HEALTH MATTERS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." 

                                                   --Nelson Mandela

When it comes to the health of our children, parents agree on one thing:  we will do whatever it takes. 

The Growing Healthy Kids movement is improving parents’ knowledge about the foods to eat more of as well as the foods to eat less of, plus the importance adding regular, healthy doses of physical fun and fitness.  Our education programs teach kids and adults how simple it is to eat well.  We empower them with knowledge and skills to prevent high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity-related cancers and other preventable diseases.  Learning to eat smart  helps children get to – and stay at – healthy weights.  The key to our children living lives longer than ours – not shorter - is teaching them how to make lifelong habits of eating foods that are good for us and planning fitness into each day to prevent obesity and obesity-related diseases. 

Lessons children learn in our kitchen classroom are what I fondly call THE RECIPE FOR GROWING HEALTHY KIDS.  Here is the list of 5 essential ingredients:

PROTEIN

FACT:  Kids will learn better when they start the day with a burst of protein. 

About ¼ of what we eat should be protein.  Choose to eat fish at least 2 times a week.  Choose lean, low-fat proteins.  Avoid or limit meats loaded with fat. 

GHK TIP:  Include protein in your kids’ breakfast every day.

FATS

FACT:  There are 3 kinds of fats: one is good and two are the bad kinds of fats.  Most of the fats we eat should be the good fats.

Good fats:  unsaturated fat

Sources of unsaturated fat:  nuts, fish, liquid vegetable oils, flax seeds, avocados

Bad fats:  saturated fat and trans fats

Sources of saturated fats:  any food that comes from an animal (meat, chicken, ice-cream, cheese, milk (except for skim milk), etc.)Sources of trans fats:  look on food labels for any ingredient that includes the words "partially hydrogenated”

GHK TIP:  Make most of your fats the “good” kind and eat fish at least twice a week.

   CARBOHYDRATES

FACT:  There are good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates.  Most of the carbs we eat should be the good fats.

The good carbohydrate:  dietary fiber

Sources of dietary fiber:  vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, lentils, split peas

Why we need dietary fiber:  Fiber is only found in foods that come from plants.  Fiber is what fills us up.  Aim for 28-35 grams of dietary fiber a day.   Most children (and adults) eat far less dietary fiber than their bodies need. 

The bad carbohydrate:  sugar

Sources of sugar:  sodas, candy, processed foods, most breakfast cereals, energy drinks, fruit juices. 

GHK TIP:  Choose breads and pastas that have “4 or more” grams of dietary fiber per slice or per serving.  Check the Nutrition Facts label and limit foods that have more than 5 grams of sugar per serving.   Learn the difference between good and bad carbs and use this knowledge when you and your kids are grocery shopping.  

WATER

FACT:  Water is the fluid we need to drink the most of.  Most people drink far less water than they need.  Drink water, not soda.  Aim for 8 glasses of water a day.

SLEEP

Did you know that getting enough sleep is key to losing weight and staying at a healthy weight?   Provide guidance for your children so they have a regular bedtime to ensure they are getting plenty of sleep every night.  

GHK TIP:  Establish “sleep hygiene” habits such as turning off the TV, the computer, cell phones, and other electronics at least an hour before bedtime and not drinking caffeinated drinks in the evening to wake up feeling refreshed every morning.

From our expanding recipe collection from the Growing Healthy Kids' Test Kitchen, I am happy to share this amazing variation on a traditional pesto recipe.  It features walnuts, a great source of good fats and omega-3s, and parsley, which has incredible benefits as an anti-inflammatory. 

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS:  Our Recipe Collection

WALNUT PESTO

INGREDIENTS:

• ·        1-1/2 cups walnuts
• ·        2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ·        Crushed red pepper
• ·        Sea salt
• ·        ¼ cup minced flat-leaf parsley
• ·        ½ cup EVOO*
• ·        ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.  Spread walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 12 minutes, or until golden.  Cool the walnuts and finely chop.

In a mortar, mash the garlic with a pinch each of crushed red pepper and salt until a paste forms.  Add the walnuts and parsley and pound to a coarse paste.  Slowly add the olive oil, pounding and stirring until blended.  Stir in the Parmesan and season with salt. Serve over roasted vegetables or whole grain pasta.

NOTE:  You can also make this in a food processor, quickly pulsing the ingredients.

*Extra virgin olive oil 

Education IS the most important weapon we can use to change the world.  Start with your own world and educate yourself family about the importance of reading food labels to identify foods containing the good carbs and good fats. Include some protein in your children's breakfasts every morning.  Every child deserves access to healthy foods and daily activity, beginning with YOUR children.  

