WHAT'S IN YOUR PANTRY?

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"Pasta, vegetables, fish, and good bread...That's my idea of how to eat well and healthfully."  

---Marion Nestle

The Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, and Professor of Socialogy, at New York University, and the author of Safe Food (2002), What to Eat (2006), and Food Politics (revised ed., 2007)

Last night, one of my wonderful neighbors stopped by the house to ask me for some healthy food ideas for her dad (who has Type 2 diabetes).  She walked into the kitchen, picked up a bag of Bob�s Red Mill Whole Grain Oat Flour (which I just bought for the Growing Healthy Kids Test Kitchen�s new challenge later this month), and started asking questions.  

Here are some of my answers:

• Eating whole grain foods is key to a balanced eating plan.  
• Make AT LEAST HALF of all your grains whole grain.  Think of all the foods you eat that contain grains:  breads, pastas, cereals, tortillas, cookies, cakes, crackers, rice, and more.   

Whole grain foods are central to the recipes created in the Growing Healthy Kids Test Kitchen.  We love Bob�s Red Mill products because of their purity, quality, and dependability. Here are ten items from Bob�s Red Mill you can ALWAYS find in my pantry:

1. Steel cut oats
2. Whole grain oat flour
3. Coconut flour
4. Brown rice flour
5. Ground flax seeds (you can use these as a substitute for oil in baking!)
6. Corn grits/polenta
7. Organic quinoa
8. French lentils
9. Raw pumpkin seeds
10. Quick cooking wild rice

What is YOUR favorite whole grain product? To learn more about one of Growing Healthy Kids' good food companies, click here,

In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids

BREAKFAST OF WELLNESS CHAMPIONS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"What you do has far greater impact than what you say."
                                                ---Stephen Covey

My best friend, Chris Ann, surprised me this summer when she invited me to celebrate my birthday at a great little restaurant called "Three Doors Down from Nancy".  The restaurant was, indeed, three doors down from Nancy, which turned out to be a little dress shop.  I asked Chris Ann to take this picture of me because, come on, how often does something this cool happen to yours truly?  What magical experiences have YOU had during your summer vacation? 

Now that it is the end of August, it is back to school for parents who can lead by example with healthy eating habits.  Back to school for the kids means alarm clocks, getting a healthy breakfast before leaving the house, and packing a school lunch. I talked about school lunches last week, so let's back up and talk about breakfast. 

  

Here are a few questions:

How many days a week do your kids eat breakfast?

How often do they skip it?

What do they eat to kickstart their day into high gear?
Does your breakfast include some protein? 

What are you having for breakfast to set the right example?

Why is breakfast such an important meal for the kids (and you)?  Here are reasons why:

• Breakfast is our first meal of the day.  
• It literally means �break the fast� after not eating all night.  Breakfast is the meal that gives our bodies and minds the energy to get up and go. 
• When you skip breakfast, you do more harm than good. 
• Kids who do not have breakfast do not perform as well in school. 
• Choosing a breakfasts with either soluble fiber (found in oats, apples, and pears) or insoluble fiber (found in whole grain breads and waffles) actually protects you against blood sugar spikes and crashes later in the day.

Here's a BIG reason to eat breakfast.  Did you know...that one of the key habits of �successful losers� (from a national database of over 5,000 people who lost at least 30 pounds and kept them off for at least a year) is that they eat breakfast every day?  Let�s give our children the fuel for their brains to perform and their bodies to be in great shape.  Breakfast�it does a body good!

Bob�s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats is one of my favorite breakfast foods. Steel cut oats are a less processed version of what most people think of when you say �oatmeal�.  Oats are full of soluble fiber, which acts like a scrubber for keeping the bad cholesterol from sticking to or staying inside of our blood vessels.  Other foods high in soluble fiber include apples and pears.  Steel cut oats take up to 30 minutes to cook, so a tip for making healthy breakfasts for the kids (and you) is to cook it on Sunday, then just heat it up to make a great breakfast for 2-3 days.  Serve with some almond or soy milk, a little cinnamon, agave nectar or honey, and some diced apples.  Add a piece of whole grain toast and the kids will be thanking you for the brainpower food!

Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats make a delicious - and healthy - start to the day!  

Use one of the 100 calorie whole grain flat breads to make a peanut butter and banana sandwich.  Look for the ones that have 5 grams of dietary fiber per serving.  Add a glass of almond or soy milk and hit the power button for school! 

SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE THIS YEAR AT SCHOOL!  This is a picture I took recently in Sebastian, Florida.  

