It is almost St Patrick’s Day and that means put your lucky “Green On”.

Holidays are a fun way to incorporate nutrition and healthy eating habits!  St Patrick’s Day is certainly no exception.  We have created some very cute and positive nutrition messaging for St Patrick’s Day.

Have the kids learn about nutrition with our “The Lucky Food Pyramid” in which each food group tells you how they bring you luck.  For a fun coloring activity to promote positive nutrition- print the ‘Find and Color’ Lucky Green Vegetables page. Celebrate the luck of St Patrick’s Day and eating healthy with nutrition bookmarks, coloring pages, word scramble puzzles, mazes and more.

Lucky green means lucky green fruits and vegetables!

Oh and the pot at the end of the rainbow.  Yup, it is full of healthy foods from the food pyramid!  And lots more healthy nutrition fun- over 7 Lucky St Patrick’s Day printable activity pages for kids.

Check out our free St Patrick’s Day Nutrition Activities and Coloring Pages and promote nutrition in a fun way!

A new study released by Yale shows that marketers are using characters, athletes and toys/games to entice children to purchase their food products.

Here is what the study found:

• Foods that were not very healthy or had a lower nutritional value had more kids’ marketing on their packaging
• 71% of packaging involved licensed characters, with 57% of those aimed at  children younger than 12 years of age
• other kinds of promotions, such as athletes, sporting events, toys and games, increased from 5% of the total in 2006 to 53% in 2008

Are we surprised by this?  We know and marketers know that kids are attracted to visual cues that are fun and colorful.  Using characters and games appeals to kids.  We were kids once, we know this!

This is why we have to fight FUN with FUN!  Nutrition games and characters that represent nutrition is one way to engage children and keep their attention so they enjoy learning.  We don’t mind doing things that are fun and kids are the same.

Join us in spreading the word to other parents and schools that nutrition is fun.  Let’s work together to introduce kids to characters that promote healthy eating and help put more FUN into nutrition.

Free Resources:

Chef Solus and the Explorers Nutrition Stories

Fun Nutrition- Kids’ Food Pyramid Games

Start your week by doing the Monday 2000! Stay within the recommended 2000 calorie limit by snacking on 
fruits, vegetables and low-fat cheese.  Help your kids learn from you how to snack smarter!

Michelle Obama speaks out on the new initiative “Let’s Move”

Let’s Move will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.

We support Michelle Obama and our President 100%.

Healthy Choice Resources

Fun Healthy Goals and Tracking sheets

Nutrition Games and Tools for Kids

Nutrition Tools for Parents

Nutrition Tools for Teachers

I just read an article that talked about the misleading claims on food packaging.  This was a hot topic at the Childhood Obesity Conference last June because marketers are finding ways to make their brand sound really healthy! When in fact, their claims are misleading.  How is the average consumer to know?

According to this article, here are the six meaningless claims found on Food packaging to watch out for:

• Lightly sweetened:  This may be found on cereal packages.  It sounds like there is very little sugar, right?  What does that really mean?  There is no regulation on what can be termed “less sugar”, compared to what?  When shopping for a cereal for your child, look for cereals that have the five-five rule.  Five grams or less of sugar and Five grams or more of fiber in a serving.  Now this may be harder to find, but at least you have a guide.
• A good source of fiber: But are these foods providing fiber that naturally comes from whole grains, legumes, vegetables or fruit?  Some food manufacturers are adding what is called “isolated fibers” which have not been shown to have the same health benefits.
• Strengthens your immune system:  Read carefully.  Immune systems need a variety and balance of vitamins and minerals that work together to build a good immune system.  This comes from natural fruits and vegetables and a balanced diet from foods from all five food groups.
• Made with real fruit: What you want to look for is 100% real fruit juice.  And even then, fruit juice has a lot of sugar, so children should be limited to one 6oz glass of 100% juice per day.
• Made with whole grains:  Again, you want 100% whole grains.   Otherwise, it may have some whole grains but it can also have lots of refined or processed grains.  Check the label.  It should be the first item in the ingredients list.
• All natural: All I can advise is to read the label.  It could be full of high fructose corn syrup.  We know what real “natural” foods are.  They usually don’t come in a package.

For more help, here is a fun way to learn how to read food labels

Free printable “health food claims”  guidelines

Food Claims article

Quick Food Label printable – take the grocery store for quick reference

Healthy shopping list

Other blogs on food labels:

Food labeling systems

Smart Choices food labeling system

Are we surprised by the latest report indicating that the food and beverage industry has failed to live up their commitment to change their marketing practices to children? I have to say, I am not.

