3 REASONS WHY OUR PROGRAMS WORK

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

The April 2013 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, fell into my hands by accident while helping my mother celebrate her birthday this week.  After all the guests had left, mom came out to the kitchen where I was working, holding several new magazines in her hands.  She asked, �Do you know where these magazines came from?�  Then she answered her own question with the realization that her longtime friends, Peggy and Cyrus, who had driven more than 2 hours from their home in central Indiana to attend the party, had left them for her.  Mom encouraged me to dive into The Oprah Magazine while I was visiting and I took the bait.  Why?  A cover story: �What does the ultimate food expert make for dinner?   Breaking bread with Michael Pollan" plus Dr. Oz talking about belly fat. 

Belly fat AKA visceral fat is the most dangerous kind of fat. 

Michael Pollan is the author of best-selling books including Food Rules, The Omnivore�s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food.  Something he said caught my attention: �I started to realize that cooking might be the most important factor in fixing our public health crisis.  People who cook eat healthier diets.  And this whole renaissance of farmers� markets and community supported agriculture that�s going on right now-these are economies we should support, and they depend on cooking.  It was the missing link I needed to explore.�  It is the link we have been exploring in our educational programs for several years.  

Teaching kids and parents the essential elements of how to eat healthy by sharing with them how easy it is to prepare foods that are good are you has been integral to the mission of the Growing Healthy Kids movement since we began this work four years ago.  Americans didn�t gain millions of extra pounds of weight eating plant-based foods.  No, the extra pounds can largely be attributed to the extra calories, fat, and sodas that companies created to make our lives easier.  Not healthier, but easier.  The explosion of fast food restaurants, with their abundance of cheap, highly processed foods have stripped Americans of basic kitchen skills and the confidence necessary to put a healthy AND economical meal on the family table.  If Americans knew how much money is spent by these large companies to create foods and flavors that are addictive, they would rebel. 

Wood spoons (I prefer cherry) are
among my favorite kitchen tools.
What is your favorite?

What I have learned from teaching is that IT IS EASY TO EAT HEALTHY FOODS�when you know what to do.   We teach people what to do.  Parents can start with the Twenty Tips found in the bestselling Growing Healthy Kids project book, NOURISH AND FLOURISH, based on our educational programs.  With the numbers of children at unhealthy weights causing more and more kids to be at risk for obesity-related diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, learning how to cook is integral to reversing this epidemic that, if left unabated, will cause our children to have shorter lives than us.  Learning how to eat � and cook � real food is essential if our children are to have a chance to be healthy, smart, and strong. 

Here are 3 reasons why Growing Healthy Kids' educational programs empower kids and parents to eat real food:

1. We include basic kitchen skills and techniques in every class.
2. We encourage people to try new foods and flavors in our demonstrations using locally grown foods from local farmers.  (Heck, sometimes we have classes at the farmers market!)
3. We teach how to use everyday kitchen tools.

To check out The Oprah Magazine, go to www.oprah.com.  To learn more about Michael Pollan, go to www.michaelpollan.com.  To order copies of NOURISH AND FLOURISH, click here.  

For a healthy breakfast idea to help you burn fat and be a great role model for your kids, here's a recipe from Dr. Oz I found in the April issue of O:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 toasted whole grain English muffin
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/4 ripe avocado
• 1 slice Swiss cheese
• 1 slice tomato
• 1 egg, poached
• Ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Drizzle olive oil over the English muffin.  Spread the avocado on the muffin and layer with a slice of Swiss cheese and tomato.  Place the poached egg on top and sprinkle with pepper, if desired.  

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

DAVE THE RAW FOOD TRUCKER AND WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"The childhood obesity epidemic is an urgent public health problem. The most recent data available show that nearly 19 percent of boys and about 15 percent of girls aged 2-19 are obese, and almost a third of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese (Ogden et al., 2012).

The obesity epidemic will continue to take a substantial toll on the health of Americans.In the midst of this epidemic, children are exposed to an enormous amount of commercial advertising and marketing for food. In 2009, children aged 2-11 saw an average of more than 10 television food ads per day (Powell et al., 2011). Children see and hear advertising and marketing messages for food through many other channels as well, including radio, movies, billboards, and print media. Most notably, many new digital media venues and vehicles for food marketing have emerged in recent years, including Internet-based advergames, couponing on cell phones, and marketing on social networks, and much of this advertising is invisible to parents.

The marketing of high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and beverages is linked to overweight and obesity. A major 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) documents evidence that television advertising influences the food and beverage preferences, requests, and short-term

consumption of children aged 2-11 (IOM, 2006). The report also documents a body of evidence showing an association of television advertising with the adiposity of children and adolescents aged 2-18. The report notes the prevailing pattern that food and beverage products marketed to children and youth are often high in calories, fat, sugar, and sodium; are of low nutritional value; and tend to be from food groups Americans are already overconsuming. Furthermore, marketing messages that promote nutrition, healthful foods, or physical activity are scarce (IOM, 2006)."

The preceding 3 paragraphs are from the introduction in a new National Academies Press report:  Challenges and Opportunities for Change in Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Workshop Summary.

One of our Chefs cooking at a recent Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen program. 

Nancy with one of the kids attending a Growing Healthy Kids in the Kitchen program  in Vero Beach. 

Raising awareness about the problem of � and solutions to � the childhood obesity epidemic is fundamental to the mission of Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.  When two in three adults are overweight or obese, it is up to us as parents to set a better example today and in the future for children.  I want to share two events happening this week in Vero Beach, Florida that set good examples � for adults AND kids.

