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By Sally Wadyka, Illustration: Jess Ebsworth, The New York Times, May 18, 2023 Roughly 60 percent of the calories in the average American diet come from highly processed foods. We’ve known for decades that eating such packaged products — like some breakfast cereals, snack bars, frozen meals and virtually all packaged sweets, among many other things — is linked to unwelcome health outcomes, like an increased risk of diabetes , obesity and even cancer . But more recent studies point to another...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-michael-pollan.html

PACEs Connection is excited to kick off our 2023 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Annual Accelerator Program.

Back in 2019, we began planning to write a book, From Trauma to Resiliency, that would describe the experiences of survivors who have experienced multiple traumas and who have benefitted from relationship-based, collaborative family-school-community-based services. We asked colleagues doing amazing work in San Diego County to contribute chapters, and they shared stories of oppressed, traumatized groups of survivors that include, people who have faced abuse, war, and poverty,...

By Somini Sengupta, Photo: Andri Tambunan/The New York Times, The New York Times, October 13, 2022 In Seoul, garbage cans automatically weigh how much food gets tossed in the trash. In London, grocers have stopped putting date labels on fruits and vegetables to reduce confusion about what is still edible. California now requires supermarkets to give away — not throw away — food that is unsold but fine to eat. Around the world, a broad array of efforts are being launched to tackle two...

https://onbeing.org/programs/kimberley-wilson-whole-body-mental-health/ The British psychologist Kimberley Wilson works in the emergent field of whole body mental health, one of the most astonishing frontiers we are on as a species. Discoveries about the gut microbiome, for example, and the gut-brain axis; the fascinating vagus nerve and the power of the neurotransmitters we hear about in piecemeal ways in discussions around mental health. The phrase “mental health” itself makes less and...

Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Author: Allison Aubrey's article, please click here. The data are stark: the typical American diet is shortening the lives of many Americans. Diet-related deaths outrank deaths from smoking, and about half of U.S. deaths from heart disease – nearly 900 deaths a day – are linked to poor diet. The pandemic highlighted the problem, with much worse outcomes for people with obesity and other diet-related diseases. "We're really in a nutrition crisis...

(Congratulations to Dr. Audrey Hokoda and Dr. Shulamit Ritblatt for their steadfast dedication as Editors of this textbook. Long-standing San Diego Trauma-Informed Guide Team (SDTIGT) member, there are more SDTIGT members who are co-authors. Congratulations to all contributors!) From Trauma to Resiliency: Trauma-Informed Practices for Working with Children, Families, Schools, and Communities Edited by Shulamit Natan Ritblatt, San Diego State University, California, USA and Audrey Hokoda ,...

Learn4Life high school students participate in a culinary skills career technical education course and Camryn (pictured below), shows off the baking creation she made during class. National Culinary Month highlights the importance of teaching foodservice and cooking skills to high schoolers who make up a big part of the restaurant industry workforce. LOS ANGELES (July 8, 2022) – Why does it take so long to get your order when you go out to eat? The number one problem is a decline in...

By Rick Sadler , July 15, 2022, the Public Health Post We know that structural racism has far-reaching and enduring impacts on the built environment of neighborhoods and on the health of the people who live there. Structural racism both contributes to and is compounded by neighborhood disadvantage , the overconcentration of alcohol outlets , the incidence of firearm violence , the unequal redevelopment of urban areas via gentrification , and rates of childhood obesity . And yet, most of the...

Dear PACEs Community, Sharing out my new policy brief about the developmental consequences of food insecurity among children with disabilities: Household Food Insecurity Associated with Decline in Attentional Focus of Young Children with Disabilities A downloadable PDF version is attached. Please feel to forward to your networks who might find this relevant to their work. And, of course, please reach out if you have any questions or comments. Thank you! --Kevin Kevin A. Gee, Ed.D. Associate...

By Aaron Hutcherson, Photo: Lynsey Weatherspoon/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, June 8, 2022 After I exit the highway heading to my hotel, the first business I notice is a lunch spot called Plantation Buffet. The sign slaps me in the face with irony, as I’ve traveled here to meet with Nicole A. Taylor, the author of the recently released “ Watermelon and Red Birds ,” the first major cookbook honoring the Juneteenth holiday . The restaurant served as a harsh reminder of Black pain,...