In the largest food scarcity survey to take place across the Four Corners, results revealed that nearly 40 percent of Navajo Reservation residents don’t have access to enough food on a daily basis, and 60 percent said the foods they want can't be found on the reservation...
First Nations Development Institute has awarded four grants to American Indian communities in Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wisconsin that will address hunger, nutrition and food insecurity for elders...
The prevalence of diabetes in children shot up dramatically between 2000 and 2009, a new study shows. The amount of type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease, climbed 21% from 2000 to 2009, to 1.93 per 1,000 children...
ALBUQUERQUE (KASA) – Chef Freddie Bitsoie is in the kitchen preparing a bison dish, as featured in his participation with the Thunder Chef competition, culminating on May 3rd...
Yesterday, the Navajo Nation Tribal Council voted not to increase taxes by 2 percent on junk food, but agreed to reduce taxes to zero on healthy foods bought in stores on tribal lands. The junk food tax bill is officially known as the Healthy Diné Nation Act...
Eagle Butte, South Dakota—The Cheyenne River Youth Project (CRYP) is celebrating National Volunteer Month by seeking recipes and stories for the organization’s upcoming volunteer-inspired cookbook project, which will be published this coming summer. The organization is specifically seeking submissions from past and current volunteers, staff, board members, community members, as well as anyone who has has been involved with the organization to share their favorite recipes along with anecdotes about their connection to the CRYP family...
For our ancestors, community gardening was the ONLY form of gardening, but as the landscape of our territories have been whittled away, so has our sense of communal responsibility and communal effort to feed ourselves...
Native health advocates have been pressing for years for a permanent reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI), but the federal government says tribes and Indians will have to settle for another one-year extension...
Today, the House of Representatives passed a one-year reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Programs for Indians.
The reauthorization was contained in HR 4302, a bill which also created a one-year “doc fix” that would avert a 24 percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians. The “doc fix” was a contentious bill in the House...
Let's Move! is once again hosting its Healthy Lunchtime Challenge for talented junior chefs across the country. First Lady Michelle Obama has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Epicurious for a nationwide recipe competition that aims to encourage cooking and healthy eating among youth...
According to UnitedHealth, more than half of Americans will be diabetic or prediabetic by 2020. Currently 8.3 percent of the U.S Population is diabetic, with the highest rates—nearly 17 percent—found among American Indians and Alaska Natives...
The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation has donated $40,000 to local organizations to help fight diabetes.
At an event March 20 in the clubhouse of its award-winning Lakes of Isles golf course, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (MPTN) Chairman Rodney Butler and tribal member Richard E. Sebastian presented a check for $20,000 to the state chapter...
As I sit here listening to my 6-year-old daughter read, I wonder what the future holds for her and the next generation of Navajo children.
Childhood obesity and diabetes continue to plague the Navajo Nation and American Indian communities across the United States. These negative trends among Navajo youth raise important questions for tribal communities. How will our Navajo Nation government and we, as Navajo people, work together to combat these negative trends?...
The Navajo Nation Council, in its weeklong winter session, passed a tax on junk food and eliminated a tax on fresh, healthy foods Thursday.
Denisa Livingston, a healthy food advocate, worked with about 75 other members of the Diné Community Advocacy Alliance for the past two years to pass the 2 percent additional tax on sugary sodas and packaged snacks like doughnuts and chips, bringing the tax on those foods to 7 percent...
Read full article from the Albuquerque Journal
Children who are overweight in kindergarten have four times the risk of becoming obese by eighth grade, researchers reported Wednesday – in just one of the ways they said that the risk of becoming overweight or obese could start even before birth...
Read full article at latimes.com
The Notal Begay III Foundation (NB3F), Let's Move! in Indian Country and the Indian Health Service (IHS) take different approaches to achieve a similar agenda: to end childhood obesity and restore the health of Native communities...
Long before the “100-mile diet” became the trendy new way to eat, Native American people of the Pacific Northwest were immersed in this way of eating. And little wonder, for they lived in an environment that was astonishingly bountiful. Forests overflowed with deer, elk, berries, flowers, seeds and greens. Seas and rivers teemed with salmon, prawn, crab and other nourishing plant and animal life. Shorelines were rich with clams, oysters and seaweed...
History and health came together one dark November evening for Marty Reinhardt at Northern Michigan University.
Reinhardt, a professor in the Native American Studies program, was helping to serve up fry bread, Indian tacos and other offerings at the annual First Nations Food Taster, a fund-raising event for the Native American Student Association...
On Thursday, December 12, the Senate Finance Committee passed its “Doc Fix” reform bill which will reform the payments made to doctors under Medicare. Importantly, the legislation that was advanced also contained provisions known as “Medicare Extenders.” The renewal of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) was part of that package. The bill would renew the program for 5 years at $150 million per year. The legislation passed out of committee without any opposition. Thank you to everyone who called in to support this important...
WASHINGTON, DC--December 5, 2013--The National Indian Health Board hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill today to bring awareness and showcase the success of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) in Tribal communities...
On December 5, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) will host a Special Diabetes Program Indians (SDPI) briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C from 10:00 – 11:15 AM in 2218 Rayburn House Office Building. The SDPI is making a tremendous difference in the health of American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs), who are burdened disproportionately with type 2 diabetes at a rate of 2.8 times the national average.
As SDPI is set to expire in September 2014, the program must be renewed this year to ensure that critical programs around the country can continue. This is your opportunity to hear directly from SDPI grant program directors and other SDPI stakeholders on specifically how SDPI funding is changing the diabetes landscape for AI/ANs and how SDPI is saving lives, lowering medical expenditures and demonstrating a real return on the federal investment. To view the SDPI briefing invitation, CLICK HERE (PDF).
To RSVP for the SDPI briefing, please contact Jeremy Marshall, NIHB Senior Legislative Associate, at [email protected] or at (202) 507-4078.