March is National Nutrition Month, sponsored by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and this year’s theme is Savor the Flavor of Eating Right. Do you remember the old “food pyramid” that showed you which foods you should eat more or less of every day? That was replaced with My Plate, using a divided plate to show how much of the five major food groups make up a healthy diet. Whether you’re cooking at home or eating out, making good food choices is a key part of maintaining your health and wellness. We turned to the NIDILRR community to see what tools they recommend to help people with disabilities “savor the flavor of eating right!”

• The UIC Center on Psychiatric Disabilities and Co-Occurring Disorders has an easy-to-launch program called NEW-R that helps people with serious mental illness to embrace wellness and nutrition. Download participant and facilitator manuals and watch videos!
• The Life Skills Manual developed by Dr. Christine Helfrich includes an entire volume on food and nutrition management. You can order the individual volume or the entire four-part manual free from our website.
• Check out Disability FEAST from the World Institute on Disability, part of their NEW DOOR project, for a set of healthy but easy recipes, along with handouts and tips sheets, resources, and opinion pieces to offer a more holistic solution.
• The Research and Training Center on Developmental Disabilities and Health offers the Health Matters program, with several guides, manuals, and other resources to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities on their path to healthy living.
• Good Nutrition Ideas developed several products under NIDILRR SBIRs for people with disabilities living in the community such as posters and visual aids.
• AbleData’s database includes assistive technology products for eating, drinking, preparing food, and nutrition in general.

Check out the My Plate website linked above for a whole set of tools, apps, guides, and more. You may also be interested in articles, books, guides, and research reports on nutrition from the NIDILRR community and elsewhere, indexed in our REHABDATA database. Many of these publications can be ordered through our document delivery service for a nominal fee, just give us a call at 800/346-2742 or email us at naricinfo@heitechservices.com.