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The link between poor mental health and nutritional deficiencies has long been recognized by nutritionists working in the complementary health sector. However, psychiatrists are only now becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of using nutritional approaches to mental health.

“Even though a lot of the [harm reduction] organizations were providing food at various levels, when we asked them how does harm reduction link in with nutrition, that was like the first time they had really thought about that,” Miewald said. “There wasn’t really a philosophy. It was just more of, ‘We have people here, they’re hungry.’ But if we’re talking about harm reduction, then nutrition should be part of that … It’s not just about needles, it’s about a lot of other things.” ...

“It’s becoming a stressful, almost traumatic experience when kids go into the lunchroom,” said Angela McKee-Brown, director of education for the Edible Schoolyard Project, a nonprofit founded by Waters that works with more than 5,500 garden and education programs worldwide. “When you think about it, the cafeteria is the one place that kids of all backgrounds and abilities get to be in community with each other.” ...

By Monica Humphries, Nationswell, August 14, 2019 IT’S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN JUST A BAN ON LUNCH SHAMING. AS SCHOOLS STRUGGLE TO FEED CHILDREN WITHOUT PLUMMETING INTO DEBT, LEGISLATORS AND ORGANIZATIONS ARE LOOKING AT SOLUTIONS. Stephanie Woodard still remembers the weight of a roll of pennies in her pocket, hoping it would be enough to pay for lunch. The professional learning specialist for Fort Bend International School District recalls sneaking into her father’s bedroom and digging...

When it comes to finding tools to help you properly address trauma within the family system, what is the single greatest challenge or frustration you’ve been struggling with?

Despite the advances of nutritional therapy over the last 30 years, there is often limited to no inclusion of nutrition as part of the trauma treatment for children and families with PTSD. However, diet and nutrition can serve as powerful tools to influence change in both the body and brain of a child and/or family member experiencing trauma.

Fruits and vegetables and everything you need can be bought at the supermarket nowadays. Due to this convenience, kids hardly know where their food comes from, much less how to grow it. By teaching them how to grow their own vegetables, their interest in healthy food is sparked. It’s fun, they learn a lot and spend time in nature. Every week the kids from this middle school in the Netherlands go to the vegetable garden with their teacher and a volunteer parent. At the vegetable garden they...

A major 2009 revision to a federal nutrition program for low-income pregnant women and children improved recipients’ health on several key measures, researchers at UC San Francisco have found. The study is the first to analyze the health effects of the changes to the U.S. Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which serves half of all infants and more than a quarter of all pregnant and postpartum women in the U.S. It comes amid renewed attention to poor...

Abstract Background: Traditional research primarily details child obesity from a risk perspective. Risk factors are disproportionately higher in children raised in poverty, thus negatively influencing the weight status of low-income children. Borrowing from the field of family studies, the concept of family resiliency might provide a unique perspective for discussions regarding childhood obesity, by helping to identify mediating or moderating protective mechanisms that are present within the...

"From Houston, Texas , and Atlanta, Georgia , to Birmingham, Alabama ; Baltimore, Maryland ; Nashville, Tennessee , and Jackson, Mississippi , the long, treacherous history of redlining in this country aligns with where food redlining (or food apartheid) is prevalent today—and that is unambiguously state violence. “Just looking at food alone, hunger, the inability to feed ourselves,” Cooper tells ESSENCE. “ That’s violent . To be hungry and malnourished is a very violent phenomenon. ...

Good nutrition is important to health at every stage of life. But often people from lower-income communities and communities of color lack access to healthy, affordable foods and beverages and the opportunity to make healthy choices. As a result, low-income families are disproportionately impacted by higher rates of obesity and other poor health outcomes. There are many factors that contribute to this inequity in access to nutritious food items and the ability to make healthy choices,...

The Syracuse City School District is not allowed to send leftovers home with students, due to state law. But for several years, the district has adopted a small-scale but creative, scalable approach to minimizing waste: sharing tables. This is how it works: Every student gets a lunch. If he or she doesn’t want a part of the lunch, such as milk, the student can drop off the milk on a designated table in the lunchroom. Another student who wants a second milk, for example, can then pick up the...