Nutrition Update | Eat Smart, Move More…NC

November 2007

News from the PAN Branch

The PAN Branch Welcomes New Staff

The PAN Branch welcomes Deborah Dolan, Community Development Specialist with the Statewide Health Promotion Program. Deborah will provide training and technical assistance to local health departments and community partners implementing policy and environmental changes supportive of healthy eating, physical activity, and tobacco use prevention.

Deborah most recently served as a Program Consultant with the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch, N.C. Division of Public Health. She has also served as the Project ASSIST Coordinator for Wake County Human Services, as a health educator with the Communicable Disease Prevention and School Health teams within Wake County and as a health for the Granville-Vance District Health Department.

Deborah holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in School and Community Health with a concentration in Worksite Health Promotion from East Carolina University and is a Registered Health Educator with the NC Board of Registry for Health Education, Inc. We are excited to have Deborah as part of our team. Deborah can be reached at Deborah.Dolan@ncmail or 919-707-5243.

Eat Smart, Move More…North Carolina — Maintain… Don’t Gain Holiday Challenge!
This year’s challenge begins on November 19 and runs through the end of the year. If you would like to receive the weekly challenge newsletters containing tips, ideas, strategies and recipes to help you maintain your weight this holiday season, please sign up today at www.myeatsmartmovemore.com

Programs, Projects and Initiatives

Fast Food and Families

The CD ROM, Fast Food and Families used in the Families Eating Smart & Moving More curriculum is now available on the web. Please visit: www.fastfoodandfamilies.com/. For more information contact Marie Shelton, Healthy Weight Communications Specialist, at Marie.Shelton@ncmail.net or call 919-707-5223.

Worksites Eating Smart and Moving More Releases Two New Ready-To-Use Worksite Wellness Resources

On September 12, Worksites Eating Smart and Moving More released two new resources for worksites interested in creating and implementing wellness programs and policies. The Saving Dollars and Making Sense Management Guide and the Saving Dollars and Making Sense Committee Guide are must-sees for employers and employees! For more information go to www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com.

Successful Students Eat Smart and Move More Provides Tools for Advocating for Local Wellness Policies

The N.C. Division of Public Health launched a program to help school administrators and parents advocate for the implementation of wellness policies in local schools. Successful Students Eat Smart and Move More is a social marketing intervention intended to raise awareness and support of school wellness polices. The goal is to ensure that these policies are implemented, monitored and evaluated to ensure they are meeting the needs of the schools, staff and students. For more information go to this link, to download resources go to:
this link.

Success Stories

Eat Smart, Move More…NC cheers on NC Senior Games State Finalists

Eat Smart, Move More…NC sponsored the SilverStriders Fun Walk of the NC Senior Games State Finals. Participants walked three laps around a large playing field at SAS Soccer Park in Cary, NC, as they embraced the Senior Games’ spirit - taking a holistic approach to body, mind and spirit, and staying fit while enjoying the company of friends, family, spectators and volunteers. For more information go to www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com.

Featured Resources and Research

March 2008 National Nutrition Theme is Set

Nutrition: It’s a Matter of Fact … is the theme for National Nutrition Month® 2008, American Dietetic Association members’ annual campaign to promote healthy eating to any audience — co-workers, clients, community, school or church. New for NNM 2008 is Registered Dietitian Day, to be celebrated March 10. Take advantage of this special recognition day to highlight the services and expertise of RDs. For more information and resources for NNM and Registered Dietitian Day, visit www.eatright.org/nnm. Bookmark this link and visit often for updates; there’s more to come.

“Milk Matters” Online Lesson Resources Available for Teachers

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

September 26, 2007 - New online resources stressing the importance of calcium for bone health are now available for middle and high school teachers. The resources are available through the Milk Matters calcium education campaign, sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

The new resources, available at this site feature fun, hands-on classroom lessons created to teach young people about the importance of calcium for bone health.

