Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Sugar, Fat, and Salt

Paradise greetings,

I am writing today from my mother's home in the Louisville area. We played in the Bardstown Road area yesterday (no, I didn't get to Lynn's Paradise Cafe). The weather is about as tropical as south Florida's weather only here you have the Ohio River valley effect, where the exhaust from combustion engines becomes trapped by sunlight, forcing those with respiratory illnesses to stay inside. Yuck. I don't have any respiratory illnesses but I don't want to be breathing in all that stuff either.

We stopped by the Floyd County, Indiana library so I could give them an autographed copy of my book, Healthy Living with Diabetes: One Small Step at a Time (http://www.ourlittlebooks.com/). While there, I checked out The End of Overeating by David A. Kessler, MD. I have always admired Dr. Kessler, a pediatrician and former head of the FDA, and now I have one more reason to do so. In his book, published last year, he talks about the sugar, fat, and salt triad which the food industry uses to get us addicted to foods so we consume more calories than we need and they make more money than they need. Chapter 3 of The End of Overeating is titled "Sugar, Fat, and Salt Make Us Eat More Sugar, Fat, and Salt." This is exactly what I talk about with parents and employers who are feeding these (often hidden) ingredients to their families and their employees every day.

In Chapter 4, Dr. Kessler writes:
"Higher sugar, sat, and salt make you want to eat more," a high level food industry executive told me. I had alrady read this in the scientific literature and heard it in conversations with neuroscientists and psychologists. Now an insider was saying the same thing. My source was a leading food consultant, a Henry Ford of mass-produced food who had agreed to part the curtain for me, at least a bit, to reveal how his industry operates. To protect his business, he did not want to be identified. But he was remarkably candid, explaining that the food industry creates dishes to hit what he called the "three points of the compass." Sugar, fat, and salt make a food compelling, said the consultant. They make it indulgent. They make it high in hedonic value, which gives us pleasure.
"Do you design food specifically to be highly hedonic?" I asked.
"Oh, absolutely," he replied without a moment's hesitation. "We try to bring as much of that into the equation as possible."

Thank you, Dr. Kessler, for your courage to identify the root causes of America's obsession with overeating. If you are a parent and your family eats in restaurants regularly, such as Chilis or McDonald's, read Dr. Kessler's book. Before your next visit to a national chain restaurant, go to their website and look up the nutritional content (if they dare to let you see it) of what you and your kids usually eat there. Just remember that higher sugar, salt, and fat makes you want to eat more sugar, salt, and fat. We owe it to our children and to all of America's children to make informed choices about what we eat. Today, read a food label and choose to eat less sugar. And less salt. And less fat. Help reduce and halt childhood obesity.

Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of America's children, one child and one garden at a time.

To your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Seventy Awesome Kids in 2 Days Help Teach the World




Paradise Greetings,

Tonight's Chicks with Checks Party for Dr. Pierone's Haiti medical work had to proceed without Growing Healthy Kids being represented. I'm exhausted and need to recharge my batteries.

Here's the story of 70 awesome kids...This morning I did a summer camp program for 30 children ages 5-17 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Fellsmere, Florida. The kids learned to make "F3 shakes" (Fabulous Fellsmere Fruit Shakes) and whole grain grilled pepper quesadillas. We had a snack station and all the kids made their own Smart Snack mix and had a healthy snack to take home, where they are often left by themselves because their parents are working in the citrus fields. We went out into today's blazing heat (it felt like 200 degrees, for real) and ran laps around the Catholic church's parking lot. We jumped rope together (100 was the record!!). We laughed together. We cooked together. We learned together. What a wonderful morning!

Last night the wonderful Anne Devanney from Community Church, our wonderful Growing Healthy Kids volunteers, and I made dinner for the children plus a dozen house parents at Hibiscus Children's Center to celebrate the completion of 8 weeks of the Growing Healthy Kids' healthy eating classes. The rave reviews for Anne's grilled veggie whole grain paninis matched the reviews of the children's garden pesto mixed with whole grain pasta and sundried tomatoes. The children's garden basil is at its flavor peak and dozens of people got to taste it (and yes, the recipe will be in our first Growing Healthy Kids' book). Anne taught the kids how to dry basil so they can learn the process of how to cycle and recycle food without waste.

An amazing two days touching the lives of 70 amazing kids. More successes will be coming from all the seeds that were planted last night and this morning. What we need is coming. What we need to transform the health - and lives - of children is coming.

We are creating food security with partners like the Treasure Coast-Vero Beach Kiwanis Club and the Community Church who are now seeing for themselves the urgency for solutions to the crisis unfolding before our eyes. Children who are overweight pile into the emergency rooms of America's hospitals with adult conditions never before seen in kids.

Let me know what you will bring to the table for Growing Healthy Kids.
Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of America's children, one garden and one child at a time.

To your perfect health.
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

Sunday, June 13, 2010

New WINTER BEACH CARROT CAKE recipe honors Joel Bray







Paradise Greetings,

Yesterday was the first birthday party that Growing Healthy Kids conducted with Youth Guidance Mentoring & Activities Program. Youth Guidance throws a birthday party every 3 months for the kids they serve who have had a birthday during that quarter. It was also the first (mostly indoor) program I've done since our monthly programs began in September 2009. To make the day special, I created a gluten-free mini-carrot cake recipe using some very special carrots. Here's the carrot story...

