Sept 14: Take somone you care about to the Health Festival on Sunday

NOTE: NEW DATE SUNDAY SEPT 28. POSTPONED DUE TO IKE.

(This one’s for my people.)

Entre los adultos mexicoamericanos, un 31.6 por ciento de los hombres y un 34.4 por ciento de las mujeres tiene enfermedades cardiovasculares.

The good news is, there are lots of ways to avoid heart disease. Want to know more?

Head up to the Travis County Expo Center next Sunday, September 14, for the Hispanic Health Festival, from noon to 6 p.m. It’s free, and they’ll offer health screenings such as these:

• Glucose (diabetes)
• Blood pressure
• BMI testing  

Plus they’ll have the usual children’s activities and live music, and Mexican food!!!!!

(Here’s where I have to chime in: In the flyer they actually called it “heart-healthy Mexican food,” as if regular Mexican food isn’t heart healthy. Well, I think it actually is…. or it was until anglos starting shaking cheese all over it. And sour cream… what Mexican eats sour cream like that? I grew up eating Mexican food three times a day, and about the only non-healthy, heart clogging thing we ate was avocados, when we could afford them. Of course, we ate plenty of non-Mexican food, too, which didn’t help in the health department. We used to call that “American” food. When’s the festival featuring “heart-healthy American food,” for the anglos? What would they do, make healthy versions of hot dogs and apple pie? Or meatloaf and Twinkies?)

Anyway…

They also need volunteers at the festival, which could be fun. See this Craig’s List ad for details.

I can see some of us grabbing our parents – Hispanic or not – and taking them up there for the fun part, then walking them over for that glucose screening they’ve been meaning to get. (Hint, hint, Scott.)

Sponsors for the event include St. David’s HealthCare, Seton Hospitals, Amerigroup Community Care, LCRA and AstraZeneca, in addition to Austin’s Univision media outlets.

Check it out.