Workplaces can either help or hurt our efforts to eat well, be active, and improve our health. Here at the Arizona Department of Health Services, we are taking a step forward to make it easier to include healthier options and physical activity in our meetings with a new department-wide Healthy Meeting Policy and a Healthy [...]
With the New Year just days away you might be like me, considering what you will resolve to do in 2017. Many times we set out to eat better and be more active but sometimes lose steam throughout the year. To be successful, divide big and vague goals like, “I will eat better” [...]
The food we eat affects many aspects of our lives. There's a direct link between poor nutrition and many of the leading causes of death in America such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Healthy eating is important at every age. Most of us don't eat enough fruits, vegetables or whole grains, but we [...]
We know that eating fruits and vegetables is healthy, but did you know that eating canned fruits and vegetables may actually help you have a better diet? The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics featured a study analyzing national survey data that found adults and children who included canned fruits and vegetables in [...]
The Eighth Edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans has some great new changes based on the most current scientific evidence. For the first time, the guidelines set a specific recommendation to consume less than 10 percent of your calories from added sugars. They reaffirm that healthy eating includes choosing a variety of vegetables like [...]
Arizona ranks in the middle of the pack in infant mortality. We’re doing many things right to improve the health of our babies- but we have a way to go. Last fall we participated in a learning collaborative sponsored by the National Governors Association. About 160 folks met to begin the process developing a statewide [...]
The USDA announced proposed new guidelines for school wellness policies as part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 this week. The new policies set goals in nutrition, physical activity, and other school-based activities promoting student wellness. Additionally, the school wellness policies include a guideline on food marketing in schools, setting a standard that [...]
As the Olympics begin, Chef and Registered Dietitian Allen Tran’s words come to mind, “nutrition can make a good athlete great or a great athlete good”. I think his view holds some truth for all of us. Allen knows because he is the High-Performance Chef for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. He is in [...]
CDC’s 2013 Prevention Status Reports have just been released publicly on CDC’s website. You’ll find reports specific to Arizona on topics like nutrition, physical activity, teen pregnancy, tobacco use, HIV, heart disease, motor vehicle crashes, and prescription drug abuse. Reports include a few data indicators of how we compare to the U.S., as well as [...]
There’s increasing evidence that whether a person will have a healthy weight as an adult is influenced by nutrition and physical activity in the first 5 years of life. In fact, a new study this week in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that overweight 5-year-olds are 4 x more likely to become obese [...]
