This is fantastic news! A consistant message of ‘Prevention’ vs ‘Chronic Disease’ will be the driving force behind behavior change in our society. We are people that love immediate gratification. When given action items to be done right now, we are way more apt to follow through than if we are to plan for future events. Bring on a National Prevention Strategy…
The National Prevention Strategy includes actions that public and private partners can take to help Americans stay healthy and fit and improve our nation’s prosperity. The strategy outlines four strategic directions that, together, are fundamental to improving the nation’s health. Those four strategic directions are: Building Healthy and Safe Community Environments: Prevention of disease starts in our communities and at home; not just in the doctor’s office. Expanding Quality Preventive Services in Both Clinical and Community Settings: When people receive preventive care, such as immunizations and cancer screenings, they have better health and lower health care costs. Empowering People to Make Healthy Choices: When people have access to actionable and easy-to-understand information and resources, they are empowered to make healthier choices. Eliminating Health Disparities: By eliminating disparities in achieving and maintaining health, we can help improve quality of life for all Americans. http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/06/20110616a.html
Hey…. look at me! Movers and Shakers Health and Hip-Hop One PreventObesity.net Leader Uses Rap and Computer Games to Teach Kids about Proper Nutrition and Exercise Before Beyonce moved her body to get kids active, registered dietitian Michelle Ricker used rap music to teach kids about healthy habits. Beats about beets? Rhymes about lunch time? We’ll jam. A nearly 20-year nutrition veteran, Ricker runs the consulting firm New and You, which has taken her to schools around the globe to teach students about health basics. But forget typical nutrition charts and dull lectures; Ricker thinks creatively when it comes to teaching her students about good nutrition and the importance of physical activity. Ricker used rap and hip-hop as a teaching technique for youngsters in Portland, Ore., engaging them by coming up with sweet rhymes that also drive home lessons taken directly from U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition guidelines. Last summer, she traveled to Seattle to be a nutrition expert for the Let’s Move Apps for Healthy Kids competition, which saw groups of gamers competing to design the best software tool or game to teach kids to eat better and be physically active. Ricker even traveled halfway around the world to Jerusalem, where she worked on a project with OPENmotion Environments, a group that created “movement oriented environments that encourage active use and participation by children.” In her role, Ricker helped a group of art and design graduate students work with elementary-aged kids to create playground structures out of organic materials, such as branches. “They went and got the branches at this dump in Israel, and they brought them back to the school,” Ricker recalls. “It was this real nice integrated system, and the kids got to move and enjoy and understand that they can make something out of online casino nothing.”
Michelle Ricker poses with some healthy treats. Ricker didn’t begin her career expecting to launch a rap career or turn sticks into organic playgrounds. Rather, she began in the field of kidney dialysis. (She still works on dialysis issues by assisting with
the development of new technology designed to help dialysis patients who suffer from malnutrition.) But Ricker found herself driven to work on prevention and began working with kids. She became a lecturer, appearing at forums nationwide to talk about good health. She founded New and You to help schools, businesses and other organizations tackle childhood obesity in a variety of creative ways, including through the use of technology. “In order to make change, and change the way we’re going to have to change our lives, it really starts with kids,” Ricker tells The Inside Track. “I really feel like it’s just something that inherently drives me. I know whenever I work with kids directly, it just brings this huge happiness for me. Seeing that light click for them, it’s really big.” Part of Ricker’s mission is to reshape the messaging that reaches kids. Advertisers target them with unhealthy products, and kids think those are the products they need. “We’re giving kids conflicting messages, like, ‘In order to be super cool, you have to eat this sugary cereal,’” Ricker says. “Well, not really.” Ricker thinks that progress can be made by taking small steps to improve children’s health, including through better nutrition in schools, increased activity and better messaging, so kids learn from an early age what’s healthy and what’s not. “Obviously, it’s a process. I do feel like the awareness, especially that [First Lady] Michelle Obama has brought in, it’s fabulous,” Ricker says. “I feel like right now, there’s so much momentum.” http://www.preventobesity.net/Inside-Track-June-2
Beyonce getting to kids to move is where it”s at! I am a firm believer in whatever it takes to reach our children – regarding nutrition, movement or overall health – is what we should do. It is a team approach right now and Beyonce nailed it. I give her huge props for stepping out and appealing online casino dgfev to kids. Children look up to sports figures, movie stars as well as music celebrities. The more these people can begin to educate this generation in a positive manner, the less they will struggle later in life. Props to you Beyonce!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYP4MgxDV2U