You�ve got to watch the video of this little kid with his words of empowerment he learned at pre-k.  Wish every kid started with this kind of attitude.  Thank a teacher for making a difference!  Click here and scroll down to watch the video.

Lead by example.  When you go shopping with your kids, talk with them about breakfast ideas and involve them in the decisions.  With just a little bit of planning, you can send your kids off to school with a breakfast that will kickstart their day and help them be smart and healthy!

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

GOOD FOODS FOR KIDS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

�A is for apple.  F is for Fiber.  Z is for Zucchini.  Eat Your Alphabet. �

                                                        --- Nancy Heinrich

When I first wrote this line, I used it as part of our Eat Rainbows campaign to engage kids in the �funness factor� of healthy eating. Eating should be fun.  It can also be educational.  

Planning meals is always fun at my house.  Take today, for instance.  This morning, I juiced up some fresh Granny Smith apples, carrots, and ginger to share with my son.  It was so delicious and I drank mine quickly.  My son, however, sternly (was he joking??) said, �Mom, you�re not sipping it!�  He's right about taking time to enjoy your food.  Lessons from our children.  It was a great way to start Wellness Wednesday, carrot mustaches and all!

Tonight, I get to play in the Growing Healthy Kids Test Kitchen.  Zucchini is in abundance and I want to create a new zucchini cake recipe for our fall project at Gifford Youth Activity Center.  One of my favorite parts of the Growing Healthy Kids project is creating recipes that are fun AND easy to make, have �regular� ingredients, feature seasonal veggies, and best of all, taste delicious and are good for you!  If all goes well tonight, next week�s Wellness Wednesdays column will feature our new zucchini cake recipe. 

Fresh veggies (tomatoes, peppers, onion, and garlic) ready to roast in the oven! 

"F" is for Fiber.  Fiber is the nondigestable part of plants.  Fiber is not found in animal products.  Foods containing fiber are what we call the good carbohydrates.  Here�s my challenge for you:  keep a food journal for 2 days in the next week and record how many grams of dietary fiber you are eating.  You will have to read food labels and you will need measuring cups.  Most Americans eat far less fiber than they need.  Here is the basic guideline from the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the USDA:  14 grams of dietary fiber per 1,000 calories consumed.  Most adults should aim for 28-35 grams of dietary fiber a day.   Vegetables and fruits have fiber.  Lentils and beans have fiber.  Flax seed (my personal favorite: Bob�s Red Mill Ground Flax Seed) is high in fiber as well as omega-3 fatty acids.  Lots of great recipes at Bob's Red Mill.

From apples to zucchini, eat your alphabet.  Eat several letters of the alphabet and mix up the colors.  Enjoy real food.  What are you doing for fun in the kitchen with your kids?  

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids

TIPS FOR GREAT BREAKFASTS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

Great health begins with a great breakfast.  So what exactly is a great breakfast?  It is the meal that sets the tone for your day, breaks the fast after not eating all night, and gives your brain and body the energy, focus, and power for a day of learning and activity. 

Great Breakfast Idea: Toast that meets THE NANCY RULE topped with peanut or almond butter and sliced strawberries.

Planning great breakfasts for your kids means learning the basics about carbohydrates, protein, and fats.  Loading the kids up with bowls of refined sugar, found in most breakfast cereals, will doom them to a day of hyperactivity followed by blood sugar crashes and the inability to concentrate.   Whenever I see kids on their way to middle and high school in the morning stopping by the 7-11 convenient store to purchase one of those monster energy drinks or an Arizona Southern Style iced tea, I wonder why the parents of those kids let them out of the house without their most valuable meal of the day. All sugar = empty calories and no nutritional value.

Here are three great breakfast ideas:

1.       Steel cut oats with blueberries, cinnamon, and agave nectar plus almond, rice, or soy milk

2.       Toast made from whole grain bread that meets THE NANCY RULE* plus a hard-boiled egg or a fried egg plus half an orange, peach, or pear.

3.       Whole grain waffles (try the Van's brand in the freezer section to make this an easy choice) topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and/or bananas and yogurt.

*THE NANCY RULE is something I created to make it easy to remember what kind of bread to buy: 

• (1) 4 or more grams of dietary fiber per slice AND 
• (2) the first ingredient includes the word �WHOLE�.  

Set the example and make sure YOU are having breakfast, too.  It may mean getting up 10 minutes earlier in the morning but it will pay great dividends - today and the rest of your life!  Why?  Because preventing obesity means not skipping meals.  Losing weight means not skipping meals.  

For more great healthy breakfast ideas for kids, go to: http://www.cookinglight.com/food/recipe-finder/kids-breakfast-recipes-00412000072277/

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.