The online lessons for teachers are part of the NICHD’s “Milk Matters” calcium education campaign, which aims to increase awareness about the importance of calcium in children’s and adolescents’ diets. The campaign encourages 11-to-15-year-olds in particular to consume sufficient calcium because these are the years of rapid bone growth.

“Teachers play an important role in raising awareness about healthy behaviors,” said NICHD Director Duane Alexander, M.D. “The “Milk Matters”’ Web resources offer teachers user-friendly tools that focus on the importance of calcium for bone health among tweens and teens, age groups that often don’t get enough calcium to meet their needs.”

“Milk Matters”’ online lesson resources are designed to help students understand the importance of making smart food choices through calcium lessons, fact sheets, take-home assignments, and classroom discussion. In “The Great Calcium Challenge”, students learn to read nutrition labels and calculate their calcium intake. The “Calcium Collector” includes a game in which students choose a combination of foods that will provide 1,300 milligrams of calcium — the daily recommended intake. Both lessons also reinforce students’ math skills.

The Smart Snack Cookbook gives students an opportunity to create a recipe book of simple, healthy snacks, such as fruit smoothies. The lesson resources also include a lactose intolerance discussion guide to help teachers discuss the symptoms of lactose intolerance (stomach pain, diarrhea, bloating, and gas) and ways for reducing them. All of the materials are consistent with National Health Education Standards. These Standards were developed by the American Association for Health Education, the American Public Health Association, the American School Health Association, and the Society of State Directors of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation to establish, promote, and support health-enhancing behaviors for students in all grade levels.

In addition to teacher materials, the “Milk Matters” Web site offers a variety of free materials for parents and health care providers that emphasize the importance of calcium in the diets of children and teens, including a booklet, poster, fact sheets, a coloring book, and sticker. Many of these materials are available in English and Spanish.

The “Milk Matters” campaign stresses low-fat or fat-free milk as an excellent source of calcium because:

milk has high calcium content in a form the body can easily absorb
milk contains other nutrients, including vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin K, riboflavin, B12, potassium, magnesium, and protein, that are essential to healthy bone and tooth development
milk is widely available and is already a part of many people’s diets.

To download the classroom activities and other “Milk Matters” materials, or for more information on the “Milk Matters” campaign, visit this site or contact the NICHD Information Resource Center at 1-800-370-2943; e-mail: NICHDInformationResourceCenter@mail.nih.gov.

Translated Public Health Documents

The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has recently posted 13 health
brochures in KAREN and BURMESE on their website.

All the brochures are available for download free of charge. The topics covered in the 13 brochures are as follows:

HIV/AIDS Prevention and Stigma
STDs
Cold & Flu
TB
Stop Smoking
Diabetes
Heart Disease
Obesity
Child Obesity
Pap Test and Mammograms
Menstrual Cycle
Patients Rights
Emergency Room

These brochures are a great tool to help fill in communication gaps between the service provider and the client. They are of course best utilized with verbal education and should not be handed off without discussion. The brochures are also available in ARABIC, VIETNAMESE, and ENGLISH. KIRUNDI, SOMALI, and RUSSIAN translations will be made available in the coming days.

For more information, contact: Jonathan Spangler,at jspangler@uscridc.org.

CDC.gov Launches Redesigned Spanish Web Site “CDC en Español”

On October 11, 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Spanish-language Web site, CDC en Español, was re-launched with a new look and new features that will make it more usable and functional. The updated Web site is another important step in CDC’s longstanding efforts to provide accurate, up-to-date information in Spanish on health issues of special interest to Hispanic communities, including information on a wide range of health promotion and disease prevention topics like asthma, cancer, HIV/AIDS, immunizations, children’s health, diabetes and occupational hazards.

The CDC en Español Web site address is www.cdc.gov/spanish.

