Tagged With "”"
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How Eating Real Food Combats Depression (wakeup-world.com)
The strong link between sugar and depression. A number of food ingredients can cause or aggravate depression, but one of the most significant is sugar, particularly refined sugar and processed fructose. 12 For example, in one study, men consuming more than 67 grams of sugar per day were 23 percent more likely to develop anxiety or depression over the course of five years compared to those whose sugar consumption was less than 40 grams per day (which is still far higher than the 25 grams per...
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How Nutrition Affects Teens Mental Health
"Once we've sourced our food, the next step is preparing it. This part of the process can also be an avenue for enhancing teen mental health – particularly when young people approach cooking as a creative activity that they enjoy doing with and for others. A recent study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology followed more than 650 young adults. Each day, they reported how much time they spent on creative activities and how they felt that day. The researchers found that the...
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How One Farm Saved This Tiny Town’s Survival Rate (rd.com)
By the summer of 2005, the Reverend Richard Joyner of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church realized he was conducting funerals twice a month—a startling number given his town’s tiny population. Nearly 300 souls call Conetoe (pronounced “ka-‘nee-ta”) home. The predominantly African American hamlet is situated in North Carolina’s Edgecombe County, where a quarter of households live below the poverty line and heart disease kills more
20- to 39-year-olds than do car accidents. “I’ve closed...
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How Students Would Improve Their School Lunch Experience
This story shares how integral improving the school lunchroom experience is to children's nutritional and social-emotional health. ".... Studies have shown that when kids have 20 minutes or less to eat, they will eat less food and skip the fruit. Even if fiber and vitamin-rich foods end up on a kid’s tray, that doesn’t mean the kids have time to eat them, and this food often ends up in the trash. Changing food without addressing the time and conditions needed to eat those foods can get in...
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How the Brain Controls Food Cravings
“For example, aerobic exercise has been shown to enhance it, while lack of sleep and stress can impair it – so there may be a link between these lifestyle factors and overeating via their impacts on the brain.” https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-food-cravings-9598/
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How to Make the Benefits of a School Garden Meaningful in a Child's Life (kqed.org)
Amid the litany of education reforms that emphasize innovation and new methods, school gardens stand out as a low-tech change. In an era where kids' lives are more sedentary, and where childhood obesity has risen dramatically, gardens support and encourage healthful eating as a key component of children's physical wellbeing, which can aid their academic and social success, too. And as the consequences of food deserts and poor nutrition on life outcomes become starker, advocates say that...
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How to Nourish Your Brain to Improve and Protect It (thebestbrainpossible.com)
Research shows that memory problems can begin as early as the forties and continue to increase with age. However, declining cognition is not just an inevitable part of aging. Keeping your mind sharp is entirely possible, and it’s never too late to improve your brain function. Your lifestyle habits play a large role in determining whether your mind stays robust or degrades. The foods you eat are also integral in determining whether your brain continues to function at its best . Giving your...
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How to Use Mindfulness Meditation to Overcome Emotional Eating [betterhumans.coach.me]
As a teenager, I struggled with bulimia. Not only did I eat to manage my emotional states, but I also binged and then tried to compensate for my dietary transgressions. This never-ending cycle was so draining that I could not think of anything else but food. Stopping binge eating required a shift in my beliefs about my worthiness and my ability to cope with stressful situations. I used food to suppress three negative emotions in particular: powerlessness, anxiety, and emptiness. Fortunately,...
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How Trauma Can Affect Nutrition
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/how_trauma_can_affect_nutrition
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How Urban Agriculture is Transforming Detroit (dailygood.org)
A city that in the 1950s was the world's industrial giant, with a population of 1.8 million people and 140 square miles of land and infrastructure, used to support this booming, Midwestern urban center. And now today, just a half a century later, Detroit is the poster child for urban decay. Currently in Detroit, our population is under 700,000, of which 84 percent are African American, and due to decades of disinvestment and capital flight from the city into the suburbs, there is a scarcity...
