Fun in the Sun (and Healthy Eating Too)

What's a better way to spend summer than enjoying some delicious food at an outdoor party? Making it nutritious food too! It's a hard fact to accept but the classic summer foods of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, potato salad aren't necessarily the healthiest of foods.  That doesn't mean you can't eat them (I've never been one to turn down a slice of apple pie), it just means you should use moderation and choose healthy alternatives when you can.  When you choose healthy alternatives you can keep everything you like about your normal food while making it more nutritious.  For example, taking easy steps like reducing fat and salt in your meals by using more spices and herbs can have a huge impact on your health while not sacrificing taste.

                  

            What if you don't know a delicious summer menu that also includes some healthy options? Well, you're in luck because ChopChop Magazine (www.chopchopmag.org) has loads of healthy recipes that the entire family can make together! Here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling! For that classic burger that any barbeque can't be without, why not mix in some cooked quinoa to add texture and whole grains or go vegetarian by making a black bean burger. And what's a juicy burger without some classic potato chips?  Instead of potato chips try roasting some chickpeas with olive oil, salt, and whatever seasonings you enjoy. Instead of sour cream and onion dip, try making a bean dip and using whole wheat pita chips. There's loads of healthy dips to make so don't be afraid to experiment! To top off your meal, why not try a refreshing fruit spritzer made of club soda and some fresh fruit or a splash of 100% fruit juice.  It's the perfect drink to cool you off on a hot day!

                                                         

            When all this delicious food is made and ready to eat, it might be hard to resist the temptation to eat it all so just keep MyPlate (www.choosemyplate.gov) in mind.  MyPlate is a helpful, easy way to correctly portion food so you end up eating a well-balanced meal.  Even taking a quick glance at MyPlate graphic will help you remember how to correctly portion your protein, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and dairy.

            With 4th of July around the corner, it would be a great to time test out some healthy recipes and make MyPlate your plate!

Happy and healthy eating!

Posted by Jack Knauer, Physical Activity and Health Coordinator 

Come Play With Us

On May 1, 2014, Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution recognizing May as Physical Fitness and Sports Month. HPC's Executive Director Vanessa Briggs, together with representatives from Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, Independence Blue Cross, and other HPC staff, accepted the resolution on behalf of HPC.

HPC is committed to promoting health and physical activity, sometimes known as active play, because it is an important strategy for preventing and managing chronic disease. We are pleased to announce the launch of the Philly Play Summer Challenge--an exciting new initiative that provides opportunities for Philadelphia youth to be physically active across all ten City Council Districts. Philly Play is a collaboration with its creator, Councilman Bobby Henon (6th District), Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, City Council and Health Promotion Council (HPC), who is leading the programmatic design, implementation and coordination.

Why Philly Play?

The recently released 2014 United States Report Card on Physical Activity for Children & Youth gave U.S. youth a physical activity grade a D- and another recent study purported that obese adults participate in less than one minute of vigorous physical activity a day. Not very promising results are they?

Because people are more likely to start and continue things that they enjoy, maybe it is time to start thinking of physical activity as play and fun so that you're more likely to get and stay active. For example, if you don't like running on a treadmill but enjoy nature, why not jog or walk along the Schuylkill river walk or to your nearest playground?  If you're like me and don't like running but have a competitive side, play a game of handball or Frisbee with family and neighbors.  And, if you're just starting out, try a less intense activity like gardening or a lunch break walk. Remember, it doesn't matter if it's a pick-up basketball game or a walk with a best friend or dog (not mutually exclusive) - It's about getting our hearts pumping and having fun while we're at it.

The rewards of being physically active are many but you may wonder: how much physical activity do I need to be healthy? Experts recommend 30 minutes per day of moderate physical activity, 5 days a week for adults; and 60 minutes per day of moderate physical activity, 5 days per week for kids. But you can make a positive difference in your health and the health of your family with even small amounts of physical activity every day. Start with goal of a level of activity that is reasonable for you. A weekly walk with friends or a dance class at your local recreation center could be a great way to start a lifelong routine.

For more information on Health Promotion Council visit our website www.hpcpa.org.  For more information on the Philly Play Summer Challenge go to www.phillyplay.org.

HPC: Beating the Drum for Heart Health

February is Heart Health Month and Health Promotion Council (HPC) wants to promote awareness of your heart health that can help you keep your heart strong all day, all month, and all life long! The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports heart disease kills about 600,000 people each year. And, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both and men and women. Heart is a big topic that obviously reaches many people and their families.