Among the new features on CDC en Español:

Health and safety information is now grouped in broad, easy-to-browse topic areas.
Additional new features provide better access to data and statistics, recent news, tools and resources, and new publications.
A new Google-based search engine provides more relevant search results.
An interactive features area at the top of the home page highlights a number of current issues, events and health topics of particular interest to Hispanic audiences with relevant photographs or videos. This feature enables CDC en Español to better display health recommendations, guidelines and upcoming events.
A “Top 20” section allows visitors to quickly view a list of the most popular health topics and access each directly from the home page.

Take a Virtual Tour of the new CDC en Español site.

For more information contact Karen Morrione on the CDC.gov Team at: kmorrione@cdc.gov. Find information about nutrition, physical activity and obesity under Vida Saludable at this site.

Annual Economic Impact of Chronic Disease On U.S. Economy Is $1 Trillion

In a groundbreaking study released October 2, 2007 by the Milken Institute, the annual economic impact on the U.S. economy of the most common chronic diseases is calculated to be more than $1 trillion, which could balloon to nearly $6 trillion by the middle of the century. Yet the news is not entirely grim because much of this cost is avoidable.

“An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease” brings to light for the first time what is often overlooked in the discussion of the impact of chronic disease — the economic loss associated with preventable illness and the cost to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and American businesses in lost growth.

“In every community in our country, people are suffering from preventable chronic diseases. Not only does that suffering affect our nation’s overall health — but also our nation’s economic productivity,” said Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS. “With this new data from the Milken Institute, we now know the cost burden of chronic disease in our nation, and it’s truly staggering. If we are unable to reduce the rate of chronic disease, the potential economic damage to our nation could be devastating. For both the physical and economic health of our country, we must bring together all sectors to find new, innovative, and cost-effective ways to prevent chronic disease. Any funding that we spend to prevent chronic disease today will actually be a valuable investment — with long-term dividends.” Dr. Carmona is Chairperson of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), 17th U.S. Surgeon General (2002-2006), and President of Canyon Ranch Institute.

According to the study, seven chronic diseases – cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions and mental illness – have a total impact on the economy of $1.3 trillion annually. Of this amount, $1.1 trillion represents the cost of lost productivity.

“By investing in good health, we can add billions of dollars in economic growth in the coming decades,” said Ross DeVol, Director of Health Economics and Regional Economics at the Milken Institute and principal author of the report. “The good news is that with moderate improvements in prevention and early intervention such as reducing the rate of obesity, the savings to the economy would be enormous.”

The study is the first of its kind to estimate the avoidable costs if a serious effort were made to improve Americans’ health. Assuming modest improvements in preventing and treating disease, Milken Institute researchers determined that by 2023 the nation could avoid 40 million cases of chronic disease and reduce the economic impact of chronic disease by 27 percent, or $1.1 trillion annually. They report that the most important factor is obesity, which if rates declined could lead to $60 billion less in treatment costs and $254 billion in increased productivity.

Looking even further ahead, the report measures the possible cost to future generations if escalating disease leads to lower investments in education and training. In a snowball effect, the report warns, this loss of human capital and skill building could reduce the nation’s economic output by as much as $5.7 trillion in real GDP by the year 2050.

In addition to providing national numbers, the report ranks all 50 states by the reported number of these diseases per capita. According to the Milken Institute State Chronic Disease Index, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi have the highest rates of chronic disease. Those with the lowest rates are in the West: Utah, Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

To reduce the human and economic cost of disease, the Milken Institute calls for:

More incentives to promote prevention and early intervention, and;
A renewed national commitment to achieve a “healthy body weight.”

“Today, most of the national policy discussion on health care is about financing mechanisms. This Milken Institute study suggests that the urgent need to act now to reduce the amount of preventable illness as the country ages deserves equal focus,” said Ken Thorpe, Ph.D., Executive Director, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease and Professor and Chair, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University.

The report was created by researchers from the Milken Institute and was supported with a grant from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), both of whom are partners in the PFCD.

“This study is a call to action. It’s time for Americans to call for a change in how we effectively fight chronic disease. Chronic disease is a crucial driver of health-care costs, and its rates are rising. We need to reverse this trend and we need to do it now. It’s common sense,” says PhRMA president and CEO Billy Tauzin.

