National Nutrition Month® is a nutrition education and information campaign held every March by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The campaign focuses attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. This year’s theme is “Enjoy the Taste of Eating Right.” Consumer research supports the common sense assumption that people often choose one food over another based on taste – let’s face it, some mornings we are all guilty of choosing the donut over the banana! So this year’s theme aims to help people combine taste and nutrition to create healthier meals.
National Nutrition Month® initiatives are occurring throughout Houston schools to help kids form healthier eating habits. Throughout the month, dietitians from Houston ISD’s Food Services Department are presenting nutrition education programs and attending health fairs on several campuses. Their goal is to share how to build a healthy meal including food that is both enjoyable and nutritionally beneficial. As one of their dieticians put it, “eating healthy doesn’t mean eating food that tastes like cardboard.” Additionally, students throughout HISD are being given health tips during the schools’ PA announcements to encourage them to make healthy food decisions.
In addition, new USDA regulations being are being phased in this month targeting the advertisements of unhealthy options within schools. According to the new rules, sports scoreboards, menus and vending machines will no longer be plastered with logos of unhealthy food options like Coca-Cola or Dr. Pepper. Instead, the companies wishing to continue marketing, 93% of which are soda companies, within schools may only use healthy option labels such as Dasani, or Diet Coke in the case of Coca-Cola. Current items with unhealthy logos don’t have to be torn down, but any new marketing items will be required to include their healthy alternatives. By limiting the bombardment of ads to only healthy options, kids might be less inclined to make poor nutrition choices —choices that their parents won’t allow them to make at home. These rules are designed to help parents who are teaching their children great, healthy nutrition choices at home. Obviously, parents can’t control the type of media their children are exposed to everywhere, but we do have control over what they see and learn in school. As our First Lady recently said, “parent’s hard work shouldn’t be undone by unhealthy messages at school.”
Parents, too, are receiving increased education in the push for encouraging their children to make healthier food choices. In fact, some organizations are coordinating special parental nutrition education programming around National Nutrition Month. ARAMARK, a food distribution company, has scheduled a series of events in March targeting adults. It started with the University of Houston Nutrition Fair and continues with a luncheon at the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and an event at the Methodist Hospital. In addition, programs such as Brighter Bites send bags of produce home with parents of children on free and reduced lunches. Each produce bag includes instructions and recipes on how to cook what’s inside and further, healthy eating tips. Mostly, these programs push parents to make better choices and be role models for their child’s nutrition habits.
Beyond the home, healthy nutrition options within the local community are necessary in order to make good nutrition choices as an individual or a family. In general, food deserts are a major barrier to healthy options. Even in communities with access to grocery stores, kids aren’t receiving adequate nutrients. In the community, we can all play a role in promoting healthy eating choices: more and more restaurants post nutritional information on their menus, as well as offer healthier options which is great. Consumers gain both knowledge and a choice. More generally, greater awareness, interest, and emphasis on how to eat healthy is vital to creating a healthier community.