U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
FDA Consumer magazine
May-June 2002
Table
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For girls ages 9 to 12, there's no time like the present to practice good bone health. The National Bone Health Campaign (NBHC) is spreading this message to help girls reduce the risk later in life of the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis. Lifelong healthy habits, including increased calcium consumption and weight-bearing physical activity, can help build and maintain strong bones, the NBHC says.
On a Web site called Powerful Girls Have Powerful Bones, girls can go on a colorful tour of games and information with a character named Carla, who points out that her name means "strong." Carla gives all kinds of tips along the way for girls to be strong, such as encouraging activities such as soccer, tennis, and even dancing, all of which can help build strong bones. She also shows girls how to make yogurt pops, smoothies, wraps, and other goodies to help increase calcium in the diet. In another part of the site, girls can play fun games, including one with the object of picking up to 10 foods that add up to the 1,300 milligrams of calcium that girls need every day.
The "Powerful Girls" site is managed by the NBHC, a coalition of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Osteoporosis Foundation.
Find a great job. Learn new ways to balance work and family. Acquire tools and knowledge than can boost your skills. These are all possible if you check out FirstGov for Workers, a site that brings together more than 1,200 links to federal job-related resources.
For example, the site's "Jobs" section can bring you up to speed on finding a job, working for the government, self-employment, internships, and international employment. The "Family and Health" section has background on health insurance, emergency assistance, family care, and disabilities resources. Another section, "Rights and Protection," has information on what to do if you lose your job, working safely, workers' compensation, retirement, and social security. Other sections are devoted to money management, transportation, housing, recreation, and travel.
FirstGov for Workers is sponsored by the Department of Labor and is one of several "cross-agency portals" hosted by FirstGov , a site that gives users easy access to information and services from federal and state agencies.
Sure, you see them all the time--those rectangular boxes found on all types of foods that spell out the nutritional content of the product within. But how well do you understand what the numbers in those "Nutrition Facts" boxes mean? Find out by taking a short interactive quiz created by the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. It will test your knowledge of fiber, sodium, calories, calcium, and saturated fat. Take it and you will emerge a more informed and prepared consumer.
Across the United States an estimated 5 million children spend non-school hours with no adult supervision, according to federal statistics. Add to this the fact that peak hours for juvenile crime are between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and that unsupervised youths are more likely to use drugs and alcohol, and the critical importance of having something constructive for kids to do after school becomes apparent.
To help point kids and teens to resources for after-school programs and to give parents, teachers and others ideas for launching new activities, a multi-agency coalition has created Afterschool.gov. This Web site gives many tips for starting an after-school program, including funding it, keeping it safe, providing transportation, and even ensuring that regulations from various states are met.
The site also serves as a gateway to fun and enriching Web sites that can help kids do their homework, reinforce a skill learned in school, locate a job, or just find out more about the world around them. Parents, too, can find information ranging from resources on child and adolescent development to background on family vacations at federal parks.
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