Sleep is Essential to Heart Health

Healthy sleep is the newest addition to the American Heart Association’s (AHA) checklist to measure cardiovascular health, which was recently released as Life’s Essential 8TM. Sleep joins seven other factors AHA says can help lower the risk for heart disease, stroke, and other major health problems.

You can spread the word about healthy sleep with our Sleep Right poster, which provides an introduction to the importance of sleep and how to get a good night’s sleep.

Whether you’re working with students in the classroom, educating your followers on social media, or counseling individuals, here are some ways to slip in some sleep education:

  • It’s never too early: incorporate healthy sleep tips when you’re talking to new parents, teachers, and kids.
  • What you do during the day counts: emphasize that a good night’s sleep doesn’t just happen. What you eat and drink and your activity level can help or hinder your sleep.
  • Measure your sleep: an activity tracker on your phone or watch isn’t reliable enough to diagnose sleep issues, but it can give you a general idea of how you’re sleeping. (A pen and paper sleep diary will do the job, too!)
  • You can get too much: we talk a lot about getting enough sleep, but excessive sleep is also related to heart disease and other health problems.

By Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

Strategies for Better Sleep

Who doesn’t want to get a better night’s sleep? Between screen time, busy days, crazy schedules, nightly worries, and unhealthful eating, getting a good night’s sleep can be tougher than we think!

But help is on the way!

Here’s a new tool to help your clients get more high-quality sleep: the Diet and Sleep Poster!

This poster comes at sleep from a bunch of different angles, so you’re sure to find a way that will appeal to your audience. Take a look and see for yourself!

This poster covers:

  • The myriad of health benefits of sleep
  • Ways to improve the quality of nightly sleep
  • Strategies to prioritize enough sleep
  • Sneaky things that undermine efforts to get better sleep

You can save 15% off of this poster or any other item in the Nutrition Education Store with the code FALLSAVE15, but hurry! This offer won’t last long!

Building Blocks for a Healthy Body

Are you looking for a poster that teaches an important message and brings a smile to everyone’s face? We have a brand-new poster that fits the bill – check out the Healthy Diet Means Stronger Body-Building Blocks poster.

This poster features building blocks (like the wooden blocks kids play with) stacked in the shape of a body. The building blocks are covered in real photos of a variety of healthy foods.

The message? When you have the right building blocks, you can build yourself a healthy and strong body.

We’ve also run a series on the Food and Health blog that takes a look at each individual building block. Check it out!

Here are some talking points to go along with this eye-catching poster:

  1. The building blocks needed for a strong body are healthy foods and beverages, plus adequate sleep and exercise.
  2. The building blocks of a healthy diet include the five MyPlate food groups:
    • fruits
    • vegetables
    • whole grains
    • protein
    • dairy/calcium
  3. The building blocks of a healthy diet are made up of real food, not fast food or highly processed foods.
    • Can your students identify all the healthy foods depicted on the blocks?
  4. The text on the poster reminds us to get enough sleep and exercise, and to drink water instead of sugary beverages.
  5. If you remove one of the building blocks, the body in the poster will topple.
    • Think about fad diets that cut out an entire food group!

The new Healthy Diet Means Stronger Body-Building Blocks poster is perfect for classrooms, gyms, cafeterias, bulletin boards, offices, and waiting areas.

Let’s Talk About Sleep!

Nutrition and wellness educators talk a lot about eating right and staying active, but we can’t forget about the importance of sleep. Inadequate sleep is linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, elevated blood sugar, high blood pressure, heart disease, mental distress, and even early death.

Here are some ways to incorporate some sleep education into your work:

  1. Raise awareness about the importance of sleep by creating a bulletin board display that centers around our Sleep Right poster.
    • In addition to listing the benefits of sleep, this poster explains how nutrition and exercise can impact sleep, and gives hours of sleep recommendations by age group.
  2. Assign your students or clients (or yourself!) some homework:
    • Read the popular book, Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, PhD.
    • Watch Matthew Walker’s TED Talk – Sleep is Your Superpower.
  3. Invite a sleep expert to talk to your weight management group or other audiences. An expert can provide valuable information about sleep disorders such as sleep apnea.
    • Obesity can cause sleep apnea and a healthy lifestyle can help prevent it.

Remember to get those important ZZZs yourself!

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

3 Topics for Teens

Do you work with teens? Have you ever been asked to present to a class of high school students? Teens can be a tough audience, but the information you share might end up making a big impact on their health and wellness.

Here are three potential topics that are relevant to teenagers, along with facts and recommendations for education materials/resources that will make your job easier.

#1: Sleep

  • The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teens sleep 8–10 hours/day.
  • According to the CDC, about 7 out of 10 teens don’t get enough sleep on school nights.
  • Common Sense Media reports that 29% of teen smartphone owners say they’ve been woken up by their phones during the night by a call, text, or notification.

Resources:

#2: Physical Activity

  • Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition recommends at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity for youth up to age 17.
  • American Heart Association says that only about 1 in 4 high school students get the recommended hour a day of physical activity.
  • Common Sense Media reports that American teens spend an average of nearly 7.5 hours/day in front of screens (not including homework or school). (That was in 2019 — it’s probably worse for 2020!)