The US Council of Better Business Bureaus initiated a voluntary, self regulatory program three years ago. The goal of the initiative was to really improve the nutrition of foods and drinks that were advertised to children. This was initiated after numerous studies showed how much money and how many marketing ads were being shown to young children that promoted unhealthy, high sugar and/or high fat foods. Combine that heavy messaging with the time kids spent on TV and it’s no wonder that kids know popular fast foods and junk foods before they can even talk!

The initiative called “Better-for-You” was implemented to try to fight childhood obesity. We know that childhood obesity will not be solved by one initiative but changing the junk food and fast food marketing tactics to kids is certainly one important step. Kids are influenced by their clever marketing and they put a lot of money behind it to make it fun and engaging to children!

The fact that the participation was voluntary and they were agreeing to “watch” themselves says a lot about how strongly we were willing to take a stand against unhealthy food advertisements to kids. This may surprise you, but many other countries already have strict regulations in place that ban unhealthy food advertising to kids – it’s the law!

Here is what the report found:

• nearly three out of four (72.5%) of the foods advertised on television to children are for products in the poorest nutritional category
• Commercials for healthy foods like fruits and vegetables accounted for only 1% of all food advertising to children
• Nearly half of all food ads that used popular children’s characters (49%) promoted foods of the poorest nutritional quality

The honor system doesn’t seem to work well for corporations when it conflicts with their pocketbook. We have to really question the viability of this current initiative and if self regulation is really the answer to addressing this part of the problem.

One thing we can do at home is make nutrition and healthy foods fun. Let kids learn about nutrition in a way that is engaging and meaningful to them. We have to fight the junk food FUN with our NUTRITION FUN! We can’t wait for congress to pass a law, our kids are growing now and learning their eating habits and food associations now.

We, here at Nourish Interactive, will continue to find new creative ways to help you bring nutrition into your home in a fun way. We have games, colorful nutrition tools and free print material that are all designed to help parents and teachers make nutrition fun. We have to be our own marketing campaign “Eating healthy is fun.”

Resources for teaching kids about healthy nutrition from our website:

Fun nutrition story page – nutrition stories for kids

Kids’ healthy nutrition games – fun educational games teaching kids about healthy habits and the food pyramid

Fun nutrition tools – interactive learning tools for children

Parents nutrition tools and tips – healthy tips calendar, meal planners, bmi calculator, recipes and more!

Nutrition tools for teachers – free nutrition games for classrooms, food pyramid printables, worksheets, and nutrition lesson plans.

I ran across this catchy little tune and video about nutrition and thought I would share it.

I love it because this is exactly what we believe is so important, making nutrition fun. If we make it fun and help kids form a positive association with fruits and vegetables, they will be more interested in trying it.

Characters, nutrition games, nutrition stories, nutrition activities and nutrition music all work together to help kids learn about healthy eating in a fun way.

Enjoy. Warning, it’s catchy. I have been singing this tune all morning!

There she goes again! Showing us by example how fun it is to be active and healthy.

Our First Lady, Michelle Obama dawns a hula hoop and shows the kids she’s still got the moves! Then double dutch jump rope, obstacle course barefoot

I just love her. The best way to get kids moving is to join in and show them how fun it is. Keep on moving Michelle!

You might also be interested in Nourish Interactive free ‘be active’ printables :

Fun Family Fitness Activity Ideas- Printable Tip Sheet

TV Free Activities for Kids- great ideas for indoor and outdoor fun

Healthy Goal Trackers for Kids – printable weekly sheets to reinforce healthy eating habits and being active

Share your comments about your favorite fun ways to be active as a family!

Sad to say that the obesity conference reported last week that young kids are being aggressively marketed to by the highest sugar cereals. The study was done by the Yale University Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Here are some of the reports highlights:

• The average preschool child sees 642 cereal ads per year on television, and almost all of these are for cereals with the worst nutrition rankings.

• On the Internet, cereal companies make heavy use of marketing by sponsoring cereal websites and “advergames”.

• For example, millsberry.com, the website sponsored by General Mills, averages over three quarters of a million unique young visitors a month, who on average stay on the site for 24 minutes per visit.

• The most frequent in-store advertiser was Kellogg, averaging 33.3 promotions per store and 9.5 special displays of its child and family brands over the 4-week period covered by the study.

• General Mills markets to children more than any other cereal company and makes 6 of the 10 least healthy cereals advertised to children, including Reese’s Puffs, which is 41 per cent sugar and attracted the worst nutrition score.

• Cereals marketed directly to children have 85 per cent more sugar, 65 per cent less fiber, and 60 per cent more sodium than cereals marketed to adults for adult consumption.