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How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope
Often, when I serve watermelon in a program or workshop, there is at least one African American person who looks askance at this fruit. On many occasions, people have declared definitively, "I don't eat watermelon." I have always known that this food has a racially-charged meaning for the African American community so I never try to convince them to try it. This essay, gets to the difficult and painful history of watermelon and its use, like so many things, in the oppression of African...
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Hunger Moves to the Suburbs [sfchronicle.com]
By Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 2019 Most people think of people lining up at food pantries and soup kitchens as an urban phenomenon. But in Alameda County, which has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the Bay Area, an increasing number of people living in the suburbs are also having trouble affording food. That includes Livermore, a city in the Tri-Valley area that’s better known for its wineries. “When people think of homelessness and poverty, they don’t...
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In Defense of a Dignified SNAP
"Pressing threats to SNAP in the latest legislation include expanding work requirements, measures to improve “integrity” by making proof of eligibility increasingly burdensome, restricting EBT card replacement allowances, and creating an unwieldy national database in order to prevent duplicative enrollment. These changes are notable in that they both ignore participants’ dignity and add bureaucratic complexity that would discourage people in need from accessing SNAP. This policy brief will...
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INHABIT (documentary - Uplift.tv)
What if we could meet human needs while increasing the health and wellbeing of our planet? This award-winning film explores the many environmental issues facing us today and how permaculture provides solutions that could change everything. To view the film by Costa Boutsikaris , please click here. (from Dana: As a midwest farm girl, Permaculture is profoundly hopeful, uplifting, and honoring our Mother Earth. From suburban backyards to urban rooftops, the banks of rivers and in forests, on...
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Investing in our Roots: How Gardening is Improving Native Health and Food Sovereignty at Standing Rock (indiangiver.firstnations.org)
When we look at history, American Indians are often the canary in the mine. When their health goes, it’s a sign of what’s in store for other populations. This is one of the many reasons behind the work of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Nutrition for the Elderly program. Here, with the support of First Nations, this community is not only protecting that canary by improving Native health but taking active steps to promote food sovereignty. A food desert The canary metaphor comes from Petra...
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Is everything you know about obesity wrong?
A podcast discussion of the article shared below "Everything You Know About Obesity is Wrong." What is the best way to address health issues that are connected to overweight and obesity? Share your thoughts! http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2018/10/03/obesity-overweight-weight-loss
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It's not too late to sign up: Second Chance Youth Garden Community Supported Agriculture Program (CSA) program
Hi Everyone, Kristin Kvernland from Second Chance said that that they still have a few open spots left, so if anyone wanted to start next week they could pro-rate their share. Note: They don’t want to add anyone else after Week Two but they will have another season starting in March and will be sure to send the info for those interested in their Spring season. (See details in the original email below.) SIGN UP FOR OUR WINTER CSA SHARE! 1 CSA box = 1 youth employed in our program. The Winter...
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Join the dialogue 1/30/20 at 6:30pm: Our Food While Living Colored
This event was shared by March For Black Women SD and Mid-City CAN: JAN 30 Our Food While Living Colored Public · Hosted by March For Black Women SD and Mid-City CAN (Community Advocacy Network) clock Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM pin 4305 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92105-1601, United States Show Map Hosted by March For Black Women SD Message Host ticket Tickets www.eventbrite.com Find Tickets Join us as we discuss Food as Medicine, Afro-Centric Food Justice, Resistance...
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Listen to ‘Dear Sugars’: Trust Your Body — With Hilary Kinavey & Dana Sturtevantbo
If you aren't already a fan of "Dear Sugars" podcast, now is the time. Billed as "radically empathic advice," this episode takes on the tricky relationship between weight, dieting, body shame, healing and self acceptance. A must listen for women. In this episode: Her doctor categorized her as overweight when she was 5 years old. Her grandmother always introduced her as the “chubby one.” As an adult, she vacillates between moderation and binge-eating, restricting food some weeks, and gorging...
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Low-Income Americans Face a Harrowing Choice: Food or Housing [psmag.com]
Between 1960 and 2016, inflation-adjusted median rents in America increased by 61 percent and median home values increased by 112 percent, according to a recent report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Median incomes, meanwhile, increased by only 5 percent for renters, and 50 percent for homeowners. In a new report , Urban Institute researchers Corianne Scally and Dulce Gonzalez look at how Americans are managing these trends. This striking divergence in the growth...