The full report is available on www.milkeninstitute.org and www.fightchronicdisease.org. An interactive web site with complete national- and state-level data for each of the chronic diseases is available at www.chronicdiseaseimpact.com.

For more information contact: Jennifer Manfrè, Associate Director of Communications at (310) 570-4623 or by e-mail: jmanfre@milkeninstitute.org.

Farm to School Newsletter Debuts

As the movement builds to bring local fresh ingredients to schools across the country, the Farm to School Newsletter will highlight pivotal policies, news, publications, and events with a featured region and profile each month. Visit the site at this link.

In the First Issue:

Spotlight: Forging New Routes from Farm to School

With an estimated 1,117 farm to school programs active in 34 states, and lots more in the planning stages, we are in the midst of a growing movement of community based food systems connecting children to their food’s roots. Allow us to introduce ourselves and better acquaint you with the National Farm to School Program’s latest venture to strengthen the movement.

The National Farm to School Network received a three-year, $2.4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to establish a viable and sustainable mechanism to coordinate, promote, and expand the farm to school movement at the state, regional, and national levels. Officially launched in May of 2007, the Network is coordinated by the Center for Food & Justice, a division of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College and the Community Food Security Coalition. Read More.

Other articles in the First Issue Include:

A Taste of Place: A 40-Mile Radius of Relationships
“Making use of local produce” by Dana Hudson
“Farm fresh, but at school” by Karen Herzog

Please contact the Farm to School staff at: deschmeyer@oxy.edu if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.

School Health Policies and Program Study 2006 (SHPPS) Published in the Journal of School Health

The Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) released findings from the School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2006 in the October issue of the Journal of School Health. SHPPS 2006 is the largest and most comprehensive assessment of America’s school health policies and programs to date. This new report describes key school health policies and practices across all eight school health program components: health education, physical education and activity, health services, mental health and social services, nutrition services, healthy and safe school environment, faculty and staff health promotion, and family and community involvement. In addition, SHPPS 2006 includes new topics—crisis preparedness and response and the physical school environment—which reflect new issues and concerns in school health and public health.

The SHPPS 2006 report is of particular interest to those working on school health issues in areas such as nutrition and physical activity; safety; asthma; tobacco-use prevention; HIV, STD, and pregnancy prevention; violence and injury prevention; alcohol and other drug use prevention; food safety; environmental health; and crisis preparedness, response, and recovery.

DASH’s website has been updated and the following materials are available: a link to the Journal of School Health articles, fact sheets, a state-level summaries document, questionnaires, analytic data files and technical documentation, and archives of previous SHPPS studies. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Nancy Brener at 770-488-6184, or Diane Beistle at 770-488-6093.

CDC Launches Health Education Web Tool for Schools!

CDC’s Centers and Divisions have developed a wide variety of science-based and other instructional materials that can help schools enhance existing health education curriculum and instruction. CDC’s School Health Education Resources (SHER) is a unique, user-friendly web tool that consolidates these resources in one convenient location. SHER helps Pre-K-12 classroom teachers, school nurses, counselors, curriculum directors, and school administrators easily locate CDC’s instructional resources.

SHER features instructional materials aligned with the National Health Education Standards, Second Edition, 2007, and CDC’s Characteristics of Effective Health Education Curriculum. The online database is searchable by:

Health education topics commonly found in a comprehensive school health education curriculum.
Four types of resources (curriculum and lessons, teacher instructional materials, student materials, and fact sheets).
Grade level groupings (Pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12).

SHER provides the sole comprehensive, user-friendly place to browse and access these resources at CDC. It is available online.

