Reminder: Our next Coalition meeting is Wednesday, May 14. Visit the website to read the agenda!
In this issue:
1. "Two Angry Moms" screening: May 14
2. In Search of Good Food Ride: May 18
3. UCSF's Chancellor Health Policy Lecture Series: May 21
4. Jamboree!, America SCORES Bay Area event: May 31
5. BANPAC Quarterly Meeting: Creating a Healthy Food Environment for the Whole Community: June 4
6. Support SB 1420, California Menu Labeling
7. Victory Gardens 2008+
8. Shape Up SF founding member on Donnie Deutsch Show and in BusinessWeek
9. Cafeteria Facilities, Often Overlooked, Yet Key to Student Nutrition and Health is now available on the CWH website
10. Tennessee to Require More P.E. Credits for High School Graduation
11. Study Reinforces Importance of Following National Pediatric Guidelines for Physical Activity, Screen Time
1) "Two Angry Moms", sponsored by Shaping Youth (back to top)
"Two Angry Moms" stirs up some excitement with a recipe for taking action about school lunches.
Date: May 14th
Time: 6:30PM
Location: Delancey Street Foundation Screening Room
For info and tickets you can go to: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/33416
2) In Search of Good Food Ride: May 18 (back to top)
In collaboration with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's annual Bike to Work Day, In Search of Good Food (a documentary film project covering the emerging sustainable food system in California) will be hosting a bike ride, mostly through the Mission and southeast portion of the city (nice and flat!).
The ride meets at 16th and Mission at 1pm on Sunday, May 18th, and will meander around the Mission and southeast portions of the city before ending up at Alemany Farm (on time for the weekend workday!). Over about 2 hours, we will visit sites of interest that relate to the history, past and present, of people trying to eat Good Food in San Francisco. There will also be guest speakers at a couple of stops (how exciting!).
Check out insearchofgoodfood.org for more info and please RSVP to insearchofgoodfood@gmail.com so we know how many people to expect. Ride Safe, Eat Well!
3) UCSF's Chancellor Health Policy Lecture Series: May 21 (back to top)
Save the date for UCSF's Chancellor Health Policy Lecture Series: Building a Social Movement to Reverse Childhood Obesity
Date: May 21, 2008
Time: Noon
Location: Cole Hall Auditorium, UCSF Medical Sciences Building, 513 Pasnassus Ave.
Speaker: Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
4) Jamboree!, America SCORES Bay Area event: May 31 (back to top)
Interested in getting information about your health organization or resources out to 1000 families? Jamboree!, America SCORES Bay Area end of the year familiy event is coming up May 31st at Merritt College. 1000 youth poet-athletes and their families come together for a day of soccer, food and fun. Come table or send information to us for our health resource tent. Contact Bridget Sumser at bsumser@americascores.org for more information. www.americaSCORESbayarea.org.
5) BANPAC Quarterly Meeting: Creating a Healthy Food Environment for the Whole Community: June 4 (back to top)
Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative (BANPAC) Quarterly Meeting: Creating a Healthy Food Environment for the Whole Community
Including BARNN Advisory/BANPAC Committee Meetings
Date: June 4, 2008
Time: 8:30AM - 3:30PM
Location: Elihu Harris State Building (1515 Clay Street, Oakland, CA 94612)
Description: Learn how the community engagement, youth advocacy, current legislation, community development, changes to the WIC food package, the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, and the Rethink Your Drink campaign all contribute to the local food environment–and what we can do!
6) Support SB 1420, California Menu Labeling (back to top)
Dear Colleague,
If you are a nutrition professional in California, we need your help with an important nutrition policy working its way through the state legislature. I hope you will join the many health organizations in California who support SB 1420, which would have fast-food and other chain restaurants list calories and other key nutrition information on menus (for a list of supporting organizations, see http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org/PDFs/SB1420SupportList.pdf). The only real opposition this bill faces is from the restaurant industry, but they are pulling out all the stops to weaken the menu labeling bill or kill it all together.
California legislators need to hear from you that nutrition professionals support this common-sense nutrition measure. You can indicate your support by signing on to this letter to the bill sponsor, Senator Padilla, which is included below. To sign on, simply email droberts@cspinet.org and provide your full name, credentials, profession, city and state. For more information about the California menu labeling bill, feel free to contact me or visit http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org/legislation.html.
Also, please pass this message on to other nutrition professionals you know in California. Thank you for your consideration of this matter and (I hope) for supporting menu labeling in California.
Margo G. Wootan, D.Sc.
Director, Nutrition Policy
Center for Science in the Public Interest
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20009
___________________________________
Senator Alex Padilla
California State Senate
State Capitol, Room 4032
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Senator Padilla:
We, the undersigned nutrition professionals, strongly support your menu labeling bill, SB 1420, which would require calorie and other important nutrition information on menus and menu boards at fast-food and other chain restaurants. In addition, we oppose AB 2572 because to be useful, nutrition information needs to be provided in a consistent format so people know where to find it, using methods that are easy to read and use.
We are concerned that although Californians eat out more than ever before, few restaurants provide nutrition information at the point of ordering. Half of large chain restaurants do not provide any nutrition information to their customers. Most of the restaurants that do provide nutrition information do so on websites, tray liners or fast-food packages, which are not available at the point of ordering, or posters or brochures, which can be hard-to-find and difficult-to-read.
