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How many ways can you say sugar? Quite a few, as Miriam Nelson illustrated when she visited a home that may or may not be typical of south central Kansas Friday morning. A box of granola bars, considered as a healthier alternative to cookies or candy, listed some type of sugar 12 times on the label.
“As a mom, I would think this is a healthy choice,” said Jodi Drake of the fruit and nut bar, pointing up the importance of reading labels carefully.
The Pratt County agent for K-State Research and Extension, Drake has coordinated a visit this week by Tufts University researchers Dr. Miriam Nelson, Dr. Sara Folta and Eleanor Heidkamp-Young, who are on a Strong Women Across America tour.
Nelson continued tallying sugars in salad dressings, cereals, crackers and syrups. The average 40-year-old American woman consumes about 24 teaspoons of added sugars each day, she said. Men and children typically eat more. That figure alarms her, and gives credence to her belief that a person should look at her plate and say, “this was grown somewhere, roamed somewhere or swam somewhere,” and that it is in the least processed form possible.
She’s on a campaign to put the sugar bowl back on the table, and take it out of the foods we eat. Research shows people will eat less total sugar if they add it themselves.
She didn’t count the fat grams present in the cabinets, refrigerator and freezer, but would have found them to be plentiful.
SoFAS — solid fats and added sugars — provide 35 percent of total calories in the typical American’s diet and contribute to a population that is more than two-thirds overweight or obese.
As part of their visit to Pratt, Nelson and team worked with a group of women who have formed a Change Club to promote healthier lifestyles. The club intends to put its focus on healthy after-school snacks and active play for children and a hoped-for ripple effect in parents and the larger community.
The team also led a group on a walking tour of Pratt’s downtown, to determine the extent to which “active transport” is possible, safe and enjoyable. Nelson pointed out a number of positives, including “a wonderful thing the town did a long time ago,” in laying out a community with houses placed well back from the sidewalk, and a wide grassy buffer between the sidewalk and traffic, along with mature trees, that make walking pleasant in some areas.
How many ways can you say sugar? Quite a few, as Miriam Nelson illustrated when she visited a home that may or may not be typical of south central Kansas Friday morning. A box of granola bars, considered as a healthier alternative to cookies or candy, listed some type of sugar 12 times on the label.
“As a mom, I would think this is a healthy choice,” said Jodi Drake of the fruit and nut bar, pointing up the importance of reading labels carefully.
The Pratt County agent for K-State Research and Extension, Drake has coordinated a visit this week by Tufts University researchers Dr. Miriam Nelson, Dr. Sara Folta and Eleanor Heidkamp-Young, who are on a Strong Women Across America tour.
Nelson continued tallying sugars in salad dressings, cereals, crackers and syrups. The average 40-year-old American woman consumes about 24 teaspoons of added sugars each day, she said. Men and children typically eat more. That figure alarms her, and gives credence to her belief that a person should look at her plate and say, “this was grown somewhere, roamed somewhere or swam somewhere,” and that it is in the least processed form possible.
She’s on a campaign to put the sugar bowl back on the table, and take it out of the foods we eat. Research shows people will eat less total sugar if they add it themselves.
She didn’t count the fat grams present in the cabinets, refrigerator and freezer, but would have found them to be plentiful.
SoFAS — solid fats and added sugars — provide 35 percent of total calories in the typical American’s diet and contribute to a population that is more than two-thirds overweight or obese.
As part of their visit to Pratt, Nelson and team worked with a group of women who have formed a Change Club to promote healthier lifestyles. The club intends to put its focus on healthy after-school snacks and active play for children and a hoped-for ripple effect in parents and the larger community.
The team also led a group on a walking tour of Pratt’s downtown, to determine the extent to which “active transport” is possible, safe and enjoyable. Nelson pointed out a number of positives, including “a wonderful thing the town did a long time ago,” in laying out a community with houses placed well back from the sidewalk, and a wide grassy buffer between the sidewalk and traffic, along with mature trees, that make walking pleasant in some areas.
The city has used paint liberally, to mark crosswalks on Main Street and nearby streets.
Nelson praised Pratt as a mixed-land use community, with homes, banks, the post office, library and retail businesses in close proximity. She considers the school campus in the middle of town as a positive factor and the availability of the Zerger Field track to walkers as a wonderful resource.
There is, however, a “disparity” in the quality, and even presence of sidewalks away from Main Street, and she noted a lack of bike racks downtown.
The proposed bypass of Pratt by U.S. 54 would make walking safer and more pleasant in town, and said, when done right, such bypasses contribute to a revitalization of the downtown.
During the tour, Nelson has promoted her new book, “The Social Network Diet,” the premise of which is that the food and exercise choices a person makes are a reflection of social and physical environments, and that when environments change, so do habits.
Follow the team
Dr. Miriam Nelson and her team are making their way across the country with messages about balancing energy intake and output and the impact that individuals can make on food habits. Follow them at www.strongwomen.com/tour
