Healthy Heart Beats

July-September 2007
Vol 29, Issue 3

Resources

Alliance School Beverage Guidelines Toolkit

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation is a partnership between the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation to fight childhood obesity. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation provides assistance to help schools and districts implement the Alliance's School Beverage Guidelines. An easy-to-use online toolkit is available at www.HealthierGeneration.org/BeverageKit.

Participants can also take online training sessions (or "webinars") with an Alliance staff member. To find a listing of upcoming webinars, visit: http://www.healthiergeneration.org/schools.aspx?id=
512&ekmensel=1ef02451_10_84_btnlink, and click on "Webinar Workshops Calendars."

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Childhood Obesity Parameters Released

On June 8, 2007, the Expert Committee on the Assessment, Prevention and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity released recommendations for the management of overweight and obese children. The committee, made up of representatives from fifteen health professional organizations, was convened by the American Medical Association (AMA) and co-funded in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/17674.html.

Note: The link is to the press release. As you read the release, at the end of the 4th paragraph you will find another link to the actual recommendations page. Once you get to that page, the recommendations are listed as a PDF on the right side. If you don't want to read through all the accompanying materials, the PDF link is: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/433/ped_obesity_recs.pdf.

The committee's work is an important step forward and updates the 1998 guidelines. These new recommendations further address a critical public health issue for those who care for children and adolescents. CDC will take the expert committee's recommendations under advisement.

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Revised Nutrition Activity Guide Available

A new copy-ready nutrition activity guide will be available for shipping on July 15. Nutrition Fun with Brocc & Roll is the replacement for the previous Leader/Activity Guide. Completely revised and updated, the guide features 42 copy-ready nutrition activity sheets. Visit http://nutritionforkids.com/lead-act.htm to learn more and view sample pages from the guide.

Nutrition Fun

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Nutrition and Your Child Newsletter

The PDF version of the current issue of the Nutrition & Your Child newsletter can be found at www.kidsnutrition.org/images/pdfs_nyc/2007/vol2.pdf. Selected topics included in this issue include:

Increasing Children's Fruit and Vegetable Consumption
Get Out and Play
Sleep Patterns and Obesity
Influence of Child Care Providers on Children's Eating
Infant Feeding Trends Over 25 Years

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Updated PowerPoint Presentations

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension in Lancaster County has updated their (free) PowerPoints to reflect the new inclusion of height and weight into the MyPyramid Plan calculations. As a result, the first seven PowerPoints on this Web page are updated: http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/resources.shtml and ALL PowerPoints and resource materials have now been combined and are available at: http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/resources.shtml.

The latest edition of Food Reflections e-letter is available on the Web at http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/food-reflections.shtml and includes, "Walking off the Midway Munchies": http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ftj-j07.shtml. This may be a useful resource for upcoming county fairs with permission to adapt as needed. Please acknowledge the author(s) and University of Nebraska-Extension at http://lancaster.unl.edu unless otherwise credited.

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Socialize and Eat Healthy

The University of Wyoming Extension Service's "Focus on Health, Not Weight" has released a new publication in this series which could be helpful if you're looking for ideas for enjoyable and healthy foods at social events and other gatherings. Check out "Fresh Approaches"-available on-line at http://ces.uwyo.edu/PUBS/MP112-3.pdf.

It's also accessible via WIN Wyoming's website at http://www.uwyo.edu/winwyoming/projects.html.

fresh spproaches

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Flavonoid Database Updated

Health-imparting plant compounds called flavonoids-like the cyanidin in cherries or catechins in tea-may reduce the risk of certain diseases studies have suggested. A newly updated, easy-to-use database from ARS nutrition researchers documents levels of 26 key flavonoids in about 400 fruits, vegetables and other foods.

Details on how to access the USDA Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods, Release 2.1 (2007), are posted on the World Wide Web at: www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata/flav.

Scientists with the ARS Beltsville (Md.) Human Nutrition Research Center used their own analyses of selected foods and beverages, along with data from nearly 100 new scientific papers on foods' flavonoid content, to compile the update.

Please remember...