| Reviewers Comments: | This home study course contains six lessons: Build a Healthy Plate The 10 Tip Way, The Facts About Preventing Osteoporosis, Eat Your Best For Less, Make the Food Label Work For You, Trading Flavors: The Truth About Sodium, and Getting the Facts About Oils and Fats. These lessons were updated in 2011 and are now based on the recommendations from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPlate. Each lesson more closely resembles a newsletter, with an 11” x 17” piece of paper folded to make 4 pages, plus a one page insert. Each course lesson features a cover story on an appropriate topic of interest for seniors, tips for healthy eating and recipes. Some issues also contain exercise advice and worksheets to complete and assess. Each of the issue features a different color scheme and a few graphics and drawings. Font is large enough to read but may be heavy in certain layouts (more blank space would make improve overall readability). Reading level may be high for some people with limited education or not familiar with the English language (some high level words are used).
The topics and tips featured in the newsletter are all useful advice for seniors, and overall contain information they are likely to benefit from. There are a few minor inaccuracies in the text which should be noted. In issue 4, the cover article recommends that readers use the % Daily Value figure on the food label as test to determine if a food contains a little or a lot of a nutrient. It is not noted that people’s diets including caloric and nutrient requirements vary and that checking the % Daily Value box may not be appropriate for all people. Lessons 3 and 5 both reference 1500 mg/day as a target sodium intake level. Based on the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the AI for sodium intake for adults ages 51-70 should be 1300 ma/day, and for 70 and over it should be 1200 mg/day.
Despite the minor inconsistencies, the lessons contain useful advice and information for seniors. The recipes (two or more in most issues) are all easy to prepare and contain simple, easy to find ingredients. Nutrition information for each recipe is included. The insert is a worksheet that seniors can fill in their own experiences and how they are using the advice they learned. There is a space on the back of the insert to write a mailing address, so that it can be mailed somewhere for evaluation. The resource does not have to be a stand alone tool and would be useful as a handout for a nutrition course or reviewed in a nutrition course.
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