Thanksgiving Gratitude

Paradise Greetings,

Thanksgiving 2010 is coming to a beautiful close. While watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (wasn't Arlo Guthrie's performance of "This Land is Your Land" just great?!) the weather was warm enough to turn on the air conditioner. By yesterday a cold front moved through Vero Beach, bringing a light rain and grey clouds. Today there is a pleasant breeze blowing the living room curtains as I write. I had a great morning walk/run this morning and a great sunrise visit with one of my neighbors and his expanding bromeliad garden which I helped start several years ago. The dog is happy to be sitting looking out the window, having enjoyed some leftover cheese grits. My Sunday vegetable omelet was one of the best ever! I can't decide if it was because of Linda Hart's fresh eggs from her Crazy Hart Ranch or the sweet red pepper I harvested this morning from my back yard.

The Growing Healthy Kids movement, its programs, its supporters, and its volunteers, is all about making a difference in the lives - and health - of America's children. It is about having a voice that kids can hear. It is about having courage to stand up for the truth about what we need to do and say to prevent obesity-related diseases in children. It is about being grateful for the fact that so many people recognize the work involved in starting Growing Healthy Kids. It is gratitude for every person who has said to me, "Thank you for speaking clearly and teaching me what to do."

The health of America's children is being compromised by for-profit food and drug companies and by public agencies that should be protecting our health and preventing disease but sell out their integrity and your best interests.

Growing Healthy Kids is about getting the truth out into the open, about getting back to the basics of good food, regular physical fitness, and about restoring balance to kids' lives. Growing Healthy Kids is grateful for your support and we look forward to being able to speak with a louder voice.

I am grateful for this Thanksgiving with the chance to pause, reflect, and give thanks to everyone who is part of the Growing Healthy Kids' movement.

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

Go to www.GrowingHealthyKidsClub.com and join our conversation!

Magic in the Morning AKA "Hummus at Humiston"

Paradise Greetings,

Don't you just love those mornings when you know something special happened? Last weekend's educational program was magic in the morning.

A group of kids in need of mentors meet monthly with me and a team of volunteers for a unique event combining exercise and healthy eating. Many of the kids who come to these events are overweight and obese. These kids don't get high fiber foods at school so we are teaching them how to make high fiber snacks and meals at home.

Last Saturday was our second annual Growing Healthy Kids "Hummus at Humiston" Party, where I teach a group of kids (and adults) how to make hummus, a traditional middle-eastern dish which is really good for you and is extremely versatile. This "party" was held at Humiston Park in Vero Beach, on the ocean and across the street from the new Saturday Green Market. After a rigorous Zumba workout, thanks to Kim from The Jungle Club, the kids and their mentors bounded over to the market to go shopping for fresh veggies. They came back with treasures. One boy ate the starfruit he had picked. Mind you, he'd never had a starfruit before. He loved it!

The kids and volunteers (including the wonderful kids from the Indian River Charter and Vero Beach High Schools Kiwanis Key Clubs) chopped up veggies such as fresh-picked peppers from Osceola Organics while the 3 Growing Healthy Kids' chefs (see picture) helped me make artichoke-lemon hummus. We put the hummus in whole grain pitas and added the veggies just purchased from local farmers. What flavor!!! All the kids loved it!!! They now have the recipe they can make at home. They know how easy it is to make. The beauty of hummus as a healthy snack idea is you can put some into several small containers and freeze it for up to a month. The kids can take out one container a week to use as part of their after-school snacks!

Learning how to eat healthy is simple when you know what to do. Last weekend, a great group of kids learned several lessons about how to eat healthy. Hummus at Humiston, to me, is pure Magic in the Morning!

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

PS -- if your organization would to host a Growing Healthy Kids Hummus at Humiston Party, let me know!!

Lessons from a Kids Cooking Class

Paradise Greetings,

Have you ever taught middle school boys how to read a food label? I did this week. In between teaching the boys how to make one of the recipes from my recipe collection (http://www.healthydiabetescoach.com/), I showed them how to choose foods to help them stay healthy, fit, and smart as we cooked together in their after-school program. My intention was to teach a lesson about dietary fiber because every boy in the class has a close family member with diabetes or prediabetes. The more they know, the better choices they can make now and for the rest of their lives. The more they know, the healthier they will be. The more they know, the better their chances are of not developing diabetes.

