3 TIPS TO KEEP YOUR KIDS HEALTHY

WELLNESS WEDNESDAY

�If we cut our skin or break a bone, we take it for granted that the body will heal.  But we can also heal from heart disease, weight problems, and diabetes-yet that will never happen if we do not get away from the foods that are causing the problem and take advantage of foods that heal.�  
                                               -- Neal Barnard, MD                                                                             

Later today I will be giving a talk which I hope will be the first of many talks in my education campaign for parents (for details about today's talk, go to the end of this column).  If we don�t start eating less of the foods that cause disease, as Dr. Barnard suggests, and start eating more of the foods that promote health, then our nationala childhood obesity epidemic will continue to take a great toll.  When kids are diagnosed with obesity, their risk for obesity-related diseases usually diagnosed in older adults will fuel new epidemics of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep disorders, joint problems, and more in younger and younger folks. 

We Americans love to have freedom of choice.  We want to have choices about what we can eat, what doctor we see, and what school our children can attend.  The problem is that we have so many choices, we are killing ourselves with the wrong foods.  So, back to my talk called, �How to Feed Your Kids for LIFE-tips for eating more of the good and less of the bad�.  One food that is causing the problems mentioned by Dr. Barnard is refined sugar, which is why you can be sure that we will be talking about sugar and its impact on kids.  

Did you know there are more than 75 different names for sugar?  The fact is that sugar has no vitamins, no minerals, no protein, no enzymes, and no nutritional value.  It does contain calories.  Sugar is a carbohydrate (the BAD kind) and we are eating way too much of it.  Sugar will kill you, not heal you.  The added sugars in the processed foods we love to choose to eat are making us fat and causing us to develop diabetes, depression, joint diseases, hypoglycemia, and more. 

Serve fresh fruit for a delicious dessert!

Here are 3 simple tips to get you started keeping your kids healthy: 

TIP 1:  If you are a parent and want to put your family on the path for a lifetime of better health free of disease, then start reading food labels to identify how much sugar is in a serving.  

TIP 2 :  Compare labels and choose the food with the lowest amount of sugar. 

TIP 3:  Start reading the ingredients for sugars, starting by learning to spot any ingredients that end in ��ose� and ��tol�.  

Use your parent power and be a role model for eating more of the good foods � and less of the bad.  Let your kids see you reading food labels while you are shopping for foods.  Exercise that great American freedom of choice and choose health!  

 

School will soon be out and if you and your kids are ready to �play in the dirt� as we like to do in the garden-based Growing Healthy Kids movement, then you�ve got to check out what the Man in Overalls (and cofounder of the Tallahassee Food Network) is doing in Tallahassee, Florida.  Click here.

Next, if you are concerned about what your kids are (or are not) eating at school, or if you have joined your son or daughter for lunch in their school cafeteria and you didn�t like what you saw, then get educated by learning more about the farm to school efforts.  The more you know, the more you will be able to be a voice for improving access to locally grown foods at school.  Lots of good info for parents when you click here:

Life is about enjoying good food, so here is an easy, fast, and inexpensive recipe for all us working parents.  Enjoy making this delicious main dish for a fun, healthy dinner.  Let the kids help with chopping and slicing the greens!

Fast Pasta and Greens

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

1. One 10-ounce package whole grain pasta (Growing Healthy Kids� Seal of Approval goes to the Dreamfields brand)
2. One 16-ounce jar pasta sauce (our favorite:  whatever�s on sale) 
3. 1 large bunch kale, roughly chopped, stems removed
4. 1 zucchini, sliced
5. 1-3/4 cups sliced mushrooms

Directions:

Heat a pot of water to boiling.  Add pasta to the water and set a timer for 3 minutes less than the pasta cooking directions recommend.  While the pasta is cooking, heat the pasta sauce in a covered saucepan over medium heat until it just begins to bubble.  Reduce heat to low and simmer gently until ready to use. When the timer goes off, add the kale to the water and cook about 3 more minutes until the kale is tender. 

While everything is cooking, put the zucchini in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and dry fry until just brown, then flip the slices over and brown the other side.  Push the zucchini to the side, then add the mushrooms and stir-fry until soft.  Remove from heat.  When pasta and greens are cooked, drain them and put in a large casserole dish.  Add the hot pasta sauce and stir.  Put mushrooms and zucchini on top and serve. 

Check out the boxes of Dreamfields pasta from a recent Growing Healthy Kids program
at Vero Beach Elementary School.  The kids loved the recipe and the pasta!!

Recipe is from Fork Over Knives: The How-To Companion to the Feature Documentary Forks Over Knives, 2011.

Details:  Today's talk will be at the Vero Beach Main Library on 21st Street, 2nd floor, 3:45 PM sharp! And yes, you will learn a lot of practical tips about how to eat less sugar. 

