USDA has approved a final rule to improve nutrition and support breastfeeding in food packages in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The final rule includes these changes: Require WIC-eligible whole grain breakfast cereals contain a whole grain as the first ingredient.
Increase access to whole grains in breakfast cereal, bread, and grains, including "tortillas made with folic acid-fortified corn masa flour (once available in the marketplace)."
Expand whole grain options to include foods like quinoa, blue cornmeal, and teff to reflect dietary guidance and accommodate individual or cultural preferences.
Provide more convenience and options in the dairy category, including flexibility on package sizes and non-dairy substitution ...
Check out USDA’s new data tool called the Child Nutrition Dashboard! The dashboard, which is comprised of public data published in the child nutrition tables, can help federal, state, and local organizations assess trends in child nutrition program activity. “The goal of the dashboard is to provide national and state level visualization of meals served, participation, and funding data for the National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, and Summer Food Service Program,” according to the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Let’s dive into how this tool can be used and why it benefits Latinos!
Nutrition Dashboard Insights
The Child Nutrition Dashboard provides information on participation, meals served, ...
You can get help eating healthier from the Green Wellness Program: Plants-2-Plate, a 6-month program led by Wellness 360 at UT Health San Antonio. Plant-based food is the heart of the program. “The mission of the UT Health San Antonio Green Wellness Program: Plants-2-Plate is to make lives better by promoting lifestyle change, including a plant-predominant eating pattern to achieve optimal health,” according to the program webpage. Get information on how to join!
Can a Plant-Based Diet Work for You?
The future of humanity depends on building healthier, plant-based food systems. A plant-based diet focuses on food that comes primarily from plants including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, and legumes. Some people experience different ...
The Biden-Harris Administration announced its goal to eliminate hunger in America, improve diet and physical activity, and reduce diet-related disease by 2030 during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept. 28, 2022 – the first such conference in over 50 years. The goal is based on five pillars of strategic action: Improve food access and affordability.
Integrate nutrition and health.
Empower all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices.
Support physical activity for all.
Enhance nutrition and food security research. President Joe Biden also shared three foundational principles for the goal. “Help more Americans access the food that will keep their families nourished and healthy, lot of food deserts out there. Second, ...
In the last few years, childhood obesity has become a global epidemic. The effort to change individual choices – like diet and physical activity – hasn’t solved the problem, and also contributes to weight discrimination. That is why we need to use cultural insights, nutritional science, and a systemic focus to improve child health, according to a new report from the Vanderbilt University Cultural Context of Health and Wellbeing Initiative. “What we label ‘obesity’ is produced by interrelated systems in which human biology interacts with environments, social norms, economic structures, and historical legacies,” according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation blog post about the report, Reframing Childhood Obesity: Cultural Insights on Nutrition, Weight and Food ...
Hunger declined in the U.S. from 2020 to 2021, but 1 in 10 households were still food insecure ─ with no reliable access to enough food – according to a new USDA report. Food insecurity disproportionately impacted people of color, too. A higher percentage of Latino (16.2%) and Black (19.8%) households experienced food insecurity than White households (7%), the report found. Still, the problem could have been worse. “We know that matters would be far worse if not for the federal nutrition programs and the critical additional investments that were made to combat hunger during the pandemic,” according to a news release from the Food Action & Research Center (FRAC) about the new USDA data. Let’s explore the state of food insecurity among Latinos and the importance ...
A new report from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), using national data, found that the Latino high school graduation rate rose to 78% in 2013 compared to 2007. Toward A More Equitable Future: The Trends and Challenges Facing America’s Latino Children is a new report released by the NCLR which utilized nationally gathered data to shed light on the true state, good and bad, of Latino children in the United States. “When people don’t want to do something, they hide behind data,” said Lori Kaplan, head of the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, D.C. at a recent news event announcing the report. “They say ‘show me the data.’ But smaller operations usually don’t have the resources to gather data to prove that what they know to be true through ...
More Americans are eating healthier, but a widening nutrition gap is separating Whites from Latinos and African Americans, according to a new study, the L.A. Times reports. The study, which examined 34,000 U.S. adults' diets from 2000-2012, found that 46% of Americans had "poor" diets in 2012, an improvement from 56% in 2000. Researchers also found Americans made several positive gains: cutting sugary drink intake in half, nearly doubling consumption whole grain consumption, and boosting intake of nuts, seeds, fish, and shellfish. But Latinos and African Americans didn't improve as much. According to the L.A. Times:
Non-Latino blacks and Mexican Americans — the only two minority ethnic groups to be studied in the latest effort — were significantly less likely to have ...
The Oliver Foundation is a Houston-based nonprofit dedicated to preventing childhood obesity. They provide a variety of resources for students, educators, parents, and health professionals, with a strong emphasis on eating/preparing nutritious foods and maintaining healthy weight. The Oliver Foundation also offers grants for schools and summer programs aimed at improving eating or physical ...