Growing Healthy Kids is more than a community healthy education project. It is more than a nonprofit organization focused on halting and reversing childhood obesity. Growing Healthy Kids is a movement to make sure kids and families have the tools for healthy eating and getting the daily physical activity that our bodies crave and need. We are shifting the energy so that eating healthy is the ONLY choice, not just the best choice. We are interrupting the impact that diabetes is having among certain families and communities to shake out the complacency that I hear too often: �There�s nothing I can do about it. I'm going to get diabetes just like my parents.�

Not so fast...Six African-American and Hispanic boys now know that foods that are higher in dietary fiber can help fill them up so they won't overeat. These six boys now know that choosing a bread with 4 or more grams of dietary fiber per slice will help control their mother or father�s blood sugar better than a bread with zero or one gram of dietary fiber per slice. Six boys who are not students anymore, they are the teachers.

Can you afford to eat healthy? Of course! Did you know there is no - zero - zilch - dietary fiber in a loaf of Walmart's generic white bread? When I hear parents say their kids can go through a loaf of bread in an afternoon, it's no wonder to me. You may spend a dollar more to get a loaf of bread with 5 grams of fiber per slice instead of a bread with zero dietary fiber per slice, but that loaf of bread will last you days instead of hours. Heck, what if it turns out it costs LESS to eat healthy??

This is American Diabetes Month (www.diabetes.org). Let�s prevent diabetes. It�s easy when you know what to do. Do you know what to do??

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

Growing Healthy Kids is about Preventing Diabetes

Paradise Greetings,

I'm writing from the chilly tropics. At least it's warmer than last weekend. On Saturday, I participated in The Great Visit Florida Beachwalk, where someone was on each of the 825 miles of Florida's beaches to take a picture. We each uploaded our pictures of our assigned beaches to http://www.sharealittlesunshine.org/. I was mile 593 (go on, check it out, that's me enjoying a very chilly sunrise on my favorite beach).

Whether you like to walk on the beach at sunrise, like I do, or you like to enjoy an evening walk in your neighborhood after dinner, walking is the perfect exercise. It is one of the easiest ways to prevent diabetes. Walking, or another other kind of physical exercise, helps you to lose weight and stay at a healthy weight. So get moving, be an example for the children in your life and have fun!!

Visit http://www.sharealittlesunshine.org/ and vote for Mile 593. If we win, the prize will be donated to Growing Healthy Kids! To take a diabetes risk test, go to http://www.diabetes.org/.

Growing Healthy Kids - improving the health and lives of America's children, one child and one garden at a time.

To your perfect health.

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

Garden Adventures: Two Boys and Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus

Paradise Greetings,

Here's my report from one day's work in one of our teaching gardens this week. Keep in mind that all of the youth in this particular project have an immediate family member with diabetes.

We taught a group of middle school boys how to make sun-dried tomato hummus. As part of our Cooks in the Kitchen class, we teach kids how to read food labels. I tossed each boy a can of garbanzo beans and asked them to find some things on the label. The lesson was about about dietary fiber. One boy could not figure out what the serving size was (1/2 cup). He kept saying it was one and a half cups. One thing led to another and it was apparent that he does not yet have basic math skills. At the end of this lesson, the boys were clear about the following things:

• what a serving size of cooked beans is
• what half a cup looks like
• beans have about 5-6 grams of dietary per serving
• most people need 28 or more grams of fiber a day and
• foods like hummus make a great snack
  
  

While making the sun-dried tomato hummus, then sampling it with whole wheat pita slices and celery sticks, another boy remarked to me, "Can I take home the recipe for this? I want to make it for my family. I think they will like it." I gave him the recipe and also gave him a container of the extra hummus plus a box of whole grain crackers. Can't wait to talk with him next week!

