Nutrition month

In a few days the Nutritional Sciences Club will begin National Nutrition Month promotions at Oklahoma State University.

National Nutrition Month is an education and information campaign put on each March by the American Dietetic Association. National Nutrition Month was initiated in March 1973 as a week-long event and became a month-long event in 1980, according to the ADA Web site.

National Nutrition Month focuses attention on the importance of making healthy food choices and developing healthy eating and exercise habits. The slogan for National Nutrition Month is, "Nutrition from the ground up," according to the ADA Web site.

Every Thursday in March, the Nutritional Sciences Club members will set up a booth on the first floor of the Student Union to promote National Nutrition Month.

Natalie Yozzo, nutrition major and vice president of the Nutritional Sciences Club, has helped with National Nutrition Month promotions for the past few years and plans to help this year.

"This is an exciting month for everyone who is interested in nutrition or its promotion. It's a great opportunity to expand your knowledge on a topic that is so important to overall quality of life," Yozzo said.

Every Thursday in March will have a different activity for OSU's student body to get involved in. This year the Nutritional Sciences Club will dedicate a Thursday to advocate Farmers Market information. Yozzo said a successful activity that will remain a part of this year's promotion is the use of informational brochures. Some of these brochures offer recipes and information about how to save time and money at the grocery store.

Rachael Jerchau, nutrition major and president of the Nutritional Sciences Club, said that some days the booth will have food samples, raffles or games offered to the students who are interested. Some of the games include: name that food, where the participates are given ingredient lists and must correctly match them to a food item. Yozzo said that another popular game is the calorie wheel, which is where the participates have to match food items to their specific calorie amount. Winners of these games get to enter into a drawing for cookbooks, T-shirts, ADA mugs and food baskets.

The booth for National Nutrition Month promotions is set up during the peak hours of the day — the lunch hours. The Student Union is a very busy place between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and every student that walks by will spot the booth.

OSU student Jessie Riess said she has visited the National Nutrition Month promotions booth in the Student Union and the brochure she was given taught her several new facts.

Yozzo said, depending on the energy and enthusiasm that the person working the booth has, they usually get a decent number of visitors. Yozzo said there are a lot of people that stop by that aren't nutrition majors and that, for nutrition majors, the booth serves as a good opportunity to connect with other members of the club.

National Nutrition Month is a way to continually promote nutrition for an extended amount of time so people can get a grasp on the importance of nutrition. Yozzo said aside from informing students about dietary and nutritional facts they might not have known before, another objective is to seek out individuals that would be a good fit for the Nutritional Sciences Club.

"We always hope a lot of people stop by our booth. Any nutrition questions are welcome. We love answering them," Yozzo said.