The carrots were grown by Joel Bray, a man on a mission to create food security in Indian River County, Florida. Joel farms 2-1/2 acres of land by himself and gives away the food. I first heard about Joel last year from my friend, Angi, who is on the Growing Healthy Kids board of directors. Angi talked with Joel and he donated the dirt used in the very first teaching gardens built at the Boys and Girls Club. About 2 months ago I helped prepare food from Joel's garden for a lunch at his place so we could show a handful of community leaders what one man is doing to grow food and feed people. That day, Joel told us, "Find me land and I will clear it and grow food to give away. I will teach others how to grow food." This week, someone donated 10 acres to Joel and he has already begun clearing it. Last week I had a dinner for more community leaders so we can get more land into food production. On Wednesday I received the news that we have received a small grant for a large teaching garden at the Dasie Hope Center in Wabasso. Joel will be helping us there so we can feed many and teach many. This week we eliminated the barrier for moving forward with a one acre garden at the elementary school (where we launched the Salad Party Revolution) with the county's second highest rate of kids receiving free and reduced lunches (87.73% of all the school's kids) through the generosity of one man who is now part of our vision to grow food security. That is how we will be able to get kids out of the McDonald's cycle of obesity.

Joel is amazing. This one man is growing all this food and giving it away. While so many people are focused on "food insecurities", this man is creating food security. Be the change you want to see. We will grow healthy foods so people can eat healthy foods. Carrots grown by Joel Bray in Winter Beach, a small community between Vero Beach and Sebastian, were the inspiration for the recipe I created to honor children who had a birthday. Joel's carrots - and all the other veggies he grows so well - are Growing Healthy Kids - and families. Thank you, Joel.

A copy of the "WINTER BEACH CARROT CAKE" recipe will be included with each Growing Healthy Kids chef apron (includes superpowers). Go to www.HealthyDiabetesCoach.com/kids before July 31.
Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of America's children, one garden and one child at a time.

To your perfect health,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids






Thursday, June 10, 2010

Bridal Boot Camp Premier Helps Growing Healthy Kids



Paradise Greetings,

What a great, fun evening! Last night was the debut of the VH1 reality series, Bridal Boot Camp starring Vero Beach's own Steve Pfiester! Party and gala to recognize his great work in the show and to hear some of the inside scoop about the making of the series. Party at Coste d'Este, Gloria Estefan's glorious beach hotel, then off to the beautiful Majestic Theater to watch the premiere on the big screen.

Transforming overweight and obese women who are about to marry to healthier weights. Such an important message, not just for a reality TV show, but for all girls and women because of what we know about obese women developing gestational diabetes and having larger than normal babies at higher risk for birth defects. Educating girls and women about the importance of getting to healthier weights - and staying there - so that if and when they decide to have children, those children will enter this world healthy, not sick.

The best part, for me, was the surprise that the proceeds from the event will benefit Growing Healthy Kids so we can continue to educate children and the adults who surround them about how to eat healthier and moving more with our garden-based education programs. Thank you, Steve (and Bonnie) Pfiester of Longevity Fitness Club (www.longevityclubs.com) for recognizing the work of Growing Healthy Kids to improve the health - and lives - of children, one garden and one child at a time. Let's "give the boot" to childhood obesity!!

To your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

First Annual Growing Healthy Kids Recipe Contest




Paradise Greetings,

What is YOUR favorite vegetable?? In honor of vegetables and the #1 favorite kid food, macaroni and cheese, Growing Healthy Kids is having its first annual Recipe Contest. In partnership with Annie's Homegrown Foods, kids in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County and all kids in Indian River County have been invited to create a recipe using Annie's mac and cheese and at least one vegetable. Creativity is highly encouraged because to enjoy great food requires creativity. We are showing kids how to find the flavors they enjoy and then get them hooked on health! Two recipe contest winners will be selected - one boy and one girl. Both winners will one of the highly prized Growing Healthy Kids chef aprons (because they contain magical powers) plus movie passes and more.

Did I tell you that there is so much excitement with this project that kids actually have been storming the door when they see my car pull up into the parking lot? They are having so much fun and are just so excited about our weekly Growing Healthy Kids program. Why can't schools do the same thing instead of saying, "We're meeting the USDA standards". Blah, blah, blah.

Let's take kids' infectious energy and create transformational change so BIG that everyone will be storming down the doors to learn how to make delicious foods that make you strong, smart, and healthy. What a great visual image -- can you see it?? Kids all over America running to be early to their healthy cooking classes! YES, YES! The pictures I am sharing today are from two of my recent programs, one in Vero Beach where the kids were invited to help one of our local farmers sell vegetables to his regular customers and the other in Sebastian at the Boys and Girls Club.

Who do you know who could use magical powers for Growing Healthy Kids? Get them their own hooked-on-healthy Chef Apron (and support our work to halt and reverse childhood obesity). Go to www.HealthyDiabetesCoach.com/kids to put the magic into YOUR kids' kitchen!

To your perfect health,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids