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Web Scout
Action Guides for Fitness: Move More, Eat Right, Be Happy
By Marcia Koth de Paredes

The U.S. National Institutes of Health tell us that much research in the last few years has shown that eating a healthy diet, low in fat, high in fiber with plenty of fruits and vegetables may help to lower risks of several diseases, as well as keep us feeling good at the same time. Also important is that even five to ten minutes of daily physical activity can improve health…three times a week for half an hour is better, and five times a week is even better. We also, at times, need special diets and/or exercise to compensate for an illness. The following portals lead you to enormous amounts of information. I also include a few specialized webs that suggest ways to be both healthy and feel good.

1. Portals

FirstGov Health, Nutrition and Fitness - Food, nutrition, exercise with a particularly interesting section on food safety. http://www.firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/Health.shtml (click Food, Nutrition and Fitness), See also http://www.nutrition.gov for information on What's in Food (info on nutrients in over 7,000 foods), new food pyramid and special groups such as infants, children, women, men, athletes, the elderly. The Food and Nutrition Information Center (US Department of Agriculture) answers questions by topics A to Z http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic

National Coalition for a Healthy America - Part of a campaign to improve health and fitness in the U.S.
http://www.forahealthyamerica.org/links_resources.asp

2. Eating - General Guidelines

Action Guide for Healthy Eating (National Institutes of Health) - Gives brief ideas to make it easy for busy people to include low-fat, high fiber foods.
http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/food/guideeat/Actiongd.html

Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 (US Department of Agriculture) - A book with chapters on weight management, food safety, sources of selected nutrients, plus topics. http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document

Weight Control and Diet - A long article about obesity. Describes causes, effects, diets and suggestions to help stay on a diet.
http://www.reutershealth.com/wellconnected/doc53.html

3. Special Diets

Home Cooking Special Diets (Open Directory Project) - Links to diets for allergies, diabetes, heart, low fat, vegan and more. http://dmoz.org/Home/Cooking/Special_Diets/

Heart-Related Nutrition and Recipes (US Department of Agriculture) - Links to advice and recipes. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/consumersite/hot-heart.htm

Vegetarians (USDA, Medline Plus, NIH) - This is a portal to several interesting sites for vegetarians.
http://www.nutrition.gov (search vegetarian) Loma Linda University's site gives practical shopping lists. http://www.llu.edu/llu/nutrition/shopping.html

Commercial Weight Loss Programs (Review Place) - Ten top online diet programs that help learn (for a fee) how to manage weight loss. Gives free, brief descriptions of Weight Watchers, Mayo Clinic Plan, Mediterranean Diet, South Beach Diet and links.
http://www.reviewplace.com/cat-135-DietsWeightLoss--Best-Weight-Loss-Programs.html

4. Fitness Portals

Fitness (Open Directory) - http://dmoz.org/Health/Fitness,

Exercise and Physical Fitness (Medline Plus) -
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/exerciseandphysicalfitness.html

5. Exercise Guidelines

Get Fit America (American Council on Exercise) - Tips, recipes, exercise library.
http://www.acefitness.org/default.aspx

How do I get started? - Some good answers in http://familydoctor.org/059.xml

Being Fit: Fun and Fantastic for You (Kidnetic.com) - Good paper to help parents explain fitness to children.
http://www.ific.org/kidnetic/upload/2BeingFit.pdf#search='Being%20Fit%3A%20Fun%20and%20Fantastic%20for%20You' See also http://www.kidnetic.com for games and advice to encourage children be on the move.

6. Tools

The Fitness Center (American Heart Association) - The Just Move program to help track exercise, find best type with useful links. http://www.justmove.org/home.cfm

Tools for Healthier Lives (Mayo Clinic) - Includes good section on injury prevention.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fitness/SM99999

Tools for When you are Not so Healthy - Tips to help bones, control diabetes, help heart and lungs, back and more. http://health.nih.gov/result.asp?disease_id=245&category_id=34

7. Fun Places to Exercise

Adventure Sports, Special Interests (Prom Peru) - Trekking routes, surfing, fishing, biking, rafting, bird watching, beaches and much more. http://www.peru.info/perueng.asp Also use the name of a sport and Lima to search Google or Yahoo for hundreds of possibilities.

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