Celebration Spotlights EFNEP's Long Success!
These days, ours is not the only spotlight shining on EFNEP, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program. EFNEP is 30 years old in 1998, and plans are underway for a celebration!
EFNEP has never been a program to blow its own horn, but in these competitive times, it is rare that any program is successful for 30 years. To be successful for so long is quite an accomplishment in its own right, but to exist as a federal program that has become a model for other nutrition programs, as well as other extension programs targeted at low-income, audiences, is an outright honor.
EFNEP is a flexible, changing program that is administered in each state of the nation in a way that specifically meets the needs of the people of that state. In fact, each EFNEP county within each state designs and delivers programming that is individual to that county. The outcome is a program that efficiently dovetails with other programs to teach low-income audiences how to improve their dietary practices and become more effective managers of available resources.
Kansas EFNEP began in 1969, and traditionally taught clients on a one-to-one basis in their homes. Through the years, alternative teaching methods have been implemented to increase the scope of EFNEP effectiveness. Today, EFNEP nutrition assistants in three Kansas counties continue to work with individual homemakers, but they also provide education in group settings.
With EFNEP's anniversary, as with most birthday celebrations, congratulations about past accomplishments raise questions about future direction. Upon review of EFNEP's 20th birthday, it is noted that many of the same concerns still exist --flat funding preventing the monetary base of the program from keeping pace with inflation. Many states, including Kansas, have had to decrease the number of operating units, and identify new sources of supplemental funding. Our success, at local, state and federal levels, in attracting outside funding will depend on how well we can identify issues, document need and build on previous success.
So what's to celebrate, you might ask? The difference that EFNEP has made in many lives across the country! Success stories provided by individuals and families that KNOW they are better meeting the needs of themselves and their families because of what EFNEP has taught them. EFNEP graduates in Kansas have taken the time to thank us for the difference EFNEP made in their lives 25 years ago! Celebrations like this--in every state in the U.S.--are the heart of EFNEP's 30th birthday.
As we celebrate 30 years of success, EFNEP is continuing to gather and broadcast the news of just how effective we are, how much need we are meeting, how many dollars are saved, and what is left ahead. Here's to EFNEP's next 30 years!
Q. I made grape jelly of CERTO liquid pectin, but it did not gel. Why?
A. According to CERTO, certain jellies can take up to two weeks to gel. Give it time. (NOTE: A week later, the jelly had gelled).
Q. Should I add gluten granules to all-purpose flour for bread machine baking?
A. Adding 1 tablespoon of gluten to 1 cup of all-purpose flour will add more protein and give the bread a lift.
Q. Is there a relationship between lactic acid and lactose intolerance?
A. No. Lactose intolerant people lack lactase, an enzyme that breaks down lactose into glucose and galactose (simple sugars). Lactic acid is an organic acid found in milk but does not play a role in this process.
Q. Is pickling lime the same thing as slaked lime?
A. Yes, but slaked lime must be food grade. Slaked lime found at agricultural supply stores, sometimes called horticultural lime, is not purified and may contain lead. If you choose to add lime, use slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) which is purified.
Q. Can I use my pressure canner on a smooth-surface range?
A According to the home economists at Presto, their products are designed to work on all range surfaces.
The Kansas Nutrition Council (KNC) will be awarding scholarships during their annual conference in the spring. Contact Elizabeth Mathews, Chair, KNC Awards & Scholarship Committee, 1112 Hayes Dr., Manhattan, KS 66502 , (785) 587-2851 for details on eligibility, deadlines and applications.
According to the most recent policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics (December 1997): "human milk is the preferred feeding for all infants, including premature and sick newborns, with rare exceptions." It suggests "exclusive breastfeeding is ideal nutrition and sufficient to support optimal growth and development for approximately the first six months after birth. It is recommended that breastfeeding continue for at least 12 months, and thereafter as long as mutually desirable (for the mother and child)."
