eXtension Launches Obesity Prevention Community of Practice

Media Contact: Jennifer Martin, (202) 720-8188

August 11, 2009

eXtension, an online interactive learning environment, launched the Families, Food, and Fitness: Preventing Obesity Community of Practice in July to help families make informed decisions about healthy eating and physical activity.  The Community of Practice can be found online at www.extension.org/families_food_fitness.

This virtual educational environment is targeted to families with young children and is organized around three goals: 1) improve diets, 2) increase physical activity, and 3) maintain body weight in a healthy range and avoid excess weight gain.  Interactive content and learning materials support these three goals by focusing on six key behaviors identified through the literature to be associated with achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight: 1) move more every day, 2) tame the tube, 3) right-size your portions, 4) enjoy more fruits and vegetables, 5) prepare and eat more meals at home, and 6) re-think your drink. 

Examples of online resources include:

• Help for healthy lifestyles includes a recipe section  

• A picture spice guide for suggested foods with each spice

• A “Fast Food Menu,” to size up fast food selections from McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Chick-Fil-A, Domino’s, and Taco Bell

Experienced extension personnel and researchers based in land-grant universities, as well as other universities and education centers contributed, to this new eXtension site. Primary care physicians and other health care professionals will be informed of this new resource so they may in turn inform their patients/clients. Educators working with young families will find this resource a significant tool to reinforce educational messages that can improve the health of those families for a lifetime.

eXtension, www.eXtension.org, is an interactive learning environment delivering the best, most researched knowledge from the smartest land-grant university minds across America. eXtension connects knowledge consumers with knowledge providers - experts who know their subject matter inside out.

CSREES, state Extension Services and partner organizations provide funding for eXtension. CSREES also provides significant national leadership for this and other Communities of Practice.  Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, CSREES focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people’s daily lives and the nation’s future.  For more information, visit www.csrees.usda.gov.

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