THE HIGH COST OF EATING CHEAP

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

When I hear a parent say, �I can�t afford to feed my kids healthy foods,� my response is, �Spent an hour shopping and cooking with me.�  Due to the increase in situational poverty, where people are losing their jobs and being forced onto food stamps and their kids onto free and reduced school meal programs, more and more kids are eating cheap calories and processed food.  Pop tarts and honey buns are what I call "weak foods" that are wreaking havoc on the health of America�s children.  The result of eating processed food such as pop tarts and $1 McDonalds menu items is that children are living sicker and dying younger.  Hunger and obesity are directly related.  We are not supposed to be diagnosing type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure in 12 year olds, but it is happening.  Just ask your pediatrician.

To raise awareness about eating healthy foods, one of Growing Healthy Kids' core education programs is our GIANT SALAD PARTY.  Yesterday the party was at the Fellsmere location of Indian River County Boys and Girls Clubs. After meeting Ms. Keisha Rainey last year during The Art of Healthy Eating for Growing Healthy Kids poster contest, she invited us to throw a GIANT SALAD PARTY for some of the child she and other staff provide afterschool services to.  The typical snack given to these children is free food from the local school district.  The free food consists of processed foods high in white sugars and white flours.  Staff has said the club cannot afford to provide healthy snacks, such as fresh fruit and veggies.  I hold a different opinion. I believe they can afford to provide healthy snacks for the children - it just hasn't been their priority...yet.  

YUM!!

Ms. Keisha Rainey (in orange shirt) and Ms. Mayra (on the left)
served the children a delicious afterschool snack!

Our young chefs for the day loved learning how to make the simple vinaigrette dressing!

At yesterday�s GIANT SALAD PARTY, the kids loved the food, especially some of their favorite items:  chopped apples, whole grain pasta (I used the Dreamfields brand), and sunflower seeds.  It was a wonderful scene to see 24 beautiful 6 year olds all eating fruit and veggies for their afterschool snack.  

In addition to learning some basic kitchen skills, the children learned to make a simple vinaigrette dressing.  They are now empowered to be catalysts for starting new family traditions with their own salad parties.  I can just hear it now, all across America:  �Mom, please don�t buy those pop tarts.  I�ll make a simple vinaigrette dressing and we can have a salad party instead!�  We can all learn the same lessons that the 6 year olds learned yesterday:  to be smart, healthy, and strong, you need to eat rainbows and other healthy foods.

Here is the recipe for you to try with your own family:

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS:  Simple Vinaigrette

(French Dressing)

   MIXtogether in a bowl:

• � cup apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar (the kids used apple cider vinegar)
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• � teaspoon dry mustard or 1 teaspoon prepared Dijon mustard
• sea salt
• fresh ground pepper

BEAT  in gradually with a whisk or a fork until the mixture emulsifies:

• � cup extra virgin olive oil    

If you live in the Vero Beach area, please join me the evening of April 25 for A Place at the Table at The Majestic Theatre, followed by a community discussion.  This film is by the same producers of Food, Inc. To see a preview of the movie, click here:  http://www.magpictures.com/aplaceatthetable/.  

Be part of the solution.  Help us ensure that all kids (and parents) have access to healthy food. 

A special thank you to Kevin O'Dare of Osceola Organic Farm for providing the fresh salad greens, tomatoes, and green peppers for yesterday's party!  

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

Danish Company-Novo Nordisk-One of World's Best 9 Stocks Thanks to Global Obesity

I just read an article in the February 2011 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance called The World's Best Stocks by Andrew Tanzer (www.kiplinger.com). The first stock to be highlighted by Tanzer, in case you are capital-flush, is Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company which provides OVER HALF the global market for insulin.

According to Mr. Tanzer, "As people gain weight and consume more sugar in their diets, the pancreas can no longer produce enough insulin to break down that sugar. By the end of this decade, UnitedHealth recently estimated, half of all adult Americans will be diabetic or pre-diabetic unless we suddenly change our diets and lose weight. The incidence of dietabetes is also exploding in countries such as India and China, where diets and lifestyles are shifting abruptly as people see their incomes rise."

I love Novo Nordisk. They are an extremely focused company. They produce very well written patient education materials which I have used in working with adults with diabetes. They are highly skilled and professional at what they do. Because 5-10% of people with diabetes have type 1 diabetes and require insulin, we need companies like Novo Nordisk. However, for the 90-95% of people with diabetes type 2 (the one you get when you eat too many calories and get too little exercise), Novo Nordisk should be Plan B, not Plan A. Even American Diabetes Association says that in their Standards of Medical Care. The fact is that diabetes is preventable and reversible. Most doctors don't spend much, if any, time telling patients how to do that because it is simply easier for them to hand you a prescription.

