Oregon Health Update

Oregon is popular for many reasons such as coffee, beautiful scenery, fresh salmon and of course Tillamook cheese! However, lately Oregon has taken center stage for promoting healthy lifestyles. Portland was ranked #2 in 2006 by Self Magazine on their "Top 10 healthiest cities for women" article. In 2004 Portland was nick named "Bike Town U.S.A." by Bike Town Magazine and it was also ranked #3 for healthiest city for pets by showcatsonline.com in 2003. Across the board, Oregon is setting a national standard for healthy living and exercise.

Passing the "bike bill" in 1971 put Oregon as the first state which took the first step toward healthy living. By 2001 3.8% of people were biking to work at least three days per week to according to Oregon.gov. Other fitness activities have also increased over the years. The Nike Hood to Coast Relay Marathon is the largest relay race in North America. It began in 1982 with eight teams. By 1999 it reached capacity of 1,000 teams. If biking or running is not really your cup of tea, there are plenty of hiking trails, gyms and countless dog parks where all activity levels are welcome.

Portland had one of the highest percentages of organic food buyers in 2007 (27%) which only just trailed San Francisco (35%) and Seattle (37%) according to Vegetarianorganicblog.com. Seeing this demand, grocery stores met with a supply of organic products, a health food section and stocking Trans fat free items. As early as ten years ago, many grocery stores either did not offer items such as tofu or soy and if they did, the cost was excessive. Now with the increased interest in these products, stores have answered with sales in these items. Grocery retailers are not the only ones seeing the growing health trend, restaurants see the benefit to healthier choices as well.

Restaurants around Oregon have also seen a change to menu items. Popular restaurants like Applebee's are now offering a Weight Watcher menu with point values listed directly on the menus. Red Robin offers meatless or turkey meat options for their hamburgers which makes dinning out less of a hassle for those trying to maintain a healthy diet.

If achieving a healthy lifestyle is difficult to do on your own, help is just a phone call, or in Oregon's case, just around the corner. In Salem alone there are five Weight Watcher sites, a Jenny Craig and a LA Weight loss center all within a five mile radius. This is not including all the private organizations such as Salem Weight Management Center. All of these companies have one thing in common, they all want to help as many people as they can be healthy for life.

All of these healthy options put Oregon in the top 10 in 2007 for the "fittest cities" article in Men's Magazine, where Portland ranked number 9 which was up from 17 the previous year. Oregon's healthy lifestyle trend is not likely to change anytime soon. With all the options available to you and the beckoning scenery, many people have a hard time silencing the quiet voice in their head telling them to eat better or get more exercise. If you can't beat them, join them!

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