Several boys proudly said to the volunteers helping in the kitchen, "We've been watering our garden every day." It is apparent they are taking care of it now, because the seeds are growing, the cucumbers and squash plants are thriving, and it's starting to happen. It's starting. Yes. The seeds we've been planting are starting to grow.

Planting seeds is a very good thing. Some will take and some won't. Seeds need sunlight, water, and love to grow. Kids also need the right combination to grow and thrive.

Are your kids getting the nutrients they need to grow and to thrive? If not, go buy a package of seeds and plant them in a pot (the seeds, not your kids!).

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

PS - Stay tuned and I'll share the recipe with you for the sun-dried tomato hummus!

You're Invited to The Growing Healthy Kids Variety Store Grand Opening Tomorrow in Vero Beach

Paradise Greetings,

If we are going to halt and reverse childhood obesity, we have work to do. This country has huge educational unmet needs for clear and concise information about the "why" getting to a healthier weight is a big deal for kids - and families - who are not at healthy weight and the "how" to do it in simple steps. Growing Healthy Kids is creating real solutions to meet these needs, especially for families that say they can't afford to eat healthy.

So, we are ramping up our work. We have taken a leap of faith to raise money for our various educational projects. We have opened our first "store within a store". Tomorrow is the Grand Opening of The Growing Healthy Kids Variety Store - educational products, gifts, and more.

The Growing Healthy Kids Variety Store has just opened in partnership with the beautiful Born Again Consignments store in its new location at 3400 43rd Avenue, Suites 7 and 8, Vero Beach, Florida (about a mile north of SR 60, at the west end of the Vero Beach Airport). The Grand Opening is 4-7 PM tomorrow, Thursday, October 28.

The store hours are Monday-Saturday, 9 AM-5 PM. The Growing Healthy Kids Variety Store is accepting tax-deductible donations of new and gently used furniture, garden and wall art. Mondays and Thursday are our preferred drop-off days.

A special thank you to Kim George of http://www.irculture.com/ for your sponsorship and support of our new variety store!!

I look forward to meeting you. Please stop by tomorrow if you're in the neighborhood!

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

PS - check out the beautiful glass by Etched Heart artist Kryse Manson!! She and I are "toasting" with a pair of her beautiful champagne flutes.

Fighting Childhood Obesity-It's Planting Time in the Tropics

Paradise Greetings,

The gardens are getting planted! Little greens are popping through the earth! We've got some great garden projects going all over the county!

Lettuce, squash, cukes, swiss chard, tomatoes, basil, and more!

HOLD IT!!! We have a question for the gardeners of the world who are reading this right now. What is your success-based tip for keeping zucchini plants bug-free in the Florida climate? PLEASE SEND TIPS QUICKLY! Help keep the bugs at bay! Help protect our zucchinis!!

On a serious note, this morning I visited with Bonnie Swanson, principal at Vero Beach Elementary School (http://www.indianriverschools.org/). Mrs. Swanson gave me a tour of the new gardens the children are preparing and planting in preparation for their new green school to be built on the same school property. Rain barrels were installed yesterday in the biggest garden. Vero Beach Elementary is one of the schools that lost its "Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program" last year. In the midst of one of our nation's greatest failures, the obesity in children, this school's nutrition program took a major step backwards when it lost this program. Why is it that we are taking away children's access to fresh fruits and vegetables when what we need to do is to INCREASE ACCESS TO FRESH FRUITS AND VEGGIES???

Growing Healthy Kids is working to prevent type 2 diabetes (http://www.healthydiabetescoach.com/) and other obesity-related diseases in children. The school nutrition program plays a very important role in providing nutritious choices. Yet it is not working. This particular school has 88% of the kids eligible for the free and reduced meal program as a result of what Mrs. Swanson calls "situational poverty" as families struggle in a community with no job creation.

What I saw this morning at the school's cafeteria breakfast line was far from nutritious and not what kids need to be fit, smart, and ready to learn. There is much work to be done to improve the nutritional quality of the school food programs in America. That's why we're having a party at the school next Monday - stay tuned!!

Remember, send in your tips for keeping our zucchini plants bug-free!

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

To your perfect health.

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids