WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Cooking at Home

"...the key dietary messages are stunningly simple.  Eat less, move more, eat more fruits and vegetables and don't eat too much junk food.  It's no more complicated than that."  

                                                             

                        --Marian Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H., Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University

March is National Nutrition Month.   Enjoy delicious meals that you and your kids cook together at home.  Start by planning a trip to your local farmers market and letting the kids pick out some locally grown vegetables.  Create a meal around fresh, locally grown and organic (where available) vegetables, add some quinoa, lentils or black rice and enjoy a great meal together. 

Cooking teaches kids that real food does not come from boxes with ingredients you cannot pronounce.  When you cook meals together with your kids, you teach them about the value of teamwork.  When you sit down together at the family dinner table, you teach them about respect, communication, and family values.

One of the key lessons we teach in our Growing Healthy Kids programs is about respecting the people who grow our food and respecting ourselves enough to eat good foods instead of processed foods filled with added sugars, salt, and fat.  After all, why eat foods that will only make us sick?   When I ask kids if they have any friends who stay home from school because of stomach aches, they all raise their hands.  Is it possible kids have digestive issues because they are being fed highly processed foods filled with sugar and refined flour but containing no dietary fiber?  Yes. 

Parents, our children, like us, deserve to eat food that not only tastes good but is good for you.  Life is too short to do otherwise!  Plan to do more cooking at home.   If you need help with a recipe, let me know (email me at wellness@growinghealthykids.org). 

Here is a so, so simple recipe your kids can help you make for dinner.  Add a green salad and grilled cheese sandwiches on whole grain bread and you have a delicious, healthy meal your kids will love!  TIP FOR SAVING MONEY:  Stock up on canned tomatoes when they are on sale.  

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS:  Our Recipe Collection

DIVINE TOMATO SOUP

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 28-ounce can Italian tomatoes (preferably San Marzano tomatoes)
• 1 cup low fat chicken broth
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:  

Saute onion in the butter and olive oil about 5-6 minutes on medium heat, or until onions become translucent.   Add the dried basil and cook another minute.  Add tomatoes and chicken broth.  Cook at least 15 minutes.  Using an immersion blender, blend soup to desired texture.   Add salt and pepper, to taste.  A few minutes before serving, add cream.   Stir and serve.  Garnish with fresh basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese, if desired.  

With love and gratitude,

Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: The High Price of Cheap Food

“If you let corporations cook your food, they’re going to load it up with sugar.” 

                                                                  --Michael Pollan, author of Cooked

Common statement heard from parents:  “I can’t afford to feed my family healthy food.”

Nancy Heinrich's response: “Give me an hour and I’ll show you how.” 

Michael Pollan recently spoke at the Emerson Center in Vero Beach, Florida and one of our youth Nutrition Scientists was able to attend his talk with me.  Throughout Mr. Pollan’s talk, I said to her several times, “That is something we discussed in our class.” He kept coming back the fact that as food has become increasingly processed with the advent of the industrial food chain, people have cooked less and we have gotten sicker.

 

Getting kids out to farms and farmers markets and into the kitchen is what we do.  As kids learn about using locally grown, fresh ingredients and that when you can cook at home instead of eating highly processed foods, they are also learning that they are no longer at the mercy of large corporations that prepare foods filled with added sugars, salt, and fat.  Giving kids the confidence to know how and where to shop for locally grown ingredients (organic where available), to prepare easily modifiable basic recipes, and to buy the best ingredients they can afford are some of our key lessons. 

Whenever I ask the kids in our classes if they have family members with diabetes or high blood pressure, most of the kids raise their hands.  Sometimes I also ask the kids if they know anyone with Alzheimer’s and more hands go up.  We know that Alzheimer’s is a disease process that is 30 or more years in the making before symptoms appear.  Diabetes has an incubation period of about 5 to 10 years.   

The “ah-ha” moments we see in Growing Healthy Kids’ classes are a constant reminder of how essential our work is to reversing and preventing obesity-related diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes.  One of the essential lessons taught in Growing Healthy Kids’ educational programs is that everyone can afford to eat healthy foods.  Be the solution.  Cook at home with your kids!

With love and gratitude,

Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

PS - If you need ideas to get you and your kids started in the kitchen, then get a copy of NOURISH AND FLOURISH:  Kid-Tested Tips and Recipes to Prevent Diabetes may be just the thing!  Available at Amazon.com.  

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Respect Your Food

"Be kind whenever possible.  It is always possible."

                                                                            -- Dalai Lama

One of the first lessons we teach kids during the educational programs at Growing Healthy Kids is about treating food with respect.  This is why we take “field” trips to local farmers markets and introduce kids to the farmers and the vegetables they are growing.  We believe that when you know where your food comes from and you know how it is grown, that you will make better choices by respecting your food and how good you feel when you eat good food. 

 

Recently, I taught a healthy eating program for children attending an afterschool program where the local school district provides daily snacks.  Since part of the lesson was about reading food labels and raising awareness about what you consume, I checked out the day’s snack the children were given.  The drink, with 20 grams of sugar, was apple juice: “100% apple juice”.  I read the nutrition facts label.  The ingredients were:  “water, apple juice concentrate, calcium, ascorbic acid (vitamin c), vitamin A palmitate, and vitamin D3.  Contains concentrate from China.”  China???  Why are schools buying apple juice from China?  Something is wrong.  Very wrong.

America’s children who qualify for free and reduced school meal programs are being fed foods and drinks from China?  What other food products contain ingredients grown in countries where we have no idea what chemicals are being used? 

As a parent concerned about the health of children, I know that when we eat foods grown organically and free of chemicals that come from laboratories, we will be healthier.  As an epidemiologist who looks at the root causes of diseases, I know that we must ask about the relationship between foods grown with hormones, pesticides, insecticides and fungicides and diseases such as obesity and heart disease.

Read food labels.  Ask questions.  Our children’s health – and lives – are at stake. 

With love and gratitude,

Nancy L. Heinrich, MPH

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.