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

Free Parent Workshop "Growing Healthy Kids...and Families"

Paradise Greetings,

One week from tonight, please join Dr. William Elman, board certified pediatrician and family practice physician, and me for a conversation about where we go from here in getting our children - and us - back into shape. This is an awesome opportunity to come together for 90 minutes at the beautiful Majestic Theater in Vero Beach and discuss why and how we must solve the health challenge of children - and parents - who are overweight and obese. Learn simple ways to get on track towards better health and healthier weights. You will walk away knowing how to make one small change a week for 10 weeks that can have huge results.

Last week at one of our Boys and Girls Club weekly program, I was teaching kids how to read food labels and looking for trans fats (anything that includes the words, "partially hydrogenated" on the ingredients label, even if the Nutrition Facts label says "0 trans fat"). One of the boys quietly said to his mom, "I'm going to start dieting." Mind you, I NEVER say the word diet in these classes. It's ALL about making healthy choices through informed decision making. We had talked about how one kind of peanut butter - the Peter Pan brand - had added sugars and added saturated and trans fats (both "bad" fats)and compared it to the Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter, which did not have added sugars and fats. I was reminded that many adults talk about "starting a diet" when what really matters is eating healthy every day. Food is life, after all. Learning how to recognize saturated and trans fats on food labels. Learning to watch for (and avoid) "High Fructose Corn Syrup" and other names for added sugars in foods. Learning to season foods with herbs instead of added salt. Learning how to choose foods that are high in dietary fiber, instead of choosing foods which contain no fiber. This is what healthy eating is all about. This is what I communicated to this boy's mother because kids hear adults talking about "dieting" and we need to banish that word from our vocabularly.

Children, when given the choice, choose healthy foods and snacks. Please call Youth Guidance Mentoring & Activities Program at 772 770 5040 to register for next Tuesday's FREE PARENT WORKSHOP, called "Growing Healthy Kids...and Families." The workshop is from 6:00-7:30 PM. Bring your children and they will get to watch a free movie while you, Dr. Elman, and I discuss protecting our most precious children's lives and health.

Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health - and lives - of children, one garden and one child at a time.
See you next Tuesday.

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

Growing Healthy Kids...and Parents, Too!

Paradise greetings,

On Saturday while working at the rummage sale to raise money for the Vero Beach High School band's trip to play at Carnegie Hall over Spring Break, I overheard another parent say that 49 of 50 US states had snow! Extreme weather.

We have an extreme health situation on our hands that deserves extreme truth. Childhood obesity. Let's talk food. Let's talk rainbows. Let's talk variety, not volume. Let's talk truth. Extreme truth.

I am reading a book from the library. It's called "French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure." It's a great book. Mireille Guiliano first came to a wealthy Boston suburb as an exchange student, and while there she gained 25 pounds (she's 5'3"). When she returned home she was coached by the family physician how to make small changes and learn the habits of staying at a healthy weight for life.

Eating well is one of life's great pleasures. That's why I love to cook. Here's some tips from Guiliano's book which I also share whenever I teach: Take time to eat. Sit down to eat. Eat with new friends. Chew your food. Eat small meals. Eat healthy snacks. Stop eating when you are full. Smile. Eat the foods that are grown locally. Eat what's in season. Eat simply.

Parents must dare to care about their children's health. Parents must learn these lessons in order to provide the leadership, the knowledge, and the skills needed to feed their children. We are growing healthy kids...and parents, too. On March 2, Dr. William Elman, board certified pediatrician, will be the keynote speaker at Growing Healthy Kids' first Parent Workshop at Majestic Theater in Vero Beach. Call Allison at Youth Guidance at 772.226.3092 to RSVP. Let's pack the place. Come. Learn. Inspire. For free!

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