nutrition

In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Nutrition.gov announces its enhanced “En Español” website, making it easier to navigate and find credible nutrition resources in Spanish. Forty web pages were translated into Spanish. Now Spanish-speaking users and nutrition professionals in need of Spanish resources can browse a wide array of translated information on nutrition topics such as infant and toddler nutrition and nutrition as it relates to diabetes, heart health and obesity.

Food is an important thing that everyone thinks about. For those who are fortunate, when they’re hungry, food is easily available to them. Unfortunately, millions of students during the summer don’t have the privilege of knowing where their next meal is coming from because they no longer receive the meals they relied on throughout the school year. Without proper nutrition year round, it can be difficult for kids to learn, grow, and thrive.

Do you remember learning about the food groups in school? You may have been taught using the Food Wheel, Food Guide Pyramid or MyPyramid depending on your age. Kids today learn about the food groups from MyPlate. Now that the back-to-school season is settling down, the nutritionists at MyPlate are offering a back-to-basics refresher lesson on the food groups.

June is an exciting month filled with picnics, cookouts, and outdoor time. Along with sun and fun, June also brings us National Dairy Month. Most Americans do not meet recommendations for the dairy food group, which includes milk and many of the foods made from milk, such as yogurt and cheese. Calcium-fortified soymilk (soy beverage) is also part of the dairy food group, as well as lactose-free and lower-lactose milk products. When choosing foods from this group, choose fat-free or low-fat options.

Looking for recipes that are both flavorful and nutritious? Nutrition.gov has added new resources that can help you. The newly enhanced Nutrition.gov includes an Ethnic Cooking section on the Shopping, Cooking & Meal Planning page designed to fit the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Nutrition.gov collaborated with a range of government agencies to feature links to educational materials, videos, books and websites offering a wide array of healthy, culturally-based recipes.

Recently, I was privileged to visit Portland, Ore., and had yet another opportunity to appreciate why the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) Program is so important. SNAP E&T, which is available in all 50 states, is a skills and job training program designed to help SNAP participants prepare for and secure jobs that lead to economic self-sufficiency. Along with Oregon Department of Human Services’ (DHS) Administrator Belit Burke, I visited Central City Concern (CCC), an organization that partners with DHS to provide E&T services to those in need.

June is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month! To celebrate, we’re showcasing the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), and their amazing work getting students engaged and excited about fresh fruits and vegetables.

May is peak time for seasonal allergies, so it’s also a great time to learn more about how food allergies affect children and the critical role schools play in keeping children who suffer from them safe at school.  Understanding food allergies and identifying allergic reactions could even help save lives, which is why the Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) has designated it as “National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month.”

It’s that glorious time of year when spring is in full effect – everything is green, the weather is warm, flowers are in bloom, and the birds are chirping. It’s hard not to have an extra spring in your step this time of year, no pun intended. Your local farmers market is likely brimming with a wide variety of delicious foods from all of the MyPlate food groups. But the warmer months are extra special for the fruit group when berries start making their appearance. These juicy nutrition powerhouses help you meet your daily fruit target and brighten up all kinds of dishes with their sweetness and color. Check out the recipes below for five healthy ways to prepare berries – for breakfast, in a salad, smoothie, and more.

Just like reading, writing and arithmetic, making healthy food choices is a learned behavior. And as with those vital academic skills, schools also play an important role in helping students build a healthy foundation for their lives through sound nutrition – not just here in the U.S. but in schools around the world.

International School Meals Day, held on March 9 this year, provides a wonderful opportunity to highlight that fact by raising awareness of nutritious school meals and their importance to the health of our kids. In fact, nearly every country provides some form of school meal for about 368 million children each school day worldwide, including more than 30 million children here in the U.S. through USDA’s National School Lunch Program. And International School Meals Day brings the world a little closer, helping kids understand the importance of healthy nutrition to a healthy future.