A study just released by the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior has been causing headlines like “removing soda from the schools may not make a difference in teen’s consumption of soda”

I am not sure what they are trying to imply with this study but teenagers are a pretty hard group to change habits. These headlines are so misleading, are they implying we should put soda back in the school because it won’t make a difference?

We don’t need a study to tell us that soda IS NOT okay for children. We know that one can has 10 or more teaspoons of sugar in it. Who would give that to their child while they were in school? We know that simple sugar gives us calories for some energy but no nutrition?  no vitamins, no minerals, no fiber…just calories.

But regardless of all that, it speaks to one important key point. We need to help our kids form their habits while they are younger. Keep high fat and high sugary foods, including soda out of the house. This is one of the best ways to limit the amount your child eats.

Help your child learn that these are not every day foods but once in a while foods. Your actions can really send a strong message to your young child.

The younger your child is the more impressionable they are to your ideas, thoughts and actions as they are beginning to form their own ideas and habits! Show your child what foods you really value and love by keeping those foods in your house readily available for eating.

And sometimes when you bite into your apple or whatever your favorite fruit or vegetable is, let out that “ahhh, this tastes soooo gooood!” So your child can not only see but hear how good those foods really are! They are listening and learning…

Here’s an idea for a school or an afterschool program to do. I have read about some organizations creating plays about healthy eating and daily exercise to help kids learn about nutrition in a fun, engaging way.

But how about if the schools let the kids come up with a list of healthy activities and created short skits about it. Then they could perform their skits for the younger students and have lots of fun doing it. Little children often look up to the older children. And kids are so great at creatively coming up with ways to communicate messages to each other so that it really has meaning to them.

Maybe some of the skits could perform for PTA night. Talk about giving the parents a little FUN way to learn about nutrition!

If you have other ideas on ways to teach kids about nutrition, please share it with us.

Thanksgiving is one of those special meals that families look forward to for several weeks. It is one of those times where we might just want to enjoy the full rich recipes that have been handed down generation to generation.

Some suggestions to help Thanksgiving be enjoyable and still healthy:

• Don’t skip meals:  Make sure your children have their regular breakfast and lunch prior to the Thanksgiving dinner.  This will help you and your children eat  more reasonable portions because you won’t be starving.  We think “now don’t eat because you will spoil your appetite”.  Yes, I am guilty of this too but it really sets us up to overeat.

• Don’t forget those veggies and salads: They make great side dishes, color up the table and go great with turkey

• Think about the time your family will be eating:  Eating earlier is better than later so your family doesn’t go to bed with a full stomach

• Make an after dinner activity part of the holiday festivities: A brisk family walk or a little dancing is a great way to help digest that meal and burn off some of the calories and fun

• Add fresh fruits to the list of desserts:  Add some cut up fruit to the assortment of pies, they taste great and compliment pies nicely

And most importantly,  have a fun, memorable Thanksgiving.  These are some of the memories kids fondly look back on as they grow up, and will carry forward to their own families one day.

Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

Lighten up today! It’s always best to exercise outdoors during daylight hours, but that can be tough particularly at this time of year when days get shorter. If you exercise outdoors when it’s dark out, wear reflective materials to ensure that you and your family can be seen.

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

We are always hearing about the concern about marketing to our kids. How much exposure of TV ads and other media are our kids seeing and how is that influencing their food choices, food associations and ideas about nutrition?

We know they are being influenced for sure! If not, these high fat, high sugar companies would not be spending the millions and millions of dollars on advertising to them. But what about parents? I don’t have figures (but if I can find it, we all might be shocked!). How much money is being spent to influence the parent to promote sugary foods and fatty foods to their kids? Have you thought about that?

I really hadn’t thought about this until I saw a commercial (company shall rename nameless, tsk, tsk) that was actually geared towards parents. It showed a mom giving her kids treats (sugary ones!) as a reward and then the narrator said something like “be a good mom” or something like that but it was clearly making an inference to being a good mom and giving her child treats and child contentment.

So parents, we have to be on the alert. It is easy after a long day to go a little passive and just let those messages begin to sink into our minds without question.  They get us by showing how cooperative our kids can be and how much easier it is.  Don’t be fooled. We are at a war to save our children from a future of illness from poor nutrition. That may sound over dramatic but read the latest trends in childhood obesity, heart disease in children, diabetes in children, increasing emotional disorders in children, … it goes on and on.

