NATIONAL CHILDHOOD OBESITY AWARENESS MONTH AND LOCAL FARMERS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

“We are not very good at keeping people healthy 
over the long haul.” 

                                                     -- quote from a Cleveland Clinic administrator 
                                                                                  on a talk show in 2013 

What’s your favorite summer vegetable?  One of mine is red peppers.   There are just so many delicious ways to prepare them (think roasted red pepper soup, roasted vegetables, and wild shrimp and roasted pepper quesadillas).  

With fresh peppers and tomatoes in abundance right now, making a fresh salsa is an easy way to eat fresh and eat local.  One thing we love to do in the GROWING HEALTHY KIDS movement is expose kids to farms and farmers so they learn where food really comes from and, hopefully, will learn grow a few things they like.  The folks at Florida Veggies and More recently invited GROWING HEALTHY KIDS to play at their hydroponic farm in Vero Beach, Florida as part of National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  

Eggplants!!

"Farmer Lisa" Brenneman gives the kids
and the volunteers a tour
of the hydroponic greenhouse.

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS with YOUTH GUIDANCE at
Florida Veggies and More this month as part of
National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.

“Farmer Lisa” Brenneman gave a farm tour to children involved with Youth Guidance Mentoring and Activities Program and adult mentors, then we all met in the farm store kitchen for cooking lessons using fresh-picked veggies.  Not a drop of salsa was left at the end of our fabulous morning!  Thanks, Farmer Lisa, for sending everyone home with a pepper plant of their own! 

An Easy Growing Healthy Kids Menu

Summer Salsa

Mango Salsa

Whole grain cheese quesadillas*

  

SUMMER SALSA

COMBINE in a bowl:

• 1 medium tomato, cut into ¼-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup finely diced red onion
• dash sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (optional)
• 2 Tablespoons (or more) fresh cilantro, chopped fine
• 1/2 jalapeño pepper, finely diced (with or without seeds, depending on desired hotness-it is hotter with the seeds) (PARENTS:  Substitute 3 Tablespoons of chopped green pepper for the kids' version.)

       

TRANSFER to a serving bowl.  Let rest for about 1 hour, covered and unrefrigerated, for best flavor. 

USE gloves when working with jalapeño peppers. 

NOTE FROM NANCY:   This is a fun, easy recipe to make for Tuesday Taco night.  Serve with black bean and cheese nachos, enchiladas, quesadillas, or just whole grain chips.  It also makes a delicious topping on a Sunday morning veggie omelet. 

To make mango salsa, use less tomatoes, dice up a ripe 

mango, and add about ½ cup of diced red pepper. Eating good foods is easy when you know how to prepare a few basic recipes.  For these and more basic recipes every kid should learn to make, click here to order your copy of NOURISH AND FLOURISH.

Parents, the responsibility for our children's health is most importantly ours.  Hospitals, drug companies, and health insurance companies do not have an interest in keeping people well.  With all the profits being made from disease and obesity, we can each make the decision to be as healthy as possible.  One thing we can all do is plan our meals around the fresh and locally grown vegetables where you live.  SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS! 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

*For demonstration purposes, La Tortilla Factory whole grain tortillas (12 grams of dietary fiber per tortilla) were used in the preparation of the quesadillas. 

PARENTS AND OBESITY

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

“If kids grow kale, they eat kale.  If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes.”  

                   --- Ron Finley

When was the last time you showed a child how to plant and grow a tomato? Kids come up to me all the time to thank me for the tomato or pepper plant they received at a Growing Healthy Kids program and learned how to take care of.  “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.  If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”  That’s what I’m talking about.  If you believe that food is the problem and food is the solution, watch this video featuring Ron Finley. Thanks to Adina Lehrman and Lucie Burke!!

September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  The focus of Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. is to raise awareness about how to reverse, halt, and prevent childhood obesity.  One way we do this is by educating parents.  Send us your idea about how we can educate parents about preventing childhood obesity and growing healthy kids and you could be one of three national "best idea" winners selected to receive a copy of NOURISH AND FLOURISH, the first book from the Growing Healthy Kids’ movement to reverse childhood obesity.   

  

Send an email to growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com by September 26th.  Include your (1) idea about how to educate parents (2) name (3) email address and (4) mail address.  If your idea is selected as one of our three national winners, we’ll email you by September 30 to let you know that a copy of NOURISH AND FLOURISH is on its way to you.  HELP US HELP AMERICA’S CHILDREN get to -- and stay at -- a healthy weight by reducing, halting, and preventing childhood obesity.  Become part of the solution! 

This week, I ran into a friend of the Growing Healthy Kids movement to reverse childhood obesity, Adina Lehrman.  Adina recently planted a permaculture garden in front of the new organic juice bar (LOV Juice in Vero Beach, Florida).  When I met Adina several years ago, I asked her to speak with a group of kids I was working with for an entire school year at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County.  I will never forget the talk and demonstration she gave about “bunny balls” (one of the most organic methods of fertilization around).   To check out her website, click here.  You can also connect with Adina on Facebook. Here are a couple of pictures of the LOV Juice garden planted by Adina and her business partner, Lucie Burke.

Adina enjoying a conversation in the shade of the edible garden in front of LOV Juice.

Good news from Tallahassee, Florida.  I spoke with The Man in Overalls AKA Nathan Ballantine with the Tallahassee Food Network.  Nathan is working with kids and adults to grow a network of community gardens, increase access to locally grown, healthy foods, and build a bridge so that poverty is not a barrier to having access to fresh vegetables.  Next month I will be making a road trip to visit the community gardens in Tallahassee and surrounding areas to bring ideas back to our bioregion in the Research Coast of Florida.  To learn more about The Man in Overalls and the Tallahassee Food Network, click here.

Send us your best ideas for teaching parents and let’s move on raising awareness about how to halt, reverse, and prevent childhood obesity. 

NEW! Lunchboxes for your Growing Healthy Kids!

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 after-school 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!  

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 after-school 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 portabella mushrooms (with whole grain couscous, 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.