In fact, a large study of over 11,000 diners at 275 restaurants found that other than at Subway, an average of just 3% of customers reported seeing calorie information at restaurants that provide it.
Without nutrition information, it is difficult to compare options and make informed decisions. A White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks has six times as many calories as a nonfat Cappuccino. A Burger King Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich (790 calories) has more calories than a Whopper (670 calories).
As a result, people often consume more calories, fat, and salt at restaurants than they realize. This can be particularly problematic for people who watch what they eat to manage health conditions, such as people with diabetes, who need carbohydrate counts to manage their blood sugar, people with high blood pressure who need sodium information, and people with high cholesterol or heart disease, who need saturated and trans fat numbers in order to follow their dietitian's or doctor's advice.
Studies link eating out to higher caloric intakes and higher body weights. For example, children eat almost twice as many calories when they eat a meal at a restaurant compared to at home. Women who eat out more than five times a week eat 300 more calories on average each day compared to women who eat out less often. Away-from-home foods also provide more saturated fat, but fewer nutrients, like calcium and fiber, than foods prepared at home.
Menu labeling would give Californians an important new tool to help them eat well and maintain a healthy weight. It would provide information that would allow people to take responsibility for their own health and make more informed decisions for a significant and growing part of their diet.
Again, we strongly support menu labeling and hope that your bill (SB 1420) will pass this year.
Sincerely,
7) Victory Gardens 2008+ (back to top)
Victory Gardens 2008+ is a pilot project funded by the City of San Francisco to support the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops, and unused land into organic food production areas.
In 2008 we will choose 15 households that represent the diversity of San Francisco to participate in the program. You can participate regardless of your income, ethnicity, available space, neighborhood, gardening experience, or lifestyle.
As a participant, you will work with the Victory Gardens team to install a garden in your outdoor space. Although you will be the primary caretaker of the garden, the Victory Garden team will provide ongoing support.
Sound exciting? Please visit the Shape Up website to download the applications (available in English and Spanish) and get ready to plant!
8) Shape Up SF founding member on Donnie Deutsch Show and in BusinessWeek (back to top)
Chris Mittelstaedt was on the Donnie Deutsch show "The Big Idea". Just click on the link below and press "QuickView" to start the video. The first one is the main segment and in the second one, Chris was on a judging panel. http://media.vmsnews.com/MR.pl?id=043008-876205-F001394792
Here is a link to an article in BusinessWeek about worksite wellness and The Fruit Guys: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081094075494.htm?chan=search
Congratulations, Chris!
9) Cafeteria Facilities, Often Overlooked, Yet Key to Student Nutrition and Health is now available on the CWH website (back to top)
www.cnr.berkeley.edu/cwh/PDFs/Improved_School_Food%20Service_1.28.08.pdf
The physical environment in which school foods are prepared and served is critical to the success of any program designed to improve student food consumption. Findings from three important state-wide studies conducted by the Center for Weight and Health in California, The Linking Education, Activity and Food (LEAF) Program, The California Fresh Start Program (CFSP) evaluation, and The Evaluation of SB 12 and 965 (California's legislatively-mandated school nutrition standards), suggest that school facilities are a critical element of any effort to improve student nutrition and health, yet these facilities are often inadequate to support student wellness
10) Tennessee to Require More P.E. Credits for High School Graduation (back to top)
Apr 22, 2008
To reduce the rates of childhood obesity in Tennessee, state lawmakers have approved new high school graduation requirements that include an additional half-credit of physical education (P.E.), the Tennessean reports. The mandate will take effect when students currently in seventh grade become high school freshmen. Under current guidelines, Tennessee high school students must complete just one credit of health, P.E. or wellness education to graduate. In an effort begun this year to increase physical activity during school hours, the state requires students to engage in 90 minutes of physical activity weekly. Unlike P.E., the physical activity does not have to be taught or supervised by a certified P.E. instructor and can include walking, stretching or other activities. The Tennessean notes that national guidelines call for students in kindergarten through eighth grade to participate in 150 minutes of physical activity weekly and students in high school to complete 225 minutes weekly (Mielczarek, Tennessean, 4/21/08).
11) Study Reinforces Importance of Following National Pediatric Guidelines for Physical Activity, Screen Time (back to top)
Apr 18, 2008
A study published in the Journal of Pediatrics finds that children who failed to adhere to American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations for physical activity and screen time were up to four times more likely to be overweight than those who followed the guidelines, United Press International reports. The academy recommends that boys take 11,000 steps and girls take 13,000 steps daily and that both genders limit screen time to two hours daily. To assess the link between adherence to the AAP recommendations and overweight, researchers from Iowa State University and the National Institute on Media and Family evaluated the lifestyle habits of 709 children ages 7 to 12. All children were issued a pedometer to measure their steps and were given surveys to determine the amount of time they spent watching TV or playing video games. Among children who met the AAP recommendations, 10 percent of boys and 20 percent of girls were overweight. In contrast, 35 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls who failed to meet the recommendations were overweight. The researchers note that screen time and physical activity appeared to equally influence both genders' risk for overweight, whereas physical activity more strongly influenced girls' risk for overweight than screen time. Noting that very few children met both benchmarks, lead author Kelly Laurson of Iowa State University suggests that caregivers may be able to reduce childhood obesity risk by limiting screen time and promoting physical activity (UPI, 4/17/08; Journal of Pediatrics, 5/17/08).
