New US Dietary Guidelines

A simple map to the land of wholesome, by Jane Brody in the New York Times, discusses the new US Dietary Guidelines.

The article begins:

For the first time since it began issuing dietary guidelines, the government offered new recommendations last month that clearly favor the health and well-being of consumers over hard-lobbying farm interests.


The new science-based Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released Jan. 31 by the Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services, are comprehensive, sensible, attainable and, for most people, affordable. They offer a wide variety of dietary options to help you eat better for fewer calories without undue sacrifice of dining pleasure.

Now it’s up to consumers to act on this advice and put the brakes on runaway obesity and the chronic diseases that cost billions of dollars before they kill.

 
The article continues:

Here is a summary of the guidelines, which combine the goals of fewer calories — and especially nutrient-poor calories from sugars, fats and refined grains — with more emphasis on nutrient-dense foods:

• Eat lots more vegetables and fruits, filling half your plate with them.
• Choose lean meats and poultry, and replace some of them with seafood.
• Consume mainly nonfat or low-fat milk and other dairy products.
• Choose low-sodium products and use less salt and salty ingredients in food preparation.
• Eat more fiber-rich foods; replace most refined grains and grain-based foods with whole-grain versions.
• Use vegetable oils like olive and canola oil instead of solid fats like butter and margarine, but remember that all fats have lots of calories.
• Eat out less; cook at home more often.
• Drink water, calorie-free beverages like coffee and tea, and 100 percent fruit juice instead of regular sodas, fruit drinks and energy drinks; limit alcoholic drinks to one a day for women, two for men.
• Eat less and exercise more to achieve a better balance of caloric intake and output.

 Find the full pdf of the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans by clicking here.  Want to compare with the local version?  Find the pdf of the Dietary Guidelines for Australians by clicking here.  A blog entry to share with your Home Economics, PDHPE and science teachers; not just for the basic content, but for the implications about the influence of vested interests on public health initiatives.

Cheers

Ruth

Images: my own, using the Hipstamatic iPhone app (see my blog entry about this for more information) and a few moments at a local supermarket.  From memory, John S. lens and Kodot film.

Better Health Channel - excellent, reliable health info

If your students (or teachers eg. in PE or Science or Home Ec.) are after reliable health/medical information from an Australian source, try the Victorian government's Better Health Channel website.  Fact sheets, patient info, image library, quizzes, medical dictionary, medicines guide, a whole kit and caboodle of stuff that's a safer bet than Wikipedia (where, apart from the issue of veracity, you sometimes run into techno-vocabulary that's beyond the scope of school kids). 

The site will often come up high in Google searches, but why not direct the kids straight to a good site, rather than letting them loose in the wilderness that is health info on the internet?  The language level is accessible and clear for kids to understand, and the fact that it's Australian is important (if you're in Australia) - recipes reflect local ingredients, medicines have their correct local names, further links to support groups etc aren't going to recommend a fabulous organisation in Idaho or Yorkshire...

I was going to include a graphic (the site logo), but Blogger didn't want to play. Again. Sigh.

Cheers

Ruth

Advice on life

Richard Glover's column in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald was entitled, "It's what I know now...and wish I'd known then", and is advice on life to his 18 year old son - tips that are by turns practical, wry, thrifty, funny, sincere and apt.

Here's an extract:

People who spend excessive time on their own appearance are almost never as interesting, or as attractive, as they think.



You are what you eat but also what you read and watch and hear. Don't feed your brain with rubbish, at least not all the time.

Don't be negative. Whingeing is for people who want to blame others for their troubles, because it's easier than finding their own way forward. If a friend makes a habit of bad-mouthing other people, take a moment to wonder what they say about you. Spend your mental energy on people who think you are terrific, not people who dislike you.


I'm not sure yet how I'll use it at school, but I've stored a copy (since the SMH often takes online material down after a fortnight) and kept the paper copy so I will have it to hand.  Maybe with study skills, maybe Crossroads (sex, drugs, personal safety etc for Year 11 students).  It's got all sorts of potential.  Definitely worth reading.

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: an unexpected croissant

One of my mentor kids popped by the other morning period one, on her way to the senior study (which is in the library, upstairs).

Hi miss.  I brought you a chocolate croissant.

She hands me this, and smiles, and heads on to the senior study.  Wasn't that sweet?  A lovely unexpected moment.

Oh, in case you wonder, I have an ergonomic mouse, as a result of some issues from a couple of years ago.  The model is Sky Vertical, and you can read all about ergy mouses here and this one in particular here.  I keep meaning to get one for home... it's brilliant, and much less strain on arm/wrist than conventional mouses.  I'm so used to it now, I forget it's 'weird' till a kid asks about it.

Cheers

Ruth

Health articles: NYT

The New York Times' Health section has a huge resource of articles with new ones added all the time.  There's also a weekly email newsletter you can sign up for, to track changes and read new articles you may be interested in.  One for your school's PDHPE and Home Ec. faculties to know about.

From memory (since I did it a long time ago) there's a once-only free registration to use the site.

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Generation Z and their health issues

Generation Z is defined as children 17 years and under. Or, in other words, the kids in our schools right now. The Sydney Morning Herald recently featured an article on the health issues faced by Generation Z (and consequently, issues schools need to consider and where possible, address - mental health being one significant one. I've never worked in a school library where you didn't have at least some of the kids who came in during break times being in the library because they felt safer there).

Quote:

One in four will be bullied, most likely over the internet. Also known as the New Silent Generation, it will be the most educated, financially well-off and technologically literate in history.

Exposed to marketing at a younger age, Zeds are experts at multi-tasking and spend their free time communicating online and texting on their mobile phones. Zeds have older parents, fewer siblings and are more disconnected from their communities than any other generation.

Time magazine has an article asking Why do Women Need to be Perfect? Although it discusses adults, there are kids afflicted by the stifling effect of perfectionism which hinders their achievements; and control is an element in eating disorders. Read more here.