Although it is true that iron fortified infant formula can promote excellent growth and development in infants, there are innumerable benefits to breastfeeding, not the least of which is economic. It is estimated that there is a direct savings of more than $400 per child for food purchases, alone, in the first year of life when compared with the cost of formula. Because breastfed infants have fewer illnesses, there are indirect savings associated with reduction in parental absence from work to take care of a sick child.
Research continues to show that breastfeeding decreases the risk of severe diarrhea, respiratory infections and ear infections. There is also strong evidence that it may be protective against insulin-dependent diabetes, Crohn's disease, childhood allergies, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). For example, it appears that among infants of mothers who smoke, those who are breastfed have a reduced risk of dying of SIDS than those who are bottle fed.
Breastfeeding has long been noted for promoting bonding between mother and infant. More recently, it has been shown that an infant who breastfeeds tends to be more secure and matures more quickly; and may even have a higher I.Q. This is true even when the child is premature and receives the breast milk via a tube!
The breastfeeding mother herself is afforded some important advantages over her non-breastfeeding counterpart. For example, it appears that her risk of osteoporosis is actually less later in life. Although she does experience bone mineral loss during lactation, it is temporary. In fact, she is less likely to experience a hip fracture in the postmenopausal period. Also, there is a strong suggestion that breastfeeding actually may reduce the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women and ovarian cancer in postmenopausal women.
In summary, there is increasing evidence that breastfeeding is most often the best alternative for mother and child. However, the benefits do not stop there but rather extend to society at large by reducing health care costs and employee absenteeism attributed to the care of a sick infant. Therefore, what benefits our young also benefits our society.
Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, Work Group on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. PEDIATRICS 100:1035-39 1997.
We have come to the end of our third year of FNP in Kansas with many successes to celebrate. We have touched the lives of over 70,000 limited resource participants in the Family Nutrition Program in just this year! Many of the contacts are brief, but some are ongoing as reflected in the comments of a participant who said "this is the third Mission Nutrition series I've taken. I sure wish there were more lessons!"
We've come a long way from the days when we were only ten counties. Each year we have grown in number. In our fourth year, we now have 54 counties involved in FNP! We are not only growing in size but in what we have to offer. For example, in December of this year we will provide a new curriculum for agents to use with parents and caregivers of infants (0-18 months), Feeding Our Youngest. Also in development is a curriculum to be used with young children in which selections from children's literature will be paired with hands-on activities that will enourage interest in learning about food and nutrition.
Data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the most comprehensive of its kind, provide a link between the amount of time children spend watching television, their level of fatness, physical activity and body weight. The study involved 4,063 children ages 8 through 16 years. Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic blacks were over-sampled to produce reliable estimates for their groups. Overall, 26% of U.S. children watched 4 or more hours of television per day and 67% watched at least 2 hours per day. Non-Hispanic black children had the highest rates of watching 4 or more hours of television per day (42%). The highest prevalence of watching 4 or more hours of television per day occurred in 11-13 year-old children. Both the boys and girls who watched 4 or more hours of television daily had greater body fat and a greater body mass index than those who watched less than 2 hours per day.
Twenty percent of U.S. children participated in 2 or fewer bouts of vigorous activity per week and the rate was higher in girls (26%) than in boys (17%). Eighty percent of the children reported performing 3 or more bouts of vigorous activity each week. This rate was lower in non-Hispanic black and Mexican American girls (69% and 73%, respectively). This data reconfirms that vigorous activity among ethnic minority children is lower than in non-Hispanic white children.
This study, and others, raise various issues related to the causes of inactivity. In the case of television watching, it could be a consequence of being overweight, not the reverse. There is also some evidence that adolescents who watch more television eat higher-fat diets and that high-calorie food advertisements influence children's snack choices and consumption. More experimental trials and prospective risk-factor studies are needed to clarify the potential roles of television viewing and inactivity and their relationships to childhood obesity.
