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Home / Get Involved / News / National Public Health Week Day 4: Eat Well

National Public Health Week Day 4: Eat Well

Apr 10, 2014

What a great National Public Health Week theme for today - Eat Well - just like the button right here on our Live Well Sioux Falls home page!

The system that keeps our nation’s food safe and healthy is complex - from understanding food labels to learning best practices to use during a food borne illness outbreak. Public health professionals can help guide people through their choices.

Did you know?

The Affordable Care Act includes new requirements for food labeling. Under the new law, bigger restaurant chains are required to list the number of calories in each standard menu item, must put the caloric content in context, additional nutritional information must be made available to consumers and the number of calories per serving must be visible on self-service foods.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released on Jan. 31, 2011, emphasize three major goals for Americans: Balance calories with physical activity to manage weight, consume more of certain foods and nutrients such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, and seafood, and consume fewer foods with sodium, saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars and refined grains.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other government agencies to revise the dietary guidelines for release in 2015.
In total, we are now eating 31 percent more calories than we were 40 years ago — including 56 percent more fats and oils and 14 percent more sugars and sweeteners. The average American now eats 15 more pounds of sugar a year than in 1970.
USDA led efforts to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, legislation that paves the way to make real reforms to the school lunch and breakfast programs by improving the critical nutrition and hunger safety net for nearly 32 million children who eat school lunch each day and the 12 million who eat breakfast at school.
Food borne contaminants cause an average of 5,000 deaths, 325,000 hospitalizations and 76 million illnesses and cost billions of dollars annually. The five most common food borne pathogens cost the U.S. economy more than $44 billion each year in medical costs and lost productivity.

Start Here:

Ask local restaurants to provide nutrition information on their menus.
Participate in “meatless Monday,” a national trend where people plan meals without meat for one day. This can help individuals and families learn how to cut back on fats and enjoy adding more fruits and vegetables into their diets. Share recipes and snacks that are plant-based!
Support local farmers markets and other access points to fresh fruits and vegetables. It's not only good for your health; it's good for the local economy too.
Chilling foods to proper temperatures is one of the best ways to slow the growth of bacteria. An efficient kitchen refrigerator is the most effective tool in protecting families from food-borne illnesses. Make sure refrigerators are kept at 40° F or below; the freezer should be at 0° F. Since few refrigerator controls show actual temperatures, using an inexpensive freestanding appliance thermometer can monitor temperatures to make sure they’re at the right levels for optimal food safety.

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