This March North Fulton Regional Hospital along with its staff of employees and physicians has dedicated itself to spreading the word about good nutrition and an overall healthy lifestyle. National Nutrition Month® is a time to stress this importance, and the hospital kicked off the campaign with Nutrition 101: It’s a Matter of Fact.

The program opened with a presentation by Dorothea Norris, a registered Dietitian at North Fulton Regional Hospital, focused on “Dissecting the Diets” and providing valuable information on sodium and it’s prevalence in the foods we eat each day. With visual displays comparing the various levels of sodium in popular potato chip brands and pasta sauces, attendees were shocked to learn just how much salt they were consuming without even realizing it.

Kym Leonard Carter, Program Coordinator for North Fulton Regional Hospital’s Bariatric Center, continued with a presentation on eating styles. Are you a fast eater? An emotional eater? A meal skipper? Each of these styles and more resonated with the group as Carter explained the pitfalls of our eating behaviors and how to turn these behaviors around.

The final presentation, given by Personal Trainer Monette Smoak, provided the group with an opportunity to face their excuses for not exercising and replace their negative thoughts with solutions to get their bodies moving.

“It’s important to remember that we don’t find time to exercise…because none of us really has much of it. We have to make time. It has to become a priority, just like our careers or anything else in our lives that we see as important.” Smoak closed her presentation with demonstrations of exercises anyone can do while they are watching television, climbing their stairs at home, or just sitting at their desks at work.

“Creativity goes a long way. You don’t have to be at a gym to get a workout that will yield positive results.”

With the success of Nutrition 101, the hospital hopes to offer more programs to cater to the yearning many people have for helpful information about diet and exercises. Nutrition 201 appears to be just over the horizon.  The hospital would also like to thank the many generous donors in the community that helped make the National Nutrition Month®  campaign a success:   NFRH Azalea Cafe, Alpharetta YMCA, Pappadeaux Restaurant, Rainwater Restaurant, Riverstone Spa, Sage Woodfire Tavern, Smoke Jack BBQ, and Village Tavern.

North Fulton Regional Hospital (NFRH) is a 202 bed acute-care hospital located on Highway 9, Alpharetta Highway, in Roswell. Opened in 1983, NFRH serves North Fulton and surrounding counties through its team of over 1000 employees, 400 staff physicians and 200 volunteers. NFRH is a state-designated Level II trauma center and provides a continuum of services through its centers and programs, including neurosciences, orthopedics, rehabilitation, surgical services, bariatric surgical weight loss, gastroenterology and oncology. The hospital is fully accredited and also is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency.

For more information about North Fulton Regional Hospital’s weight loss programs, call the Bariatric Center at 770-751-2924, or visit www.northfultonregional.com/bariatrics.