Resources:

#3: Vaping

  • While a recent CDC/FDA report shows that teen tobacco use is down, nearly 1 in 4 high school students still use tobacco products.
  • E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product among middle and high school students.

Resources:

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

 

Holiday Survival Tips & COVID-19

Eating healthfully during the holidays is always a challenge. This year the pandemic is making it even harder.

Help your clients get through the holiday eating season with our Holiday Survival Tips PowerPoint show. The presentation addresses the reality of holiday weight gain and helps audience members make a plan to avoid it.

Here are three of the Holiday Survival Tips along with how they may need to be tweaked this year due to COVID-19:

  1. Focus less on food and more on celebrating what the holidays are all about. This can be difficult if you’re alone or unable to get together with friends or extended family this year.
    • Schedule phone calls and virtual gatherings so you’ll have something to look forward to besides eating.
    • Keep your hands busy with knitting, crafts, adult coloring books, or puzzles – you can’t eat while doing these kinds of activities!
    • Make up for missing events like tree lightings and holiday festivals by finding things you CAN do. Walk around your neighborhood to see all the holiday lights, for example.
  2. Pay attention to exercise and sleep — two things that the holidays tend to interfere with.
    • Make a plan to take a walk or do an exercise video at the same time every day. Text a friend to stay accountable.
    • Avoid staying up later than usual or sleeping in. Stick to a consistent sleep schedule so you’ll wake up refreshed every morning.
    • Put health-promoting gifts on your wish list, like a Fitbit or a subscription to the premium version of a meal planning or food tracking app.
  3. Find ways to make traditional holiday dishes a bit healthier.
    • Use less fat or sugar in recipes. Staying home means you’ll be in control of the big holiday meals, so make this the year you try a lower fat pumpkin pie or sweet potatoes without the sugary toppings.
    • If there’s only going to be four of you for the big holiday meal, scale things down. Buy the smallest pies or cakes you can find. Bake smaller batches of things like your favorite holiday cookies. The goal is to NOT have lots of leftovers to tempt you.
    • If you’re buying a meal from a supermarket or restaurant, make sure you know what you’re getting and adjust accordingly. Keep some extra roasted vegetables or salad on hand to add to a purchased meal.

The holidays and the pandemic make it easy to gain weight and hard to lose it. Probably the best tip we can give people this time of year is to aim to maintain their weight.

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

 

 

Getting Zzz’s during COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic might be keeping your clients up at night. Or it may be causing them to sleep too much. Both scenarios are concerning because sleep is key to good health.

Sleep problems can impact body weight, mood, and brain function. Sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and depression.

Our Sleep Right Poster teaches the benefits of sleep and how to eat, drink, and exercise to get a good night’s sleep. You could use it to start a conversation with your clients about how they’re sleeping these days. Maybe they can identify with one (or more) of these anti-sleep behaviors:

  1. Screen-checkers are on their devices right up until bedtime. The blue light from screens interferes with your body’s production of melatonin, which can make it hard to fall asleep. Turn off your devices at least an hour before bedtime.
  2. Mind-racers have trouble quieting their brain to get into sleep mode. Calm down with physical relaxation exercises, meditation, or soothing bedtime stories (use podcasts or apps like Calm and Headspace).
  3. Toss-and-turners try to force sleep. If you can’t fall asleep within 15-30 minutes, staying in bed is just going to make it worse. Get up and do something quiet and relaxing until you feel sleepy. But keep the lights low.
  4. Catch-uppers sleep late on the weekends to make up for sleepless weeknights. It’s best to have a consistent bedtime and wake-up time every day of the week. And a pre-bedtime routine lets your brain and body know it’s almost time for sleep.
  5. Nappers come in two varieties. Power-nappers take short naps that are refreshing and make them more productive. Long-nappers take — you guessed it — long naps that leave them feeling groggy and can interfere with night-time sleep. Napping after 3pm isn’t a good idea.

There are also lots of sleep-related apps you can try. Check out this list from Healthline.com.

 

 

Sleep Right for Health

Healthy eating and exercise go hand in hand. It’s hard to discuss one without touching on the other. The topics are interwoven.

Sleep is another thread to weave into your education sessions. In fact, sleep, nutrition, and exercise are often called the pillars of health.

Start spreading the news about sleep with our Sleep Right poster! This poster will catch people’s attention. It will get them to think more about their sleep habits and realize that sleep is just as important as healthy eating and exercise.

How can you incorporate the topic of sleep into your counseling sessions or classes?

1. Get information about sleep from a reliable source, like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website. Check out the section on sleep deprivation and deficiency.

2. Find out if your clients are getting enough sleep. According to the NIH, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep if you often feel like you could doze off while …

  • Sitting and reading or watching TV.
  • Sitting still in a public place, such as a movie theater, meeting, or classroom.
  • Riding in a car for an hour without stopping.
  • Sitting and talking to someone.
  • Sitting quietly after lunch.
  • Sitting in traffic for a few minutes.