In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich, MPH
Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

WHAT ARE YOU GROWING?

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

�People need to start growing their own food.� My friend, Kelly Nosler, stood up and said this during the lively community discussion at The Majestic Theatre following the recent screening of A Place at the Table.  Kelly is a 4^th generation Indian River County resident working to bring new technology to classrooms, to families, and to neighborhoods so that people have affordable access to locally grown foods.   This is one of the strategies for solving the childhood obesity epidemic in America.  Buy a packet of seeds for your kids and see what happens when you plant them (the seeds, not the kids!). 

COMING SOON!  The annual Growing Healthy Kids Poster Contest will be announced this month.  This year�s contest will be held during the summer so your kids can create great art AND help us teach kids and parents around the world with their voices. 

One of the winning posters from last year's GHK contest.

Last week I taught two classes to adults who are caregivers for people with diabetes.  I was astounded, as usual, by the number of questions from the audiences about how food affects our health.  A lot of the questions were about getting to a healthier weight.  Many had questions about sodas, diet sodas, and foods labeled "sugar-free".  

An article in the April 29, 2013 online Wall Street Journal (WSJ) caught my attention about the magnitude of the impact that eating and drinking foods filled with refined sugars, sugar alcohols, and artificial sweeteners is having on the health of our children.  In Children on Track for a Heart Attack, writer Ron Winslow discussed a new study based on nearly 900 children and young adults about the hardening of the arteries showing up in kids.  When this occurs, it is a sign of accelerated aging, according to Dr. Elaine Urbina, head of preventive cardiology at Cincinnati Children�s Hospital Medical Center.  It raises the risk of dangerous outcomes relatively early in adult life.  Winslow writes, �The good news is that doctors believe health can be restored to young people�s arteries with regular physical activity and a healthy diet.  This includes cutting back on sugary beverages and foods high in carbohydrates such as potatoes, white rice and pasta.�

Speaking of carbs, in another interesting WSJ article about a gathering of chefs at the James Beard Foundation Awards, I found another �sign� I have to share with you:  [Chef Jesse] Schenker has recently made headlines less for the food he was preparing than for his weight loss (about 55 pounds). He said he�s kept it off. �Seafood and vegetables,� he advised. �Cut out the carbs and the sugar.�

The fact is that obesity is the leading risk factor for diabetes.  If children are overweight or obese and have family members with type 2 diabetes, their risk for developing this disease at a profoundly young age is greatly increased.  As we know, if a youth is diagnosed with diabetes by age 15, it will subtract at least 17 years  from their lifespan. 

If you have a family member with diabetes, then do something to improve your own health literacy.  Get a copy of an educational DVD I produced that has a profound impact on anyone who watches it.  It is true to my mission of creating easily digestible ways to shift your health outcomes and improve your health literacy.  Here is the link:  

Healthy Living, Healthy Eating, Health Diabetes educational video

I�d love to hear from you.  What are YOU growing this summer in your kitchen garden?

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

WELLNESS ON THE FIRST WEEKEND IN MAY

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

"Gumbo is a taste, a feeling, a party." -- Paul Prudhomme

I love this quote.  Great food should be part of every family's traditions and when we gather together and enjoy a meal, it should feel like a party, a celebration.  Working on the frontlines of the obesity epidemic, I love to power up with great food every chance I can get, which is one reason why the first weekend in May is so much fun.

The first Saturday in May is the Kentucky Derby, known as the Fastest 2 Minutes in Sports.  This Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky is the giant party known for fast horses, beautiful hats, great food and drinks.   Sunday is Cinco de Mayo, a holiday I love to celebrate because it is a great reason to make fresh guacamole and salsa.  Cinco de Mayo � or the fifth of May � commemorates the Mexican army�s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867).  While Cinco de Mayo is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, it is a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage in the United States. 

Haas avocados are rich in the good kind of fat. 

What do the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo have in common?  It�s an opportunity to celebrate really good food and fitness as well as foods that have a place in our cultures.  So if you are having a Derby party this weekend, consider making some fresh guacamole and salsa for your friends.  With Haas avocados  in season (and on sale for $1 each right now at Publix Supermarkets if you live in the southeast US) and fresh tomatoes hitting the local green markets in Florida, it is the perfect time to share one of the kids� favorite recipes from Nourish and Flourish, our education project�s first published book featuring foods that have earned  the prestigious GROWING HEALTHY KIDS SEAL OF APPROVAL.  

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS:  Our Recipe Collection

Guacamole

CUT in half, take out seed, and scoop into a bowl:

�         1 avocado

MASH with a fork.

ADD:

�         2 cloves garlic, chopped real small

�         1 Roma tomato, chopped real small

�         1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon or lime

�         Hot sauce and salt to taste 
          Chopped cilantro (optional)
          a little chopped onion (optional)

SERVE with:

�         Your choice of chips*

*For demonstration purposes, Tostitos Blue Corn tortilla chips were used. 

