What's New at Oldways

Week of July 21st, 2008
Oldways Announces Latino Nutrition Coalition Conference
February 23-25, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada

At LNC Headquarters in Boston, many hours are spent analyzing the role culture plays in the Latino community's approach to health, disease management, and food/lifestyle choices. We, along with experts from many fields, will share our findings at the 2009 LNC Conference Roots and Reality of Latino Diabetes: Finding Answers in Traditions and Science to be held in Las Vegas at the Westin Casuarina from February 23-25, 2009.

Join us in Las Vegas as experts focus on the roots and the realities of Latinos living with diabetes today. Culture will be the center of attention as we explore its role in the Latino community’s attitudes, perceptions and traditional remedies towards diabetes. We will find answers in both the science behind disease prevention, exercise, and the pleasures of the Latin table. Connect with Oldways and the Latino Nutrition Coalition as marketers, policymakers, R&D leaders, scientists and chefs meet in Las Vegas to exchange ideas and find answers.

We will post conference details online soon. In the meantime, please contact Kezia Frayjo, Latino Nutrition Coalition Program Manager with any questions: kfrayjo@oldwayspt.org.

Week of June 30th, 2008
Oldways On The Radio
K. Dun Gifford discusess the pleasure and health of the Mediterranean diet, Sicilian cuisine, health benefits of olive oil, and the 15th Annivesary of the Mediterranean Diet Food Pyramid with Carole Kotkin and Simone Diamant of South Florida Gourmet's Food and Wine Talk. Click here to listen to the entire interview.

Week of June 23rd, 2008
Oldways Exchange Spring 2008 Newsletter

Some of our latest news is below, but please click here to see the full newsletter.

You’ll find information about the Mediterranean Foods Alliance (MFA), the new face of Med Mark. The Alliance is a natural next step for the Med Mark and works with closely with health professionals, media, and scientists to bring the Med Diet to more homes, supermarkets,
restaurants—everywhere Americans eat.

Other news includes:

Whole Grain Stamp Goes International
Oldways and the Whole Grains Council (WGC) are sharpening their Spanish and French translation skills as the Whole Grain Stamp bursts the borders of the United States and travels to other countries. A bilingual French/English version of the Stamp, announced in our last newsletter, started appearing on Canadian shelves in March, with ACE Bakery breads and Ryza brown rice milk two of the first stamped products to hit the market. Almost simultaneously, British Bakels, an English supplier of ingredients and mixes, launched the Whole Grain Stamp in the U.K.

Latino Nutrition Coalition Has a New Website
Oldways created the Latino Nutrition Coalition (LNC) three years ago. The LNC is an educational program inspiring Latinos to improve and maintain their health through traditional foods and active lifestyles. The LNC creates practical, culturally-aware materials in English and Spanish that help Latinos match the best of their healthy food traditions with the realities of modern American life. The LNC's most recent endeavor is its launch of a new LNC website.

Sweetness Conferences in Washington, DC and Beijing, China
In April Oldways organized two Sweetness conferences, one in Washington, DC and the other in Beijing, China. More than 130 health professionals, journalists, government officials, and industry members joined Oldways and 10 speakers in Washington for a day-long Understanding Sweetness Conference at the National Press Club. Click here to access the speakers' presentations.

Week of June 16th, 2008
Oldways "From Your Cart to Your Kitchen" Campaign Launches
at More than 50 Grocery Stores Across the United States

Shaw’s, Hannaford, Albertsons, Big Y and dozens of other supermarkets across the country have begun to offer the in-store customer program, "Bringing Home the Mediterranean Diet: From your grocery cart to your kitchen," to help shoppers take advantage of the health, flavors, and taste that have made the Mediterranean Diet famous.

This new free program was created by Oldways’ Mediterranean Foods Alliance (MFA), a coalition of grocery outlets, food producers, health professionals and culinary experts, to help stores help consumers find Mediterranean foods.

The Oldways’ free program includes tools for each store such as:

• Cooking demos and food samplings featuring tasty Mediterranean dishes
  
• Mediterranean Diet shopping lists, facts sheets, and recipe cards
  
• Guided store tours on how to stock the ultimate Mediterranean Diet pantry
  
• In-store events including olive oil explorations and cheese tastings

"This kit is the perfect way to reach consumers where they buy food and directly influence what they put into their carts. We want to help them learn more about the health-promoting Mediterranean Diet," said Nicki Heverling, MS, RD, Program Manager of the MFA, "and how to choose healthy Mediterranean foods and drinks."

Research continues to show that the Mediterranean Diet is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to helping people live longer, healthier lives. This fad-free approach to healthy eating—which focuses on fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts and olive oil—promotes weight loss and heart health, helps prevent certain cancers and diabetes, and it even enhances memory and brain function.

The MFA helps shoppers easily find healthy Mediterranean foods and drinks with the Med Mark, a boldly designed packaging symbol found on healthy foods and drinks traditional to the Mediterranean Diet pyramid. To learn more, please visit www.mediterraneanmark.org.

Week of May 19th, 2008
Latino Nutrition Coalition Website Relaunch:
A digital collection of traditions, health, and delicious foods








The Latino Nutrition Coalition (LNC), Oldways' educational program that strives to inspire Latinos to improve and maintain their health through embracing their traditional food culture and by promoting active lifestyles, just launched its brand new website.

Both the look and content of the site were redesigned to better address the needs of the growing Latino community who regularly visit www.latinonutrition.org. "We are very excited about the new site," said Kezia Frayjo, LNC program manager. "Our goal is to become the go-to place for all things related to Latino nutrition. We have new recipes, free downloadable worksheets, interesting articles, specific information for health professionals, tools for everyday grocery shoppers, and much more!."

In addition to adding more useful practical tools to the new site, the graphic elements of the new site were a key factor in the redesign. The LNC turned once again to Dyango Chavez, a talented freelance print and web designer based out of Boston, for his expertise in the area of graphic marketing to the Latino community. Dyango, who hails from Cuba, redesigned the Camino Mágico booklet for the LNC. His amazing design and grasp of illustrative communication made the new Camino Mágico brim with more culturally relevant and gorgeous food illustrations. The LNC team decided to ask Dyango to translate that particular look to the new website as well.

"My goal for the design of the LNC website was to create a space for the family, where they could find the type of foods that our parents and grandparents in Latin America used to cook at home: traditional, fresh, hand-made," said Dyango. "That idea was the inspiration for the 'grocery bag' look, a metaphor for a container of traditions, health, and delicious foods—a warm, playful, and well-researched source for finding recipes, advice and inspiration for a healthier lifestyle."

We invite you to visit the new LNC site at www.latinonutrition.org take a look around. As always, we love to hear your feedback: kfrayjo@oldwayspt.org.!

To access past news for Oldways, please visit our news archives here.