I love November because it is National Diabetes
Education Month. For our Growing Healthy
Kids movement, it is another opportunity to lead by example to empower children
and educate parents. That’s why this
month we are going bananas teaching healthy cooking classes and talking about
diabetes with adults throughout the Treasure Coast of Florida and the U.S.
Did you know…
…diabetes is preventable?
…the “good” kind of carbohydrate that doesn’t raise
your blood sugar is called dietary fiber?
…sugar has no nutritional value yet it is added to
lots of foods and drinks because it is cheap?
Protecting our health means caring about our
health. Protecting our children’s health
means learning how to read food labels and buying real foods, not highly
processed foods filled with added sugars, fats, salt, and food dyes. Remember last week’s Wellness Wednesdays
article I shared with you about the woman with diabetes who had no idea what an
A1c test was? Doctors are treating diabetes but are not
teaching about diabetes. This bothers me
because of all the people I have worked with who are taking medications for
diabetes but who have never been educated about what to do if their blood sugar
remains elevated or if their blood sugar falls way below normal. If someone’s blood sugar remains
uncontrolled, don’t just throw another medicine at the patient, educate the
patient how to gain control. The fact is
that avoiding extreme highs and low is the goal if you have diabetes. As I like to say to my adult students engaged
in improving their health literacy, “you want to keep your blood sugar steady
and even, like a flat-as-a-pancake kind of beach morning at Jaycee Park Beach.”
Did you know…
…uncontrolled diabetes may very well be linked to Alzheimer's disease?
…children who eat diets filled with processed sugar
may not only develop early onset diabetes but also early onset Alzheimer's?
…children diagnosed with diabetes as teenagers can
be expected to live 15-17 years LESS than someone without diabetes?
Let’s get going with some leadership on how to not just control diabetes but how to prevent it and reverse it.
Parents can lead by example. Dare
to care. Read food labels. Cook with your children. Eat dinner together as a family. Invest in a copy of Nourish and
Flourish: Kid-Tested Tips and Recipes to Prevent Diabetes for the price of one lunch AND support our health ministry to reverse childhood obesity and prevent
obesity-related diseases like diabetes.
Buy a couple of extra copies of the book for your local library or church. It’s real easy, just click here. You can also invite Growing Healthy Kids to come to your community with weekend wellness workshops filled with healthy cooking classes and pantry makeovers; all you have to do is dare to care and dare
to lead. Just send us an email at growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com to schedule a weekend wellness workshop at your organization, business, school, or community center.
With your leadership, we CAN reverse the childhood obesity epidemic and ensure that our children have long lives to look forward to!
In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.
