Nutrition

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity provides online nutrition information for individuals. There are multiple links to fact sheets, an interactive website to individualize information for improving fruit and vegetable consumption, downloadable brochures, information for parents and children and links to additional useful sites such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

These materials are not copyrighted and can be distributed free to employees.  Allowing employees to download and print out these materials at their workstations during breaks will increase their access to self-help information.

• The Dietary Guidelines from Americans 5 published every 5 years by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides advice on good dietary habits to promote health and prevent disease. The Dietary Guidelines for American website offers some valuable consumer and professional resources including:
  • Tips for shopping and menu planning
  • Recipes
  • Resources for health education experts offering the latest science-based nutrition recommendations
• Nutritional Environment Measures Survey (NEMS) – Vending is a set of tools developed to evaluate the worksite vending machines environment. It includes health food and beverage criteria, a healthy choices calculator, labeling, promotional materials, success stories, and generates a worksite vending report card based on the content of the machines from bronze (30% healthy food or 55% healthy beverage choices) to gold (50% healthy food or 75% healthy beverage choices.
• My Plate is a nutrition guide published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Smart Food Choices: How to Implement Food Service Guidelines in Public Facilities [PDF-1.81M] guide includes action steps to help you implement food service guidelines in your government work site or other public facility to increase the availability of healthier food and beverage options at food service venues, including cafeterias, concession stands, snack bars, and vending machines.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Food Service Guidelines: Case Studies from States and Communities [PDF-1.84M] highlights five case studies of food and beverage guidelines developed to improve the food environment. The case studies provide information on the implementation and evaluation of food service guidelines, along with descriptions of site-specific successes and challenges.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed Tips For Offering Healthier Options and Physical Activity at Workplace Meetings and Events [PDF-586KB] which includes tips and resources for increasing healthier food and beverage options at worksite meetings, parties, conferences, and events and for offering physical activity opportunities for employees throughout the work day.
• The General Services Administration and Department of Health and Human Services with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated to create the Health and Sustainability Guidelines for Federal Concessions and Vending Operations (2011) [PDF-1.3MB] to assist contractors in increasing healthy food and beverage choices and sustainable practices at federal worksites. The document has been updated and renamed as of 2016–see Food Service Guidelines for Federal Facilities [PDF-3.34MB].
• The University of Minnesota School of Public Health has published Guidelines for Offering Healthy Foods at Meetings, Seminars and Catered Events [PDF – 204KB]
• The North Carolina State Health Plan has developed the Eat Smart Workbook[PDF – 4.8MB] for worksites which includes guidelines for providing healthy food at meetings. This plan also includes healthy snacks and beverage guides for vending machines, sample workplace posters on nutrition, a sample healthy foods policy, and 42 examples of Eat Smart handouts for employees.
• The American Cancer Society has prepared Meeting Well – A Tool for Planning Healthy Meetings and Events [PDF – 1.1 MB] American Cancer Society, 2000.
• Healthier Food Choices for Public Places. Information and model policies from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
• Interactive menu planner, counts calories per specific meal