Minnesota town serves as example for Iowa health initiative

What would it take to improve your health?

Access to interconnected trails, bike lanes and other recreational opportunities? Cooking classes and healthy menu options at restaurants and schools?

How about supportive friends to help you make changes?

What if you had it all?

Iowans seeking to have the best health in the nation - a goal Gov. Terry Branstad announced in August - can look north to see the effect the “Blue Zones” has had in Albert Lea, Minn.

The town of 18,000, just 10 miles north of the Iowa/Minnesota border, was first to experiment with Blue Zones principles when it was chosen as the prototype community in 2009.

“You have to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” said Randy Kehr, executive director of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, a backer of the efforts in Albert Lea.

Kehr was quoting Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest.”

Buettner, a frequent visitor to Iowa since the Healthiest State Initiative was announced, found common elements of lifestyle, diet and outlook as he traveled to sites around the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives.

Albert Lea was chosen for the pilot project, in part, because it is a statistically average town.

“We fit the criteria,” Kehr said. “Plus, we already had some low-hanging fruit. We had a culture of walking and biking and boating. Maybe not at the level we have today, but we were in that place.”

Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls and Waterloo are among 11 finalists vying to be one of the first Blue Zones demonstration sites for large communities in Iowa. An announcement is expected later this week in the project funded by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Kehr listed some of the changes made during the program, sponsored by AARP and the United Health Foundation and funded by the city, Minnesota's Statewide Health Improvement Program and other grants.

Bike lanes were added to streets to encourage biking to work; trails connections were linked; schools changed wellness policies to increase activity and provide healthier lunches and snacks; social groups, called “Walking Moias” were formed to encourage walking; businesses implemented worksite wellness plans and volunteers planted 70 new community gardens.

Project proponents say surveys show the effort has increased life expectancy an average of 3.2 years; participants lost an average of 3 pounds each and city workers had a 49 percent decrease in health care costs.

Albert Lea spent about $343,000 on 3.21 miles of new sidewalks since 2009 and will add another segment this year.

“Not everything takes money,” Kehr said, citing policy changes at schools as an example, but infrastructure is important.

On a pleasant April day, bicyclists, mothers pushing strollers and in-line skaters took to the trail encircling Fountain Lake, a major recreation destination for Freeborn County.

“It's very well-used,” said Nancy Anderson, 73, of Albert Lea, walking her Shih Tzu, Max, with husband Lars Anderson, 73, a school bus driver.

Like many people interviewed by The Gazette, the Andersons didn't officially sign on to the Blue Zones, known in Albert Lea as the Vitality Project. Schedules for the Walking Moias and other activities didn't fit their schedule, they said.

Instead, they exercise when they can and are supportive of the efforts.

“I think the Blue Zones has made us all more conscious about good health and how to get it,” Nancy Anderson said.

Sixth-grader Cali Mowers walked with friends Grace Hutchins and Gabby Raatz, all 12, in a square around the halls of Southwest Middle School early before classes began.

“It gets pretty packed in here,” she said of “Walking the Block,” the name given to the morning walking program.

Principal Jean Jordan said up to 100 of the school's 480 students walk, while others play basketball from 7:35 a.m. until the first bell rings, rather than sitting in the gym as they did before the exercise options were offered.

“It helps get rid of energy,” sixth-grader Chris Henry, 13, said.

While the middle school's initiatives thrive, a “walking school bus” system - in which children walked to school under the supervision of parent and senior volunteers - has fallen by the wayside, as interest dropped.

Other efforts have picked up steam.

Matt VanVoltenberg, manager of Trail's Restaurant in Albert Lea, said the business had a 31 percent increase in healthier side orders and a 31 percent decrease in French fry orders after healthy choices, such as steamed broccoli, were added and placed at the top of the menu.

The most popular menu item at the truck stop is the salad bar.

“We still have all that,” he said, pointing to hamburgers and other typical Midwestern food, but just offering healthy options and changing the menu order made a difference.

Tom Wicks, 37, of nearby Austin, Minn., dined on fish and salad last week.

“It's just better for you than fries,” he said. “I'd like to live for a while yet.”

On TV tonight

• Reporter Cindy Hadish and photographer Liz Martin traveled last week to Albert Lea, Minn., to see the progress of Blue Zones since the town implemented the pilot program in 2009. See more of their report at 6 tonight on KCRG-TV9