Have you thought about your heart lately? After all, it has been working for you non-stop from the time you were born. The heart is considered to be the most important muscle in your body because it pumps blood throughout your body. And, in turn, your blood brings fresh oxygen and nutrients to nourish the cells of your body. Your heart beats for you while you are eating dinner, exercising, watching a scary movie, or cheering for your favorite team.

So, why do most people forget to think about heart health? Probably because we don’t see it! As the saying goes, ‘out of sight out of mind’. Even as a professional nutrition educator and fitness trainer, I am guilty of forgetting my heart sometimes, too.  

But, February is Heart Health Month and there is no time like the present to 

start taking care of your heart or boost your efforts. Exercise and healthy food are an important combination for a healthy heart. The American Heart Association recommends that you exercise a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes every week of vigorous exercise.  Thirty (30) minutes a day, five days a week is an easy way to remember this goal. According to the National Institute of Health, examples of moderate activities are walking, gardening, pushing a stroller and washing and waxing a car.

If you don’t feel you are able to make it for 30 minutes, it is ok! Start where you are with smaller intervals, like walking or dancing for 15 minutes a day and work towards a goal of 30 minutes or more a day!  

Besides exercise, eating heart healthy like fruits, vegetables and whole grains are great ways to keep you healthy.  Sometimes, the fruits and vegetables in the grocery store look dull and boring.  But, all it takes is a little imagination and time to turn fruits and vegetables into something tasty, exciting and fun. For example you can try dipping your veggies or whole grain crackers in dips like hummus or salsa or snacking on roasted baby carrots. With fruit, add spices like cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger to apples, pears and bananas to take your ordinary fruit snacking over the top. HPC has provided two delicious and affordable recipes for salad and snacks below to inspire you!

Enjoy!

  

Recipe for Spring Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette – Makes 6 Servings

Ingredients:

6 cups loosely packed spring mix lettuces

Any add-ins of your choice — see hints below

      Vinaigrette Dressing:

3 tablespoons vinegar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 clove garlic, finely chopped, or ½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon salt                        

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

1.      Whisk together the vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

2.      Soak greens in a large bowl of cold water.  Remove from the water and drain (Rinse again if the water is still dirty).  Dry thoroughly.

3.      Add the spring mix to the dressing in the bowl.

4.      Add any other ingredients, toss gently but well and serve immediately.

Add-In Recipe Hints:

ü  Other early spring vegetables that are tasty, colorful additions to a salad might include--beets, radishes, sugar snap peas, broccoli, and spring onions.

ü  Make it a meal! Add cooked meat, poultry or fish, pasta, nuts, seeds, tofu or cheese.

ü  Add fresh or dried fruit for color and natural sweetness.

ü  Different herbs and spices can add flavor to your dressing.

  

Recipe for Fruit Medley

                       

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

 Cooking Time: No cooking time

 Servings: 4 servings    

 Can be made ahead? Yes

 Can be frozen? Not recommended

 Good for leftovers? Yes

2 cups chopped fruit, fresh, frozen, or canned, or a combination

¼ teaspoon citrus peel (optional)

¼ teaspoon ginger, freshly grated or dried powder (optional)

1/8 teaspoon salt

                       

If using frozen fruit, thaw and drain in advance. If using canned fruit, drain and rinse with water.

Chop the fruit into the same size as much as possible, if using different types of fruit. Add remaining ingredients, serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator for ½ hour to an hour.       

This dish can be eaten on its own as a snack or topped on pancakes, cereal, or yogurt for breakfast. This recipe can also be cooked on the stovetop with the addition of ½ cup of water, over a low heat, for about 10-15 minutes, for a warm fruit snack or topping.

Happy New Year: Cheers to Healthy Living

Holiday season is over and while the memories of family togetherness and festivities linger, folks may find that they have forgotten their physical fitness routine and their clothes feel a little tighter. So, how can people re-start their normal healthy eating and exercise routines or meet their New Year resolution to watch what we eat and get healthy amounts of exercise?

Health Promotion Council has come up with simple steps, manageable substitutions, and some fresh ideas to help get you back on track.

Re-adjust your eating habits:

·        Eat a healthy snack during the day to sustain your energy and avoid overeating. Quick ideas are whole grain crackers with string cheese, baby carrots with hummus, cereal with milk

·        Use wholesome foods for making lunch and dinner dishes that will cut down on high fat, cholesterol and sugar (and save money from eating out)

o   Whole Wheat/Whole Grain dinner rolls instead of enriched white flour rolls

o   A new take on Green Bean Casserole http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/recipe/fresh-green--bean-casserole-1

o   Loaded Mashed Sweet Potatoes:

http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/recipe/vegetables/loaded-mashed-sweet-potatoes

o   Fresh Vegetable Antipasto Platter—always a hit!

