Learn how to nourish your body

Have you put on a few pounds? Do you want to eat more healthfully? Have you turned into a couch potato? Are you feeling stressed?

The North Dakota State University Extension Service has a fun, interactive way to help you learn how you can take good care of your muscles, heart, eyes, skin, bones and joints, brain and digestive system. It’s called the Nourishing Boomers and Beyond program.

The program also can help you:

• Cope with and relieve stress

• Learn ways to stretch your food dollars and still serve nutritious meals

• Get reliable, research-based information to help you sort out fact from fiction when you’re looking for health information

• Learn more about prescription and nonprescription medications and how food can interact with them

In November, the Extension Service is kicking off the second year of the Nourishing Boomers and Beyond program. As the name implies, it’s designed to help people 50 and older develop strategies to reduce their risk of developing chronic diseases. But any adult can benefit from the information.

“Our goal is to provide nutrition and overall wellness education, and online support, to help adults sustain a healthy lifestyle,” says Julie Garden-Robinson, Extension food and nutrition specialist and program director.

The program includes classes on a different topic each month. Participants can get involved in hands-on activities and discussions, and they’ll receive material such as handouts and healthful recipes to take home.

The Extension office in several counties will offer the classes. Counties involved in teaching face-to-face classes are listed on the Nourishing Boomers and Beyond website, http://www.ndsu.edu/boomers. Anyone can participate in the online content.

Nourishing Boomers and Beyond also provides a monthly online newsletter. Participating county offices have Facebook pages to interact with people, and the program is on Pinterest at “nourishboomers.”

Visit the website at http://www.ndsu.edu/boomers to see if a class is being held near you or to sign up for the e-newsletter. Also visit that site if you aren’t able to attend a class or want more information about a topic covered in a class.

So far in 2014, an average of 300 people have participated in the classes each month, nearly 1,500 are ongoing users of the Web page and the e-newsletter has about 640 subscribers from 48 counties. The Facebook site has more than 5,600 engaged users and a total reach of more than 59,000 people.