Action Areas:
Engaging in Healthy Habits
Investing in Prevention
Promoting Community Health

Key Healthiest State Measures:
Physical Activity
Proper Nutrition
Public Health System Investment

In today's fast-paced society, our lack of time for daily exercise and the convenience of unhealthy foods have led to an overwhelming prevalence of obesity and preventable diseases. To promote healthy eating and active living, the Washington Health Foundation supports policies that change the environments where people spend the majority of their day, including schools, workplaces and communities.

We urge state government to make available to all businesses the tools it uses to implement evidence based employee wellness programs. We encourage private employers to create incentives for employee wellness.

In schools, we support funding for physical education, school nurses and other health staffing, together with accountability for schools to begin implementing the Coordinated School Health Model. In the community, we support voluntary action by restaurants to offer more healthy choices, and to improve menu labeling, and we support a clearer role for public health in land use planning processes, transportation policy and more to promote walk-able and and bike-able communities.

Finally, to the extent taxes or other limitations on saturated fats, high fructose corn syrup or other unhealthy foods or specific funding "set asides" for more healthful building or transportation alternatives may be more effective than incentives, policy makers should consider such options.

Background & Summary:

Healthy Eating & Active Living Summary & Background

Giving Everyone the Health of the Educated: An Examination of Whether Social Change Would Save More Lives Than Medical Advances
Higher mortality rates among individuals with inadequate education reflect a complex causal pathway and the influence of confounding variables. Formidable efforts at social change would be necessary to elimination disparities, but the changes would save more lives than would society's current heavy investment in medical advances. Spending large sums of money on such advances at the expense of social change may be jeopardizing public health.
http://www.whf.org/documents/health&education.pdf [4.91 MB]

School Nutrition Association Report
School boards nationwide have approved student wellness policies that include such key characteristics as more nutrition education, mandatory recess and additional nutrition standards for foods and beverages available outside the school cafeteria, according to "A Foundation for the Future II," a new study by the School Nutrition Association (SNA). SNA analyzed the local wellness policies approved by 140 school districts in 49 states.
http://www.schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/SchoolNutrition.org/
News_&_Publications/School_Foodservice_News/ New_Folder/Regional LWP Report.pdf

2007 Washington State Legislative Bill Watch: