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
