WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: A Day of Sugar

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS:  A Day of Sugar

�Briefly, inflammation is a telltale sign that something isn�t right in the body, that the body is encountering harmful stimuli, which can be any number of things from pathogens to damaged cells and irritants.  To protect itself and try to remove the injurious stimuli, the body triggers inflammation, an elaborate response involving the vascular system, the immune system, and various cells within the injured tissue.  The ultimate goal is to start healing, but when inflammation becomes chronic due to disease or prolonged stress, it can become destructive.  One of the ways we can measure inflammation in the body is by assessing levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a protein whose levels increase when inflammation is present�Researchers are now discovering bridges between certain kinds of inflammation and our most pernicious degenerative diseases, including heart disease, Alzheimer�s disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and an accelerated aging process in general.  Virtually all chronic conditions have been linked to chronic inflammation, which, put simply, creates an imbalance in your system that stimulates negative effects on your health.�  

              -- from The End of Illness by David B. Agus, M.D.

Sugar is part of every lesson taught in our Growing Healthy Kids project.  Kids love sugar and no wonder.  It is sweet and it is the ingredient that makes candy fun. It is also more addictive than crack cocaine.  I see the addiction it causes in children every time I do a program at the Boys and Girls Club.  I will set a couple of bottles of soda on the table next to a bag of sugar.  The kids instantly want to drink the soda and to stick their fingers into the bag of sugar for a taste.  Boys will grab the sodas and stuff them into their pockets, then check to see if I am looking.  Girls will hover around the sugar bag and ask to have a taste.  It scares me to see how addictive sugar is and how powerfully addicted American children have become to it. 

Sugar starts a chain of inflammation in the body which is the spark which awakens many diseases.  While reading The End of Illness recently, the quote by Dr. Agus above really hit me.  While Dr. Agus� primary focus is cancer and mine is obesity, we both share a common interest in educating others about what happens to your body and your health when you eat foods that promote disease.  Healing begins when you commit to eating more good foods and less of the bad. 

As promised in last week�s Wellness Wednesdays article, today�s lesson is about becoming a nutrition detective and learn what a day�s worth of sugar should be vs what people really eat.  Start with the facts about sugar:

• Sugar has NO NUTRITIONAL VALUE � zippo � nada!   
• Sugar has no vitamins
• Sugar has no minerals
• Sugar has no fiber
• Sugar has no enzymes
• Sugar DOES have calories, though, which is part of the problem.  Sugar has lots of calories (�empty calories�)
• Sugar acts like a match that lights a fire, or inflammation, inside the body.  This is what Dr. Agus was talking about.

The first lesson in being a nutrition detective is to decide what to look for. The Nutrition Facts label shows grams of sugar that foods contain.   You can look for grams of sugar OR you can convert the grams to teaspoons of sugar.  You can also learn to spot the zillion different names of sugar and look for them on the list of ingredient on processed food.  Sugar has many names and if it is one (or two or three, as commonly happens in processed foods) of the first five ingredients on a label, then I recommend you NOT buy that food because it is mainly sugar.  Start by looking for these common names for sugar:  high fructose corn syrup, sugar, and cane sugar.

Small pile of sugar (4 teaspoons) is the most elementary age kids should consume in a day.  Middle pile is sugar in one soda (11 teaspoons).  Big pile is what an average American middle or high school student consumes in one day (33 teaspoons).  

The kids were very serious about their jobs as Nutrition Detectives.  

 

Thanks to the kids at Gifford Youth Activity Center in Vero Beach, Florida, for helping me with the demonstrations you see in the pictures.  According to American Heart Association, children ages 4-8 should eat and drink no more than 12.5 grams of sugar a day.  Divide 12.5 by 4 and you get 3 (and a fraction) teaspoons of sugar.  Kids ages 9-18 should be eating no more than 33 grams of sugar a day.  Divide 33 by 4 and you get 8-1/4 teaspoons of sugar. 

How much sugar are we eating every day, on average, in America? According to the American Heart Association, adults consume about 22 teaspoons a day and kids consume around 33 teaspoons a day. 

One 12 ounce soda (root beer was what we used in the demonstration at Gifford Youth Activity Center) has around 45 grams of sugar.  When you divide the grams of sugar by 4 you get the number of teaspoons of sugar.  So one can of soda has about 11-1/4 teaspoons of sugar, more sugar than kids should have in an entire day!   

To summarize:  

• If you have elementary age children, they should be eating and drinking no more than 12.5 grams of sugar (or about 3 teaspoons) a day.
• If your kids are in middle or high school, they should be eating and drinking no more than 33 grams of sugar  (or a little more than 8 teaspoons) a day.
• The average amount of sugar a child 4-8 consumes in one day is 21 teaspoons!  
• The average amount of sugar a kid 9-18 years of age consume is 33 teaspoons a day. 

