Cookie Monster Helps Give Latino Preschoolers Healthy Eating, Exercise Tips
May 18th
At ages 3-5 our little ones learn the ABCs, how to count, and the primary colors. But how many preschoolers – whether from humble or affluent roots – are taught the building blocks of eating well and regular exercise?
Juntos y Saludables (Get Healthy Together) is a two-year obesity and diabetes prevention project in several San Antonio, Texas, preschools that teach primarily Mexican-American children. The program is led by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday, and UT at San Antonio through the institutions’ joint San Antonio Life Sciences Institute.
Get Healthy Together is testing whether it is possible to indoctrinate students — for life — with healthy behaviors via positive interactions with their parents, teachers and other school personnel.
The project uses a bilingual curriculum for children 3-5 that was developed by The Children’s Workshop® and features Sesame Street® characters, song and dances.
On Tuesday, May 18, 2010, a Sesame Street® fixture, the Cookie Monster, helped children and parents from the Burleson Early Childhood Education Center and Stafford Early Childhood Education Center to celebrate an entire school year of the “Healthy Habits for Life” health curriculum.
These two Edgewood Independent School District (ISD) centers in San Antonio hosted all the project interventions, which included activity cards on outdoor play and nutrition, parent education seminars on obesity, teaching training on physical activity and nutrition, and staff wellness programs. It should be noted that the Cookie Monster, long known as a gobbler of delicious cookies, now reminds children that cookies are “sometimes” snack food. He promotes the eating of fruits and eggplant.
On Tuesday, the kids at Stafford gave Cookie Monster a warm reception as they danced to music and named their favorite “anytime” foods, like strawberries and blueberries.
Rachel Mata, parent of a 4-year-old at Stafford, said she used to be scared to introduce new foods to her son, because he might not eat it.
“Now he knows about lots of different foods [through the program]. He likes blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, where before we’d stick to just apples and bananas,” Mata said.
School leaders also launded the program’s ability to encourage healthy behaviors.
“We have a lot of first-year teachers, so it was great to give them suggestions on fun dances and activities to get the kids more active,” said Erin Keyser, instructional facilitator at Stafford. “It pays off in the classroom. The students benefit from activity and knowledge of exercise and healthy foods.”
Project leaders say the kids will take these lifestyle lessons with them as they age.
“We believe this collaborative project will help preschool-aged children develop healthy habits that will last into grade school, adolescence and adulthood, as well as increase parents’ awareness of the importance of good nutrition and physical activity for themselves and their children,” said Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., co-principal investigator of the project and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research. “The sooner children and parents are exposed to these beneficial messages, the better.”
Cool Links, Reports on Hot Minority Health Topics
Apr 15th
Here’s a list of cool health links and reports on hot topics from the Texas Department of State Health Services’ Medical and Research Library:
Hispanic Diabetes Disparities Network: This report describes the development of a learning network project that included interventions and needs assessments at community health centers to help reduce the diabetes disparity in the Hispanic population. It is provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/diabetesnetwork/
Health Care Reform: A recent Consumer’s Guide is available from the Kaiser Foundation http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2010/March/22/consumers-guide-health-reform.aspx
Family Food Decision-Making Discussion Guide: This guide, produced by Cornell University, encourages families to analyze their own food decisions, build goals, and implement change in their eating habits.
http://familyfood.human.cornell.edu/ffdm_tool.html
Aging Texas Well Issue Brief Series has reports by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services on physical health and also on mental health & substance abuse of people older than age 60 in Texas.
http://www.dads.state.tx.us/services/agingtexaswell/issuebriefs/index.cfm
Health Education Resource Exchange is an online clearinghouse compiled by the Washington State Dept. of Health of public health education and health promotion materials including posters, brochures, fact sheets and other educational materials. Most of them may be downloaded and many languages are available.
http://here.doh.wa.gov/materials-projects
Health Indicators a Webinar series by the National Library of Medicine explains what health indicators are and how to find and use the data to engage with communities.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/healthindicators/index.html
Screening for Obesity in Children: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that clinicians screen children aged 6 years and older for obesity and offer them or refer them to comprehensive, intensive behavioral interventions to promote improvement in weight status.
