Nutrition Education

diabetes lifestyle classes 210-431-8351

The focus of the Nutrition Education program is:

  • Health promotion (helping people to establish healthy eating habits and active lifestyle)
  • Disease Prevention (helping people who have or may develop risk factors for chronic disease prevent or postpone the onset of disease by establishing more active lifestyles and healthier eating habits).

The Nutrition Education Program 5 Core Elements

1) Nutrition for All

Targeting children, adults and seniors, the curriculum has 4 core elements according to the USDA guidelines.

  1. Dietary Quality
  2. Healthy Cooking
  3. Food Safety
  4. Food Budgeting

2) The Diabetes Lifestyle Education

This initiative maximizes nutrition messages from the Healthy Eating Pyramid. It emphasizes healthy cooking, food label reading and understanding of a healthy plate in each meal.

3) Nutrition for Parents of Younger Children

This helps parents raise healthy eaters and prevent common inadequate nutrition related health problems such as obesity.

4) Spurs Community Garden

The garden's mission is to grow fruits and vegetables for the food insecure and promote healthy lifestyles through nutrition and physical activity education.

5) Get Fit SAFB

This helps the SAFB employees make better lifestyle choices.

We emphasize the core Dietary Quality and address it in a comprehensive and fun manner to appeal to groups of all ages. We promote "hands on" nutrition activities. We are interested in effort directed to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables in different population, especially the young. In the same manner we do interventions and activities that promote healthy weight through a balance of healthy eating and active living.

Coordination and Collaboration

The likelihood of nutrition education messages successfully changing behaviors is increased when multiple channels (your agency and us) deliver consistent and repeated messages.

Definition of Core Elements

Core Element
Definition
Dietary Quality Applies to the nutritional value of food acquired and how well they compare to the Food Guide Pyramid and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Physical activity falls within this element.
Shopping Behavior Applies to practices related to thrifty shopping for and management of food dollars. This includes such skills as reading labels for nutritional value.
Food Security Cater to population of low-income origin if applicable.
Food Safety Applies to how the food is handled. For example, it deals with issues such as hand washing, the length of time food may be left without refrigeration, the temperature at which food should be stored and whether food is properly and fully cooked.

Classes are short and are always presented with a cooking demonstration in which students are encouraged to participate actively.

Nutritious & Delicious Recipes from our Nutrition Staff

Recipe Name
Ingredients
Red Cabbage Coleslaw Red cabbage, tomatoes, corn, radishes, onion, cilantro, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon juice
Get the full recipe here.
Fiesta Brown Rice, Mango, & Black Bean Medley

Brown rice, black beans, mango, peeled, red bell pepper, green onions, cilantro
Get the full recipe here.
Pineapple & Mint Agua Fresca Pineapple, mint leaves, sugar, lime juice
Get the full recipe here.
Meat & Veggie Patties

Ground beef, onion, carrot, cumin, oregano, parsley
Get the full recipe here.