How Balanced Is Your Child's School Lunch?

Blog by: Courtney Standish Hernandez, 

 

MS, RD, LDN, CWPC

When I ask my 4 year old what he wants for dinner, guess what he says?  “Pizza!”  He is the son of a registered dietitian and is served healthy foods for all (well, almost all) of his meals and snacks.  But, given the choice, he would prefer to eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My son is not yet in the public school system, but I am already worried about the choices he would make for lunch once there.  Like other parents, I will put a limit on the frequency with which he can buy school lunch, believing that the lunch I send from home will be healthier than what he buys at school.  But, many parents around the country rely on the lunches at school to provide their kids with a balanced meal.   But, how balanced is it?

The good news is that the government recently enacted new standards, for the first time in 15 years, making school lunches healthier.  School cafeterias are now required to offer fruits and vegetables every day, increase whole grain-rich foods, serve only fat-free or low-fat milk, limit calories based on children's ages, and reduce the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  These are all wonderful and welcome changes and in many school districts have been in place for years.

The bad news is that the tomato paste on pizza is still considered a vegetable.  Last year Congress blocked the attempt by the USDA to stop counting tomato paste on pizza as a vegetable.  Congress also blocked the attempt by the USDA to limit the number of times French fries and pizza could be served in the cafeterias.  School lunches are big business and with big business comes powerful lobbyists in Washington who don’t want a change in the status quo.  Unfortunately, Congress put the interest of big business ahead of the interest of our nation’s children.  And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic in this country???

These new standards are a step in the right direction; they are just not a big enough step.  We have kids with type-2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and 16 year-olds undergoing bariatric surgery.  Simply offering more fruits and vegetables is not enough.  We need to take away more of the unhealthy options served in school cafeterias.   If kids are given the choice between French fries or roasted baby potatoes, guess which most will choose?  We need to get to the point where the French fries are not an option.  Or, at the very least, an infrequent option.  We also need to give our kids more credit.  If the only foods we ever offer them to eat are French fries, hot dogs, chicken fingers and pizza then they will grow up thinking this is what they are supposed to eat.  What if we offered them real, oven-roasted chicken?  What if we gave them a side of cooked carrots with their chicken?  What if they ate it?  The more frequently you offer kids real, healthy, foods the more they will eat it.  Especially if the unhealthy choices are not sitting at the same table.

For now, the best bet is to send your child to school with their lunch box full of fresh fruit, whole grains and lean proteins.  Buying school lunch should be an occasional treat.  Hopefully, one day, Congress will pass standards strict enough that we can feel our children will only have healthy options from which to choose when they are in the school cafeteria.  Hopefully, that day will be soon.

Let's Band Together and See What We Can Do as A Team!

Let’s face it, exercising and eating healthfully can be a challenge, even for people who are currently healthy.  Wouldn’t it be more fun to band together and see what we can do as a team?  This is the idea behind two government challenges, one issued by Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett in 2008 and a more recent challenge issued by Boston Mayor Tom Menino this year.

The OKC Million Program challenged metro area residents to lose one million pounds.  The effort took four years but Oklahoma City reached its goal this year.  Over 47,000 individuals participated in the challenge and lost a combined total of 8,000 inches from their waists and walked over 1.2 million miles.  The challenge is part of an effort to change Oklahoma City’s image as one of the most unhealthy cities in the country.

Earlier this year Mayor Menino promised to help Boston residents shed a million pounds.  The citywide campaign, currently titled Boston Moves for Health, will launch this spring.   A customized web site will invite residents to record their goals and workouts while tracking their weight loss.  The city plans to use the web site as a resource where residents can locate indoor and outdoor exercise activities and learn more about health and wellness.  As part of the initiative the city and its partners will host bike rides, introductory exercise classes and other health and wellness related activities throughout the year.  Educational kits will also be distributed to city businesses with information on promoting exercise and healthy food choices at work.

Boston’s program will not be aimed solely at adults.  More than 20,000 school-aged children in Boston are overweight.  The mayor will work with daycare providers, educating them on how to prepare healthy snacks and how to incorporate more physical activity into their programs. Nutritionists will also be hired to work with local restaurants to develop healthy kids’ menus.

We are excited about these two programs because they are raising awareness of obesity and its health risks and taking action to make positive changes while reaching so many people.  We congratulate Oklahoma City on its initiative and in meeting its objective!  We look forward to seeing Boston’s program in action later this year.

