West Virginia University’s WELL WVU: The Students Center of Health is encouraging all students to “tweatWELL” each day.

tweatWELL is a unique point-based social networking program, designed to get WVU students to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables – also known as “Freggies” – each day. The pilot program begins March 7 and will run through April 29.

WELL WVU developed the program in conjunction with Videntity Solutions, a WVU business incubator tenant and award winner in the West Wireless Health Institute’s developer challenge.

The program aims to provide students with a fun and interactive venue for promoting healthy lifestyles. This one-of-a-kind nutritional program encourages students to check-in and post foods they are eating on the homepage http://www.tweatWELL.com . Alternatively, students can update information using texting or Twitter that will automatically update the tweatWELL page.

To keep the program exciting, students will be able to earn points based on different categories, and can compete to become professors, deans and president of different fruits and vegetables. Students must register at http://www.tweatwell.com for the program, and can utilize text messaging and Twitter to participate. The program must be run though a Firefox browser.

According to the National Collegiate Health Association’s 2008 report of student health behaviors, the majority of college students eat two or less servings of fruits and vegetables per day. The survey conducted at WVU in February confirmed that WVU student’s behavior was comparable to the national standard. The daily recommendation for fruit and vegetable consumption provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is five to nine servings per day.

This program will provide the incentive and education needed for students to make positive changes in their nutritional habits, moving them closer to the CDC recommendation.

WELL WVU encourages the participation of all WVU students and the promotion of the program by professors, coaches, faculty and administrators. tweatWELL is a component of the WELL WVU’s liveWELL program, which uses monthly thematic educational programs and social marketing campaigns to promote healthy behaviors.

For more information, visit http://well.wvu.edu .

-WVU-
cr/03/03/11

CONTACT: Colleen Harshbarger, WELL WVU
304-293-5054, Colleen.harshbarger@mail.wvu.edu