I hope this lesson in how to be a Nutrition Detective will get you and your family checking Nutrition Facts labels when you go shopping.  Watch out for foods loaded with added sugars. Every day we have choices.  

If you would like more information about all the names for sugar, then get a copy of Nourish and Flourish (see top right corner).  This is the first book from the Growing Healthy Kids project.  It will guide you and your family on a path to better tasting food without sugar - and it is filled with kid-tested recipes!

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Becoming a Nutrition Detective

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS:  Becoming a Nutrition Detective

"Evolutionarily, sugar was available to our ancestors as fruit for only a few months a year (at harvest time), or as honey, which was guarded by bees.  But in recent years, sugar has been added to nearly all processed foods, limiting consumer choice.  Nature made sugar hard to get; man made it easy."                                                             --Dr. Robert Lustig

Last fall, health literacy came into the lives of 25 young people in the form of a new afterschool program conducted by Growing Healthy Kids at the Gifford Youth Activity Center in Vero Beach, Florida. I�m not sure who had more fun � the kids or the staff who participated in the program!  The kids got to play in the kitchen every week as they learned lessons about what it means to eat good foods.  We shredded, grated, and mixed our way to some great recipes.  At the last class, each child took home copies of the recipes they had made and tasted, along with their very own "Eat Rainbows" aprons to remind them to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables every day. 

Classroom time before playtime in the kitchen

Fresh vegetables and herbs can really make foods taste fresh AND delicious!

The Smokin' Salmon burger was a bit hit!

Having fun in the kitchen!

I recently contacted the Center�s director, the amazing Angelia Perry, about teaching a new program this summer.  Without hesitating, she said yes.  Tomorrow is the first class and I am so excited because the children are going to learn how to be a nutrition detective! 

We have an obesity epidemic in America.  Two in three adults are overweight or obese but one in three children is overweight or obese.  When I was growing up in Sacramento, California we played outside after school every day, walked to school, and had P.E. every day through high school.  We didn�t have McDonalds and Coca-Cola getting kids addicted to sugar, just like crack cocaine gets people addicted. 

Eating too much sugar is something most kids (and many adults) do every day without even knowing it.  The excess calories are stored at fat.  The fact is sugar is highly addictive and food manufacturers know it.  Sugar is added to most processed foods.  We have become complacent about knowing what we are eating.  Take something as American as a bowl of breakfast cereal and figure out how much sugar you are eating every morning.  Look at the Nutrition Facts label to determine how many grams of sugar are in a serving.  Then determine how many servings are in that big cereal bowl of yours.  So many food manufacturers create serving sizes that are teeny tiny compared with what we really pour in our bowls.  Divide the total grams of sugar by 4 to get the number of teaspoons of sugar you are eating.

Your next lesson in becoming a nutrition detective will be in next week�s Wellness Wednesdays when we will talk about what a day�s worth of sugar should be vs what people really eat a day. When you go to the grocery store, compare labels and choose the breakfast cereals that is lowest in added sugar.  

To order an "Eat Rainbows" apron and remind your kids to plan meals and snacks with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, click here.  Happy Summer!

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

FIVE GOOD FOODS FOR KIDS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"The reluctance to put away childish things may be a requirement of genius."  

                                   --Rebecca Pepper Sinkler

Playing with kids in the kitchen is a great way to get kids interested in healthy eating.  Parents say to me all the time, �My child is a picky eater.�  My response is always, �Then let them play with their food!�  Everyone's favorite program is Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen, where kids get hands-on experiences in kitchen hygiene and safety, food selection and preparation, PLUS kitchen cleanup. 

Here are five great foods we have been playing with recently in our GHK kitchens (AND changing kids� opinions about what tastes better than honeybuns and white pasta):

1. Haas avocados
2. Black beans
3. Quinoa (a grain, pronounced �keen-wa�)
4. Wild salmon
5. Greek yogurt

Staying at a healthy weight is easy when you know what to do.  All of these foods can be considered �superfoods� for several reasons because they are:

• Super healthy for your body and your brain
• Super easy to prepare
• Super fun to eat
• Super filled with the good fats, the good carbs, and the good proteins

Kids at a recent GHK in the Kitchen class at Gifford Youth Activity Center, Vero Beach, Florida 

Can you say "fresh parsley"?

Kids intent on using the lemon squeezer while making the JamSam Salmon Burgers (see recipe below).

Speaking of good foods for great kids, here is the recipe for GHK�s JamSam Salmon Burgers.  Just ask any of the kids at Gifford Youth Activity Center how delicious and easy these are!