Instead, let those ads serve as a reminder that our kids are worth every effort we make to FIGHT FUN with FUN. Be creative and make eating healthier a great experience for your child. A fun active family day is a much better reward than a sugary treat. You are the most powerful marketing weapon against the high sugar, high fat companies. (And BTW, I am not an extremist, sugary treats and fatty foods are okay every once in awhile, but let’s not make them out to the best thing and something kids really look forward to)

Healthy foods can be the most fun….if we make them fun!

We often don’t think about where food comes from. We just go to the grocery store and buy what we need. I asked my niece, she’s eight, where food comes from and she said, “the store”. Well, of course she said the store! She is not growing up on a farm so why would she think it came from anywhere else?

There is a whole movement underway to help kids reconnect with where food really comes from. The path food travels from “farm to fork”. This is another great way to have kids connect with healthy foods, helping them not only understand where food really comes from but seeing fresh food growing right before their eyes. Meeting with local farmers to learn all about how food is grown.

It gives a whole new dimension to fruits and vegetables and also make them very interesting to learn about.

I have been reading about how schools are connecting with local farms to bring healthy foods fresh, organic to the child’s lunch program and even introducing programs that teach children about fresh fruits and vegetables and even growing them.

There is a wonderful organization called farmtoschool.org that is committed to connecting schools with local growers. The organization has a great deal of information, program support and lists of grants that schools can apply for.

The National Farm to School Network sprouted from this desire to support community-based food systems, strengthen family farms, and improve student health by reducing childhood obesity.

Here is a link to a utube video about a farm to food program in Maynard, Massachusetts public school. Pass this information on to your child’s school.

The USDA has announced that they have formed a new team, lead by Brian Wansink PhD, to develop the 2010 Food Guidelines.I met Brian Wansink when Nourish Interactive received recognition from the USDA, back in June 2008 for our work promoting nutrition education. He is a very dynamic, passionate man and I was really impressed with his commitment to creating a slimmer, healthier America.He has written several books on how cues trigger us to eat more. I was reading about some of his experiments and was fascinated at the results. He rigged a soup bowl to continually fill as it was being consumed. The result: 75% more soup was consumed. Bottomline, there are many cues purposely designed to get us to eat larger portions, fattier foods and generally be less healthy. I developed a few Family Nutrition Health Tips that you can print up that gives short quick tips on

• eating out with the kids- how to have a healthier experience
• getting the family to be more active
• specific suggestions on improving your family’s overall nutrition status.

We will continually add to this resource. Check them out, they are colorful and designed to look and be positive and fun as you work with your children to change habits. Remember, each step no matter how small is a step towards a healthier child. Be patient and have with your kids!Just like everything on our site, it is free. We will soon be posting our spanish version.

Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

Today, think about ways to make yourself safer at home! Millions are injured every year in household accidents that could have been avoided. But you can minimize the risk by conducting regular safety checks. Look for common hazards and clear them away. And remember to put fresh batteries in your smoke detectors.

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

Today is National Diabetes Day. We are reminded that thousands of children across the globe are inflicted with this chronic disease.

The World Diabetes Day campaign in 2007 and 2008 aims to:

1. Increase the number of children supported by the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child Program
2. Raise awareness of the warning signs of diabetes
3. Encourage initiatives to reduce diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and distribute materials to support these initiatives
4. Promote healthy lifestyles to help prevent type 2 diabetes in children

Although we do not know the exact cause of diabetes, it appears that genetics, inactivity and obesity play a role. That is why it is so important and so necessary that we teach our children at a young age the value of healthy living. It’s very concerning because we are seeing a growing number of children and teens have the more common form of diabetes, type 2, which used to be called adult-onset diabetes because it did not occur in children.

I can tell you that as an ICU nurse I cared for countless patients who suffered from diabetes. The longer they had diabetes, the greater the chance they would have a serious complication.

Prevalence of Diagnosed and Undiagnosed Diabetes in the United States, All Ages, 2007

• Total: 23.6 million people, 7.8 percent of the population have diabetes.
• Diagnosed: 17.9 million people
• Undiagnosed: 5.7 million people

If you would like to read more about World Diabetes Organization, click here

Another good resource is American Diabetic Association.

A new study to be featured in the December 2008 American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that the higher the greenness (meaning grass, trees and vegetation) the lower the body mass index (BMI) was in children. Children may be more active with this larger open spaces versus being confined to streets or sidewalks.The positive health effects of the green landscapes include

• improved cogntive functioning
• reduced attention deficit

We can’t change where we live but I think the message is; kids need space to run around and be active.Maybe the very act of being in nature stimulates kids to play. Not sure, but get those kids to the park and play frisbee, tag, blindman’s bluff, whatever your favorite family games are! Have some fun!