Lesson Plan: Simple Steps to Upgrade Your Diet
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 09:03A free web-based tool for nutrition educators shows how to “upgrade” favorite meals by changing the type of meat and poultry, side dishes and condiments to decrease fat and calories in breakfast, lunch and dinner menus.
Courtesy of the National Turkey Federation
As a nation, we are experiencing an epidemic of obesity. Today, an estimated 32.7% of U.S. adults 20 years and older are overweight, 34.3% are obese and 5.9% are morbidly obese, resulting in approximately $147 billion in direct and indirect healthcare costs annually. And because there is a strong correlation between obesity and such co-morbid conditions as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancers, these costs are expected to double every 10 years. More problematic is the escalating rate of childhood obesity and the potential consequences for increased prevalence of chronic disease in future years.