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 [...]
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 [...]
Make healthy food choices. Grab a healthy snack such as fruit, nuts, or low-fat cheese. Be active. Try simple things such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Be active for at least 2½ hours a week. Children and adolescents should get at least 1 hour of physical activity each day. Find out more [...]
The health of your feet is probably one of the most underappreciated yet important keys to your overall health. Each foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and associated tendons – all taking tremendous pounding over the years. It’s estimated that 75% of Americans will experience foot problems in their lifetime. While both [...]
I was fortunate to attend the 2nd annual “El Congreso Internacional de Promoción de la Salud (CIPS)” last week in Hermosillo. There were more than 400 public health attendees from 17 countries at the conference. I presented our pre-school Empower program…. which empowers kids to make good choices about nutrition, physical activity, and tobacco using age-appropriate vehicles including costumed characters and a coloring book. [...]
Public health embarked on a smoking revolution over the last few decades, kicking it into high gear to provide programs and policies to help Arizonans change their smoking habits. While by no means has the tobacco battle been won, America is currently undergoing another revolution—a walking revolution. Physical activity is not new territory in public [...]
Every so often- you run into a resource guide that stands above the rest. I discovered one of those awhile back called the Guide to Community Preventive Services – and it’s a free resource to help you choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in communities. The easy-to-read resource guide answers questions [...]
September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month and is a great time for us to take stock of where we are in the "Winnable Battle" of combatting obesity. Last month, we got some good news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that obesity rates in children and adults are leveling off after decades [...]
There’s a new CDC Sortable Stats web application that went live a couple of weeks ago that provides an interactive tool to analyze behavioral risk factors and health indicators compiled from various published CDC and federal sources. You can search by state for things like death rates (e.g. infant mortality, heart disease, motor vehicle death rates, [...]
We finally got some better news from the childhood obesity public health front this week. Tuesday’s CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that childhood obesity rates are stabilizing or decreasing slightly across the country. In fact, 19 states had a significant downward trend in obesity prevalence among low-income preschoolers. There was no change in [...]
