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National Latino Nutrition Month is coming up from September 15th to October 15th. Latino Nutrition Month was created to help build awareness that making healthy food and lifestyle choices can reduce the rise of chronic disease facing the Latino community.
According to Adriene Worthington, RD, of Oldways and LNC:
“Incidences of obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease continue to plague the Latino community. The good news is that studies show eating a healthy and balanced diet lowers the risk of many of these diseases. Celebrating Latino Nutrition Month is a wonderful way to inspire Latinos to reconnect with their flavorful and healthy food traditions in order to improve their health.”
Coinciding with Hispanic Heritage Month, Latino Nutrition Month helps introduce consumers to different ways of cooking, eating and enjoying the Latino diet pattern. They’ve also introduced an updated Latin American Diet Pyramid that stresses the importance of putting plant based foods (fruits, veggies, nuts, beans and spices) at the core of one’s diet. That’s a food pyramid I can definitely embrace.
I think fruits and vegetables should be at the base of any food pyramid. I think they’re a big part of staying fit, and maintaining a healthy diet. We should all be trying to consciously add as many fruits and vegetables into our diet every day as we can. That is one thing that most healthy diet plans agree on.
To celebrate Latino Nutrition Month the Oldways and LNC websites are including several consumer and health care programs:
- A Latino Month Calendar, featuring a tip-a-day for following the healthy Latin American Diet.
- A 7-Day Healthy Latino Menu: 7 days of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks, with calorie counts.
- Affordable Latino meals, including recipes and price information for families, seniors, college students and others stretching their food dollars.
- An updated Camino Mágico, a downloadable, bi-lingual supermarket shopping guide to help Latino shoppers make healthy choices among the endless food options available at supermarkets today.
- Latin American Diet Recipe Contest on the LNC site and The Oldways Table Blog. Look for contest rules on the Oldways and LNC websites and at the Oldways website. Consumers should submit a recipe that uses at least two Latin American Diet products (see list below). Winners will be drawn at the end of the October, and announced on our websites. Prizes include wonderful Latino products and autographed copies of our widely-praised book, The Oldways Table, chock-full of wonderful recipes and short essays about food and wine experiences.
- A 2′ X 3′ poster with an updated illustration of the Latin American Diet Pyramid will be available at The Oldways Store.
- Latino Health Professionals Tool Kit featuring meal planning tips, recipes, handouts and more is available to Health Professionals and Supermarket RDs who request this free resource through the Oldway website.
Image credit Oldway