JamSam Salmon Burgers

4 servings

Prepare Dill Mayonnaise:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise*
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill 
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

For Burgers:

• 2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley
• � Vidalia onion, finely diced
• 2 eggs
• � cup panko bread crumbs
• � teaspoon cracked black pepper
• � teaspoon sea salt
• 1 lemon, zested
• 2-4 Tablespoons Dill Mayonnaise
• 2 (6-1/2 ounce) cans Alaska skinless and boneless pink salmon, drained well
• Additional panko for coating the burgers (optional)
• 2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil

In medium bowl, combine, parsley, onions, eggs, panko, black pepper, salt, lemon zest and the Dill Mayonnaise together. Add drained salmon and mix well together. Make 4 patties, rolling them in additional panko, if desired, and set aside.

In a large skillet on medium, heat oil. Place burgers in skillet. Cook over medium heat until browned. Turn and brown other side.

Serve on potato buns with Dill Mayonnaise, fresh spinach or local greens, and sliced tomatoes.

*For demonstration purposes, Hellmann�s Olive Oil mayonnaise was used in the preparation of this recipe.

Parents, it�s easy to get your kids to eat healthy foods when they learn by playing.  Come play in the kitchen with us on November 16th in Vero Beach, Florida when Growing Healthy Kids partners with Chef Chris Bireley of Osceola Bistro for a special Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen Cooking Class for kids ages 5-12.  If you�d like to attend, just shoot me an email: growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com. 

For information about why a healthy weight is so important for your children, click here.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids

MINDFUL HEALTH, MINDFUL FUN, AND KALE FOR KIDS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

  

"The choices we make matter."  -- Nancy Heinrich


How many times have you said, �I wish I knew this 20 years ago?�  or �Why did I ever start (fill in the bad habit)?�  When I was a kid growing up in Sacramento, California I ate lots of vegetables but I never ate asparagus, brussels sprouts, and kale.  Now, I love them and can�t get enough of them!

BRUSSELS SPROUTS!!!  

VEGETABLES AND FRUITS FOR JUICING at a recent GHK program! 

JAMMING SALMON CAKES FROM A
RECENT GHK KIDS IN THE KITCHEN PROGRAM!

Demonstration of MINDFUL FUN at a
recent GHK Kids in the Kitchen program at Gifford Youth Activity Center, Vero Beach, FL)
(yours truly in the background overseeing the fun!)

Mindful fun at a recent GHK event at
Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County, FL

 The choices we make every day matter.  What we learn impacts our decisions.  How much we know about a subject influences the choices we make.  Our mind is the most powerful tool in our health tool kit.  That�s what mindful health is all about.  Be mindful, be healthy!

The Growing Healthy Kids (GHK) movement specializes in mindful fun as the vehicle to arrive at our destination of mindful health.  Kids in the GHK education programs learn about foods firsthand that create health because they talk with the farmers, then they become the farmers, the chefs, and the nutritionists.  We love celebrating each child who makes the mindful health transformation from �I don�t eat that� to �Can I have seconds?�  and �Can I take some of that home to my parents?�  after attending a GHK Kids in the Kitchen program. 

Mindfulness is simply a direct, conscious choice to make a deliberate decision. Think of mindfulness as a strategy for bringing one�s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis.  It is a state of mind that creates prosperity.  I believe that to be healthy is to be prosperous.   By being mindful of what we choose to eat and drink, we make the choice to stay in balance.  Think about what you are eating and why you are eating.  I often ask clients to keep a journal of their emotions ("how were you feeling when you ate this meal/snack/binge food item") when they are seeking solutions for helping their children and themselves get to healthier weights.  They are given the assignment of recording what they eat for one week and also noting how they were feeling at each meal or snack.  What emerges is self-evident:  �I was worried about getting written up at work,� "I was bored,� or �I just had a fight with my boyfriend�. 

Overeating is not productive and does not result in prosperity.  Overindulging in desserts and refined sugars leads to inflammation within the body and weight gain.  Why is this important?  The body is not designed to carry around an extra 50 or 100 pounds.  If you need inspiration, check out CNN�s FitNation series of interviews with people who have made the effort to shed the weight and have gotten the results.  Your attitude can affect your decisions.  Think about what you want and think about why you want it. Then go write in down.  Be specific with the �why�.  Use what we call SMART goals:  Specific-Measureable-Achievable-Realistic-Time-Specific. 

Parents, this message is for you:  Use mindfulness and get yourself fit.  Be a better role model for your children.  The world does not need more overweight children or children with diabetes.  It also does not need parents who are overweight.  Be mindful of what you eat.  Eat with the intention of being healthy every day.  As we like to say in the Growing Healthy Kids movement, �eat rainbows�.  Engage in mindful fun, or as my friend, Ronnie Hewitt, former CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County, used to say, "Fun with a purpose!"  Twenty years from now your kids will thank you!  Heck, they just might be partial to asparagus, brussels sprouts and kale.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.