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids

FOOD AND HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

“Flavor counts far more than elaborate techniques and presentations, and flavor begins with the best ingredients.  Each separate ingredient should be the finest you can afford, but if you can't afford it or you've run out of it, don worry.  Mediterranean cooks are notable for making do with what's at hand.  That's an attitude I try to cultivate in my own kitchen."  

                            --Nancy Harmon Jenkins, The New

                               Mediterranean Diet Cookbook

What’s your favorite dish to make together at home this time of year?  Holidays are filled with family traditions and foods are a central part of many traditions.  Making your children a part of your family’s rich holiday traditions is a great way to ensure they know the kitchen is a safe place to learn that when people respect good foods and each other, they are learning the recipe for a great life.  

Teaching a young boy how to use local fruits at a Growing Healthy Kids event with one of our partners (Youth Guidance Mentoring and Activities Program)

One of my favorite sections in the middle of the store - dried beans and lentils!

"Yellow squash on purple rocker"

The original Growing Healthy Kid, my son, Edward

Great recipes start when you have all the ingredients on hand.  Having good foods in your fridge, pantry and on the table begins with shopping together.  Teach your kids where to look in the store and what to look for on food labels.   Did you ever hear to shop on the four walls first?  Around the perimeter of a grocery store is where you find the fresh fruits and vegetables, yogurts and cheeses, fresh fish and meats.  Start by shopping the perimeter, then move to the inside aisles.   The less processed your food choices, the better.  Fresh is best.  When you use the approach of “eat fresh, eat local”, you support your local farmers.  To learn about farmers in your community, go to click here.

While you and your kids make a list of your favorite holiday foods to make this month, here is a list of our family’s top 25 foods:

1. Almonds
2. Avocados
3. Bananas
4. Blueberries
5. Extra virgin olive oil
6. Eggplant* (see eggplant parm recipe link below)
7. Garlic
8. Kale
9. Lemons
10. Limes
11. Lentils
12. Onions
13. Oranges
14. Parsley
15. Pears
16. Quinoa
17. Pesto
18. Spinach
19. Squash (any kind – they are all high in dietary fiber!)
20. Strawberries
21. Tomatoes
22. Walnuts
23. Wild rice
24. Wild salmon
25. Zucchini

From A to Z, from Apples to Zucchini, family traditions revolve around foods.  Make your family’s favorite foods fresh and delicious!  *For a link to a delicious, easy, and healthy eggplant parmesan recipe to make this holiday season, click here.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

NATIONAL CHILDHOOD OBESITY AWARENESS MONTH

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"ONLY TOGETHER CAN WE REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE."

                                         

 -- Blake Mallon, Project 10 Kids

This week Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. kicks off a new nutrition education afterschool program.   Remember last week’s column about superfoods?  We will be featuring those foods and others as we create a new generation of NUTRITION DETECTIVES.  For the next 6 weeks, we will be sharing highlights from the program.  If you have ideas for what you would want your own kids to learn, let us know!  

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September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  One in three kids in America is overweight or obese.  Everywhere I look, I see kids of all ages at risk for obesity-related diseases like diabetes and sleep apnea.  Childhood obesity is not the kids’ problem – it is our problem.  As parents, as teachers, as adults who run afterschool programs, as business owners who offer health care benefits for dependents, we all have a responsibility to improve our own health literacy and awareness about what foods to put on our own plate. 

What's YOUR favorite veggie?

Stuffed portobello mushrooms (with whole grain coucous, spinach and yellow peppers)
 from the GROWING HEALTHY KIDS' Recipe Collection

This month make a personal commitment to start looking at your own shopping cart and make at least half of your food purchases vegetables and fruits. As you and your family plan your dinner menus, plan for at least half of your plates to be filled with vegetables and fruits.  Make the commitment to eat more of the good foods (see last week’s column: "Ten Foods to Eat More of") and less of the bad foods (like white flour, Pop Tarts, and sodas).  If every parent in America’s makes this simple commitment, then it is possible that we will not need to have a National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

A CHALLENGE FOR ADULTS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"Let food be thy medicine."

                                             ---- Hippocrates

In a recent talk to employees of a large nonprofit organization, I asked participants to write down one thing they would like to change about their health. 

Can you guess what the overwhelming answer was?  It was “lose weight”.  In one hour, I taught these employees, from the CEO down to the truck drivers, five specific ways to start making changes to put them on the path to healthier weights and better health.  

