It’s Spring!!! The birds  are chirping. Flowers are starting to bloom. The sun is shining. But most importantly, it’s National Nutrition Month.

Through the Eat Right Now and Nutrition For Life programs, two SNAP-Ed funded programs, HPC’s nutrition educators have been working hard to educate both adults and children on healthy eating. All of their lessons focus on MyPlate and how to make healthy eating a habit. HPC’s nutrition educators visit shelters, health centers and schools in Philadelphia and teach the importance of good nutrition. The CDC reports that there has been a 5% decrease in obesity rates among children in Philadelphia school students. Nutrition education is an important component to helping Philadelphians make healthy changes.

The HPC nutrition educators rely on MyPlate to share information about how easy it is to eat healthy. My Plate was developed in 2011 to help folks meet and follow the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines for MyPlate are simple:

-Fill half of your plate with fruit and vegetables

-One quarter of your plate with lean protein

-One quarter of your plate with whole grains     

-Consume low fat or fat free dairy products daily

This year’s National Nutrition Month theme was “Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day”. Eating healthy isn’t about changing who you are, it is about changing what you do. It isn’t about eating from a list of bland, tasteless foods that you don’t like. It’s about incorporating foods from your culture, ethnicity, and foods that you love, and making them fit into MyPlate.  It’s about making MyPlate yours!

The CDC reports that more than one-third of all adults and 17% of all children in our nation are obese. This contributes to the rising cases of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and stroke. As a result of the workof health professionals and media campaigns that encouragehealthy eating habits, many people are putting more effort towards changing their diets in ways that make MyPlate guidelines work for their own plates. Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day.