You may have seen our Arizona Nutrition Network's new messages about how important it is for families to eat together. The Network provides nutrition education statewide for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and their message about the importance of family meals can be seen on television, billboards, social media, community classes, and [...]
The American Medical Association voted to recognize obesity as a disease this week. This is an important change… because the term “disease” in the managed care world means that that prevention and treatment is more medically necessary, justifying reimbursement for necessary interventions. If obesity isn't a disease then I don't know what is. Obesity has [...]
Here’s some good news about the battle against the obesity epidemic: national data shows the average intake of calories has decreased for boys and girls over the last 12 years. While the news is encouraging, our work to promote nutrition and physical activity to reduce obesity remains important. Reducing obesity is a Winnable Battle both nationally and [...]
You might have noticed that more and more restaurants and fast food places are starting to put calorie and other nutrition information on their menus. That’s not a coincidence or accident- they’re getting ready for the upcoming menu nutrition labeling requirements in the Affordable Care Act. Section 4205 of the new law requires restaurants with [...]
Our Home Baked and Confectionery Goods Program enrolled our 1000th participant this month- providing new opportunities to more than 1000 families to bake food at home and be able to sell it commercially. This week also marks the 6 month anniversary of this innovative new program. We also recently completed the official rules- which will go [...]
The Legislature completed the Regular Session last week. They've passed numerous bills. The Governor has signed many of them, but some are still waiting for her consideration and signature. Below are the new laws that have been signed by the Governor that are related to our mission: HB 2585: Controlled Substances; Marijuana; Monitoring This law requires [...]
This week the Archives of Internal Medicine published the results of a 20-year lifestyle study on 4886 people in the UK between 1985 and 2005. The study compared mortality rates among the group and analyzed longevity’s relationship to behavior. The study compared people that had various bad behaviors- allocating 1 point for: 1) smoking; 2) [...]
Last Wednesday, April 21, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a new report on high blood pressure entitled Strategies to Reduce Sodium Intake in the United States. The report was sponsored by the CDC, FDA, and NIH. High blood pressure is one of the nation’s leading causes of death, responsible for roughly one in six [...]
Please take a couple of minutes to sign up for our new ADHS electronic updates feature. When you sign up to receive electronic updates from the Department, you can click on the kinds of things that you want to receive, like our new “healthy and in-season recipe of the week”, media releases, immunizations newsletters and [...]
