MyPlate Wall-Size (laminated) Poster
To learn more about accessing the wall size laminated poster, visit: http://pub.etr.org/productdetails.aspx?id=100000106&itemno=K053L&utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=K12
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Study Analyzes Adolescents' Reactions to Weight-related Terms Used by their Parents
Conversations about weight can be particularly challenging for parents with adolescent kids, and insight into the characteristics of parent-adolescent communication about body weight is limited. Published in Childhood Obesity, this study from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity interviewed 148 adolescents enrolled in a weight loss camp, asking them what words their parents typically use to talk about their weight, how those words make them feel, and what words they would most want...
Our Idea of Healthy Eating Excludes Other Cultures, and That's a Problem
A nutritionist of Trinidadian heritage writes of the harm done to people by failing to include a deep understanding of cultural diversity in nutrition and dietetics training: "We were often being taught to perpetuate idea that Eurocentric eating patterns were the only paths to healthy eating, that healthy eating means one thing and one thing only. But teaching someone healthier eating isn’t about making swaps here and there to fit a patient’s culture into a Eurocentric diet. It should be...
The Chefs Redefining Polynesian Cuisine
What a powerful articulation of cooks, chefs and communities attempting to reclaim lost sustenance, identity, and connection to food and place-- lost because of colonization. Marginalized and oppressed communities around the world are trying to reclaim their power, often through food. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/t-magazine/polynesian-cuisine.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
RWJF Hiring a Program Officer for Healthy Children, Health Weight Team
The program officer will design, manage, and monitor strategies and initiatives that focus on promoting policies that improve health outcomes for children and families and make healthier school environments the norm. We are particularly interested in finding candidates with experience in policy, education, and/or child and youth development. ( An editorial note from Gail - AND wouldn't it be great for the PO to be expert in the intersection of ACEs with child & youth development?) To...
The Diet That Might Cure Depression
A poor diet is a leading risk factor for early death, responsible for one in five deaths globally. Depression, meanwhile, is the leading cause of disability worldwide. A relatively new line of research suggests the two might be related: An unhealthy diet might make us depressed, and depression, in turn, makes us feel even sicker. ...
How the Brain Controls Food Cravings
“For example, aerobic exercise has been shown to enhance it, while lack of sleep and stress can impair it – so there may be a link between these lifestyle factors and overeating via their impacts on the brain.” https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-food-cravings-9598/
Replacing vacant lots with green spaces eases depression
This NPR story shares recently released study supporting what we know in our bones: humans thrive with connection to nature. Read more here: Replacing vacant lots with green spaces eases depression . This study is hot off the press: " Effect of Greening Vacant Land on Mental Health of Community-Dwelling Adults: A cluster randomized trial. " "The impact was strongest for residents of poorer neighborhoods — they showed at least a 27.5 percent reduction in the prevalence of depression." "The...
Self-control and obesity: Gender matters in children [medicalxpress.com]
A toddler's self-regulation—the ability to change behavior in different social situations—may predict whether he or she will be obese come kindergarten, but the connection appears to be much different for girls than for boys. Self-regulation is something all children must develop, and poorer self-control in childhood is associated with worse adult health, economic and social outcomes. However, a new study from The Ohio State University found that more self-regulation may not necessarily...
Obesity and the Link with Childhood Adversity: An Interview with Mary Giuliani
Most people who struggle with weight and food have probably suspected that trauma in the past plays a role. In this new video, Anna Runkle (the Crappy Childhood Fairy) interviews Mary Giuliani, who explains what we now know about childhood adversity, food and obesity. She shares how she lost 160 pounds (and has kept it off for 15 years), and teaches ways to calm emotions (and the brain) and face the triggers that drive overeating in the first place (READ MORE AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE).
Soil-to-Sanctuary: Black Churches, Powerful Cultural Forces, Set Their Sights on Food Security
“We feel that apolitical and ‘color-blind’ approaches to addressing food inequity fly in the face of the statistics, which clearly show that Black people are disproportionately impacted in a negative way by food apartheid, environmental racism, and discrimination in planning and public policy,” says Brown. “To ignore these realities in [so-called] food justice work is a gross miscalculation at best.” ...
What's Making Our Children Obese? [themerrowreport.com]
Summer is upon us, which means an increase in street crime and ice cream consumption. However, neither one causes the other; they are both highly correlatedwith summer’s heat, which brings more people out of their homes and onto the streets, where some eat ice cream and some get mugged. Correlation is not causality. Here are two more facts to ponder: American children take lots of standardized, machine-scored, multiple-choice tests, and they are getting fatter. Is this just another...
To Head Off Trauma's Legacy, Start Young
Dr. Roy Wade, from the Cobbs Creek Clinic in West Philadelphia, works on his own screening tool to measure young patients "adversity score" -- indicators of abuse, neglect, signs of poverty, racial discrimination, or bullying. "Wade wants to take action because research suggests that the stress of a tough childhood can raise the risk for later disease, mental illness and addiction." https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/03/09/377569414/to-head-off-traumas-legacy-start-young
Rich People Exercise, Poor People Take Diet Pills
"One reason the underprivileged face an obesity crisis is that they rely on ineffective weight-loss strategies. In part, this is because economic uncertainty makes it harder to plan for workouts and healthy meals. -- Often, low-income people aren't sure what tomorrow will bring. So why waste time trying to diet?" https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/rich-people-exercise-poor-people-take-diet-pills/378852/?utm_source=SFFB
The Second Assault
"Victims of childhood sexual abuse are far more likely to become obese adults. New research shows that early trauma is so damaging that it can disrupt a person’s entire psychology and metabolism -- Women [have] said they felt more physically imposing when they were bigger. They felt their size helped ward off sexual advances from men." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/sexual-abuse-victims-obesity/420186/