Highlights from November Team Nutrition E-Newsletter

FNS Announces FY 2007 Team Nutrition Training Grant Recipients
Twenty-three State agencies will receive the FY 2007 Team Nutrition Training Grants. They are: Alaska, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

During the 2-year grant period, these 23 grantee states will provide training and technical assistance to foodservice staff in the preparation of more fruits and vegetables, whole-grain products, and other healthful foods. They will also support efforts to empower students to make healthy choices and be physically active; reach out to parents, teachers/caregivers, and others to capitalize on the role-model potential they have on children; and encourage elementary schools to take USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge. A brief project description of these 23 States will soon be posted on USDA’s Team Nutrition Web site.

USDA Team Nutrition’s New Publications Empowering Youth: A manual for use in after school programs and classrooms with youth 11-18 years old. It contains current nutrition and physical activity information to enhance leader knowledge; fun, hands-on activities that teach nutrition concepts; ideas to include nutrition education and physical activity into youth programs and events; resources to help youth develop a nutrition or physical activity related community project; tips, worksheets, handouts, discussion prompters and more! Visit this link for more info.

Nutrition Essentials
Nutrition Essentials is a series of lessons that will help you make healthful eating and physical activity choices. It provides several tools which give you information you need to make educated choices. Nutrition Essentials contains 5 posters: Food for a Day, How Much Do You Eat, Move It, MyPyramid, and Read It. Nutrition Essentials also includes an interactive CD, NutritionDecision, with games and nutrition education information. Nutrition Essentials can be ordered for Team Nutrition Middle and High Schools. Visit this link for more info.

State Developed Materials

Launch Your Day with School Breakfast Kit
This packet was developed to give you ideas on how to celebrate National School Breakfast Week (NSBW) at your school. In this packet, you will find menus, recipes, and other items designed specifically to help you celebrate this event. Visit this link

Quick Steps to Fruits and Vegetables Galore, and Dairy Too!
This training, part of a 2004 Team Nutrition Training Grant awarded to New Jersey, is aimed at training school foodservice managers to incorporate more milk or other calcium rich products and more fruits and vegetables into their operations, in both meals and a la carte offerings. Includes some materials for students. http://tinyurl.com/ytohj4

For more information regarding USDA’s Team Nutrition and how to enroll your school as a Team Nutrition School, go to the USDA Web site.

What’s new on USDA’s Team Nutrition Web site? Check it out at this link.

Submit your comments and suggestions regarding the Team Nutrition e-newsletter to the Healthy Meals Resource System hmrs@nal.usda.gov.

Legislation

There are no updates at this time.

Grants/Awards

National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) Website Serves as Funding Resources Portal

Chronic Disease Funding Opportunities can be found at this link

Funding Opportunity for Elementary Schools

Hidden Valley® Announces Expanded Love Your Veggies™ Grant Campaign Elementary School in Every State to Receive $10,000 Grant to Promote Fresh Vegetable Consumption. The grant program – the Love Your Veggies™ Nationwide School Lunch Campaign – was created to help schools implement a recent federally mandated local wellness policy that requires schools to develop and execute programs to improve their students’ overall health and nutrition, and in response to the overwhelming shortage of funds available for the execution of these programs.

Applying for a Grant
All interested schools must apply for a Love Your Veggies grant online at www.LoveYourVeggiesGrants.com. Schools can apply for a grant beginning Aug. 1, and applications will be accepted through Nov. 30, 2007. Grant recipients will be selected by representatives of Hidden Valley, SNA and PBH, and announced in March 2008 during National Nutrition Month.

Training and Professional Development

Nutrition and Physical Activity Teleconferences

Every month, the CDC Division of Nutrition & Physical Activity (DNPA) sponsors a monthly teleconference on a variety of topics, but mostly dealing with nutrition &/or physical activity. The calls are scheduled the 2nd Thursday of each month from 1:30-2:30 p.m. The topic for the November 8, 2007, call is “The Convergence Partnership for Healthy Eating and Active Living” presented by Laura Kettel-Khan, PhD, Public Health Analyst, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. Anyone who would like the handouts or participate in future calls please send an email to nc5aday@ncmail.net.

