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For any well-run workplace wellness program, continually focusing on employee engagement matters. Once employees are engaged, the program benefits can start to do their work: Improve employee health, reduce costs, and more.

To help provide employees with continuing information — and even to help make the case for workplace wellness to business managers — one useful resource comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The resource is a PowerPoint Presentation called Winnable Battles: Nutrition, Physical Activity, & Obesity. The PPT “can be tailored for your use by adding specific data, case studies, and other useful information.”

Among the highlights:

• “Details on Fruit & Vegetable Consumption Among Adults: Only 13.1% meet fruit intake recommendations, ranging from 7.5% in Tennessee to 17.7% in California; Only 8.9% meet vegetable intake recommendations, ranging from 5.5% in Mississippi to 13% in California.”
• “Reductions in Sodium Intake Can Reduce High Blood Pressure: About 9 in 10 Americans consume too much sodium; About 1 in 3 adults have high blood pressure (only about half have it under control);
  Heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases are the #1 killer in the United States.”
• “Estimated Effects of Sodium Reduction on Hypertension Prevalence and Related Costs: Reducing average population intake to 2300 mg per day (current recommended maximum) may — Reduce cases of hypertension by 11 million; Save $18 billion in health care costs.”
• “Inadequate levels of physical activity are associated with $117 billion in annual health care costs; Nearly 1 out of 4 young adults are too heavy to serve in our military.”
• “More than one-third of adults (78.6 million) have obesity; Obesity is associated with the leading causes of death in the U.S., including Type 2 diabetes,  cardiovascular disease, and some cancers.”