With two in three adults in the United States overweight and obese, it seems to me that solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic must begin with raising the health literacy of adults.  There is no question in my mind as to why we have a health crisis in this country. 

Here’s my challenge to you:  help me identify three organizations in the southeast U.S. (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama) where at least half of the employees are overweight and obese and the employees want to get to healthier weights.   Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. is looking for companies who want healthier and more productive employees.  These three organizations will work with me over 90 days.  As your virtual Chief Wellness Officer, I promise to improve the health literacy of your employees, improve your productivity, get your employees to healthier weights, AND lower your absenteeism. 

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. is a movement to provide leadership and solutions to the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States and beyond.  Without the commitment of America’s businesses, local governmental units, and organizations, kids don’t stand a chance of growing up healthy and free of obesity-related diseases.  

With the commitment of businesses, government employees, and local organizations, our kids DO have a great chance of being growing healthy kids and adults.  

As adults, we are the role models for the children in our communities.  If they see us drinking sodas and energy drinks loaded with sugar every day, then they think it is OK to drink a soda and think nothing of stopping by the local 7-11 to buy a Monster energy drink or a Coke on the way to school.  We are our children’s teachers.  Do we want our children to grow up to be obese adults with old people's diseases because we didn’t dare to care about how much sugar they are eating every day in their school lunches or in their afterschool programs with snacks supplied by the school district?  Do we want our children to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when they are 17 years old and suffer from the amputation of a foot or the loss of their vision when they are in their twenties and we bought honeybuns for them to eat for breakfast every day because it was convenient for us? 

If your organization is willing to accept my 90 day challenge and be part of the solution to the OBESITY EPIDEMIC, then shoot me an email at: growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com.  Get ready to lead your community’s wellness challenge! I’m ready.  The question is, are you ready?

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. is a movement dedicated to improving the health - and lives – of America’s children with a laser focus on halting, reversing, and preventing childhood obesity.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

SUMMER FOODS AND FITNESS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

 “Success is not convenient.  You have to make room for it.  Stop waiting for the ideal or perfect situation to show up in your life before you make your move.  Now is the time to convert your prayers into performance.  

Faith without works is dead.  There will never be a perfect time in life.  If it’s not one thing…it’s another.  So do what you can and do what you must…NOW!  Most people let things happen.  You have the power to make things happen!  You have GREATNESS within you!”

                       ---Les Brown

Can you believe that summer vacation is half over already?  Let’s kick off the rest of summer with some great ideas to “HEALTH UP” your kids and your family. As my friend Les Brown said, "You have the power to make things happen!"  

COOL IDEA NUMBER ONE: Check out this health snack idea to help everyone keep their cool AND take advantage of the great summer sale prices on fresh grapes while they are in season.

STEP ONE:  Wash and gently dry (air dry is fine) purple or green grapes.

STEP TWO:  Place grapes in zip lock bags (15 grapes per bag). 

STEP THREE:  Place bags in freezer.

STEP FOUR:  When kids need a snack, let them take one bag from the freezer for each kid and watch them explode with excitement over the flavor of frozen fruit!

STEP FIVE:  Listen for your kids (and your spouse) to say, “THIS IS BETTER THAN CANDY!” 

Kids teaching other kids in one of our peer education projects at local schools.  Healthy Habit 1:  More fruit, less juice!

Growing Healthy Kids' Peer Educators setting up for one of our parties at Imagine School.  

COOL IDEA NUMBER TWO: Here’s another very cool idea for keeping all the kids (your and the kids in the neighborhood) busy and healthy:  FRUIT PIZZA.  Click here for the step by step instructions for making the best fruit pizza ever!

COOL IDEA NUMBER THREE:   Need to get your kids outside more (and less screen time)?  Start growing your own veggies using this ultra-cool new technology aeroponic personal grow system.  Assign your kids the job of check the water levels every two days and within 28 days you will be harvesting your own fresh, very locally grown greens. Click here to order your personal grow system (use discount code "growhealkids" at checkout).

Enjoy the rest of your summer vacation and send me your favorite healthy kid-friendly recipes at growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com.  Look for your recipe in a future issue of WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS!

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

Note for new readers:  The Growing Healthy Kids movement is dedicated to creating solutions to our national childhood obesity epidemic and to the prevention of obesity-related diseases, such as Type 2 Diabetes, in children.  See the top right corner to order NOURISH AND FLOURISH which provides a road map for parents.