The Wellness Workdays team is here to help you and your employees develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.  Our award winning corporate wellness programs can help your employees improve their health while maximizing productivity and saving your company money.  We offer some of the most exciting (and proven effective) team-based wellness challenges and walking programs available. We've analyzed our programs and seen as much as an ROI of 3.8. 

We also offer programs aimed at defeating diabetes, metabolic syndrome and stress, managing mental and emotional wellness, and vetoing vices. In addition, we provide insightful and engaging seminars and webinars on wellness, nutrition and fitness.  Our clients rave about our programs and many employees reach out to us to let us know the positive impact our programming has had on their lives.  It’s truly a rewarding experience for all.  

No Smokers Allowed, Higher Premiums for Overweight Individuals, Mandatory Blood Pressure Tracking . . . These are Just Some of the Wellness Initiatives Employers are Implementing in an Effort to Combat Rising Health Care Costs

Employers across the country are making headlines with the methods they are employing to reduce health care costs and improve the health and productivity of their employees.  

• Tobacco-free hiring policies will apply at the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio, when it opens later this year, according to a January 6, 2012 article in USA Today. Likewise, the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania begins its nicotine-free hiring next month.  The article also reports that Idaho's Central District Health Department voted last month to stop hiring smokers.

•  In November, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Bon Secours Richmond Health System will no longer hire employees who test positive for nicotine during pre-employment screenings.

• The Cleveland Clinic takes wellness very seriously as reported by Ezra Klein’s WONKBLOG in the Washington Post on October 16, 2011. Having instituted wellness initiatives as far back as 2005, the clinic now tracks its employees’ blood pressure, lipids, blood sugar, weight and smoking habits. Employees with abnormal results are required to take steps to get their health issues under control or lose insurance rebates.  

• Similarly, the Dallas Business Journal reported on September 22, 2011 that starting on January 1 of this year Baylor Health Care System won’t hire anyone who uses nicotine.

• Even the government is looking at wellness incentives as a way to save money.  In April 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that Arizona’s governor is proposing a $50 fee on smokers and on obese enrollees in the state's Medicaid program.

With a health crisis looming, both in terms of money spent on health care—premiums have risen 131 percent since 2001 according to the Kaiser Foundation—and in the increasing health issues facing Americans—if Americans do nothing to improve their health, it is projected that by 2023 there will be a 42 percent increase in cases of the seven chronic diseases and a whopping $4.2 trillion in treatment costs and lost economic output—what is an employer to do?

Many employers that roll out wellness programs provide incentives for participation, such as gift cards or cash prizes.  While this may still be the case in the coming years, you may also see more employers moving forward with a stick approach.  I expect that in an effort to save money on escalating insurance costs, many companies will tie health insurance premiums and rebates to participation in personal health assessments, screenings by doctors, maintaining a healthy weight, keeping pre-existing medical conditions under control and steering clear of nicotine products. 

The Cleveland Clinic is a prime example of how well this approach can work.  Since 2005, their workforce has lost a collective 250,000 pounds, blood pressure has been reduced, smoking has declined from 15.4 to 6.8 percent of employees, and health care costs are down.

Has your company instituted penalties for unhealthy workers?  If so, what have you done and what are the results?  If you have not yet taken these steps, are you considering do so?

The Wellness Workdays Team is here to help your employees give up smoking forever! Freshstart® is a group-based tobacco cessation support program offered by the American Cancer Society. The Coaches / Certified Cessation Counselors at Wellness Workdays are trained to help your employees plan a successful quit attempt by providing essential information, skills for coping with cravings and group support. For more information and to get started, visit www.wellnessworkdays.com

 

Health Risk Assessments: Only a Piece of the Puzzle

You may have been asked to take a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) or Personal health Assessment (PHA) or you may be the one putting forth the policy at your organization—either way, by now most employees and employers are familiar with Health Risk Assessments. According to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, conducted by Mercer in November 2011, more than 70% of large employers and 34% of smaller employers offer Health Risk Assessments to their employees.

A recent article in Employee Benefit News, Companies find health risk assessments a waste of time, money is based on a survey of 25 large employers (3,000 to 300,000 employees) and only tells part of the story. The HRA can be very effective if used as part of a comprehensive wellness plan.

It’s important to note that an HRA is a tool that evaluates employee health risks. It cannot replace screenings for conditions such as cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes; and it cannot provide a health diagnosis. It is designed to identify risk factors and should be used in conjunction with health screenings and other initiatives.

