Category Archives: taste and health

Prompting Positive Changes for Community Health

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community health

What happens when a broad-based group of citizens comes together with a common goal to improve the health of their community? Change happens!

Just over a year ago, the Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council (ODNC) organized a town hall gathering in Tillamook to bring together a diverse group of community leaders who care about health and wellness. This led to the Tillamook County Commission declaring 2016 the “Year of Wellness.”

Anne Goetze, Senior Director of Nutrition Affairs for ODNC, has been serving on their appointed task force and co-chairs the nutrition subcommittee. Additionally, this town hall led to ODNC’s work with the Oregon Department of Education and the Tillamook School District on wellness policy activation with Fuel Up to Play 60 as a featured program.

In August, a well-attended Community Health Matters Forum helped chart the course for ongoing community engagement. Results from an online challenge showed people making healthier food choices, preparing healthy meals and being more physically active every day. The success of this program serves as a model that will be introduced in Umatilla later this year.

For more information about the Year of Wellness efforts, visit their website at http://tillamookcountyhealthmatters.org/about-us/.

Decoding the Dairy Case

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Milk provides a package of protein and essential nutrients that are not easily replaced with other foods. Among registered dietitians, family physicians and pediatricians who participated in a recent survey, fluid milk was among the top sources of calcium and vitamin D they recommended to their clients/patients.

So what’s up with all of the other items filling the shelves claiming to be milk or just like milk? Walk past the dairy case at any given grocery store, and the choices can be dizzying. To make matters even more confusing, the products’ nutrients are not consistent, and the ingredient lists range from simple to complex.

Only cow’s milk has a long track record of research supporting its health benefits, and other alternatives simply cannot match the complete nutritional equivalent. Non-dairy beverages have no FDA-regulated standard of identity as cow’s milk products do, and the nutrition claims for these items vary greatly.

To help you ‘decode the dairy case,’ here’s a short video from our friends at the American Dairy Association:

VIDEO

Honoring the Harvest: From Dairy Farm to Table

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At Honor the Harvest, a summit sponsored by the National Dairy Council in June, more than 200 professionals from the culinary, nutrition, health and wellness, and agricultural communities gathered to immerse themselves in the science and insights about dairy’s role from farm to table.

Representing Oregon at this national summit was Anne Goetze, our Senior Director of Nutrition Affairs, Oregon Health and Science University’s Sonja Connor and Oregon Department of Education’s Farm to School Specialist, Rick Sherman.

 

“Our Oregon guests are leaders locally and nationally. They were intrigued to hear dairy’s sustainability story,” said Anne.

From a packed day of educational sessions and application to a tour of the agricultural experience at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana, participants learned about dairy’s key role as part of sustainable food systems.

“Honoring the harvest is about using the food for its highest purpose and moving nutrients through the food system – from people, to animals, and back to the land to grow more food – instead of going to waste in a landfill,” said Anne. “By working together we can preserve precious resources and feed a growing population.”

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