In the News
Hmong Hunger For A Healthy Plate
THE ISSUE:
Relationships between obesity and health risks vary between populations. However, according to Healthy People 2020’s chart which maps health differences by race and ethnicity, the Asian population has a high mortality rate due to cancer, heart disease and strokes.
WHAT EFNEP HAS DONE:
Sua Vang, a Fresno EFNEP educator communicates in 4 languages to the Southeast Asian community in Fresno. These languages include Hmong, Lao, Thai, and English. Sua conducts many Learn At Home and Home Group Meetings, which are mainly attended by Asian mothers. These meetings provide a comfortable environment for increasing nutrition awareness. The Learn At Home and Home Group Meetings are excellent methods for reaching the Hmong audience because the Hmong language is not widely used in written form. Most Hmong individuals under the age of 30 years use English as their 1st language and Hmong 2nd; whereas older individuals tend to speak Hmong 1st and English 2nd.
Recently, Sua presented 4 one-hour long nutrition lessons on Hmong Live! TV. Viewers called in from distances as far away as Canada! These lessons were broadcasted live in May and June. They are being rebroadcasted intermittently on www.hmongnetwork.com and Fresno’s local channel 32.6. Clips of these lessons will be posted on UCCE-Fresno County’s website www.cefresno.ucdavis.edu soon. Notification will be sent to counties.
THE PAY OFF:
In the past few months, Sua Vang has delivered lessons to 37 Southeast Asian participants. Before instruction began, only 8% of participants demonstrated acceptable nutrition practices and 35% showed acceptable food safety practices. After instruction took place 70% began to use grocery lists and read nutrition labels. Often children wrote grocery lists for their parents. After instruction nearly 60% increased both their variety of fruits and vegetables consumed and chose lower-fat options. Taking into consideration these participants of Sua’s nutrition classes are immigrants from a country that does not focus on food safety and nutrition as a health initiative, it is impressive to learn that 73% showed improvement in one or more food safety practices. 89% improved planning meals, making healthy food choices, preparing food without adding salt, reading nutrition labels and/or ensuring children eat a healthy breakfast.
Upon completion of instruction, 81% demonstrated acceptable food safety practices and 70% demonstrated acceptable nutrition practices. Asian-American diets include rice and rice based products with a small emphasis on meat and dairy consumption, which is much different from typical American diets. A whopping 95% of class participants showed positive change in any food group, and most individuals indicated fruit and vegetable consumption was at a healthy 4-5 cups/day. No “happy healthy ending” is complete without physical activity; and more than 30 minutes of exercise was reported by 88.4% of Sua’s nutrition class participants. Sua Vang has been with the University of California for more than 20 years and we are proud to have her as a member of our team. Good luck in future endeavors, Sua!