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspschobes.htm
Support for Low-Income Individuals and Families: A Review of Recent Government Accountability Office Work is available in report GAO-10-342R, issued February 22, 2010.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-342R
Latino News Roundup: Top 10 Latina Health Challenges & More
Apr 9th
Check out these Latino health news tidbits from the last few days:
The 10 biggest health challenges facing Latinas
“As a culture, Latinas are always putting our needs dead last,” says Dr. Jane L. Delgado, chief executive of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, in an article in Terra. The No. 1 issue, according to the article, is that, for Hispanics over 20 years old, 10.4 percent are living with diabetes. And Latinas specifically have higher rates than their non-Hispanic white counterparts.
California doctors seeing more diabetes among kids
(WITH VIDEO) Doctors in Fresno, Calif., are seeing an alarming rise in diabetes, a disease in children that used to affect mainly adults, according to KFSN-TV. According to the American Diabetes Association, risk factors for type-2 include a family history of the disease, being overweight or inactive. Certain racial and ethnic groups such as Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian-Americans and Native Americans are also at risk.
Helping Latinos stay on the road to graduation
Ford Motor Company Fund and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) are partnering to address the high school dropout rate among Latino students. Under the new program, Ford Driving Dreams through Education, ten LULAC Councils will receive grants to develop projects that provide local solutions that tackle this important issue. About 45 percent of Hispanic students do not complete high school on time. Yet recent studies also show that most students understand the value of having a high school diploma and don’t want to drop out of school.
Latino News Roundup: Diabetes, Obesity & Youth
Mar 15th
Check out these Latino health news tidbits from the past few days:
Doctors try to discover why more Latinos are being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes in all Americans has become a code red emergency in the U.S., with people of color topping the list as the most vulnerable. More than 10 percent of the country’s Latino population has diabetes. The quest to reverse this crisis involves a multi-layered investigation, beginning at a genetic level and branching into the psychological, cultural, social and economic factors that may be paving the way toward obesity and diabetes.
Ventura County Star
New grant aims to cut obesity in Latino, black New Yorkers
A $6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has funded the creation of ORBIT: Obesity Related Behavioral Intervention Trials to focus on reducing obesity and obesity-related deaths in New York City’s African-American and Latino communities.
Medical News Today
America’s Tomorrow: A Profile of Latino Youth
The National Council of La Raza has released a report that examines the status of U.S. Latino youths. Latino youth, who compose nearly 20% of all youth in the country, experience high levels of poverty, high dropout rates, low graduation rates, high unemployment rates, and low rates of health insurance. Given that Latinos will compose about 30% of the U.S. population by 2050, the ability of Latino youth to overcome these pressing challenges today will directly impact the economic and social success of our nation in the future.
National Council of La Raza
Latino Diabetes Association Founder Nominated for Award
Jan 21st
The Latino Diabetes Association has announced that its founder, Heberto M. Sanchez, is a finalist for the first-ever Los Angeles Business Journal Latino Business Awards in the non-profit category along with 14 other honorees.
Heberto Sanchez
Sanchez founded the Latino Diabetes Association (”LDA”), a 501c3 nonprofit organization, in 2003, after his father’s death that resulted from complications caused by diabetes. His family’s experience dealing with his father’s diabetes left an impact in his life that resonates in the work of the LDA.
Under Sanchez, the LDA has: developed a grass roots outreach program that has provided diabetes education in both Spanish and English to thousands of families in the Los Angeles area since 2004; established the LDAkids.org Web site for interactive on-line video games for kids related to healthy eating and to learn more about diabetes; established the LDAtv.org Web site, a diabetes educational/cooking on-line television channel; and more.
Learn more about the LDA here.
