- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new UC Berkeley study that is getting lots of media attention notes that the incidence of obesity in high school students is greater when there is a fast food restaurant within 530 feet of the campus. Nearby fast food resulted in a 5.2 percent increase in the incidence of student obesity compared with the average for California youths, according to coverage in the Los Angeles Times. Scientists said the correlation is "sizable."
Reporter Jerry Hirsch sought comment from the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, Brenda Roche. She said she wasn't...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The federal Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, known as EFNEP, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, notes a news release distributed yesterday by the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service. The release said a 40th anniversary celebration was held at the University of California Washington Center in Washington, DC, however, I couldn't find mention of the anniversary or the celebration in any online media outlets.
Each year, EFNEP helps more than 500,000 limited-resource family members make sound nutrition and health choices. County extension family and consumer science professionals...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A lot of ink has been splashed on newspaper pages recently extolling locally grown, fresh fruits and vegetables for improving the diet and supporting a sustainable food system. The Modesto Bee today takes a step back and revisits canned fruits and vegetables, which are produced in abundance in the Northern San Joaquin Valley community that the newspaper serves.
According to the story, the canned food industry maintains that canning seals in flavor and nutrients, are affordable, easy to use and available year round. They pointed reporter John Holland to a 2007 UC Davis study that found high vitamin A in canned apricots and in a lesser amount in canned...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Two newspaper accounts this week touched on the human side of UC Cooperative Extension. Food shopping savvy was the focus of an article in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, in which the daughter of a veteran UCCE nutrition educator created a blueprint for people trying make ends meet in the new economy, the story said.
Gerardo and Briana Fernandez shared their personal financial trouble with reporter Jeremy Hay. Gerardo, a general contractor, saw his income slashed in half in the weak economy. The couple realized that, between eating out and grocery shopping, food was gulping $600 from their monthly...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Nutrition information was extended to more than 30,000 Shasta County residents today in a prominent Redding Record Searchlight food story with information sourced entirely from UC Cooperative Extension educators.
Shasta County food stamp nutrition educator Lori Coker and nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor Concepcion Mendoza explained in the 850-word article how to add whole grains to one's diet and why it is important.
"You have to read the labels," Coker told freelance writer Debra Moore. The story included a side bar suggesting...