Offering healthful alternatives

Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health has teamed up with L.A.-area restaurants to promote more healthful options when it comes to dining out.

As part of the Choose Health LA Restaurants program—launched Sept. 12—restaurants “must offer smaller portion sizes and healthier children’s meals with less fried food and more fruits and vegetables,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The program—which features publicity posters with such slogans as, “You Wouldn’t Eat 22 Packs of Sugar, So Why Are You Drinking Them?”— is part of a campaign to lower the obesity rate in L.A. County, where nearly one-fourth of the population is obese.

“Small changes in what we eat every day, at every meal, can make a huge difference in terms of not only our weight, but [also] our overall health,” said Jonathan Fielding, director of the county’s public-health department

Go to www.tinyurl.com/kddhs3q to learn more about the program.