores.

Two years ago, working in various neighborhoods in California, including Simi Valley, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park, Latino teens also saw the difference healthier marketing can do to protect the hearts of their family members.

Six Spanish-speaking high school teens came up with a simple way to help mark healthier foods, despite lingual obstacles, and show other Spanish-Speaking shoppers which foods were best for their health, all by following dots.

Dots?

Yes, students placed colored dots to help shoppers understand health benefits of certain foods while shopping.

Red dots on food showed shoppers what foods are best for their heart health, while green revealed foods that are good for people with diabetes. A very simple solution to help Spanish-speaking shoppers quickly pick the best foods for their families.

The teens were part of a program called Corazones Sanos Para Mi Familia (Healthy Hearts for My Family), where they were encouraged to brainstorm solutions to help decrease the high rates of diabetes and high blood pressure in their neighborhoods.

Latinos face higher risks for chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. According to the Diabetes Coalition of California, Calif. has the greatest number of people in the US who are newly diagnosed with diabetes and 3.9 million Californians have diabetes and the number continues to grow.

Westminster Clinic, where the program operates out of, has since then helped the student-led initiative grow, applying for and receiving grants, growing in stores, and growing in student outreach.

The program now includes 40 bilingual students, eight Latino markets and five cities, explained president of the clinic, Lisa Safaeinili, to local news.

“It’s an innovative approach in that we’re including local teenagers and providing a cardiovascular health program aimed at the Latino community using students who are actually from that community,” Safaeinili told local news. “So they’re serving their area, their uncles, their brothers. They know the communities’ needs and are able to make a much bigger impact.”

Students in the program learn medical skills, earn scrubs, and get encouraged to go to college as well. In fact, two students have already started college, one studying nursing and one studying social work since they helped be a part of the program.

One student, currently in the program, explained to local news that the program is a great way to get hands-on experience in the healthcare of her community she feels good to help people accomplish goals they can’t always accomplish on their own.

Healthy marketing tactics like dots, arrows or even bi-lingual questions or prompts, could be applied in all grocery stores, helping families, no matter the language they speak, see the healthy choice as the easy choice.

To learn more about the importance of access to healthier foods in Latino neighborhoods, click here.

To be a health hero like the teens in this story, become a part of Salud America, by joining our online community to help spread the good news of healthier communities.