Engage Her: Activating Women and MultiCultural Communities

Diabetes is a serious disease that is affecting people of all races and ages.  It has no boundaries.  More alarming it is affecting individuals at a younger age.  Previously, Diabetes II was known as an adult onset diabetes but now with the obesity epidemic, Diabetes II is being diagnosed at an earlier age.  The symptoms include blurred vision, frequent infections and even tingling or numbness in the hands or feet.  Since diabetes often goes undiagnosed, it is important to take preventive steps to decrease the chances of being affected by this silent disease.  If diabetes runs in your family, if you are overweight or if you exhibit symptoms that seem suspicious visit your doctor and tell them about the symptoms.

Today the U.S. Government announced that our country has more than 70 million or 26.7% of population’s adults are obese. It is considered to be a major public health threat by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control. Over 400,000 people were surveyed and the results and numbers are huge. In 9 states, over 30% of their population is considered obese. There is increasing concern and effort to address this situation as obesity is directly related to increased heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancers.

The survey also reported that multicultural communities were especially hard hit. African Americans were most likely to be obese with 36.8% of African American men and 41% of African American women were considered to be obese. Hispanics were reporting 30% obesity in their populations. With women providing most of the health care support, food preparation and education to our families, it is important that we begin to educate and change the way we eat and exercise within our families. Many multicultural families continue to prepare traditional cultural foods that use high fats, sodium, carbohydrates that can lead to increased obesity and related diseases. We need to explore utilizing substitute ingredients that are healthier and begin to address this obesity situation.

This further supports the work that First Lady Michelle Obama is undertaking with her national “Let’s Move” campaign aimed at seriously reducing Childhood Obesity in a generation. Let’s take a look at what our children, parents and families are eating and determine how we can begin to modify our eating and exercise habits in order to increase our families’ longevity and health.

A new law in Santa Clara County, California bans restaurants from giving away free toys with children’s meals exceeding healthy levels of calories, fat, sugar and salt. “This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes,” said the law’s author, Supervisor Ken Yeager. “Obviously, toys in and of themselves do not make children obese. But it is unfair to parents and children to use toys to capture the tastes of children when they are young and get them hooked on eating high-sugar, high-fat foods early in life.”

This new law bans free toys in meals containing more than: 485 calories, 35 percent of their calories from fat, 10 percent from sweeteners, or exceeding 600 mg of sodium. These guidelines follow the children’s health standards set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As a nation we are facing skyrocketing obesity rates among adults and children and in some places 30% of our population are obese, overweight and becoming diabetic, experiencing related coronary disease. We all have to find ways to counteract this unhealthy trend and determine what are some of the contributors to this epidemic. While many critics of this new law say that parents should determine what their children should be eating, it is apparent from looking at the dramatically increasing numbers of adults getting obese, overweight and having associated illnesses that many of the parents are not making the healthiest choices for themselves and their children. If the fast food chains offer healthier meals that meet the guidelines they can continue to offer the promotional toys with the healthier menu offerings. Stay tuned and let’s see how this legislation affects other parts of our nation.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/28/MNLA1D5QFV.DTL#ixzz0mUssRXNc

Census forms and your money!

To help promote participation in the Census, we’re announcing our new Text Message campaign: Text FreeCensus to 53137 and register your name in a drawing to win a FREE iPod Touch! Starting today, we’re announcing it to all our partners and the public.

While the deadline for sending in the Census has passed, the government is now getting ready to send representatives to the doors of people who failed to send in their census forms. They will be sending them up to several times to ensure we count everyone who lives in the United States regardless of their citizenship status. It is important that we encourage all our families and friends to open the doors and answer the questions to ensure they are counted in the Census to receive federal funding for their communities.

Remember: Text FreeCensus to 53137 to register to win a FREE iPod Touch and receive periodic messages.

