hot health news - swine flu, reform, children

Janet in front of colorful painting, holding small Greek statue

Nourish & Flourish - roots grow into flowering pink lotus

Janet Luongo

Create a Life

you Love

August 26, 2009

in this issue

Swine Flu

Health Care Reform - Prevention is Key

Child Nutrition

Nutrition Certification Scholarship

Hi,
Three current hot health issues all show the importance of prevention.

Swine flu: Crowded and filthy practices of hog (swine) factory farming and the routine low doses of antibiotics routinely fed stressed and diseased animals, may lead to the development of new resistant strains. Changing to a more sustainable form of raising animals would be more humane, would produce more healthy meat and may prevent illness. (See PCRM and Dr. Neal Bernard's article link below)

Health Reform: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If we want to lower costs of treatment, the need for drugs, hospitals and medicines, we must teach healthy habits. Dr. Oz ("Oprah's doctor") addressed Congress last year on the importance of patient ongoing follow-up with health and nutritional counselors and holding people accountable for sustaining and improving their health.

Children's Nutrition. Children born today may have shorter life spans than their parents. One out of five are overweight and one out of three children will develop diabetes 2. These conditions can be largely prevented with more nutrition food and more exercise. Also, since children are more vulnerable to infection, it is vital to boost their immune system through nourishing food.

NOW as millions of teachers and students across the country head back to school, my husband and son, as teachers, are joining them and I am meeting at schools doing my HOT 2B HEALTHY program. While schools and universities are busy preparing for both swine flu and seasonal flu, fears come in waves - raised Monday by the President's advisors, calmed today by a government agency.

NOW legislators are hearing from citizens before they return to D.C. to finalize the health care reform bill in September.

NOW the Child Nutrition Act is up for debate, renewable September 30, every 5 years.
Join me Sept 7 at one of the many potluck Eat-Ins on the National Day of Action for Read Food for Kids.

If you want a voice about your health and that of people you love, the time is NOW to pay close attention and speak up. All three topics - swine flu, health care reform, and children's nutrition - can be confusing and controversial, so it's crucial we find the objective facts and avoid misinformation.

After listening to various sides in the debate, it's then important to think for ourselves as we make hard decision to get flu vaccinations for ourselves or our families or not, to add to the public debate on health reform or not, or to join the movement to protect the health and future of our children by demanding our legislators healthy, vegetarian and dairy free options for school lunch.

These last weeks of summer, with hot issues blasting at us, it's important we stay cool.

Only doctors can make medical recommendations, but as a certified health counselor focused on wellness education and disease prevention, I can strongly suggest you find TRUSTWORTHY sources, educate yourself, and take action. Janet Luongo, M.S. Ed, counselor, speaker on wellness