The Healthy Lunches promotion aims to encourage local restaurants and catering services to offer healthy and colorful lunch options, and to educate the community about fruits and vegetables that can add color, flavor, and nourishment to their plates. These healthy lunches will be featured in a series of nutrition education articles that will be published in newspapers, and online at the Commonwealth Cancer Association’s website and Facebook page.
Participating restaurants and catering services should commit to the following:
• Offering at least one Eat Right with Color entrée for at least one week in March 2011;
• Each Eat Right with Color entrée should include at least three different colors of fruits/vegetables, and at least one of these from a local source;
•Rice, bread, and pasta should be whole grain (brown, whole wheat, or multigrain), and they may be replaced with starchy vegetables such as taro, tapioca, sweet potato, potato, etc.
In addition, because the Eat Right with Color campaign seeks to encourage healthy eating habits, participating restaurants and catering services should pay careful attention to the amount and types of oils/fats as well as salt being used in these entrees. The American Dietetic Association recommends sources of unsaturated fats/oils including fish, olive, avocado, and other vegetable oils, as healthier alternatives to saturated and trans fats (found in meats, dairy products, baked goods, deep-fried, and processed foods). Low-salt and low-sugar meals are also encouraged, and use of monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is discouraged.
Please note, your restaurant’s Eat Right with Color entrée could be an item that already exists on your menu. As long as it fits the simple criteria listed above, your restaurant’s healthy lunch will be highlighted in our nutrition education articles in local print and online media.
To sign up for the Eat Right with Color — Healthy Lunches promotion, please fill out the application form and submit by March 2, 2011 to Nutrition Month Chairwoman Hee Jae Lee via email at [email protected], fax at 664-3717, or hand-delivery to the PSS Food and Nutrition Office on Capital Hill. The first Eat Right with Color article is currently scheduled to appear on March 7, 2011.
National Nutrition Month is a nutrition education campaign sponsored every year by the American Dietetic Association. This year’s theme is Eat Right with Color. The CNMI Nutrition Month Committee includes representatives from PSS Food and Nutrition Services, NMC-CREES, the Women, Infants, and Children program, other nutrition professionals, and the Commonwealth Cancer Association. In addition to the Healthy Lunches promotion, the Nutrition Month committee is spearheading a recipe contest and cook-off for students, as well as food demonstrations at selected grocery stores around the island.
For more information about the Eat Right with Color campaign, call Lee at 237-3050. For more information about National Nutrition Month, visit www.eatright.org .
