Every March, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics holds their National Nutrition Month® campaign, encouraging informed food choices and healthy eating and physical activity habits. This year’s theme is “Food Connects Us”. Let’s take a look at the ways food connects us and how these connections can benefit our health and well-being.
Food connects us to our families, our friends, and our cultures. Health, memories, traditions, seasons and access to food all impact our relationship with food. These factors influence the foods we eat, and the foods we eat affect our health.
This year’s campaign offers topics for each week in March, which we will explore with you. Look for resources at The Center all month.
Week one encourages us to Connect with Food. Learn how to prepare and plan meals. Try a new recipe or practice simple meal planning with few ingredients that can be prepared in one pot. This is good time to explore resources like food banks and home delivered meals, both offered at The Open Link.
The second week asks us to Connect with a Nutrition Expert. Coincidentally, our favorite registered dietician, Teri Wassel, will be at The Center to host a nutrition demo and offer tips. Meet Teri March 13th! You can also ask your doctor for a referral to a nutrition expert who can offer personalized nutrition information to help you meet your health goals.
During the third week of March, Explore the Connection Between Food and Culture. Experiment with recipes and ingredients. Include your favorite cultural foods and traditions or try new global flavors.
The last week of the month tells us to Build the Connection Across All Stages of Life. The nutrients you get from food are crucial for your health and well-being throughout your entire lifespan, from infancy to older adulthood, with needs changing at every stage. Learn about the important role nutrition has in conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, forms of cancer, dental disease, sleep apnea, and more. The Center can help you build balanced eating and physical activity habits this week and moving forward.
Food is an essential part of life so it’s important to understand our connection, or relationship, with food. Many things drive this connection, including taste, nostalgia, culture, economic stability, one’s ability to shop and prepare food, emotion, and a desire for health. The Center recognizes each of these aspects and offers Community Lunch, nutrition educational, and other programming that can help you build good habits.
Join us for Community Lunch, where nourishment meets connection. Sharing a meal can create a ripple effect of good health and strong friendships, and we can’t think of a better connection than that!
