Posts Tagged: obesity

The weight of the nation

UC Cooperative Extension in Tulare County offers a free screening of a film that addresses the increasing level of overweight and obesity in the United States, reported the Visalia Times-Delta.

The film, titled “Children in Crisis,” is the third part of the HBO series “The Weight of the Nation." The film will show at 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, at the Agriculture Building Auditorium, 4437 S. Laspina St., Tulare.

Obesity is an on-going issue in Tulare County, Cathi Lamp is quoted in the article. Lamp is the UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Tulare County for nutrition, family and consumer sciences.

She is no stranger to the health issues that plague the county’s children. Lamp has been part of campaigns to stop people from drinking sugary drinks and to encourage healthful eating habits as well as incorporate physical activity into their lives, the article said.

UCCE takes part in obesity prevention task force

A group of about 40 San Joaquin County professionals meet regularly to share ideas and strategies for combating obesity and overweight, afflictions that effect the majority of the county's residents, according to an article in the Stockton Record.

UC Cooperative Extension advisor Anna Martin is the interim facilitator of the Obesity and Chronic Disease Prevention Task Force, which first convened in August 2009. Other members of the task force represent health and human services agencies, hospitals, school districts, the County Office of Education, University of the Pacific, health insurers, collaboratives such as Healthy San Joaquin and Select San Joaquin, the regional air district, nonprofit agencies such as Community Partnership for Families of San Joaquin and Women, Infants and Children programs.

A recent meeting featured guest speaker Genoveva Islas-Hooker with the Fresno-based Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program.

She said that in many of the targeted neighborhoods where the obesity-prevention program is active, primarily in unincorporated rural areas, people cannot drink the water and have to turn to processed beverages.

"A 20-ounce bottle of water is $1.99 versus a 44-ounce sugar drink that costs 79 cents. We need to stop pushing soda consumption," she said.

Inexpensive soda contributes to the obesity epidemic, experts say.

UCCE launches Northern California obesity study, 'Naturalist' program

UC Cooperative Extension nutrition researchers are in the process of selecting five schools each from Shasta and Butte counties to pilot a nutrition and extension program that university researchers will study to learn how to motivate kids to choose healthy habits, the Redding Record Searchlight reported.

The project is funded with a $500,000 grant from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

"We are going to support the school(s) to develop a stronger wellness program that rewards healthy eating and physical activity," said Concepción Mendoza, UCCE advisor in Shasta County, nutrition, family and consumer sciences.

UC Cooperative Extension specialist Patricia Crawford, nutrition, told reporter Joe Szydiowski that people's palettes depend on four criteria: easy to get, cheap, tastes good, and heavily advertised.

Those combine to provide a strong push for people to eat unhealthy food.

"We have to go against the forces to reach out and get foods that will make us healthy," she said. One of the best ways to do that, Crawford said, is by providing students with easy access to cold, clean water.

The program could be extended to the state and national level if it's successful after the two years of study.

UCCE offers 'California Naturalist' program in Truckee

Aspiring naturalists may enroll in a 40-hour course this summer at UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station near Truckee to receive classroom and field training in science, problem-solving, communication and community service, according to the Sierra Sun.

The 'California Naturalist' course fee of $350 includes course instruction, a PDF textbook, graduation certificate, website support and registration as a UC "California Naturalist."

UCR scientists continue release of psyllid enemies in SoCal

Mark Hoddle, an entomologist and director of the Center for Invasive Species Research at UC Riverside, along with a team of researchers, has been traveling across Southern California releasing Tamarixia radiata, stingless wasps that lay eggs and kill Asian citrus psyllid larva, wrote Joe Nelson in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

An exotic species in California, psyllids feed on citrus or close relatives of citrus and can spread a bacterium that causes Huanglongbing (HLB) disease.

"It's a death sentence for a citrus tree," said CDFA spokesman Steve Lyle. "The only thing left to do with the trees is to cut them down and burn them, and that would be devastating to the citrus industry."

To date, HLB has not been found in California. However, Lyle said its arrival is "not a matter of if, but when."

New CSUF projects help in fight against obesity
Danny Chau, The Daily Titan

Cal State Fullerton received more than $800,000 in grants from USDA to fund three new projgrams on campus that will promote nutrition education and the fight against childhood obesity.

The project will train 80 diverse students in nutrition and childhood obesity.

“The nice thing about it is the students will get exposure to leading scientists in the field and by our collaboration with UC Davis,” said Archana J. McEligot, associate professor of health science at CSUF.

Tulare County childhood obesity rates rise

A 30-year trend in increasing childhood obesity rates in California may be leveling off, but rates are still three times higher among 12- to 19-year-olds and four times higher among 6- to 11-year-olds than they were in the 1970s, according to a report released Nov. 9 by the California Center of Public Health Advocacy and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. At the same time, improvements are not being seen evenly throughout the state, with 31 of California’s 58 counties experiencing an increase in childhood overweight over the five-year period from 2005 to 2010.

Tulare County was one of the 31 to see obesity and overweight rates climb in the last five years, according to an article in the Visalia Times-Delta. The rate of childhood obesity in Tulare County is close to 44 percent. Cathi Lamp, a nutritionist with UC Cooperative Extension, outlined UCCE's efforts to turn the tide. She said UC works with local school districts on curriculum for teachers that encourages healthful eating and obesity prevention.

"We reach thousands of families each year," Lamp said.

Riverside officials spray for Asian citrus psyllid
Janet Zimmerman, Riverside Press-Enterprise

Recent discoveries in Riverside of Asian citrus psyllids - which can carry bacteria that have devastated crops in Florida, Mexico and other countries - prompted a round of residential spraying that could be expanded, officials with the California Department of Food and Agriculture said.

The spraying started in October and is expected to continue through Nov. 17. State crews applied insecticide to residential citrus trees in an area bounded by Chicago Avenue on the west, Chapala Drive on the east, La Conte Drive near UC Riverside on the north and Central Avenue to the south.

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