Diabetes on the Rise in Older Mexican Americans
Jan 7th
The percentage of Mexican Americans with type 2 diabetes, the kind closely linked to obesity, has nearly doubled since 1993, according to new research reported by Reuters.
A decline in diabetes-related complications in the overall U.S. diabetic population hasn’t also occurred in Mexican Americans ages 75 and up, the study found. Mexican Americans generally have a greater risk of diabetes that whites, but age trends in this population group have been largely unstudied.
To investigate trends in older Mexican Americans, the researchers looked at data from a community-based study of Mexican Americans ages 75 and older living in the southwestern U.S. Their analysis included 1,132 men and women who were surveyed between 1993 and 1994, and another group of 902 surveyed in 2004 and 2005.
The study was published in the December issue of Diabetes Care.
Obesity, Immigration, Age Driving Up Diabetes Rates in Canada
Dec 8th
Rising rates of diabetes in Canada could cost the economy as much as $17 billion by the year 2020, according to a new report that calls on the government to do more to ease the economic burden.
The Canadian Diabetes Association’s report, An Economic Tsunami: The Cost of Diabetes in Canada, warns that more than 20 people are diagnosed with the disease every hour of every day, and that number is expected to continue to rise over the coming years.
Rising obesity rates, an aging population and changes in the ethnic mix of new immigrants are all believed to be driving the increasing rates of diabetes.
Almost 80 percent of new Canadians are from populations that are at a higher risk for diabetes, including people of South Asian, Asian, African and Hispanic descent.
Study Examines Height, Ethnicity and Incidence of Diabetes
Dec 7th
The addition of height does not increase the ability of waist circumference to predict diabetes, but may be useful in exploring differences in diabetic risk in different races/ethnicities, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The study is published in the November issue of the journal Metabolism.
Peanuts, Insulin & English: 3 New Studies on Latino Childhood Obesity
Nov 23rd
Here are three new studies on childhood obesity among Latinos:
Study: Exercise can boost insulin sensitivity in Latino teens
Latino teens who do aerobic exercise can improve their overall fitness and increase peripheral and hepatic insulin sensitivity, even if they don’t lose weight, according to a study by Baylor College of Medicine researchers in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, HealthDay reports. The study compared a 12-week exercise program’s effect on fitness, insulin sensitivity and weight among obese and lean Latino teens.
Journal Article
Study: High-nutrient peanut snacks help overweight Latino kids eat less
Latino youths ate fewer times a day and were not as hungry when they were taught how to make healthier food choices and snack on a nutrient-rich, satiating snack of peanuts or peanut butter, according to new Baylor College of Medicine data presented at the Obesity Society 27th Annual Meeting in October 2009. A group of Latino middle-school students who received nutrition education, a snack intervention and physical activity experienced these benefits.
News Story
Study: Limited English proficiency prevents Latinos from advice on activity, diet
Latinos with limited English proficiency are 50 percent less likely to report receiving advice from physicians on physical activity and/or diet than English-proficient Latinos, according to a study in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The study, which examined nearly 1,200 obese or diabetic Latinos, suggested using culturally sensitive strategies to better deliver health messages to at-risk communities.
Journal Article
South Has Some of the Highest Rates of Obesity, Diabetes
Nov 20th
Wide sections of the Southeast, Appalachia, and some tribal lands in the West and Northern Plains have the nation’s highest rates of obesity and diabetes, according to new CDC estimates.
In many counties in those regions, rates of diagnosed diabetes exceed 10 percent and obesity exceeds 30 percent.
The estimates, in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, are the first to provide county-level snapshots of obesity across the U.S. To view county-level estimates of obesity and diabetes visit Diabetes Data and Trends.
Obesity is one of several factors linked to type 2 diabetes. Where people live, how much money they earn, their culture and their family history also play a role. An unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, and socioeconomic factors contribute to both obesity and type 2 diabetes as well as to complications of diabetes. Some population groups also are at higher risk, including a number of racial and ethnic minorities, such as Latinos.