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Low-Income Americans Face a Harrowing Choice: Food or Housing [psmag.com]
Between 1960 and 2016, inflation-adjusted median rents in America increased by 61 percent and median home values increased by 112 percent, according to a recent report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Median incomes, meanwhile, increased by only 5 percent for renters, and 50 percent for homeowners. In a new report , Urban Institute researchers Corianne Scally and Dulce Gonzalez look at how Americans are managing these trends. This striking divergence in the growth...
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Lunch leftovers: How “sharing tables” help Syracuse City schools reduce food waste (syracuse.com)
The Syracuse City School District is not allowed to send leftovers home with students, due to state law. But for several years, the district has adopted a small-scale but creative, scalable approach to minimizing waste: sharing tables. This is how it works: Every student gets a lunch. If he or she doesn’t want a part of the lunch, such as milk, the student can drop off the milk on a designated table in the lunchroom. Another student who wants a second milk, for example, can then pick up the...
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Lunchtime is so short in some public schools, students are going hungry
“It’s becoming a stressful, almost traumatic experience when kids go into the lunchroom,” said Angela McKee-Brown, director of education for the Edible Schoolyard Project, a nonprofit founded by Waters that works with more than 5,500 garden and education programs worldwide. “When you think about it, the cafeteria is the one place that kids of all backgrounds and abilities get to be in community with each other.” ...
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Meet the 18-Year-Old Entrepreneur Fixing Food for Gen Z (civileats.com)
Haile Thomas—activist, health coach, vegan chef, public speaker, and CEO of HAPPY—is on a mission to help young people eat healthier. Haile Thomas is not your typical Gen Z teenager. The 18-year-old activist, health coach, vegan chef, and public speaker became the CEO of her nonprofit organization, Healthy Active Positive Purposeful Youth (HAPPY), when she was just 12 years old, inspired by witnessing her father fight off Type 2 diabetes with healthy eating and exercise. Since then, HAPPY...
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Millions of Americans drink potentially unsafe tap water. How does your county stack up? (sciencemag.org)
Tainted tap water isn’t just a problem in Flint, Michigan . In any given year from 1982 to 2015, somewhere between 9 million and 45 million Americans got their drinking water from a source that was in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to a new study. Most at risk: people who live in rural, low-income areas. In general, “the U.S. has really safe water,” says Maura Allaire, a water economist at the University of California, Irvine, and lead author of the new study. Still,...
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More and More Research Points to Mindfulness--Not Certain Foods--for Weightloss
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/more-and-more-research-points-to-mindfulness--not-certain-foods--for-weight-loss/2018/03/05/2aa25d48-1c00-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html?utm_term=.fba35e64ac47
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More than 1 Million SNAP Participants Could Be Affected by USDA’s Proposed Waiver Rule [stateofobesity.org]
The vast majority of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants who could be affected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) proposed rule to tighten SNAP work waivers are in deep poverty and live alone, according to a new analysis conducted by Mathematica. The analysis, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examines a proposed rule from USDA, issued last month, which would make it harder for states to receive federal time-limit waivers for SNAP...
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My life as a public health crisis
A young, well-meaning film maker I recently met is doing a documentary on food justice efforts around the country. Great idea. The big problem was his title: it referred to food insecure places as "wastelands." I often talk to people who care about the epidemic of unhealthy and overweight children. But they talk about it as if they and their parents don't know better or don't care. And that their communities are not rich in traditions, love, caring, or knowledge. This essay talks about how...
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My Weight Has Affected My Career [forbes.com]
The thing about something like fatphobia is that it touches every part of your life. It shapes what you desire. It molds your personality. It changes the trajectory of your dreams. You lose sight of which part is you and which part is it. I mean honestly that's true for all of us for one reason or another. You never get to know what your story could be if it hadn’t been touched by gender education or racism or all those years that someone made fun of your knees or a lifetime of being told...
