Changing behaviors to optimize women's health: a multidisciplinary seminar. (includes related article on the takeout-food trend)

The seminar "Changing Behaviors to Optimize Women's Health" focused attention on women's health issues, particularly nutrition and strategies for behavior change. It was offered June 16, 1997, by the Center of Nutrition Education at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Stout, Menomonie, in collaboration with The American Dietetic Association's (ADA) Nutrition and Health Campaign for Women, and the Office of Continuing Education at UW-Stout.

The Center for Nutrition Education was established at UW-Stout in 1996 to promote lifestyle and food choices that enhance health and well-being through nutrition education and behavior change. Through its programs and linkages with undergraduate and graduate education in nutrition and dietetics, the Center's mission is to educate and empower health and human services providers to use effective lifestyle and nutrition assessments, educational processes, strategies, and research to improve the quality of life for the clients they serve.

The Nutrition and Health Campaign for Women is a national effort to promote the role of nutrition in women's health. Sponsored by ADA, the campaign has 2 goals: advocacy for nutrition research on women's health issues; and education of women and the media about nutrition-related steps women can take to decrease the risk of diseases common to women.

PURPOSE OF THE SEMINAR

Mary Abbott Hess, LHD, MS, RD, FADA, the Evelyn Van Donk Steenbock chair in the Department of Nutrition at UW-Stout and president of Hess and Hunt Communication, Inc, Northfield, Ill, delineated the threefold purpose of the seminar and its relation to the goals of the Center of Nutrition Education and ADA's Nutrition and Health Campaign for Women:

* Enhance health professionals' understanding of diseases common to women,

* Help women change personal behaviors to optimize their own health, and

* Enhance professional effectiveness by helping transform information into actions that dietetics practitioners may use to improve their health practices and those of their clients.

WOMEN'S HEALTH IN PERSPECTIVE …