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/antipasto-platter/

o   Delicious Roasted Cauliflower: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/balsamic_parmesan_roasted_cauliflower.html

·        Watch the salt. Choose fresh or frozen vegetables that are low in sodium. If using canned veggies, always drain and rinse them.

Pay attention to stabilizing your blood sugar:  

You can regulate your blood sugar by making responsible choices:

·        Alter your portions. There are so many foods to choose from; try taking just a small amount of many different items.

·        Choose low-calorie drinks such as sparkling water, unsweetened tea or diet beverages. (The best beverage of all is water!)

·        Choose high fiber foods. Foods high in soluble fiber, like beans, oats, barley, and certain fruits and vegetables, help to slow down digestion and the release of sugar into the bloodstream. Try adding beans to salads, soups, or casseroles, or top fruit and yogurt parfaits with oat cereals like Cheerios.

Find new and rediscover fun physical activities:

·        Walk with loved ones or a pet and count how many neighbors or trees you see.

·        Play with a younger generation of relatives or family friends

·        Try to learn a learn dance or sporting activity

·        Jumping rope, yoga and kickboxing are all activities that are low cost and easy to do indoors.

It takes some families more than a turkey and some mistletoe to make the season bright

"We have arrived, again, at that festive time of year when the collective American consciousness warmly turns to thoughts of family."

My job as a social worker and parent educator has me intensely focused on the concept of family — every day. For the past couple of years I have been a group facilitator for the Health Promotion Council's 12-week Focus on Families' REMix (Relationship Education in the Mix) healthy relationship class at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services' Achievement Reunification Center (ARC) in Center City.

Most of the participants at the ARC are mandated to be there, but we have also conducted groups with voluntary participants at other locations.

This represents, for me, months and months of listening to the stories of the inner-workings of numerous families and the varied relationships therein. Some of the stories were unbelievably heartwarming; some of them were horrifying. All of the stories are the stuff of ordinary lives.

Examining relationships in conflict

Couples who attend the REMix class together offer particularly startling insights into the often conflicting dynamics of close relationships between partners and between parents and their children. With the REMix course, we hope to impart some strategies to the families that they can use to improve their daily interactions within those relationships.

For many of the people taking the course, it is possibly the first time that they have heard concrete examples of what constitutes normal, healthy relationships. Many of them have endured crippling traumas in their lives that they, in turn, play out in various forms in their dealings with their own mates and in their roles as parents.

Our hope is to help them more closely examine their lives and perhaps break some of their known negative habits, or perhaps even those bad behavior patterns of which they may not be aware.

My experience teaching the REMix class has demonstrated one critical and undeniable fact to me: the enduring importance of family to the healthy development of children and adults. Many of the participants in our classes (mandated or not) are confronting harsh relationship crises, and it is heartening to see how hard people struggle to maintain their family units, no matter how tenuous their bonds may be, or how they define family for themselves.

The issues these families confront are not unique. They are often good people who may (or may not) have made a mistake. Their plights suggest that we would all do well to consider whether or not we are guilty of taking our families for granted.

However defined, the importance of 'family' endures

Very often, the class participants tell me that they feel the other members of the group become like family to them. The classroom setting is a sort of "laboratory family experience" where they can collectively work on issues of communication, values, conflict resolution, etc.

Our discussions around family are sometimes quite emotional, which underscores the critical nature of the subject. For so many of our participants, their legal troubles in the Family Courts have forced them to examine more closely their family connections, sometimes for the first time in their lives.

Whatever one feels about the importance of family, it is clear that the definition of "family" has morphed immeasurably in this country. The modern family may not conform to traditional standards, but it remains somehow "family" nonetheless. The idea is still relevant, and it still forms the backbone of modern life — particularly for our children.

It is interesting to see these REMix participants fight through their family traumas and (usually) find a way to hold their family units together. It doesn't always work out perfectly, but I do see many of them come to the realization that their families are what they treasure most.

With all of the unavoidable changes in this world, it is comforting for me to know that family still matters.

Diabetes and Me

Being diagnosed with diabetes can be rather scary, but overtime the fears will past. Having to learn to live with diabetes can be daunting initially, but once you become more educated about the condition it becomes less cumbersome. When you are first diagnosed many feel as though initially your life is over, and you will never be able to eat any more sweets, or live a normal life.  You just have to remember to enjoy the “fun” in moderation, and live a healthy lifestyle. Diabetes is not a “death sentence” it is however a serious a chronic condition that affects many Americans, especially people of color.

