Honor good nutrition by eating healthy

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Obesity in the United States is at an all-time high and, as such, has increased interest in nutrition and healthy eating. Campaigns like National Nutrition Month have been created to help others change their current lifestyles to be more healthy.

What is it?

It’s a national nutrition awareness campaign that “focuses attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits.” It was created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which is the United States’ largest organization of food and nutrition professionals.

 How can I get involved?

There are many different activities that you can get involved with and a variety of ways to make it a prevalent part of your home. Whether you want to get involved at the community level, school level, or home level, there are plenty of ways to help accomplish the goals of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. For example, you could invite an author of a nutrition book to speak to a school group or community group. You could hold a cooking class that focuses on using nutritious foods, or you could organize food donations of healthy foods to homeless shelters and other food pantries.

 For our young friends in the school systems, you could consider beginning a school vegetable garden to teach the children the importance of growing your own food. Taking the kids on a field trip to the local farmer’s market is also a great way to make nutrition fun and exciting for them.
 Penny Riley, dietary manager at Owyhee Health and Rehabilitation Center, suggests challenging your friends and co-workers to eat their five-a-day helpings of fruits and vegetables. Making the challenge a fun game with a prize for the winner is always an incentive to eat better. In fact, as dietary manager at Owyhee, Penny is in charge of the nutrition of all the residents in the facility.

“We’re unique out here!” She says. “We are automatically a low-sodium kitchen. We don’t add salt to our foods, although we do have salt on the tables for those who want it. We give them five servings of fruits and vegetables a day and help our residents by monitoring weight gain and loss and then creating dietary plans for individuals. So, it’s a very case-by-case basis. Each resident is different.”

The options are endless to help promote and support this campaign. Plus, if you join the campaign, you can be a positive force for good in your life. You can change your unhealthy lifestyle and improve the quality of your life and your loved ones.

For more information about National Nutrition Month, you can visit the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ website at www.eatright.org to find more ideas or to have your questions answered.

This article was previously published by the Daily Herald and republished here with permission.

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