The Texas Education Agency (TEA) leads efforts to promote coordinated school health in Texas. Coordinated School Health (CSH) is designed to prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, and Type 2 diabetes in elementary, middle, and junior high school students. Each program must provide for coordinating health education; physical education and physical activity; nutrition services; and parental involvement. With more than 35 percent of Texas children considered overweight or obese, the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) is proud to highlight the programs that, like the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy, empower schools to empower children. Together, we can promote a healthier environment in Texas schools and help ensure a healthier future for Texas children.

Visit TEA's page "Resources for Coordinated School Health Programs" to learn more about how your school can get the most from CSH.
www.tea.state.tx.us/curriculum/hpe/coordinated_school_health.html

TEA also has School Health Specialists in every region to help. Click the link below to identify the School Health Specialist in your region.
www.dshs.state.tx.us/schoolhealth/netlist.shtm

The Eat Smart. Play Hard.^TM Campaign was launched by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in 2000. The Campaign encourages and teaches children, parents, and caregivers to eat healthy and be physically active everyday. Eat Smart. Play Hard.^TM offers resources and tools to convey and reinforce healthy eating and lifestyle behaviors that are consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the MyPyramid Food Guidance System.  The Web site includes pages focused on Educators, Parents and Caregivers, and Kids.

The Eat Smart. Play Hard.^TM for Educators site is full of features with updated and new resources, ideas on how to use them, and ready-to-go tools to use in conjunction with Power Panther visits.  Click the following link to access the Educators section of the Web site:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/eatsmartplayhardeducators/

The Eat Smart. Play Hard.^TM for Parents and Caregivers site is full of features with updated and new resources, ideas on how to use them, and ready-to-go tools to help you and your kids eat more healthfully and be more active every day.  Click on the following link to access the Parents and Caregivers section of the Web site:
www.fns.usda.gov/eatsmartplayhardhealthylifestyle

While you're there, be sure to check out the "Create Healthy, Active Celebrations" guide. It is full of ideas to help you and your family celebrate with festive food and fun games. It also includes tips for planning healthy, active parties, specific theme events with ideas for menus, activities, and decorations, as well as two-dozen recipes so your guests can "Eat Smart" at your celebration.

Click the link below to access this 46-page guide.
www.fns.usda.gov/eatsmartplayhardhealthylifestyle/QuickandEasy/celebrations.pdf

Kids will enjoy the The Eat Smart. Play Hard.^TM for Kids site, where they can explore a virtual town full of games, songs, activities, recipes, and reading to support them as they eat smarter and play harder. Click on the following link to access the Kids section of the Web site:
www.fns.usda.gov/eatsmartplayhardkids

The U.S. government revises its Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) every five years, most recently in 2005. Based on that update, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is in the process of developing rules to apply the DGAs to school nutrition programs. Although it will take a few years to complete the process, there is no reason to wait to put the most recent guidelines into action.

In advance of the coming rules change, school nutrition programs should strive for the following seven main improvements in order to achieve the 2005 DGAs:

Food Groups to Encourage

• Whole grains: Schools should increase the amount of whole grain products offered to students, and progress towards the goal of making half of all grains offered and served whole grains. 
• Fruits and vegetables: Schools should increase the availability and service of both fruits and vegetables within the school meal programs. In the National school lunch program, school food authorities should provide meals that offer both fruit and vegetable, regardless of the menu planning approach being used.
• Milk: Schools should offer only low fat (1% milk or less) and fat-free milk in the school meal programs for all children above the age of two.

Nutrients Without Current Regulatory Benchmarks

• Sodium: Schools should begin reducing sodium incrementally, with long-term step-wise plan for meeting the DGAs recommendation.
• Fiber: Schools should plan meals that provide fiber ay level appropriate for each age/grade group that reflect the 2005 DGAs recommendation
• Cholesterol: Schools should plan meals that, on average over a school week, provide less than 100 mg of cholesterol at lunch and les than 75 mg of cholesterol at breakfast for all age/grade groups.
• Trans-fat: Schools should plan meals that minimize trans-fats.

Please visit http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/report/default.htm for details about the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Even the least attentive consumer must have noticed the term "trans fat" lately. In the news, on grocery shelves, in restaurant advertising, and on magazine covers, "trans fat" has taken center stage among nutritional buzzwords. But what does it mean?

