Health Fair 2009

This past Saturday held the timing for this years Health Fair at Valley View Medical Center. As our calendar announced, another group in our Community Nutrition class sponsored a booth supporting family health emphasizing exercising together. They developed and found different brochures to better inform parents and children ways to become active as a family. The feedback showed that kids might know more than we think they do. One activity included placing different food items on a serving tray and asking the kids which items were most healthy. Surprisingly, the kids knew what they should be eating. (I guess the question is.. Why aren't they eating what they should?) Another portion of their booth showed different physical activities that families can enjoy together. The team found promising results with lots of child involvement and parent approval.

Another booth at the health fair, Healthy Iron County, had some pretty revealing facts. The most astounding part of the booth was absolutely eye opening. On their table they had several jars filled with different amounts of yellow plastic fat. When you read what each jar was, you were really learning about how much fat specific items contained. The booth group read nutritional facts from menus all around Cedar City and picked some of the most impressive items that held quite a bit of fat. If you don't find this impressive yet, look to the nutrition facts on your favorite eatout menu and see how many grams of fat are your product. Once you have that number, spoon that amount of shortening into a jar and see how lovely that jar looks as the day wears on. You will find that your stomach no longer will crave that item. Be aware of the items you are taking in, and decide whether or not you want to bring that into your body.

These health fairs are free to anybody, and you can pick up all kinds of free information and gifts. Different clinics from all around Cedar come to the fair to educate the public and give information about how to keep healthy. Some booths even take preventative screenings and let you know where you stand with your health at that time. Cholesterol checks, massages, and eye screenings were all available at the health fair this year. If you didn't experience thefair this year, check it out next year. Usually held each October, these nutritionally beneficial fairs are worth your Saturday morning.