Happy National Nutrition Month®!

Since 1973, the first big effort in delivering nutrition education to the lay public was introduced as National Nutrition Week, and in 1980, this event grew into becoming what we know as National Nutrition Month®. This month everyone is invited to learn how to make more informed food choices to help develop healthy eating habits. Every year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, along with other organizations, spread awareness of making “informed food choices and developing healthful eating and physical activity habits” (National Nutrition Month Overview).

This year’s National Nutrition Month® theme is Personalize Your Plate! This theme prompts the question, how can we make healthy food choices, adapted to our own unique bodies, that meet our personal and cultural preferences? The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has created many free and downloadable resources with the purpose of helping individuals learn how they can personalize their own plates to help them work towards their health-related goals. 

For example, maybe you are on a budget but still want to know how you can eat healthy without breaking the bank. The WIC Works Resource System is a center that offers many resources that cover topics such as eating healthy on a budget. You can use this resource for helpful tips on meal planning (read our bullet journal blog post for some helpful tips!), shopping smart, and creating healthy meals. 

For many people, their goal this month might be to include more vegetables in their diet. If this is the case, reading through the “Smart Tips to Build a Healthy Salad” handout from the eatright website might help them get started. As someone that is not the biggest fan of salads, I found that reading through it and underlining the vegetables that I like or am willing to try, was helpful in taking the first step in learning to create a satisfying salad.

Many might even think about celebrating National Nutrition Month® by growing their own garden of delicious vegetables. If you need help getting started, visit the Basalt Regional Library to pick up seeds for your garden. A collection of victory garden seeds will be available at the Basalt Regional Library starting March 15. You can also visit the Seed Savers Exchange for gardening planning help and tips. No matter what your goal might be, we wish you all the luck this month with building new and healthy habits! Happy National Nutrition Month®.

Sources:
“National Nutrition Month Overview.” EatRight, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2021, www.eatright.org/food/resources/national-nutrition-month/about-national-nutrition-month.