New Partnership Helps Educate Americans on Healthy Living and Eating

For More Information:
Lana Frantzen, M.S.
Communications Director
Toll-Free 888.897.8744
Cell Phone 210.845.3819
FrantzeL@dairymax.org

Grand Prairie, TX – June 10, 2008– The National Dairy Council (NDC) is partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help empower Americans to transform their eating habits and make healthier lifestyle choices as part of the “Partnering with MyPyramid: Corporate Challenge to Step Up and End Childhood Obesity.”

The USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion created the MyPyramid Food Guidance System to educate consumers on how to follow recommendations from the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to choose a nutrient-rich diet and increase physical activity levels for themselves and their families. Now, the USDA has asked corporations and other food organizations, such as the NDC, to officially join in education and communication efforts promoting these messages throughout the country.

“The ‘Partnering with MyPyramid’ program is a natural extension of the NDC’s work as a national leader in nutrition research and education since 1915,” stated Ann Marie Krautheim, R.D., senior vice president of Nutrition Affairs for the NDC. “This partnership parallels our ongoing work to educate consumers on how to make healthier food and lifestyle choices and help reverse the obesity epidemic.”

The NDC currently conveys the messages of MyPyramid and the Dietary Guidelines in its innovative nutrition education and communication programs to dietitians, physicians, other health professionals, educators and the public. Through this new partnership, the NDC will actively pursue new opportunities to do this in its 3-A-Day of Dairy consumer education program, various classroom initiatives and patient-ready health professional tools and resources. Most recently, the NDC has developed educational materials in support of USDA’s Women, Infants & Children (WIC) special supplemental food program to educate WIC moms on how to meet their families’ needs for 3 daily servings of dairy through the WIC food package, inform them that low-fat and fat-free milk is as nutritious as other varieties and help them transition to lower fat milk options approved in the WIC package.

"USDA welcomes the NDC as a team member of the ‘Partnering with MyPyramid: Corporate Challenge’ to improve family nutrition and end childhood obesity,” notes Dr. Brian Wansink, Executive Director for USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. “Working together, we can begin to make immediate changes where family members work, live, and play, which can have lasting impact on child and family health."

For more information on the “Partnering with MyPyramid: Corporate Challenge,” visit www.mypyramid.gov. For more information on the NDC, visit www.NationalDairyCouncil.org.

###