- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The USDA today introduced a simple and clear visual to guide Americans when filling their plates at mealtime. The new MyPlate nutrition icon, which replaces the familiar 'MyPyramid,' shows how to build a healthy meal based on the USDA 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
"As a mom, I can already tell how much this is going to help parents across the country," said First Lady Michelle Obama in a live-streamed news conference this morning. "When mom or dad comes home from a long day of work, we're already asked to be a chef, a referee, a cleaning crew. So it's tough to be a nutritionist, too. But we do have time to take a...
- Posted By: Jeannette E. Warnert
- Written by: Norma de la Vega. Adapted from Spanish by Jeannette Warnert.
Salsa plays a much-deserved starring role in Mexican cuisine, adding not only refreshing and spicy flavors to breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner, but also conveying an ample supply of nutrients.
A blend of fruits, vegetables and seasonings, salsas are created almost entirely from the foods highly recommended by nutrition experts, says UC Cooperative Extension nutrition educator Margarita Schwarz.
“Experts recommend we eat 3 to 5 servings of vegetables and 2 to 4 servings of fruit daily and salsa is an excellent way to add these foods to our diets,” she said. “We can experiment in the kitchen with different blends, combining...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
It's important to teach children from a very early age, starting at about 9 months, to eat a wide variety of foods, but this takes time and patience, says the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Tulare County, Cathi Lamp.
Lamp says children learn to like new foods by exploring them, so parents shouldn’t be concerned if youngsters make a mess touching their food, playing with it and trying to put it in their mouths. These are all forms of learning.
“The child feels a natural sense of fear in trying new foods and for that reason it is important to permit them to become familiar with them from an early age,”...
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Beautiful gardens are brimming with color and life at the Veterans’ Home in Ventura. These gardens have been planned, planted and cared for by a group of Ventura County UCCE Master Gardeners and many people in the community.
Flowers and ornamental trees provide color and shade. Raised garden beds are filled with a wide assortment of vegetables to enhance nutrition and dinner salads of residents. An orchard of donated fruit trees has taken root on the west side of the building. Garden lectures provide enrichment for the mind.
An additional vegetable garden and succulent garden are planned.
Started shortly after the home opened, the gardens and the activity they generate...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Even though dietitians have for decades strongly recommended eating lots of fruit and vegetables daily, very few Americans hit the mark. Food prices, taste, inconvenience, and a failure to understand the link between diet and health have been blamed for Americans’ poor food choices.
New research by the USDA Economic Research Service dispels one of those obstacles. The study determined that buying the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables costs on average only $2 to $2.50 per day.
“For those with access and the means to buy them, the assertion that fruits and vegetables are too expensive is not a good excuse,” said UC Cooperative Extension...