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MyPlate Wall-Size (laminated) Poster
To learn more about accessing the wall size laminated poster, visit: http://pub.etr.org/productdetails.aspx?id=100000106&itemno=K053L&utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=K12
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NATIONAL EATING DISORDERS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES NEW LEGISLATION FOR EATING DISORDERS PREVENTION AND ASSESSMENT FOR ALL BODY SIZES
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/national-eating-disorders-association-announces-new-legislation-eating-disorders-prevention-and
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New App Will Help Fight Hunger in San Diego County [kpbs.org]
By Priya Sridhar, KPBS, November 5, 2019 Each night, as many as 12% of San Diego County residents go to bed hungry. Meanwhile, 40% of food in our county is thrown away every day, according to Feeding San Diego, a local nonprofit dedicated to solving hunger and ending food waste. The organization launched a new app Tuesday called MealConnect that provides a platform for restaurants, hotels and caterers to offer up their excess food to one of 170 local organizations that feed the hungry. "The...
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New Research Analyzes State-Level Impact of USDA Proposal to End SNAP Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility [stateofobesity.org]
By The State of Obesity, September 8, 2019 A proposed rule from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that would eliminate the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)’s broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE) would cause SNAP households in 39 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to lose program eligibility, according to an impact assessment conducted by Mathematica. The analysis, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, finds that...
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Nutrition is an Overlooked Aspect of Harm Reduction
“Even though a lot of the [harm reduction] organizations were providing food at various levels, when we asked them how does harm reduction link in with nutrition, that was like the first time they had really thought about that,” Miewald said. “There wasn’t really a philosophy. It was just more of, ‘We have people here, they’re hungry.’ But if we’re talking about harm reduction, then nutrition should be part of that … It’s not just about needles, it’s about a lot of other things.” ...
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Obesity and the Link with Childhood Adversity: An Interview with Mary Giuliani
Most people who struggle with weight and food have probably suspected that trauma in the past plays a role. In this new video, Anna Runkle (the Crappy Childhood Fairy) interviews Mary Giuliani, who explains what we now know about childhood adversity, food and obesity. She shares how she lost 160 pounds (and has kept it off for 15 years), and teaches ways to calm emotions (and the brain) and face the triggers that drive overeating in the first place (READ MORE AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE).
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Our Bodies are Basically Good (lionsroar.com)
Non-diet dietician Jenna Hollenstein’s new book Eat to Love paves a Buddhist path toward transforming our often troubled relationship with food and body. Lilly Greenblatt spoke with Hollenstein about how her revolutionary approach can guide us away from chronic dieting, food anxiety, and disordered eating with mindfulness and compassion. In her practice, Hollenstein uses meditation and mindfulness techniques to help people overcome disordered eating, eating disorders, and chronic dieting.
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Our Idea of Healthy Eating Excludes Other Cultures, and That's a Problem
A nutritionist of Trinidadian heritage writes of the harm done to people by failing to include a deep understanding of cultural diversity in nutrition and dietetics training: "We were often being taught to perpetuate idea that Eurocentric eating patterns were the only paths to healthy eating, that healthy eating means one thing and one thing only. But teaching someone healthier eating isn’t about making swaps here and there to fit a patient’s culture into a Eurocentric diet. It should be...
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Oxytocin and Obesity
A small but interesting connection between obesity and oxytocin ("the cuddle hormone". While this article discusses potential use of oxytocin as a medicine to treat obesity, I wonder if there could be more research on how human connection impacts obesity ...
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Parent Handouts updated and available In Dari, English & Spanish
The updated parent handouts are now available in Spanish as well as English and Dari. Here's the blog post with links to all three versions of each flyer. All versions of the Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs parent handouts can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow, who is responsible for making the Spanish and Dari translations available. These are updates of the...
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Parenting Aggravation Associated with Food Insecurity Impacts Children’s Behavior and Development [poverty.ucdavis.edu]
Parents struggling with food insecurity can experience heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. These pressures may negatively affect their parenting, which may in turn affect the behavior of their children. In this study, we investigated the parenting aggravation levels of parents who experienced food insecurity in the aftermath of the Great Recession. We also explored the extent to which such aggravation may be responsible for the link between food insecurity and children’s...