• 42 per cent of cereals targeted at children contain artificial food dyes compared with 26 per cent of family cereals and 5 per cent of adult cereals.

• Only 8 per cent of the cereals targeted directly to children are inside the sugar limits that would allow them to qualify for inclusion in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.

• Not one of the cereals targeted directly to children in the US meets the nutrition standard required to advertise to children in the United Kingdom.

• All cereals marketed directly to children meet the industry’s own nutrition standard for “better-for-you” foods. These include: Cocoa Puffs (44 per cent sugar), Cap’n Crunch (44 per cent sugar), Froot Loops (41 per cent sugar), Lucky Charms (41 per cent sugar) and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (32 per cent sugar).

I know as a parent, cereal is the easy and quick way to get kids to eat breakfast. And yes, breakfast is so important. But there are healthier cereals out there, but will your child eat it?

According to this study, YES. “Research shows that children will eat the healthier cereals.”

So how do you find them? Yes, you may have guessed, read the labels and compare. It is a balance between taste and nutrition.

Here are some key things to look at when trying to find a healthy cereal for your child.

• Look for cereals that are lower in sugar. (8 or less grams of sugar)
• Look for cereals that say “no artificial dyes or artificial sugar”
• Look for cereals that have more fiber, 4 gms or more per serving
• Look for cereals that are lower in sodium

Halloween the holiday of ’sweets and treats’ can be like a nightmare for parents who are concerned about childhood nutrition, health and the rising rates of childhood obesity. Hopefully you have visited our website to find alternative low sugar treat ideas, easy ways to make Halloween healthier, and fun holiday coloring pages for kids!

Just in time for Halloween comes some new scary facts, this time about everyday breakfast foods for kids, high sugar cereals, foods advertising to kids, and childhood obesity. We highlight some of the facts and give some solutions and tips for parents to take steps to combat ‘high sugar’ food advertising to kids (or see our resources section to read the full study.)

Food advertising to children and the nutrition of content of kids’ cereals takes center stage in a new study by Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

The study gives alarming facts for parents; the average preschooler sees 642 cereal advertisement per year and “cereals marketed directly to children have 85% more sugar, 65% less fiber, and 60% more sodium than cereals marketed to adults for adult consumption.”

Also of concern to parents, is the fact that ,”if one looks at the rank order list of the worst nutrition cereals, it’s stunning how the worst cereals are marketed so aggressively to children” as stated by Kelly Brownell from Yale’s Rudd Center. Kelly Brownell, says Yale’s new research finds that kids will eat low-sugar cereals when offered. “There are ways to train kids to eat healthier food. It’s all about what they’re exposed to,” said Brownell.

As parents we can limit TV time to reduce exposure to marketing aimed at children, have children watch ad free media such as PBS, discuss advertising with our kids to help them to become aware of advertising tactics, and offer healthier breakfast food alternatives.

Cereal can be a fast and convenient breakfast food for busy parents. We can offer children a variety of healthy breakfast foods beyond cereal. But since cereal is ‘quick and easy’ it is important to find other breakfast foods that are quick to make or even good for eating on the go. Try a breakfast burrito, whole grain egg sandwich, or healthy smoothie which can all be the night before and refrigerated for a quick ‘on the go ‘breakfast.

Taking steps to introduce and expose children to healthier cereals is another great way for parents to take action for their children’s health. We can steps away from sugar cereals by introducing healthier cereal options, after some complaining children usually adjust to the healthier alternatives. For example, we can limit sugar cereals by offering more cereal from the Top Healthy 10 Cereals by Nutrition Score

As parents we also have to be careful with food labeling claims, we can’t trust the ‘good for you” food label claims on packaged foods. Reading food labels for nutrition information is a great way to get the facts. We have developed food label reader tool for parents and food labeling facts game for kids – for a fun, interactive and easy way to learn more about food labels!

What is your opinion about food advertising and this new study ? Parents please share your ideas and comments on how you encourage healthier breakfast foods or cereals at home.

Resources:

Cereal Ads Fuel Childhood Obesity

Cereal Facts

Yale press release Cereal Advertising Study

PBS Kids TV Schedule- Find your local shows- quality ad-free children’s TV programs

From our family nutrition website Nourish Interactive- The Fun Way to Learn About Nutrition! Winner of 2009 Parents Choice Award

Printable Chart: food label claims and nutrition facts

Interactive nutrition tools for parents

Family nutrition articles and tips

“Every positive change, no matter how small, is a step to creating a healthier child. Together we can give children the knowledge, facts and skills to develop healthy habits for a lifetime!” Maggie LaBarbera RN Founder of Nourish Interactive