I am NOT a fan. Target marketing kids in play is no better than direct marketing. Actually, it is just a back-handed way to grab their attention and attract brand loyalty. This new ‘engagement-based marketing’ needs to stop. What we are seeing is “companies are realizing that, when going online, the best strategy is to forgo immediate sales in order to build lasting emotional relationships with children”. Critics see such marketing as an unfair way to manipulate children who may not realize what is going on. And there are parts of the game, McWorld and other food sites that encourage purchases. McWorld prompts children to enter codes from Happy Meal boxes to unlock things like special gear for their online avatars. My hope is that corporations will start using their research on psychology and marketing in a positive manner. Who knows, maybe they will figure out a way to make money off of ALL the starving children in the world that actually need their food… http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/mcdonalds-makes-subtle-play-for-children-online/
Does Your Child Suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder? — By Richard Louv, Author of “Last Child in the Woods” As we have evolved, we have been able to bring amazing advancements to this world. Even with all of our innovation, we have forgotten a very important constant over time…. nature. Studies are showing just how critical our connection to the outdoors may be for our overall well being. Most of the new evidence that connects nature to well-being and restoration has focused on adults, but during the past decade, scientists have begun to study the impact of nature on child development. Environmental psychologists reported in 2003 that nature in or around the home, or simply a room with a view of a natural landscape, helped protect the psychological well-being of the children. Meanwhile, the California-based State Education and Environmental Roundtable, a national effort to study environment-based education, found that schools that use outdoor classrooms, among other techniques, produce student gains in social studies, science, language arts and math; improved standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and enhanced skills in problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making. In addition, evidence suggests that time in natural surroundings stimulates children’s creativity.http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/wellness_articles.asp?id=1616
Is The “Paleolithic Diet” Really Better? In general, over a long period of time, our ancestors developed an ability to take a broader and broader range of things into the diet. Tools, including fire, gave them access to an unprecedented variety of foods, which meant they could live in more places and find something everywhere they went.
Although there’s an extraordinary range of variation, based on the climate and the environment, hunter-gatherers get a fair amount of meat in their diet. We require a diet that is more energy-dense than other primates and historically, we may have reached that point by incorporating more meat. It’s reflected in evolutionary changes in our face, our teeth, and in our gastrointestinal tract. Indeed, the GI tract of modern humans looks more like a carnivore’s than a large primate’s. Humans evolved to eat a high-quality diet, but that doesn’t mean eating a lot of meat—especially today.
And…In the early Upper Paleolithic periods, there’s evidence early humans were making flours and pastes. Each day, they need to take in a sufficiency of good quality energetic substrate (sugars and starches) and enough protein—say 70 grams or so—to meet their daily requirements for amino acids. In the modern, industrial world, we have become ever better at creating diets that are dense in calories and don’t require a lot of energy to procure them. No one recommendation is going to fit everybody, so the challenge is to find what works for you individually, and, at the same time, what fits the broad nutritional requirements of our species. The diet may be perfectly good, but its theoretical underpinnings are wrong. The Paleolithic period is very long and very varied. Are you talking about the Middle Stone Age of Africa? Or the Upper Paleolithic of Europe. They were eating completely different things. We’re in a quest to understand that, but, to say, this is how you have to eat because this is how our ancestors ate is a fallacy. …just saying http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2j8zNu/www.good.is/post/good-asks-the-experts-is-the-paleolithic-diet-really-better/?utm_source=supr
day that we should eat our fruits and vegetables. blah blah blah… All right, all ready…. This art exhibit shows the vibrant colors of food and actually tempts the taste buds through a visual element.70-177
I love the creativity. Let”s keep this way of thinking outside of the box going when it comes to nutrition education. http://www.good.is/post/a-public-art-project-shows-you-the-colors-you-should-be-eating/
RIP: Jack LaLanne, the Original Self Master Driven by what often seems to be otherworldly inspiration, fueled by a superhuman capacity for self-discipline and self-control, these individuals prove what’s possible for all of us through their own passion, blood, sweat, and tears. It is a rare individual who strives to achieve goals beyond the ordinary. It is an even rarer individual who sets such goals—goals that no one else has yet achieved—and actually succeeds. And it’s a rarer individual still who sets extraordinary goals and, after he or she has attained them, continues to set even higher goals and continues to strive for success. Now add to this picture the aging process. And then try to imagine what it would be like to relentlessly strive for excellence and higher achievements even as one passes into a phase of life that is far beyond what is normally considered one’s prime.
Michelle Ricker RDN