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Parenting and Nourishment: an important read
Addressing children's nutritional well-being in a trauma-informed way has to include this conversation: “[E]xperts say a lack of time is no excuse [for not cooking],” but the authors believe that when such messages inevitably prove impossible to live up to, mothers bear the brunt of blame for everything from their child’s obesity to their own food insecurity. What will take some of this pressure off moms—and bring us closer to a more just and healthy food system for all? The authors offer...
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Pasta Primavera: HOPE Style [HOPE Garden Project blog]
Pasta Primavera: HOPE Style Pasta Perfect Last week our crew made Pasta Primavera from scratch (noodles included) and it was wonderful to watch the kids take turns digging into the dough. It was my first time to take part in the Summer Program here at (click link:) H.O.P.E . and being a part of the process was a special treat. I remember the first time I ever dug my hands into something messy. . . it was meatloaf and I was a lot more hesitant and dare I say grossed out than our crew members...
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Planting seeds to conquer addiction: Woodrow Project residents maintain sobriety through farming
https://www.cleveland.com/expo/news/erry-2018/12/a629afc2d97813/planting-seeds-to-conquer-addi.html?fbclid=IwAR2XnJjVL5CiITJp72vc1pQiPagDFNedYmQzyfJ_A-d8gt6ZoXBdUsDvqw4
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Possible cellular pathways for how we develop disease from trauma
This research may one day illuminate how toxic stress damages our metabolic processes and lead to chronic disease. Might this also open an opportunity for good nutrition to promote healing on a cellular level? https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2018-09-07-chronic-diseases-driven-by-metabolic-dysfunction.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1cXInVmnnyQlW6gU8AU1DJvSS7i4MWX5PaDjVYR3R7u6dG3eEr2l03lTk
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"Prescribing" Fresh Produce Could Save $100 Billion in Healthcare Costs [CWA Flash E Newsletter]
A new study from Tufts University finds "prescriptions" for healthy foods could save more than $100 billion in healthcare costs and prevent millions of cases of chronic diseases , which account for roughly 86 percent of annual healthcare costs in the United States. The study followed adults between the ages of 35-80 who were enrolled in Medicare and/or Medicaid. It placed participants into two groups : one in which Medicare/Medicaid covered the cost of 30% of fruits and vegetables, the other...
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Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness [California Community Colleges]
Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness March 7, 2019 Sacramento — More than half the students attending a California community college have trouble affording balanced meals or worry about running out of food, and nearly 1 in 5 are either homeless or do not have a stable place to live, according to a survey released today. Click HERE to read the press release and click HERE...
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Racism at Food Pantries
http://kvpr.org/post/spanish-speakers-experience-discrimination-valley-food-pantries
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Reframing Health Ethics to Support Liberation
One of my favorite thinkers on trauma-informed care talks about the problem of "healthism." I think it is an important concept to consider. She writes: "Healthism teaches that health is mainly about personal responsibility. It’s a set of beliefs that sees health as an outcome of lifestyle, and the healthcare system..... We need to replace healthism with the message that health emerges from right relationship . The route to health is social action — making sure we all have food, dignity,...
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Replacing vacant lots with green spaces eases depression
This NPR story shares recently released study supporting what we know in our bones: humans thrive with connection to nature. Read more here: Replacing vacant lots with green spaces eases depression . This study is hot off the press: " Effect of Greening Vacant Land on Mental Health of Community-Dwelling Adults: A cluster randomized trial. " "The impact was strongest for residents of poorer neighborhoods — they showed at least a 27.5 percent reduction in the prevalence of depression." "The...
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Rich People Exercise, Poor People Take Diet Pills
"One reason the underprivileged face an obesity crisis is that they rely on ineffective weight-loss strategies. In part, this is because economic uncertainty makes it harder to plan for workouts and healthy meals. -- Often, low-income people aren't sure what tomorrow will bring. So why waste time trying to diet?" https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/rich-people-exercise-poor-people-take-diet-pills/378852/?utm_source=SFFB