Americans - and now countries like India and China - are killing themselves - and their children - with too much sugar. Where do you find sugar? Just look on the food labels under "total carbohydrates". There is sugar in cereals. Sugar in sodas. Sugar in energy drinks. Sugar in the processed foods served in school cafeterias. Sugar in fruit juices. Sugar in energy bars. Sugar in the snack foods served at the Boys and Girls Clubs.

It's OK if you want to eat too much sugar. There are drugs just waiting for you. Like insulin. Your doctor will be happy to give you drugs because then you have to keep coming back for more. Instead of becoming drug addicts, it would be so much easier to get back to the basics of wholesome, whole, good foods in the right portion sizes. Call me old-fashioned but I'll take a dinner of wild salmon and spinach anytime over a big Mac (540 calories, 10 teaspoons sugar, 7 teaspoons saturated fat, and 1,040 mg sodium) and large fries (500 calories, 14 teaspoons sugar,6 teaspoons saturated fat, and 350 mg sodium).

My focus is to prevent diabetes and to raise awareness about how to do it. When you know what to do, it's easy. Healthy eating means a commitment to learn how to get to - and stay at - a healthy weight. Focusing on solutions to childhood obesity is what the Growing Healthy Kids movement is all about.

Improving the health - and lives - of America's children, one garden and one child at a time. Because failure is not an option.

In kindness,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

NOTE: My book "Healthy Living with Diabetes: One Small Step at a Time" is available at the Vero Beach Book Center, the Growing Healthy Kids Variety Store (3300 43rd Avenue in Vero Beach) and www.ourlittlebooks.com.

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

Calling All Adults: Fat First!

Paradise greetings,

A rainy morning today. After the last couple of weeks of unusually cold, freezing weather, we need some liquid sunshine. This week we will be planning the new gardens for the new year.

Growing Healthy Kids Tip: Did you know that most of the fat calories we eat should be from GOOD fats, called UNSATURATED FATS? Unsaturated fats are in fish, nuts, olives, liquid vegetable oils like olive oil, canola oil, and sunflower oil, flax seeds, and avocados. Most of the fat we eat should come from these foods. One thing about nuts: since nuts' calories are primarily from fat, even though it is the good fat, if we - or kids - eat too many nuts we can quickly get too many fat calories. About 1/4 cup of most nuts has around 200 calories. Just a few walnuts provide an excellent snack!

Last Friday I visited the children at the Boys and Girls Club and shared some healthy snacks enjoyed by all (carrot sticks, walnuts, and organic bunny fruit snacks--yum). Afterwards everyone ran a couple of laps around in the fresh air. We planned our kayak adventure for next week and the kids decided on a healthy menu of tuna sandwiches on whole grain bread, oranges, and water. Several of these kids have never been on the water in a canoe or a kayak, so a great adventure is right around the corner! Our kayak partner, Mike Beck, reported that he was busy last week rescuing sea turtles from the dangerously cold Intercoastal waters. The kids will get to hear first-hand from him about his work while paddling and watching for egrets and manatees.

An observation from volunteering yesterday as a proctor at the state math competition hosted by Vero Beach High School (couldn't help notice all the soda machines placed strategically on campus): the number of obese adults chaperoning and volunteering. They were everywhere! It is my belief that adults must first address the problem of their own fat in order for kids to take them seriously. Maybe "Fat First" should be our new tag line. If you are a fat adult, then fix yours first by making one change a week to eat healthier and move more. I mean no disrespect to anyone, it's just that we can no longer ignore the problem. Has the term "obesity" lulled people into complacency about self-honesty? America, this is Mission Control, and We Have a Fat Problem. So, what's YOUR body mass index number?? If you are in the obese category (BMI 30 or higher), then how much weight do you need to lose to be one number smaller? Go to http://www.cdc.gov/ to find out!

Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health of kids, one garden and one child at a time.

To your perfect health.

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

Merry Christmas!

Paradise greetings,

Yesterday I stopped by one of the Boys and Girls Clubhouses with a new tomato plant for the garden. Just a small group of kids were there for the day. One girl, who has missed many of the Fridays (our usual afternoon for Growing Healthy Kids), was there for the day so she was glad to help me get the new plant tucked into its new home.

While she and I worked side by side, she told me about the tomato plant she took home several months ago when Growing Healthy Kids made container gardens in recycled one gallon jugs. She told me about the tomatoes she and her mom have been eating from it!

Then she shared about the farm her grandmother used to have and her voice sparkled with excitement!

She and I talked about things she can make with her own tomatoes. She is an amazing child, so full of life and possibilities! I am honored to know her and look forward to being able to give her more Growing Healthy Kids gifts in January!