Reference: JAMA, March 25, 1998. Vol 279, No 12, as reported in Maternal & Child Health Links: Research, Education, Extension and Technology, Volume VI, 1998.
Did You Know...?
In the US there are:
790,000 Bottled Vendors
273,000 Hot Drink Vendors
12,200 Juice Vendors
1,110,000 Can Drink Vendors
226,200 Cold Cup Vendors
900,000 Confection/Snack Vendors
90,000 Pastry Vendors
54,000 Hot canned Vendors
43,000 Ice Cream Vendors
92,000 Milk Vendors
106,000 All-Purpose Vendors
8,500 Frozen Food Vendors
Source: Vending Times 1998 Census of the Industry via e-mail from EatrightMT@aol.com.
Kansans would like recipes and tips that are fast, easy, nutritious and economical. These statements and comments came from 12 discussion groups made up of young parents with children 5 years and under, and adults over 60 years in rural and urban areas in Kansas.
What we want to do is to help people use existing agencies to get help for better nutrition and physical activity. We continue to do formative research by asking the consumers how they want to get the information that will mobilize them to improve their eating and physical activity habits.
The Kansas Nutrition Network consists of 18 state agencies. Our vision is that Kansans will make healthy nutrition and physical activity decisions. Our mission is to mobilize Kansans to seek available resources from Kansas Nutrition Network partners.
High blood pressure affects one in four adults or about 50 million Americans, especially older adults and Afro-Americans. For about thirty years, the principal dietary recommendation has been to lower sodium and salt intake to both prevent and treat hypertension. Americans consume on the average about 10 grams of salt daily.
The suggested moderate reduction for all Americans has been to limit sodium to 2400 mg/day or 6 grams of salt, about 1 teaspoon of salt daily. This public health pronouncement: "Eat less salt and you will lower your blood pressure and live a longer, healthier life" has been supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, HHS. It has instigated the NHBPEP coalition (National High Blood Pressure Education Program), a coalition of 6 federal agencies and 36 medical organizations. Part of the rationale for this program is that even a modest sodium reduction will save lives when applied to a population.
Most Americans have heard this recommendation and many no longer use salt at the table; however 80% of the sodium they get is in processed food. Salt, like fat, is very important for acceptable taste even though the amount consumed is learned behavior rather than controlled by instinct. In other words, people get accustomed to eating a certain level of saltiness in food, but this level can be modified.
In more recent years, this recommendation that everyone should lower sodium intake has come under fire due to more recent research. Many studies have failed to establish the crucial role of sodium in raising blood pressure. Many people are not sensitive to sodium. Long term salt reductions are hard to maintain and the results in controlling blood pressure are not nearly as effective as medications. Furthermore, considerable research suggests the important roles of other minerals, especially calcium, potassium, and magnesium.
Recent research approached the hypertension problem from the point of view of the whole diet in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) study. This multi-center DASH diet features more servings of fruits and vegetables (5 fruits and 4 vegetables daily), low-fat milk and less fat. Sodium was not modified. Results were surprisingly good in that blood pressure responded to the diet as well as to medications. Now a new study has commenced that is using the DASH diet and three levels of salt: 3, 6, and 9 grams daily with results forthcoming in a couple of years.
Another big study is expected soon, the Trials of Non-pharmacologic Interventions in the Elderly (TONE), looking for blood pressure reductions in elderly with weight loss and sodium reduction. A few studies have suggested that if sodium is lowered too much, there is increased mortality. Obviously more studies are needed.
Because of all the controversy, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute plans to hold a workshop later this year to revisit the sodium issue. Unbiased experts may be hard to locate because too many researchers have chosen sides. All agree that hypertension is a serious health problem for industrialized societies. It contributes to coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke and kidney failures.