When my mom was pregnant, my biological father left me; so my mom became a single mother.  She basically had to take care of my older brother and me. My mother had to support both of us by herself because our dad wasn’t there to help.  I know it was hard for her because there were days when we had nothing to eat. When I was about one year old, a new man stepped into my life. The truth is he really is my step dad. He has been with us since then. From my point of view, that’s what I call a real dad. Never once to his face have I called him step dad. I think it was hard for his family to accept the fact that he was taking care of two kids who didn’t have his blood. But I didn’t let that get to me. 

Now that I’m fifteen years old my parents gave me a Quinceanera. Everything was going fine until suddenly my biological dad decided to pop into my life.  That got me really angry because he was never in my life, so why would he care now? I already have a family and I don’t even know what he looks like.  I never want to know either. I don’t need a man in my life that can’t even support his daughter and forgot about me for fifteen years. My mom and step dad gave me everything I needed. There is nothing I wish I had.

My biological dad wanted me to go meet him. I was laughing so hard when my mom told me. Then my uncle, whom I had never met before, also tried to step into my life. He is my biological dad’s brother. I think they are out their minds if they really thought I was going to go with them. They are the dumbest guys on earth!! My mom invited my uncle to the Quinceanera and he came. He had the nerve to give me a card that my biological dad had sent. And I guess it only had two hundred dollars in it and he thought that it was going to make me happy. Well I didn’t let that get to me. But to tell you the truth, while my uncle was there all I felt was hatred towards him.

I don’t even know how to explain it, but I have a lot of anger towards my biological dad. The saddest part is sometimes I let all that anger out to the people that care about me. I try my best to change, but I can’t. I just wish I didn’t have his blood going through my veins. I’m going to show him that I’m going to be someone in life. Well, let’s just pray to God I don’t bump into him because it’s not going to be pretty.

Haiti.  Well, when I heard about what happened in Haiti, I got really sad.  I couldn’t believe that something so horrible could happen to a whole country!  When I saw the images of people just lying on the streets, my heart dropped.  I felt so bad and I just couldn’t hold my tears in.  My mom looked at me and was just completely confused about what was wrong with me.  All of this affected me because it’s something that could happen to anyone, and it could even happen to us anytime soon.  I just put myself in their place and I know that I wouldn’t be able to handle it.  I know that I wouldn’t be able to survive in that crisis and that if I lost my family in that terrible way, I would be devastated.  Seeing the little kids crying and without parents was a very sad image, because I love my parents and I would be crushed if I ever lost either of them.

The whole situation also made me feel helpless because I knew that all I could was donate, but I wanted to help in a better way.  I also know that all those people probably felt hopeless and think that they aren’t going to get through this.  I was actually talking to some friends and one of them said that they didn’t really care about what was going on, and I was just shocked.  I don’t know how someone could not feel bad and sad about this.  I actually got mad when I heard her say that because it just makes me feel that they are cold hearted, and if something like this doesn’t make them want to help or at least feel bad, then I don’t know what can.

I would like everyone to try to help Haiti out.  I’m sure that if this were to happen to any of us, we would want people to try to help us out also.

Last week First Lady Michelle Obama was in Philadelphia to talk about the Let’s Move campaign which is focused on ending the epidemic of childhood obesity in our country in a generation. She was in Philadelphia because that is the city and communities that came together six years ago to take a collaborative stand to fight obesity and provide the roadmap for the rest of our nation. They decided that they needed to bring fresh, health affordable foods to all their communities. To take a collected approach to solve the deep problems and issues that lead to obesity in our communities.

In addition, the government just announced the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. It is a multi-million dollar public and private investment to eliminate food deserts in America within seven years. Food deserts are those areas in our communities throughout the country that lack access to fresh, affordable food and distribution points. It is so powerful to see our government not only talk about the need to fight obesity, but put funding and investment dollars to ensure that we bring real solutions that our citizens across the country in the communities that need it the most. We’ll bringing you more details about this program as it unfolds across the country and into our communities. Kudos to the President and the First Lady for this amazing and profound work.