Happy New Year!

Paradise Greetings,

As 2010 comes to a close and everyone readies themselves for the celebrations of ringing in 2011, I want to wish each and every one of you the best for the New Year!

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of the Growing Healthy Kids adventures in Indian River County, Florida and beyond. We have accomplished so much this year and the best is yet to come!

Be well, stay safe, and enjoy your loved ones. We'll connect again in 2011 and continue our adventure of Growing Healthy Kids, one child and one garden at a time!!

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

Family TIme

Paradise Greetings from the Chilly North,

I am writing from my mother's home, where our family has gathered in celebration. We will be leaving soon for a day of walking in the forest between Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky. Last night while enjoying a family dinner of shrimp and steak fajitas, guacamole, and homemade salsa with the jalapenos and tomatoes I brought up from the garden in Vero Beach picked before this week's freeze, we cooked up our family outing for today.

The snow that fell on Christmas Eve melted a little bit yesterday while we took a walk at Mount St. Francis. At the end of our walk, my sister-in-law, Inger, spotted a bluebird, then two, then three and finally four. We all stopped in amazement as we admired their brilliant colors against the nakedness of the tree limbs and the white snow. Treasured moments!

When I awoke this morning, I felt the muscles I had exercised yesterday while enjoying an extended workout with my son, my brother and his family visiting from Denmark, and my 15 year old nephew from Bloomingon at the beautiful YMCA facility in New Albany, Indiana. While we have enjoyed indulging in cookies my mother baked in preparation for this family gathering, our family knows the importance of regular physical exercise, even at holiday times. Whether it is a family exercise morning at the Y or a walk in the forest, physical activity can be incorporated into family reunions and celebrations.

2010 has been an exciting year for Growing Healthy Kids. This is a contemplative week of transition for me and for our work to halt and reverse childhood obesity. Make regular physical activity a part of your family's resolutions for the New Year.

To your perfect health!

Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids

School Lunches

Paradise Greetings,

A couple of days ago, MSNBC had a story about a woman who is eating a school lunch every day to make a point. A very good point. She is on a mission to raise awareness about what America is feeding its future leaders. Right away the story had my attention. Now I invite you to give her your attention. Presenting Mrs. Q, my new best friend.

From time to time, I invite my readers to have lunch at an elementary school. Every time I visit an elementary school at mealtime, I stop by the cafeteria to take a look at what the kids' choices are and then I am reminded why almost every day for the past 10 years I have made my son's lunch.

Our health is determined in large part by what we eat: "You are what you eat." "Let food be your medicine." If you eat more food (input) than you need (output), you will gain weight. If you eat more salt than your body can handle, you greatly increase your risk of developing high blood pressure, which can easily kill you if undetected and/or uncontrolled. You know where I'm going with this.

The more you know, the better choices you can make. Check out Mrs. Q's observations about what America's schools are feeding our most valuable resource: http://www.fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/. Then call the school principal at your neighborhood school and make a lunch date. Be part of the solution.

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

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