David McCarron, a major proponent of the importance of calcium intake, has said, "Humans may be unique in our propensity to develop hypertension simply because we are the only species with the capacity to manipulate our diets to our own detriment." There is growing agreement that the total diet is powerful not only for hypertension but for numerous, if not almost all chronic diseases.
While sodium may not prove to be so important in controlling high blood pressure as once believed, lowering salt intake may still be wise because of its relationship to other diseases particularly osteoporosis. And no one can argue that eating more fruits and vegetables is bad advice. The bottom line is: The whole diet is important--practice variety, moderation and proportion in selecting food and drink.
Sources: McCarron, David. Diet and Blood Pressure--the Paradigm Shift. Science. Vol:281. Aug. 14, 1998. Pp: 933-934. News Focus (Gary Taubes). The (Political) Science of Salt. Science. Vol: 281. Aug. 14, 1998. Pp: 898-906. Press release from NIH, NHLBI
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp
No longer do you need all 21 volumes of the USDA Nutrient Database (Handbook #8) on your shelves thanks to the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory website. The main feature of the site is the search engine. All you need to do is enter a food item and out pops the complete nutritional breakdown based on 100 grams or a common measure (one slice of melon, for example). It is really handy! And, it has the most current information so you don't need to keep getting updates. Check it out!
TIP: Can't remember the web address? Go to the Extension Foods and Nutrition Homepage http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/humannutrition . We've got a link ready for you, plus lots of other goodies.
A recent article published in Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine (1998; 152:489-493) looked at the characteristics of hunger in young children; and although this study was not done in Kansas, some of the findings may very well apply to us.
This study was completed with the caregivers of 2,578 children in an urban pediatric clinic. Most of the children in the sample were not hungry; however almost one-third of were at risk for hunger and more than 6% were considered to be hungry. That means, for this particular pediatric clinic, almost 40% of the children receiving care were hungry or at risk of hunger.
More hungry children consumed calories with little nutritional value than did non-hungry children, especially carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks. These drinks provide a feeling of fullness for hungry children. Although their total calories may meet or even exceed daily needs, some of these children are malnourished from low intakes of more nutritious foods.
What does this mean for those of us in Kansas? The data from this study suggest the potential for a more aggressive identification and intervention to benefit hungry children. That suggestion could apply to Kansans as well. Identification of hunger and risk for hunger should be an important part of the overall health care that young children are getting. Health, social service, child care, and other professionals can evaluate for risk of hunger and refer families to WIC, School Breakfast and Lunch, EFNEP, emergency food pantries, food stamps, and other agencies and services that could help these families. We can take a proactive approach to hunger in Kansas and can do better for our children. For information about the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, call Karen Fitzgerald at 316-264-9303.
Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy - Original
Meatloaf with Mushroom Gravy - Modified
Mushroom Gravy
We are delighted to announce the first issue of our new Extension Foods and Nutrition newsletter, the Nutrition Spotlight! You should expect the Spotlight to shine every 2 months, six times a year. The Spotlight was designed to provide professionals with an update pm current nutrition issues and programs in a format that will take us into the next century.
Many thanks go to Judy Speer (EFNEP/FNP Graphic Designer) and her team for the great new look of the Spotlight. We think that Judy and her team hit a home run with the design and we hope that you think so, too.
Aside from the timely, research-based articles, we have added some new features that we think you will find useful. Each issue, we will shine the spotlight on EFNEP, FNP, and KNN so you can be kept abreast of happenings in these important programs. In fact, EFNEP's 30 year celebration is our Feature story this issue. Each issue we will also spotlight web sites that we hope you find useful. The modified recipe returns with an updated format including Nutrition Fact labels for the original and modified product. Resources, announcements and short-attention-span tidbits are interspersed throughout each issue.
The Spotlight has taken a little longer to produce than we thought it would, but we hope you agree that the results are well worth it. If you have any comments or suggestions , contact Shelly at the address on page 2. We are very proud of the new Nutrition Spotlight and hope that you enjoy the new look and format.