Diabetes Mellitus, or simply diabetes, describes a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood glucose (blood sugar), either because the body is not producing enough insulin, or is not responding to the insulin produced. Due to the complicated nature of diabetes, staying healthy can be very labor intensive.  You must check your blood sugar often, take medications, count carbs at every meal, and even measure insulin to balance what you eat and how active you are. .

More than 25.8 million people in the United States (8.3% of the population) have diabetes. Of these, 7.0 million have undiagnosed diabetes. In 2010, about 1.9 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older and if current trends continue, 1 of 3 U.S. adults will have diabetes by 2050.[1]

The burden of diabetes is much greater for minority populations than the white population. For example, 10.8 percent of non-Hispanic blacks, 10.6 percent of Mexican Americans, and 9.0 percent of American Indians have diabetes, compared with 6.2 percent of whites.[2] Certain minorities also have much higher rates of diabetes-related complications and death, in some instances by as much as 50 percent more than the total population.[3]

HPC works diligently to combat the complications of diabetes among the communities we serve thru health promotion, education and intervention programs. One such program is PA cAARds! a statewide multidisciplinary training model used to educate health care professionals and para-professionals in evidence based interventions to address the dual risk of diabetes and tobacco use while linking them to valuable community-based resources. Through BE A BRIDGE and PA cAARds!, HPC has worked to address tobacco and chronic disparities through integrated evidence based strategies since 2007 training and building the capacity of more than 1,000 individuals representing more than 473 organizations in over  80% of Pennsylvania counties.

To learn more about HPC and its programs visit our website at www.hpcpa.org

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[1] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National diabetes fact sheet: general information and national estimates on diabetes in the United States, 2010. Atlanta,GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008.

[2] Mokdad AH, Ford ES, Bowman BA, et al. Diabetes trends in the U.S.: 1990-1998. Diabetes Care 000;23(9):1278-83.

[3] Carter JS, Pugh JA, Monterrosa A. Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in minorities in the United States. Ann Intern Med 1996;125(3):221-32. (AHRQ Grant HS07397).

ADA. (nod). Retrieved from http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/know-your-rights/how-to-get-help/success-stories.html

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.healingwell.com/library/diabetes/info5.asp

Justice for Youth Too, not Just Us

The problem of public leadership is calling into existence a public that can understand and act on its own interests.

                -John Dewey

There is a misconception regarding public health organizations working to combat the prevalent community health obstacles of our day. This misconception revolves around the belief that communities lack the capacity to lead and instead require a benevolent intervention to ‘put them right’. On the contrary, our communities suffer only from a lack of an ability to organize its leadership and coordinate its advocacy. This deficit of structure produces a deficit of purpose. Public health as a discipline depends most heavily on an extensive network of social support that empowers a public to purposefully understand and act on its own health interests.

The days of uninformed constituencies suffering from poor disease management, a lack of a prevention and/or promotion plan is over. Empowerment through the Health Promotion Council’s advocacy work builds community capacity to simultaneously combat health risk factors and bolster health protective factors. The diversity of services provided through this advocacy lens grants our communities the knowledge and organizations the capacity to develop relevant and appropriate prevention/promotion strategies.

In particular, HPC’s Advocacy Institute (AI) empowers stakeholders to organize, mobilize, and advocate for sustainable community change. Through work focused on the connection between public health and policy, community health, and the implementation of a strategic advocacy action plan, we prompt participants to call their communities’ capacity into existence and create healthy change. This innovative educational program prepares participants to be the change their communities need as their strategy for action grows and their leadership skills mature. Ultimately it’s this maturity that facilitates the development of sustainable community health. HPC’s advocacy work has the potential to ‘put the city right’  by empowering individuals, families, communities, institutions, and policymakers to call into existence a vision for health that respects leadership at all levels.

On a personal note, as one of the primary contributors to the development of AI, I see the program as a vehicle for capacity building for so many public health stakeholders. From youth developing leadership skills to school administrators working towards systemic reform to city policymakers making public health more accessible, these groups are more like puzzle pieces awaiting transformational leaders. AI engages stakeholders; primarily youth to this point so that they can see where they ‘fit’ in the picture. To this point, the public health picture has a piece missing and we are working to convince youth to take their rightful place.

AI has proven to be extremely enriching for those who have participated from legislative trips to community events and school seminars. My hope is for participants to find their individual and collective voices to speak up and their individual and collective feet to stand up. Ultimately, no one can push youth into their place as leaders. They’ll have to advocate on their own behalf. Good thing they have the Advocacy Institute.