22nd Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference

*November 9 - 11, 2007 *
Join 600+ farmers, educators, extension agents, consumers, and agriculture professionals for a weekend of workshops, wonderful meals, inspiring keynote address, and loads of fun! More info to come - mark your calendars and stay tuned! For more information visit this site.

The 2007 NC Prevention Institute

Asheville, NC
November 11-12, 2007

Join business, healthcare, public health, community, and advocacy leaders to learn best practices for preventing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases. For more information visit this site.

The 2007 North Carolina Summit on Youth & Families

“Building a Bright Future for All North Carolinians: Economic Opportunity, Educational Excellence, Health and Well-being”
RTP/Durham, NC
December 4-5, 2007

The 2007 North Carolina Summit on Youth and Families convenes leaders in a dynamic, visionary, collegial setting from education, government, business, and communities. The Summit’s goal is to examine critically the current status and future direction of our state’s youth and families. The first of its kind in our state, the Summit is targeted to professionals and volunteers from non-profit organizations, government agencies, and business and industry.

The 2007 Summit will focus upon the following three critical, contemporary issues facing our state’s youth and families:\

Strengthening Economic Opportunities: Economic opportunities are created through strategic connections among individuals and families, education, and community-based resources These connections promote vibrant communities that foster competitiveness in employment and business creation in our global economy;
Striving for Educational Excellence: Educational excellence is a principle guiding policy-makers and educational institutions to provide opportunities for all people to gain knowledge and skills to achieve their maximum potential to contribute to family, community and society; and
Improving Health and Well-being: Health and well-being is not just the absence of disease, but an optimal state of complete physical, mental and social capacity that allows youth and families to live their best lives.

Sponsored by the Department of 4-H Youth Development and Family & Consumer Sciences at North Carolina State University, specific Summit objectives include:
Examining critical and emerging issues facing North Carolina’s youth and families and their communities;

Discussing how existing organizations, agencies, and programs may successfully address these issues through community-based programs;
Envisioning new strategies and approaches to better address these and other emerging issues in the future; and
Interacting across geographic and organizational boundaries to share ideas and strengthen collaborations and partnerships.

1st Annual North Carolina Awards for Excellence in Youth and Family Programming Nominations

This statewide award recognizes individuals, families and organizations that have demonstrated positive impact upon our state’s youth or families through creative program efforts and enhanced the quality of life of North Carolinians. Any individual youth, individual adult, family, non-profit organization/agency, or for-profit business or organization whose programming activities benefit the youth or families of North Carolina in a substantial, important or unique way is eligible for nomination.

Deadline date for Early-bird registration rate for the Conference and for nominations for the North Carolina Awards for Excellence in Youth and Family Programming is 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 5, 2007.

For more information on the Summit, Registration, Exhibitor Submission, Sponsorship Opportunities, and Calls for Proposals for Poster Sessions & Presentations, visit the website at: www.ncsummit.org or email: [info@ncsummit.org](mailto:info@ncsummit.org.

25th Annual BRFSS Conference

Orlando, Florida
March 15–19, 2008

Save the Date! The 25th Annual BRFSS Conference will be held March 15–19, 2008, at the Florida Hotel and Conference Center in Orlando, Florida.

Since 1984, CDC’s Behavior Surveillance Branch has held annual meetings with state coordinators to plan and discuss the BRFSS survey. The BRFSS Conference typically draws survey coordinators, field supervisory staff, epidemiologists and others from all over the United States interested in the administration and analysis of BRFSS data. The conference provides opportunities for networking among state BRFSS coordinators, data collection contractors and others interested in surveillance systems.

The purpose of the conference is to determine the content of the following year’s BRFSS Survey and update attendees regarding state-of-the-art behavioral risk factor monitoring, methodologies, and technological innovations.

The conference showcases the successful application of BRFSS data by state-based programs such as diabetes, cancer prevention, tobacco and alcohol use prevention, family planning, nutrition and physical activity, and oral health.

For more information visit this site.