The HRA is not a one-time tool—it needs to be administered periodically so that employees can monitor and track their progress. Used in isolation, an HRA is not enough for employers to realize a reduction in health care costs. Used in combination with other measures, the HRA is a key component in developing a comprehensive wellness program and offers significant benefits for both individuals and their employers.  

Individual Benefits Derived from an HRA

•  Identifies health risk factors
• Raises awareness of risks and the consequences of not making positive health changes
• May prompt employees to seek additional screenings (cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.
• Allows employees to monitor their health risks over time
•  May prompt employees to adopt healthy behaviors thereby reducing health risks

Organizational Benefits Derived from an HRA

• Identifies employee health risk factors, including preventable health risks
• Measures absenteeism and presenteeism
• Can predict health care costs
• Provides insight into employees’ willingness to change 
•  Identifies health needs/risks that can be used to design a wellness program
• Monitors employees’ health and changes in health risk status
• Measures the success of wellness programs by comparing data from year to year  
• Identifies moderate or high risk individuals for referrals to specific programs or carrier intervention such as  a disease management program
• Controls health care costs
  

To be effective the HRA data must be reviewed, evaluated and acted upon. Determine which health risks are most prevalent in your company and design the components of your wellness program accordingly. Integrated into a wellness initiative, the HRA is the cornerstone of a successful, behavior change programs.

Staying Healthy: Tips for surviving the holiday season

by Megan Miraglia, MS, RD, LDN
WW Account Manager

Holiday season has officially begun. Decorations are out, radio stations are buzzing with holiday music and you may be stressing out about surviving another calorie loaded and germ induced holiday season. With the right tools of healthy eats and stress busting physical activity, you won’t only stay healthy and manage your weight this holiday season, but will ring in the New Year with a fruitful start.

Get moving.

Have a plan to incorporate physical activity into your day and stick to it. Plan ahead and pencil in a walk, trip to the gym or hike into your planner. Value the time you set aside to exercise as you would an appointment with your boss.  Physical activity will power you through the holidays with more energy, rev up your metabolism, stomp out stress and improve overall health. Enlist a friend, co-worker or family member to help you stay on track and add some social fun to your exercise.

Eat right.

Try incorporating these 5 super foods into your diet to provide you with the right nutrients to fight off colds, holiday stress, stay energized and prevent overeating to ward off that extra notch on your belt loop.

1. Vegetables – Try incorporating more vegetables into soups, stews, chili’s, and casseroles. Have a platter of fresh, cut-up vegetables on hand in the fridge for a quick snack to help you reach your heath goals.
2. Beans – Beans are full of fiber to keep you full longer, improve heart health, reduce cholesterol levels and provide necessary b-vitamins to help boost energy levels.  Try a 3-bean soup, black bean chili, or Indian dahl with lentils. Experiment with different sides dishes for your next social get together.
3. Fish – Load up on omega-3 fatty acids to incorporate more healthy fats, reduce cholesterol levels and keep skin glowing. Try serving omega-3 rich salmon, tuna or haddock instead of the usual saturated fat loaded red meats like steak or roast beef at the holidays.
4. Fruit – Reap the benefits of all the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in brightly colored fruit by topping your morning cereal, oatmeal, toast or bagel with cut-up fruit. Serve fruit for dessert this holiday season. Try an angel food cake trifle with vanilla Greek yogurt, cinnamon and fresh berries or oranges.
5. Yogurt – Add extra calcium to your routine to maintain bone health, heart health and manage weight. Try replacing dips and sauces that call for sour cream with unsweetened, plain, Greek yogurt. Top your salmon with a dollop of dill infused Greek yogurt for added flavor with a calcium boost.

One final tip: listen to your body. It takes 20 minutes for your stomach to signal your brain that it’s full. Think that extra serving of mashed potatoes or slice of pie is calling your name? Wait 15 -20 minutes by sipping on some water, chatting with another guest or circulate around the room. Still feeling the urge for an extra helping? Go for a lower-calorie option such as vegetables, salad or fruit.

Enjoy the delicious holiday foods in moderation and remember to bring the focus back to the people and relationship.

