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Nutrition and Physical Activity Blog

Drinking water in our parks

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Food marketing, Playgrounds, Policy | Comments off

Sustain in the UK launched a new campaign to get drinking fountains provided in every public park.

It’s a grassroot campaign where concerned individuals can download and do a survey in a local park. After visiting a local park to check out the drinking water supply citizens are encurraged to filling in a short Survey Monkey survey by 30th September 2009.  Sustain will use this information to build up a picture of drinking water in parks across the UK.

Also help is provided if the water supply in local parks is not good enough.  A template letter and information on finding the correct contact details are available.

Read more.

Corner shops in deprived areas to get dedicated fridges for f&v

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Fruits and vegetables, Policy | Comments off

UK corner shops in deprived areas are being asked by ministers to sell more fruit and vegetables.

Fridges will be given to the convenience stores to allow them to stock fresh produce and help the battle against obesity.

In return, the shops must agree to move healthy foods to more prominent spots and appoint an employee as their ‘fresh food champion’.

A pilotstudy showed that sales of fresh fruit and veg increased on average by 40 per cent, with around a third of shoppers saying they will buy more fruit and veg from their local store in future. Not bad. But it is difficult to believe this can really be roled out nationwide without strong government funding. This was not mentioned, but a new partnership with the Association for Convenience Stores, an organisation which represents more than 28,000 retailers and suppliers in England, including well known franchises such as NISA Local, SPAR and Landmark was mentioned. I wonder if all 28,000 retailers will be offered this program including new Fridges.

Read more here or here.

Smaller chocolate bars to be standard under new controversial UK Government plan

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Food marketing, Nutrition and obesity, Policy | Comments off

A bar of Cadbury Dairy milk, currently 49g, should also be sold in 40g sizes, while a Mars Bar and Twix, both 58g, should be made in 50g portions, the Food Standards Agency has recommended. And cans of fizzy drinks, currently 330ml, should be sold in a significantly smaller size of 250ml.

Read more.

Ny norsk rapport om fysisk inaktivitet

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Physical Activity, Sprog: Dansk | Comments off

Yngvar Ommundsen og Anita A. Aadland har for den norske kreftforening og sundhedsmyndighederne i Norge skrevet en interessant rapport, som hedder:

Fysisk inaktive voksne i Norge
Hvem er inaktive – og hva motiverer til økt fysisk aktivitet?

Rapporten viser bl.a. at 76% af de inaktive nordmænd ønkser at blive aktive. Flere træner, men meget tyder på at den generelle hverdagsaktivitet går ned.

Hent rapporten her.

Sundhed skaber velfærd

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Policy, Sprog: Dansk | Comments off

De norske sundhedsmyndigheder har fået lavet en interessant rapport:

Skapes helse, skapes velferd
– helsesystemets rolle i det norske samfunnet

Helsedirektoratet ønsker med rapporten bl.a. at påpege sammenhængen mellem helsesystemet, folkesundheden og velstandsudviklingen og synliggøre nogen af de overordnede udfordringer i det norske sundhedsystem.

Du finder rapporten her.

Weight of the Nation

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Environment, Nutrition and obesity, Policy | Comments off

A highly interesting conference was held in Washington DC in July 2009 to provide a forum to highlight progress in the prevention and control of obesity through policy and environmental strategies.

Program Objectives:
1. Highlight strategies that overcome barriers to the primary prevention of obesity for youth and adults in communities,
medical care, schools, and workplaces.
2. Provide economic analysis of obesity prevention and control efforts.
3. Share promising, emerging, and best practices for setting specific policy and environmental initiatives
impacting obesity.
4. Highlight the use of law-based efforts to prevent and control obesity.

Program highlights:
Report on Cost Burden of Obesity
Improving Health Outcomes: Integrating Obesity Prevention in Health Reform
Nexus between Transportation and Obesity Prevention
Nexus between Food Systems and Obesity Prevention
Collaboration Fosters Healthy Places and Healthy People
Innovative Policy Initiatives at the Local Level
Focusing State Health Departments on Obesity Prevention
Improving Access To Healthy Places and Healthy Foods – Impact of Federal Legislation on Obesity Prevention and Control

Find the program including speaker names here.

From August 14’th a webcast from this event will be available here.

Transport Knowledge and Planning Practice – Linking Academia and Practice in a 3-day Seminar

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Environment | Comments off

The University of Amsterdam is organizing an international seminar on the gap between academically developed transportation models and daily urban planning practice. In a three-day set up October 14-16th 2009, we will bring together leading scholars and practitioners (both model developers and urban planners) that have dealt with, or are dealing, with bridging this gap.

Read more.

Grains for Health Foundation

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Whole grains | 2 Comments

jodiThis month Jodi Engleson became the first Director of Scientific Affairs for the Grains for Health Foundation. The Foundation aims to redesign the food supply by facilitating the development, delivery and consumption of grain-based foods that promote a balanced body weight, reduce chronic disease and curb health care costs. Wow, this is in my eyes a highly visionary and relevant mission.

gfhf_logoLen Marquart is behind this. He is a very active researcher on Whole Grains at the University of Minnesota. He serves as President of the new Foundation. I meet Len and Jodi in June, and I’m sure they will make important contributions and I look forward to interacting with them and the Grains for Health Foundation

You can find their mission here.

Visit the Grains for Health Foundations website for more information.

Fruit and vegetable intake, smoking and weight control

Jul 30

Posted by Morten in Nutrition and obesity | Comments off

High fruit and vegetable intakes may limit weight gain, particularly in susceptible persons, such as those who stop smoking.  Data from 89,432 men and women from 5 countries: Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and United Kingdom. The association between fruit and vegetable intake and weight change after a mean follow-up of 6.5 y was assessed. Fruit and vegetable intake relates significantly, albeit weakly inversely, to weight change. For persons who stop smoking, high fruit and vegetable intakes may be recommended to reduce the risk of weight gain.

Read more.

Playground Markings Increase Physical Activity

Jun 29

Posted by Morten in Playgrounds | Comments off

A new study shows the benefits of adding playground markings encourage kids to move more.

Read more.