The latest issue of Health Affairs http://www.healthaffairs.org/ has some important resources and research related to the increasing problem of childhood obesity. Kids are eating more snacks -- salty chips, sweetened sodas, candy bars -- than ever before. Trend data show that children are averaging nearly three snacks per day, with 27% of their daily calories [...]
The USDA’s Child Nutrition Act is up for re-authorization this year. The program provides food to more than 31M school children through the National School Lunch Program as well as 11M that qualify for the School Breakfast Program. Many children get ½ of their daily calories at schools- making this program a great leverage point [...]
High blood pressure is at the source of roughly one in six deaths among adults annually. About one in three adult Arizonans have blood pressure that’s too high, putting huge economic demands on Medicaid, Medicare (AHCCCS) and our private health insurers (plus, of course, the loss of life). The Institute of Medicine put out a [...]
We launched our salt reduction initiative this week http://www.azdhs.gov/salt/. The overall goal is to get Arizonans to reduce their salt intake by paying more attention to the Sodium line in the nutrition facts and being a better- by selecting foods for the family that are lower in sodium. Sodium can increase your blood pressure and [...]
The US obesity epidemic is costing Americans more and more each year. It’s not just the decreased quality of life that it causes, but it causes a whole host of downstream problems like diabetes and circulatory problems. Type 2 diabetes had been a disease of folks over 40 that became seriously overweight over time- but [...]
Throughout history, mankind’s future was largely determined by fate. Infectious diseases like Diphtheria and Smallpox could wipe out an entire family in just a few days. People were vulnerable to outside threats ranging from a lack of clean drinking water to poor sanitation to gaps in environmental infrastructure that led to a host of infectious [...]
We started on this journey together a year ago. Thanks for being such good traveling companions. We’ve been through a lot. We’ve had challenges, fears, anxiety, good times, laughs, & fun. We’ve sacrificed some of our programs, but we’ve made a great deal of progress too. Overall- the year was a net plus. I say [...]
NaCl It’s been no secret that the U.S. (and Arizona) diet is high in salt- and almost 90% of that salt comes from pre-processed foods (as opposed to the salt that you might add while cooking or eating). Reducing dietary salt is an important public health target- and it’s among one of the cheapest and [...]
NaCl It’s been no secret that the U.S. (and Arizona) diet is high in salt- and almost 90% of that salt comes from pre-processed foods (as opposed to the salt that you might add while cooking or eating). Reducing dietary salt is an important public health target- and it’s among one of the cheapest and [...]