Tonight, Dave the Raw Food Trucker will be in Vero Beach to share his story at The Cloudwalker Place(between the Kmart and Goodwill stores on US 1 at 14^th Street).  A truck driver who used to be 430 pounds, was on 19 medications, and had several conditions including diabetes, this guy changed what he was eating and lost the weight � and the diabetes including, acid reflux disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease.  He is on a national tour to raise awareness about healthy eating � my kind of guy! 

Tomorrow evening, Growing Healthy Kids will be holding its 
monthly education program, GROWING WELLNESS 
CHAMPIONS, for 2^nd and 3^rd grade students at Vero Beach Elementary School and their parents. At each month�s event, we prepare a delicious dinner using locally grown foods and share recipes and resources to help parents and kids eat great foods.  Tomorrow we are featuring locally grown tomatoes, green peppers and onions, complements of Osceola Organic Farm and making Pizza � Designed by kids for kids.  The focus of the pizza is using a crust high in dietary fiber so everyone gets filled up.  We have made these pizzas for hundreds of kids and they all love making and eating it.  If you live in the area and would like to attend, please email me at growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.comfor event details.  In case you live in Idaho or Ohio, here is the recipe for what the kids and I will be making tomorrow for dinner (with veggies courtesy of Osceola Organic Farm):

Pizza�Designed by Kids for Kids

Ingredients:

• 6 English muffins*
• 1 jar pizza sauce or 1 large can tomato paste
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 12 portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 large can sliced black olives
• � cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Pesto (optional)

Directions:

• Split muffins in half.
• Place muffins on baking tray.
• Spread pizza sauce (or tomato paste, with a little water and dried basil added) on muffins.
• Add toppings of your choice.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until done. 
• Serve with a chopped green salad or fresh fruit salad. 
• Serves 6.  Enjoy!

*For demonstration purposes, Thomas Light Multi-Grain muffins containing 8 grams of dietary fiber per muffin were used in the preparation of this recipe.

NOTES FROM NANCY:  Choose muffins, breads, and tortillas with five (5) or more grams of dietary fiber per serving.  WHY?  Fiber is the GOOD carbohydrate and fills us up so we don�t overeat. 

Remember, plan family dinners this week and every week.  Let your kids help in the kitchen.  Now, off to the farm for some tomatoes and peppers!

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

TIPS FOR PREVENTING HEART DISEASE

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

February is American Heart Month.  This is the month when we raise awareness about the signs and symptoms of heart disease and steps we can take (like walking every day) to prevent heart disease.

The human heart - the engine for human life.  Take care of your engine so it can take care of you.

If you have heart disease, such as high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol in your family, AND you are overweight, did you know that losing as little as 5 to 10% of your weight can have a substantial impact on lowering your blood pressure and improving your cholesterol?  It's true.  One of the primary reasons why I started the Growing Healthy Kids movement and focus on solutions to childhood obesity was because of the results I saw among adults in my wellness classes who became educated about how they could get to a healthier weight and come off insulin and blood pressure medicines. When I worked with older adults taking ten or twelve medications and a couple of months later they started coming off their medications as their weight came down, I knew we had to take bold action to educate parents. 

Children who are overweight and obese are being diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes.  Children are being medicated with drugs that have never been tested on children.  Children who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as teenagers will live about 17 years less than normal.  

We know that children who are not at healthy weights will have shorter lifespans than our lifespans - UNLESS WE BECOME EDUCATED AND COMMIT TO HALT, REVERSE, AND PREVENT CHILDHOOD OBESITY...one child at a time. 

The best prescription we can write is one for education.  Education for parents about how to cut back the saturated fats in foods, like switching from whole milk to 2% or 1% milk.  Cutting back on trips to McDonald's for 10 piece orders of McNuggets and burgers and fries loaded with 3 days worth of sodium - and a guaranteed case of high blood pressure sooner, not later.  Education for teachers, principals and cafeteria managers, so that they will do whatever it takes - no matter what - to bring in locally grown fruits and vegetables to their school cafeterias.  Education for our business leaders so they will invest in the health of America's children through their employees' own health literacy.  

Being overweight is one of the leading risk factors for heart disease.  It ranks up at the top, just like smoking.  American Heart Month, in my opinion, should be all about America�s problem with eating the wrong kinds of foods and not exercising enough.  Too much of the wrong foods and not enough of the right foods.  Too much salt will raise your blood pressure.  Eating more calories than you need will cause you to gain weight.  Eating too much fat - mainly too much of the bad fats (saturated and trans) - leads to heart disease.

Obesity and heart disease are connected, just like heart disease and diabetes are connected.  If you have diabetes, for example, you are at 2-4 times higher risk for a heart attack or a stroke than someone without diabetes.   Heart attacks are the number one cause of death in the United States.  

Everything is connected.  �When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.�  (quote by John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club)

If you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and/or diabetes in your family, take a few minutes to watch this clip from THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION.  It might just change your life by motivating you to start making small changes that will lead to big results.

Click here to watch a clip from the HBO special, THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION:

http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/watch/bonus-shorts/obesity-research-and-the-national-institutes-of-health

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

PS - Growing Healthy Kids will be hosting screenings of THE WEIGHT OF THE NATION in 2013 as part of our Wellness Wednesdays series.  If your organization would like to collaborate with us on a screening, please contact me at growinghealthykidsnow@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing from you!

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.