The Healthy and Sustainable Diets
for All focus is on research and educational intervention to mitigate food
system and diet related health disparities on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Salish Kootenai College Extension and Montana State University Department of
Health and Human Development partnered to engage forty low-income participants
of the Food Distribution Programs on Indian Reservations, including Supplemental
Nutritional Assistance Program, and local Foodbanks in a six month study
addressing the research question: What are the effects of an integrated social
media and nutrition education intervention on food choices, dietary quality,
health outcomes, nutrition knowledge, and perceptions of study participants?
The specific aims are to: Characterize impacts of an integrated social media
and nutrition education intervention; Evaluate impacts of nutritional and
healthy cooking education intervention on waist circumference, body mass index,
blood pressure, and blood glucose; Determine impacts of intervention on
nutrition knowledge and perceptions to elucidate linkages between food choices,
dietary quality, health outcomes, and nutrition, and; Assess barriers and
opportunities for increasing consumption of locally produced fruits and
vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Survey tools measuring food choices,
dietary quality, nutrition knowledge, and motivation document participant
perceptions of food. Interventions include nutrition and sustainability
curriculum, cooking demonstrations, a cookbook, using local vegetables, whole
grains, and legumes, mindfulness activities associated with food, Facebook,
on-line information on meu planning, cooking, and a project website for
archiving information. An inventory of tribal food use and a barriers survey
will assess potential to utilize local food in tribal schools, restaurants, and
assistance programs.