The GROWING HEALTHY KIDS SEAL OF APPROVAL for this recipe was received 3/19/10 at the  Boys and Girls Clubs of Indian River County, Florida.

GROWING HEALTHY KIDS TIP #17:   Avocados contain the good kind of fat, called �unsaturated�.  Our bodies need fat to work right.  The key is that most of the fats we eat should be � you guessed it � the good kind.  Besides avocados, other foods that contain the good fats are fish, nuts, flax seeds, olives, olive oil, canola oil and other liquid vegetable oils. 

We need to limit the bad fats we eat.  These are called �saturated� and �trans� fats.  Saturated fats are found in foods that come from animals such as meat, chicken, milk and cheese.  Trans fats are found in packaged and processed foods.  You can identify them by looking for the words �partially hydrogenated� on the list of ingredients. 

A GROWING HEALTHY KIDS �WATCH OUT!� alert for parents:  Food manufacturers are allowed to put up to 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving in a food and still label the food as �0 trans fat�.  

Have a great Derby party and Cinco de Mayo celebration this weekend!

Hats rule at the Kentucky Derby.


Resources:  

For Derby party recipes, go to click here.  Then click on "Derby Party". 

    For Cinco de Mayo party recipes from Delish magazine, click here:

Let's hear from you.  What is YOUR favorite party food to make for friends and family?

In gratitude,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

OBESITY, HUNGER, AND A PLACE AT THE TABLE

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

�I can�t afford to feed my kids healthy foods.� This is something I hear from parents all the time.  My response is always the same, �Give me an hour and I�ll show you how.�  One of our local education projects that teaches parents the HOW part is our collaboration with Vero Beach Elementary School (VBE).  With over 600 kids and one of the highest rates of kids on the free and reduced meal program in Indian River County, Florida, VBE is a special school.  This school year saw the demolition of the old school and dedication of the new green school and the building of new garden projects, including a large hydroponic garden.  This week I stopped by VBE and visited Alex Gomez of Pure Produce, who built the garden.  He was  putting finishing touches on the project but when I visited, cucumbers and sugar snap peas were ready to harvest!  For young children to be able to see how to grow real food and then be able to attend our family education program with their parents and learn how to prepare foods that they love to eat is reward enough for me.   The school also has some square foot gardens built with a grant and volunteers from our local Audubon Society plus the first of several family plots.  If you live in the Vero Beach area, stop by the school at the corner of 12^th Street and 20^th Avenue for a look at how we can afford to feed kids healthy foods.  For Wellness Wednesdays readers in faraway places, here�s some pictures from the gardens at VBE.

Alex Gomez shows off the first crop of cucumbers at
VBE's new hydroponic greenhouse.

The square foot gardens at VBE are a hit with the kids!  

Raising community awareness about hunger and childhood obesity will be center stage tomorrow with the screening of A Place at the Table at The Majestic Theatre in Vero Beach.  What will follow will be a community discussion lead by a panel of local leaders in the fight against poverty, hunger, and obesity.  As one of the panelists, I look forward to discussing implementing local solutions to hunger, obesity, and education about healthy foods.  David Jackson, from U.S. Representative Bill Posey's office, will be the moderator.  

In this county more than 63% of all public school children are enrolled in the free and reduced meal program.  The economy is still in the tank.  There are kids are coming to school on Monday mornings who have had very little or no food over the weekend.  We have older adults having to choose between medicine and food.  There is an urgent need to quickly move beyond the rhetoric, regulations, and red tape and act to increase access to locally grown foods and education programs that teach and inspire individuals of all ages to eat real foods, not processed foods high in sugar, fat, and salt.  I encourage you to set personal goals for personal fitness and exercise.  

Getting to a healthy weight is easy to do when you get away from the cheap, processed foods and buy what is in season from the local farmers.  For others, it may mean starting a small herb container kitchen garden.  What can you do to increase your own access to locally grown foods?  Join me tomorrow at The Majestic Theatre at 5:00 PM and I promise you will leave with lots of ideas for taking action.

To see a trailer from A Place at the Table, click here:

For a great recipe using quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), my favorite supergrain which is also a complete protein, try this at home:

Glazed Shrimp with Quinoa and Curried Tomatoes

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup red quinoa (don't forget to rinse quinoa in a fine sieve for 1 minute under cold water)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 3 Tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 pounds large shrimp, peeled
• 2 Tablespoons red currant jelly
• 2 Tablespoons chopped, seeded jalapeno peppers
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions:

1. Toast quinoa in olive oil over medium high heat for about 5 minutes.  Add water and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Bring to a simmer and cook until tender, about 30 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir, and set aside. 

