Kick the Can and Go Soda Free this Summer!

Mounds of evidence show that sugar-sweetened beverages contribute to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes, especially among children. This summer, Bay Area children and adults are encouraged to rethink their drink choices and choose healthier beverages, such as water, low-fat milk, and 100 percent fruit and vegetable juices, over sugary sodas and other sweetened beverages.

The Soda Free Summer campaign, launched by the Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative (BANPAC), comprised of over 300 health and nutrition professionals, helps residents enjoy a summer without the un-needed calories of sweetened beverages.

The campaign includes Be Sugar Savvy educational workshops, presentations and exhibits on soda and other sweetened beverages for teachers, youth groups, and community and health organizations. These individuals will then take the message to the public via posters, brochures and Soda Free Summer pledge cards. There will also be a raffle for a bike and $500 of healthy grocery certificates.

But the real winners will be those who change their drinking habits. According to the survey results from last year's campaign, over 5,000 Bay Area residents sent in pledges to go soda free for the summer.

For more information about Soda Free Summer, visit www.sodafreesummer.org and follow the campaign on Facebook.

~ Nicole

It’s Cheaper to Gain Weight than it is to Lose it

A great post today from Fooducate . . .

Until the middle of the 20th century, many people struggled with the most basic need for nourishment. They simply did not have enough to eat. Many a night they would go to sleep on an empty stomach. People were skinny, overly so. Only the wealthy could afford to eat well; they would flaunt their wealth with a hefty waistline.

Fast forward to today, the world has prospered, and food is now cheaper than it has ever been. Which means that in most western countries, even low-income people can go to bed with a full belly. Yet even today poor people struggle with basic nourishment. Only now, the problem has reversed, with too much (bad) food being consumed, creating for the first time in history a larger number of obese people on the planet than starving people.

This not a low-income or a third-world country issue. It's a problem for anyone who lives in country whose food system has joined the global chain and adapted to the “western diet;" a diet of convenience, replacing home cooking with processing in a factory. America, the leader in industrialization and economies of scale, took to food just like cars in an assembly plant, and through amazing breakthroughs in food technology was able to produce a Twinkie that would stay fresh for five years and a $.99 burger available on every street corner.

While the cost of filling our bellies has decreased, the true price of processed foods is in the collective medical bills we pay for obesity related disease treatment.Yes, it is tasty, convenient and cheap to gulp down greasy, sweet, and salty foods and beverages. Low Price, taste and convenience are the thee pillars of modern eating. However, a table standing on three legs is bound to topple. That missing fourth leg is your health, and it's what’s absent from many people’s diets today.

CA schools are running out of lunch money

Peaceful Playgrounds shared another sign of the dire economic times and the impact of the budget crisis. According to the blog, California schools are set to run out of funds for free and reduced lunch students by January 2009.

Jack O'Connell, California superintendent of schools, is appealing to the federal government to make up for the state's budget shortfall. Health advocates are also voicing concern that the high cost of fresh fruits and vegetables will result in serving less expensive, and less nutritious, canned fruits and vegetables.

"Without quick action by the governor and the Legislature, districts will be forced to make a series of unacceptable choices to dip further into their own bare-bones budgets, serve less nutritious foods and not comply with California's nationally renowned nutrition standards," Supt. Jack O'Connell said in a statement.

So not only are low-income, school-aged children getting less nutrititious and smaller amounts of food at home due to tough economic times, but now schools won't be of much help either. Sad times for those fighting the good fight for healthy kids.