Paradise greetings,
My friends, I am so full of gratitude that we now have the power of the First Lady with us as we work as one to halt and reverse childhood obesity in America. This country is too great to leave our children behind when they did not ask to be fed excess calories and they did not ask for physical education classes to be taken away in K-12 grades and they did not ask that high fructose corn syrup and trans fats be hidden in everything they eat.
We cannot fail in meeting the challenge of protecting the health - and lives - of my child, your children, and all of America's children. We cannot fail in halting and reversing the trend of children consuming more energy than they use for daily activities and normal growth and development. We cannot fail them because if we do, their lives will be measurable shorter than ours.
What I have learned since starting Growing Healthy Kids last spring is that when you give kids a choice, they choose health. When I teach kids how to make healthy snacks and meals and compare healthy, fresh ingredients to unhealthy ones, they choose the healthy ones. When you teach them the truth, they make better choices. We must also teach the parents. We must also teach the school administrators to stop ignoring the pain, suffering, and bullying that overweight and obese children face every day by not being able to walk more than a short distance without becoming breathless, who are being diagnosed with diseases usually found in middle-age and older adults, who are developing bone disorders, sleep apnea, and who are the new target for Big Pharma. Was this planned, you might ask?
Failure is NOT an option.
Thanks, Michelle!
Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of children, one garden and one child at a time.
To your perfect health.
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids
Vero Beach, FL.
PS - Today's program with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County was SO AWESOME!! Pics to follow because I'm about to collapse from all the fun. Just a teaser though, then to bed...Esteban brought a dozen kids up to Disney's Vero Beach Resort, where I had arranged for the children to have their own class with Chef Brian. After talking with them about healthy choices and reading food labels (their parents need to be in the next class), he showed them his new recipe for fruit smoothies and trail mix. Then, Debbie from Disney walked the kids outside and we got a group photo at the beach. SO MUCH FUN!! Night all!