As we gather tonight and tomorrow to celebrate Christmas together, enjoy the gift of life that has been given to each of us. I am so thankful for my family and friends. I am grateful for the joy that Growing Healthy Kids is bringing to children served by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County and by Youth Guidance Mentoring & Activities Program and am excited about the possibilities that are coming! What are YOU thankful for?

Growing Healthy Kids is here to improve the health - and lives - of children, one garden and one child at a time.

Merry Christmas to all!

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

Composting for Health (Ours and Our Planet's)

Paradise greetings,

Last Friday, a Master Gardener came to talk with the Growing Healthy Kids group at one of the Boys and Girls Clubs where we have a garden. It was a rainy afternoon, so our plan to have the lesson outside at the garden was rearranged by Mother Nature.

Meet Adina Lehrman: "The Compost Gardener", purveyor of poo, compost concoctor, and butterfly benefactor (I'm not kidding, that what it says on her card!).

Adina talked with the kids about composting and she brought some great teaching tools: dirt, bunny balls, and bugs. The kids learned that composting is simply Nature's way of recycling and that if it weren't for organic compost, the Earth would be covered with rocks and sand, manure and garbage.

The kids learned how to make home compost piles and what NOT to put in them (NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS-they attract carniverous animals like raccoons and rats).

Thank you, Adina, for sharing your wealth of information - and cool bunny balls - and engaging the kids in another aspect of gardening for great health (ours and our planet's).

Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of kids, one garden and one child at a time.

To your perfect health,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

What a Difference a Year Makes

Paradise greetings,

One year ago, I had no idea that I was going to start a non-profit organization to build gardens for kids served by Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County. One year ago, I had an 8-5 job and was working in disease management for a physicians' practice, tracking data, teaching patients, and giving talks on diabetes and obesity.

Earlier this year I made the decision to start Growing Healthy Kids because of the overweight kids I see at every school and every community event. I see the awful food choices kids are given in school. Teachers and school social workers have started asking me for help with kids who are depressed and withdrawn because they are ashamed of their excess weight. I talk with frustrated parents who say they can't afford to eat healthy and I say to them, yes you can, I will teach you.

Growing Healthy Kids is about "fun with a purpose". We are starting to plant gardens around the county, including our first kayak garden with our partner, Kayaks Etc. Every week we are teaching lessons at the garden. Every week kids are actively learning how to make a healthy snack using ingredients that we are growing together in the gardens.

Every week the lessons I am learning make me grateful for my life, for my wonderful mother who made sure we had healthy, fresh foods to eat, and for my health. So many of the kids I am now gardening with here in Indian River County, Florida have grown up on fast foods and highly processed foods. My anecdotal observation is that these kids seem to explode with happiness when they taste a salsa made from freshly picked, chemical-free tomatoes. They're like starving dogs who've had to beg for table scraps for years and just got tossed a fresh wild salmon.

The foods many kids eat are full of refined sugars with no nutritional value but lots of calories, refined grains stripped of all the dietary fiber and vitamins that nature gave us, and saturated and trans fats that are driving the obesity epidemic and creating younger candidates for heart attacks and Big Pharma. Two in 3 American adults are overweight or obese and already one in 3 kids is overweight or obese. This must change.

Our kids' environment must change. We must change the food choices kids have and did I tell you that we're going to have fun doing it? We're going to plant a lot of gardens!

This is why I have created Growing Healthy Kids. Because NO MATTER WHAT, kids need real foods, not highly processed foods. Because NO MATTER WHAT, kids need some physical activity every day away from computers and texting. I have partnered with Kristen and Mike Beck at Kayaks Etc. so we can erase kids' nature deficit while they learn how to paddle a kayak and stretch some muscles they don't use playing handheld games.

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

Welcome to the Garden Adventure

Paradise greetings to you!

I'm Nancy Heinrich, founder of Growing Healthy Kids. This new organization is building gardens for children as a way to teach kids, their families, and their communities about the importance of eating locally grown, fresh, whole foods. So many kids in America are spending hours and hours in front of computers and game systems and are attending schools where physical education programs have been cut back or eliminated.

We are creating innovative ways to teach, empower, and motivate kids to go outside and learning about the simplicity of health from the perspective of where foods come from and where they go, from seed to table. The idea for Growing Healthy Kids was "planted" by the national cooperative agreement between Kiwanis Clubs and Boys and Girls Clubs of America to work together to improve the lives of kids.

We are working in partnership with three organizations to improve the health - and lives - of children, one garden and one child at a time. Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County, which serves about 1400 kids, and Youth Guidance Mentoring & Activities Program, which serves about 700 kids who have a parent in jail or in prison, are the kids we serve.

Please follow us as we share the story of building vegetable gardens for kids, teach them how to put together kid-friendly foods using fresh ingredients, and watch as they teach us lessons about how we each can choose to live healthy.

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