Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Program Resources

Looking for an overview of Wisconsin nutrition, physical activity, and obesity prevention resources? Check out this summary list of resources from the NPAO Program.

Topics include:

• General Resources
• Setting or Topic Specific Resources
• Program Staff 

Wisconsin Obesity Summit and SUPERHERO Awards

The Wisconsin Partnership for Activity and Nutrition (WI PAN) and the Wisconsin Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Program (NPAO) are excited to announce the first Wisconsin Obesity Prevention Superhero Awards!  Please take a few minutes to nominate someone who has made a difference in the obesity prevention movement in Wisconsin in 2011-2012, so that they may be publicly recognized for their dedication.

Awards will be presented at the Wisconsin Obesity Prevention Summit on Monday, June 11 in the Wisconsin Dells.  More information is coming soon.

The Summit is part of this year’s State Prevention Conference.  Registration information for the Summit and the Prevention Conference will be announced soon.  Scholarships and registration fee assistance will be available.  For those who plan to attend and want to book lodging, a block of rooms has been reserved at the Kalahari.  More info HERE.

To submit a Superhero nomination, please complete the online form at http://tinyurl.com/2012wiobesitysuperhero. Nominations will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 9.

You are welcome to nominate more than one person or organization, but please submit one form per nominee.

Apply for the Roadmaps to Health Prize

With the publication of the 2012 County Health Rankings this week, many local coalitions and partnerships may want to consider applying for this local funding opportunity:

Is your community working together to improve health? If so, consider applying for the Roadmaps to Health Prize. The Prize is intended to honor successful efforts and to inspire and stimulate similar activities in communities across the country. Up to six Roadmaps to Health Prize winning communities will be honored in early 2013 and each will receive a no-strings-attached $25,000 cash prize.

The Prize is part of the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI), that creates solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy, focusing on specific factors that we know affect health, such as education and income. We invite any and all communities throughout the Unites States to apply for the Prize.

• Get inspired to apply by watching this video
• Learn more about the Prize, how to apply and deadlines
• Download the Call for Applications
• Register for the webinar, April 24, 2012 at 3-4pm ET
• Email a question to Kirstin Siemering, Roadmaps to Health Prize Manager

Check out On the Future of Food. Prince Charles has taken up the challenge of promoting a saner, healthier food system to improve public health and protect our fragile planet. You can read a primer on Prince Charles' advocacy on behalf of food system reform here, at Civil Eats. 

Would you like fewer fries with that?

by Sarah Kliff for The Washington Post online 

A team of behavioral economics researchers find something surprising in this month’s “Health Affairs”: When fast-food patrons are offered a suggestion to downsize their portions, they actually do it.

Only 1 percent of customers spontaneously requested downsizing of a high-calorie, high-starch side dish in the baseline periods, when no explicit downsizing offer was made. Thirty-three percent of customers accepted the downsizing offer. As noted above, there was no significant difference in acceptance rates with and without the nominal discount. Customers who downsized did not compensate by choosing higher-calorie entrées, nor did they proceed to order lower-calorie entrees. Therefore, downsizing led to the purchase of significantly fewer mean overall calories.

Also notable: The presence of calorie labels did not seem to impact diners’ decisions to downsize, nor did it matter if a 25-cent discount was offered for the small portion of food.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - new reports on elementary school food and physical activity environments

Elementary Schools Are Making Some Progress in Efforts to Prevent Obesity, But Still Have Work To Do

New Research Examines Nutrition and Physical Activity in Nation’s Elementary Schools Two new studies from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Bridging the Gap program offer important insight about policies and practices that can help children eat healthy foods and be active at school. 

Nearly Half of Nation’s Youngest Students Can Buy Junk Foods at School
Problem most severe in the South, where obesity rates are highest.

Cookies, cakes and other junk foods were available to nearly half of U.S. elementary school students in vending machines, à la carte lines and school stores during the 2009–10 school year, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Unhealthy snack foods were strikingly more prevalent in schools in the South, where obesity rates are the highest in the nation.

• Read the study.
• Read the press release.

Elementary Schools Improving Some Nutrition Practices, Making No Progress on Physical ActivityMajor new report finds that elementary schools are making some improvements to school meals and allowing sales of only healthy beverages on campus.

Since the 2006–07 school year, more elementary schools are offering whole grains and low-fat milks for lunch, but schools have not cut back on foods that are high in fat, sugar and/or sodium, such as pizza and deep-fried potatoes. There also is an emerging trend among elementary schools to allow only healthy beverages, such as water, 100 percent juice and low-fat milks, to be sold outside of school meals. Schools have reported virtually no changes to physical education, recess or after-school programs that encourage physical activity. 

• Read the report.

Food Day

Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report on Food Day 2011 activities today. The report captures stories and photographs from how communities across the country marked Food Day. Take a look!

Why are obesity rates leveling off? in The Washington Post

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new data Tuesday showing that, after decades of obesity rates increasing in the United States, the rates look to have leveled off in the past decade: Since 2003, adult waistlines have stayed pretty much the same size. That’s good news, in terms of a troubling trend slowing. But it’s not great news: There are still 78 million Americans, about 35.7 percent of the adult population, that are obese.

Why the obesity rates have stayed constant is difficult for researchers to say. Some point to the growth of public health interventions, like bans on vending machines in schools ormandating recess for younger children. Health insurance companies have also gotten more aggressive in using wellness interventions and offering weight loss programs. Those changes, however, have been relatively recent, and its unlikely that they would surface in this data set.

If these kind of policies are working, why isn’t the country’s obesity rate slowing, rather than just holding flat? Time magazine’s Alice Park suggests that it might be too early to see results from relatively-recent obesity interventions. She points to anti-smoking efforts, which launched in earnest in the 1950s. It took until the 1960s to see serious results, and a notable decline in the country’s smoking rates...

Active Early Press in Green Bay

Active Early made the front page of the Green Bay Press Gazette on Saturday.

"The benefits of physical action for kids are enormous. They focus better, learn better and it's better for their long-term health. Our goal is to give them a love of it."

Check out Green Bay area day care takes steps to get children active early.