- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When Genoveva Islas was 12 years old, she was responsible for giving insulin injections to her diabetic tia, her aunt.
“Tia lost her toes, lost her leg, lost her life,” Islas said. “This is a very important fight.”
Islas is director of Cultiva La Salud in Fresno, which works to address poor nutrition and physical inactivity in the San Joaquin Valley. The fight Islas referred to is the “soda wars,” a battle to reduce the amount of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumed by Americans. SSBs are the single most significant source of sugar in...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Thanks to new equipment in school kitchens, made possible by special USDA grants, schools around the country are now serving fresher, healthier and more appealing food to students, according to research by the UC Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI).
"Years of federal neglect have resulted in many poorly equipped school kitchens, making it impossible to serve the nutritious meals that students need, particularly in light of the obesity epidemic that has affected so many youngster," said Kenneth Hecht, NPI coordinator.
During the past six years, Congress provided nearly $200 million to help schools purchase new equipment. Pew Charitable Trusts...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Several grade school students set down their forks to eat their green salad, picking up individual lettuce leaves with their fingers and pushing them into their mouths. Not that I was there to judge for style, it was just an observation as I looked around the cafeteria festooned in colorful hand-cut paper banners to see how many of the kids had taken a salad.
The youngsters are required to take at least a half-cup serving of fresh fruits or vegetables as part of a healthful meal to meet national nutrition standards, but I noticed they...