2. Heat 1 Tablespoon butter over medium heat.  Add shrimp and saute 3 minutes.  Add jelly and peppers.  

3. Heat 1 Tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add tomatoes, curry powder, water, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Cook 10 minutes, or until tomatoes break down slightly.  Stir in remaining butter and lemon juice.

4. To serve, place a mound of quinoa on plate and top with shrimp and curried tomoatoes.  Serves 8.  

This recipe was created by Daniel Lindley of St. John's Restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee and was printed in Relish Magazine (which has a great motto, "Celebrating America's Love of Food").  To find more recipes from Relish, click here.

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

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

CHEAP FOOD CONTRIBUTES TO CHILDHOOD OBESITY EPIDEMIC

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS

Since writing last week's column, The High Cost of Eating Cheap, I've have several conversations with parents which have caused me to lose sleep.  

This country has become The Fast Food Nation with an unhealthy reliance on highly processed, cheap foods and the result is a nation full of sick children.  Educating parents and grandparents about the good foods that kids need is what WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS is all about and I am even more passionate about the mission of the Growing Healthy Kids movement than ever before.  I have always believed that parents need to be educated about the relationship between what kids eat and the health of their kids.  If kids are not healthy, they will not be able to concentrate at school and to learn their ABCs and 123s.  I keep receiving lessons that grandparents also need education.

Let me share happenings from this week.  

One morning, while visiting a local elementary school at breakfast time, I stopped by the school cafeteria to take a look at what the kids were eating.  Keep in mind that the official position of the school district is that they are making great improvements to what the food choices are for the kids.  Most, if not all, of the kids who eat their breakfast at school qualify for the free and reduced meal program which means the kids eat for "free".  What I saw saddened me.  Believe me when I say that I believe that some food, even bad food, is better than no food.  Most of the kids were eating a tray full of white sugar.  Most were drinking the strawberry milk (it is fat-free, but what the staff won't tell you is that each carton contains a whooping 7 teaspoons of added sugar).  The day I was there I saw waffles made with white flour, topped with artificial maple syrup, lots of plastics bag of apple juice, and cinnamon toast.  Didn't see any protein for the brain power they need in class.  Didn't see any whole grains to give kids a sustained source of energy.  All I saw was sugar and lots of it.  Kids need breakfast.  Make sure your kids are getting what they need, not what is cheap and easy.  The elementary school cafeteria is where you will find the intersection of hunger and childhood obesity.  If you don't believe me, then go have breakfast at your local elementary school.  

I received a call from a parent who got my name at a school presentation.  She called asking for help with her young daughter's recent weight gain.  The daughter, due to a recent family relocation, just spent the past several months living with grandparents while her parents worked getting the rest of the family moved to their new home.  While the young girl lived with her grandparents, they apparently didn't say "no" to the child's food requests for ice-cream, hot dogs and McDonald's.  The mother and I have had several long conversations about how to make small changes to put the brakes on all the cheap, easy foods that are most likely the culprit in the child's rapid weight gain.  Two recommendations I made were to switch from whole milk to 1% milk and to limit trips to McDonald's to no more than once a month.  

The cool thing that happened this week was the grand opening of the new hydroponic garden at Vero Beach Elementary School, where Growing Healthy Kids is conducting a monthly wellness program for parents and their children.   Kids are now able to see real food grow as part of their school lessons and to taste the goodness and freshness all for themselves.  I am so excited about what is happening at Vero Beach Elementary School because it can be a model program for teaching kids and also their parents and grandparents that eating plant-based foods is so much better for your health than the highly processed cheap foods you find on the dollar menu at McDonald's or in the boxes in the middle of your favorite grocery store.   

In keeping with my promise to share tips with you, America's parents, here is a list of 20 basic pantry ingredients for your kitchen:

1. red lentils
2. brown lentils
3. garbanzos
4. split peas - green and yellow
5. white beans - Great Northern or navy
6. black beans
7. pinto beans
8. rolled oats
9. basmati rice
10. quinoa
11. multigrain cereal
12. dried whole grain pasta - spaghetti, penne, lasagna
13. couscous - white for pilaf and whole wheat for breakfast cereal
14. pearl barley 
15. ground flax seeds (look for Bob's Red Mill brand)
16. sunflower seeds
17. walnuts
18. pecans
19. almonds
20. apple cider vinegar (Braggs is the brand I recommend)

My advice to parents?  Limit the ice-cream or McDonald's for your children.  Ice-cream or an order of McDonald's french fries every day results in SUPER SIZED CHILDREN.  McDonald's once a month might be OK, but McDonald's once a week or more often will be detrimental to your children's health.  The food engineers are working at creating addictive food flavors.  The result of eating cheap food is a sicker generation of kids with shorter lives than ours.  That is an option we cannot afford.  Eat real food! 

In gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich

Growing Healthy Kids, Inc. 

  

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