Teach a Child to Grow

Paradise Greetings,

What do YOU think about all the added sugars, fats, and salt in the lunches our children eat at school? I think it's time to improve the quality of food served to our most important resource - the next generation. Improving the nutritional quality - and access to locally grown foods - are 2 of the 4 points in The First Lady's new childhood obesity campaign.

I think it's time for a food revolution. Let's have a Salad Party and get the greens and the good stuff from our local farmers. Let me know if you want to help. When you eat more of the good stuff, you eat less of the bad stuff. Keeping it simple.

It's like last Friday at one of my weekly Growing Healthy Kids program for kids served by the Boys and Girls Club, something magical happened. A couple of parents were picking up their children and said to me, "Is that my son eating VEGETABLES???" When you give kids a healthy choice, they choose health!!

Today's picture is from last Friday at one of the teaching gardens. Peas. Green beans. YES, YES!

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

Jumping Jacks & Green Beans

Paradise greetings,

What, you may ask, do jumping jacks and green beans have in common? Ecofest, that's what! Today's Growing Healthy Kids' adventure was being part of Ecofest this afternoon at a very special place in northern Indian River County, the Environmental Learning Center. Five volunteers and I greeted hundreds of children and their families who wanted to take home a plant (green beans & radishes). To "qualify" to make a seed pot, the kids were asked to do 10 jumping jacks.

We got the place hopping alright. Kids were jumping, then they played in the dirt. While the kids were busy, I talked with lots of parents and grandparents about Growing Healthy Kids' tips for making small changes for improved health. One of the simple tips I shared was to replace fruit juice with fruit. Parents, remember the saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"? Know why? Fruit contains fiber, which is what fills us up. It takes a lot of apples to make 8 ounces of apple juice. Did you know 1 cup of apple juice contains 7 teaspoons of sugar and NO FIBER (CLUE: fiber=good stuff we need and we don't get from drive-through dinners (you know, places like the one with yellow arches and a clown with red hair) or the "enriched" wheat breads most people eat. The high amounts of sugar in sweet tea, sodas, fruit juices, and white breads are the problem. Diet sodas aren't the answer. I saw a lot of moms this afternoon drinking diet sodas. When I told them that new studies indicate that people OVEREAT when they drink diet sodas because their brains don't get the signal that food is on its way and they're full, they were like, "REALLY?" I'm optimistic that there are a couple more families looking at the nutrition facts label on the bread they have at home tonight looking to see how many grams of dietary fiber it has. (CLUE: We need 14 grams/1000 calories we eat.)

Here's my suggestion for healthy snacks with apples: apple slices with Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter, apple slices with a couple of walnut halves, or apple slices with a couple of slices of cheddar cheese.
Try it! Choose health. Stay tuned and remember: fruit, not fruit juice. Got it? Good.

Growing Healthy Kids, one garden and one child at a time. What fun!!

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

Sugar Will Kill You, Rainbows Will Heal You

Paradise greetings,

Tonight at 6 PM is our first Growing Healthy Kids...and Families Workshop at The Majestic Theater in Vero Beach. You know by now that Growing Healthy Kids is all about changing the landscape so that we no longer turn a blind eye to the children all around us who are not at healthy weights and teaching new skills to kids and parents. Our teaching gardens are using the power of fresh, colorful foods to empower kids to make healthy food choices economically.

If parents leave The Majestic Theater tonight learning just one thing, it is that sugar is hidden in many foods by many names. Sugar is a trigger for inflammation in the body. Inflammation causes diseases. The excess calories we are consuming with all this sugar is causing us to eat too much. Eliminating foods high in sugar, a highly processed ingredient with no nutritional value, and replacing them with fresh, unprocessed foods that contain nutrients and dietary fiber that fill us up is one of the most important steps a parent can take to improve their own health and the health of their children.

In order for our children to eat healthier, we must choose to eat healthier. To be healthy is to be whole. To be whole is holy (Deepak Chopra). I believe that together, we can and will find the solutions to the food crisis and the obesity crisis we are facing.

Start reading your food labels and look for "high fructose corn syrup". Look for "fruit juice concentrates" and "sugar" and "corn syrup" and "dextrose" and "molasses" and "malt sugar" and "fructose" and "honey" and "brown sugar" and "sucrose" and "lactose" and "maltose" and "invert sugar." These are some of the names for sugar in our foods.

I'm looking forward to the discussion Dr. William Elman and I will have with you tonight. We're making progress as evidenced by one 9 year old girl last Wednesday night. She has been a part of the Growing Healthy Kids project for the past 2 months at the Boys and Girls Club. She helped me represent Growing Healthy Kids to Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County donors at its annual Angels fundraising dinner held at Sun Aviation. For 2 hours, this little girl taught grown men and women all dressed up how to read a food label, what to look for, and how to eat healthy. The kids become the teachers. Yes, yes.

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