Every member of the modern American food chain-providers, selectors, buyers, preparers, eaters-needs to understand how dangerous trans fats can be. The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) presents this article to provide background, suggestions and resources about trans fats.

WHAT is the problem?

Although trans fats occur naturally in some animal products like beef and dairy, synthetic trans fats are causing the public alarm. About 80 percent of the trans fats Americans consume is from sources that do not occur naturally. Synthetic trans fats are formed when hydrogen is added to a liquid vegetable oil to make it solid at room temperature. If an ingredient list includes "partially hydrogenated oil" or "vegetable shortening," it means that food contains synthetic trans fat.

Trans fats are trouble because of what they do to people's cholesterol. There are two kinds of cholesterol: LDL is the "bad," artery-clogging kind. HDL is the "good," LDL-removing kind. It is well known that saturated fat boosts harmful LDL, while unsaturated fat boosts protective HDL. We are just learning that trans fats both raise LDL and lower HDL, dramatically increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

WHO is doing something about it?

The first step was in 2003, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) passed a rule that food manufacturers must list trans fat on their nutrition labels by 2006.

In 2007, the Texas legislature passed a bill requiring TDA to prepare a report on trans fats. The report, due in December 2008, is to "detail all initiatives, proposals, and programs that the department and the United States Department of Agriculture are then currently conducting or planning to conduct and include the department's recommendations for legislative action to assist in reducing trans-fatty acids from school meals." Before the end of the 2007-2008 school year, TDA will be collecting information from Texas nutrition programs about their recent bid awards and any current initiatives to curb the use of trans fats.

WHY did trans fats emerge?

Liquid oils like olive oil and sesame oil have been used in cooking since ancient times. By the end of the 19^th century, less expensive food crops like soybean, corn, and peanut were also becoming popular as food oils. Before the early 20^th century, the only solid shortenings for baking were butter and lard.

In the early 20^th century, scientists developed a way to combine the inexpensiveness of vegetable oil with the usefulness of solid fats: hydrogenation. Vegetable shortening quickly caught on in home and commercial kitchens. It is easy to use in baked goods, lasts longer as a frying medium, and helps products stay fresher longer.

At first the appeal was its low price, but as Americans started to understand the health effects of dietary saturated fat from animal sources in the 1950s, vegetable shortening like margarine also gained ground as a supposedly healthy alternative to butter. Only in the last decade has it become clear how mistaken that belief was.

The National Academy of Science suggests that "trans fatty acid consumption be as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet." The American Heart Association is more specific, recommending that people eat no more than 1% of their daily calories from trans fat. That works out to about one gram of trans fat per 1,000 calories consumed. The FDA makes no recommendation at all, since there is no known safe level of trans fats in the diet.

Fried items like chips and French fries and baked goods like breads and sweets account for more than half of the trans fats in American diets. The most important step toward avoiding trans fats is to read nutrition labels. Those who make food choices for others-parents, caregivers, and meal providers-can take the extra step of insisting that food makers provide healthful alternatives to trans fats.

Visit these Web sites for more information about reducing the risk from trans fats:

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005--Chapter 6: Fats (USDA)
Talking about Trans Fat: What You Need to Know (USDA)
Trans Fat: A Cholesterol Double Whammy (Mayo Clinic)
Trans Fats (American Heart Association)
What Every Consumer Should Know About Trans Fatty Acids (FDA)
Revealing Trans Fats (FDA)
Questions and Answers about Trans Fat Nutrition Labeling (FDA)
Backgrounder: FDA Acts to Provide Better Information to Consumers on Trans Fats
How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Panel (FDA)
Trans Fats--What Is the Big Deal? (Alexandria City, Virginia, Public Schools)
Heart Disease: Facts and Statistics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Want to figure out how to get more fresh fruits and vegetables into your family's diet? Check out these Web sites to learn more about these foods that are chock-full of natural vitamins and nutrients.

The specific objectives of the grant were to revise and update Texas's previous nutrition education manual, to align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and the latest nutrition information, and make the resulting lesson plans available to Texas teachers on the World Wide Web. In NETx, every lesson plan is designed and tailored to address one or more of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills requirements for the appropriate grade and subject. Lesson plans can be used with public school students in grades pre-Kindergarten through High School. The curriculum is multidisciplinary and has lessons specific to fine arts, health, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and vocational education.

Click here to see how NETx can help you create compelling TEKS lesson plans for your students.