3. For people who are really motivated to change their sleep habits, suggest that they start by keeping a sleep diary (here’s one from NIH).

4. Offer a class on nutrition and sleep geared toward occupations where people often struggle with sleep issues, such as:

  • Shift workers
  • Truck drivers
  • Pilots
  • Factory workers
  • First responders
  • Health care workers

5. Provide diet and sleep education for these audiences:

  • Parents
  • Teachers & coaches
  • Teens
  • College students

Sleep fits right in when you’re talking about weight management, heart disease, diabetes, food and mood, healthy aging, mental performance, sports nutrition, and healthy eating in general. So start spreading the word about the importance of sleep!

New Activity Ideas!

I love coming up with new activities that promote a balanced lifestyle and healthful choices! Today I want to share a few activities that make the most of the brand-new Steps of Health floor decals that just made their debut in the Nutrition Education Store.

These decals feature eight different steps that people can take to improve their health, including…

  • Move more
  • Fruit
  • Vegetables
  • Grains
  • Protein
  • Dairy
  • Sleep
  • Limit screen time

Their possible uses are endless, and these brand-new floor decals also come with a handout that details how those eight elements can help improve health. There’s even another handout that highlights some fun activities that are perfect for these materials, and that’s the handout I’d like to share today.

Enjoy!

footprints-web_1024x1024

The Path to Health:

Arrange the feet so that they appear to be a trail across the front of the room, leading from the door into the classroom.

As people enter your classroom, have them walk the trail and note what is on each footprint.

Once everyone has walked the trail and then found a seat, explain that each person can now brainstorm a few ways to implement each element of the path to good health in their own lives.

Have all the participants use a piece of paper and a pen, then divide their page into eight sections, one for each footprint. Let them give each section a title (“Move More,” “Fruit,” “Vegetables,” etc), then allow everyone some time to brainstorm while you re-create the grid of eight footprints on a whiteboard or large piece of paper that you have posted at the front of the room.

Once everyone appears to be done brainstorming on their own, bring the class back together and have people share what they wrote. Write the ideas down on your own board and encourage everyone to add ideas to their own sheets if the new options resonate with them.

Health Fair Decorations:

These decals make excellent decorations for a health fair booth. Consider using these little feet to create a path to your booth from the entrance, or arrange them in an arc around your booth so that people can make a full circuit of what you offer.

These creative materials are sure to help your booth stand out from the crowd at the next wellness fair.

Display the Path to Health:

These stickers don’t have to stay on the floor! Put together a colorful bulletin board and use these feet to join the ideas of good nutrition and regular physical activity.

You can use a grid format à la the “Path to Health” activity, or you can build a path along the center of the board and write out details/illustrate each key point along the sides of each foot.

Here’s a printable handout of these activity ideas. How will you use yours?

stepsofhealthfloordecalsactivityLooking for other fun additions to the Nutrition Education Store? There are lots! Here are a few of my favorites…

Health Hopscotch Handout

Have you seen the latest floor stickers to hit the Nutrition Education Store?

These are the perfect resource to add zing to your health fair booth, nutrition display, or cafeteria project. To celebrate these brand-new materials, I want to share the handout that comes with the Health Hopscotch Floor Decal. Since this is our most popular floor sticker, I thought you’d love to get a little peek behind the scenes and access content that normally only accompanies a purchase or two.

So, without further ado, here’s a closer look at Hop to Health

Hop to Health

It’s time to move through the components of a healthy life!

Activity: Regular physical activity reduces the risk of several chronic health conditions including coronary heart disease, stroke, some cancers, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and depression. It also decreases high blood pressure and high levels of cholesterol. Regular physical activity also promotes weight loss and maintenance of a healthy weight, improves bone health and plays a role in relieving depression.

Components of a Healthy Eating Pattern: A healthy eating pattern features fruits, vegetables, whole grains, varied protein, and low-fat dairy. It also limits certain foods. Keep your consumption of saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars, and sodium to a minimum.

One wonderful way to follow a healthy eating pattern is to make each plate look like MyPlate. MyPlate advises people to fill half their plates with fruits and vegetables at each meal. Make at least half of all the grains you eat whole grains, every day. Variety is the key to the protein food group. Choose options that are low in saturated fat whenever you can. For the most nutrients with the fewest empty calories, choose fat-free and low-fat dairy foods. The balance of foods on MyPlate will help people get all the nutrients that they need in a day.

Sleep: During sleep, your body repairs the heart and blood vessels. Sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke. Getting enough sleep, on the other hand, has been connected to a lower risk of obesity. Sleep regulates the hunger hormones ghrelin and leptin. Plus, the immune system is healthier when sleep is adequate and the fight against infections is more effective too.

Your brain needs sleep in order to function, and the benefits of getting enough sleep are far-reaching.

Like what you see? Get the printable nutrition handout right here, for free!

Health Hopscotch Handout

And here are a few of the top-selling floor decals from the Nutrition Education Store!