The Benefits of Eating Locally

The widespread recalls of spinach, peanut butter, turkey and cantaloupe in recent years are prompting more and more individuals to question where and how their food is grown, raised and harvested. There are some startling facts about the nation’s food consumption that have prompted a nationwide movement to eat locally produced food:

• Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1500 miles

• If every American ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we could reduce the nation’s oil consumption by more than 1.1 million barrels of oil every week

While the environmental impact of food consumption is certainly a good reason to think about changing your buying habits, it is not the only reason to eat locally. If you have ever eaten a tomato fresh from the vine, a succulent peach plucked from a tree or asparagus on the day it is harvested, you know that local food is fresher and tastes better than mass-produced food available at your local supermarket.

Just as importantly, there is less chance of contamination when buying local foods as there are fewer steps between your food's source and your table. Local food is also less likely to contain chemicals. Even if a local farm is not certified organic (and many are not due to the cost), small farms tend to be less aggressive with chemicals and often practice sustainable farming—a method of raising food that is healthy for consumers and animals and does not harm the environment. 

Local farms also offer more variety than supermarkets.  How often do you eat tomatoes with names such as the Arkansas Traveler, Black Krim or Golden Egg?  Have you ever eaten Purple Majesty, Mountain Rose or Yellow Fin potatoes? In addition to being delicious and packed with nutrients, the crop variety produced by local farmers helps preserve a wide agricultural gene pool, which is an important factor in long-term food security. Shopping locally allows you to build and support your local economy and preserve green space and farmland. You benefit by knowing where your food comes from and being connected to the individuals who grow the crops, raise the animals, farm the honey and bake the bread.  There are many resources on buying food locally—from sites on food co-ops to farmer’s markets to lists of CSAs —community supported agriculture (which allow you to buy a share in a farmer’s crops and received produce weekly). Depending on where you live, like the less temperate Northeast, you may think that eating locally and seasonally is difficult, but this does not have to be the case.  There are many online resources for eating locally in any season.  A number of farmer’s markets are also staying open all winter long and there are many cookbooks that feature recipes based on the ingredients that are in season in your area.

On November 21, 2011, Nancy Stewart will have an article in the Boston Globe on a related topic. Check out her article for some additional insights from myself and other wellness experts. Thanks!

Additional resources: 

List of Massachusetts winter farmer’s markets

Finding the Food to Fill MyPlate

The MyPlate image, released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) this past summer, is the current gold standard for eating within the United States. The plate is divided into 5 categories by food group, including dairy, fruits, grains, vegetables, and protein. Although there was controversy following the plate’s release, from questions as to why animal protein is seen as equal to plant-based protein or why grains weren’t defined as “whole” versus “refined,” the overall message of the plate is clearly to encourage greater consumption of fruits and vegetables.

However, there is another pressing issue that was raised in response to this new standard: do we have enough food to make it a reality? In the United States, we produce 4 highly subsidized crops: corn, soy, wheat, and cotton. Unfortunately, I’m not referring to corn on the cob. These four crops are not made for human consumption, but instead for animal feed and processed foods. Fruits and vegetables on the other hand, are considered “specialty crops” and therefore are not subsidized by the U.S. government.

So, what do you suppose would happen if every American man, woman, and child adopted the MyPlate style of eating? You guessed it – experts cite that we won’t have the fruits and vegetables to feed everyone. While the messaging for a healthy diet is provided, the access is still a challenge.

This isn’t a new issue, in fact, it was the first comment made by many professionals in the field of nutrition upon the release of the MyPlate icon. But I bring this up now because of the unprecedented circumstances that we find ourselves in. For the first time, a Super Committee has been formed to determine how we can cut substantial funding from the national budget. A large portion of this is being targeted at the Farm Bill, the legislation that controls crop subsidies.
 

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently spoke on this very issue:
"Over the past 60 years, yields per acre of major crops -- corn, soy, wheat, and cotton -- have doubled, tripled, and in some cases even quadrupled. At the same time, livestock production and specialty crop production have become far more efficient. […] Congress must find ways to support research that is focused on crop production and protection, on livestock production and protection.”

While specialty crops may have become more efficient, they certainly have not “doubled, tripled or quadrupled” the way that subsidized crops have, mainly because there is no incentive to grow them. While Secretary Vilsack is correct, funding for research is needed, there must also be consideration for reducing subsidies for the foods we are looking to reduce, and increasing them for the foods we are looking to increase…namely whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables. Consider this – last year, the U.S. spent $5.97 billion on subsidies (for corn, soy, wheat and cotton, etc.) whereas the American Heart Association spent $724 million (’07-’08 figure) to promote heart health and prevention. If we spent as much money on preventing diseases of lifestyle caused by a highly processed diet, we might be headed in the right direction.