Everyone is busy getting their kids back to school.  What a perfect time to take a little break and bring the kids to a Family Night that will mix fruits and vegetables and lots of FUN.  Nourish Interactive has been working with Fresh Choice to reach out to kids and promote healthy eating.  With September being National Childhood Obesity Awareness month, it is a reminder to us how important healthy foods and daily activity is for kids.

We are happy to let our San Mateo, CA and nearby Peninsula cities know that the Fresh Choice Restaurant in San Mateo will host its First Family Night.  Nourish Interactive will be there with nutrition education games to make fruits and vegetables fun for kids.

Click to go to Facebook Event Page!

Take a night off from cooking and enjoy fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables from their local farm while the kids have some fun learning about healthy food choices.

Just a few of the FREE & FUN nutrition activities for kids:

• Take a picture with Chef Solus
• Play Nourish Interactive Games- winner of Parents’ Choice Seal and Children’s Library Association Award
• Play tic-tac-toe   The vegetables versus Chef Solus
• Coloring fruits and vegetables while kids learn where produce really comes from!
• Spin the wheel, land on a fruit or vegetable and win a prize!
• Healthy eating out tips for parents to take home.
• Each child will have their name entered into a contest and have a chance to win a Wii game system.

Play the Yummy Drops Fruit Game and automatically get a FREE Kids meal coupon for Fresh Choice Restaurant!

More information:

Family Night event at Fresh Choice Restaurant in San Mateo, CA

Fresh Choice and Nourish Interactive Partnership

Nourish Interactive partnered with Fresh Choice!

Follow the rainbow

Fruits and vegetables of different hues offer a wide range of nutrients. This week make a dish for your family with green spinach, orange carrots, black beans or red berries for a healthy, colorful meal everyone will enjoy.

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!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

Fitness is a team sport

Ask a friend with similar fitness goals to exercise with you this week!  Walks, hikes and sports like basketball and tennis are more fun with two.  Be a great role model for the kids

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!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

There is lots of talk this month about the accuracy of BMI calculations and kids.

A new study published in Pediatrics is suggesting that measuring a child’s neck circumference could be a better tool for quickly assessing children’s potential weight status.   After evaluating 1102 children, this study indicated that neck circumference correlated with age, BMI and waist circumference.

• Optimal Neck Circumference cutoff indicative of high BMI in boys ranged from 28.5 to 39.0 cm.
• Corresponding values in girls ranged from 27.0 to 34.6 cm.

We will have to keep our eye on this potential tool.

BMI has always had the limitation of not being able to differentiate between fat and muscle.  Because children are growing and height can be different for the same age children, that has to be accounted for when determining BMI significance.  This is why, kids have their BMI calculated and placed on a growth chart so it determines how their BMI score compares with other children of their age and provides a percentile.  Kids with a BMI percentile of greater than 85% (meaning their weight on the growth chart is higher than 85% of the kids their age in America) are considered overweight.

But once again, this is a tool, a guide but not definitive.  I think it is good that researchers are still evaluating other possible tools that may be easier and more accurate in helping determining children at risk.

I think what is most important is

how healthy is your child’s diet

• are they getting enough fruits and vegetables and fiber to help them develop properly and build strong immune systems
• are they limiting or avoiding processed foods that can be loaded with chemicals that may affect their brain and personality
• are they active every day

Being healthy is not only dependent upon weight.

Read more information on BMI

Use our BMI percentile tool and calculate your child’s score

A consumer watchdog group is threatening to sue McDonalds for placing toys in their Happy Meals. With the growing concern about our children’s lack of nutrition and healthy habits, McDonalds is now under fire.

The group is claiming that by placing toys in their happy meals, McDonalds is luring kids to want to eat their high fatty meals.  The group states that this is deceptive marketing practices and in violation of four state laws.

Well, there will certainly be arguments on both sides with many people blaming the parents for not just saying “NO”.  But I have to say, being a parent, I am not so quick to blame them.  I mean kids recognize the golden arches before they can even talk!  Now that says a lot about the marketing towards kids.  It is hard to fight millions of dollars of advertising.

Here in the Bay Area, Santa Clara was the first county to pass a law against putting toys in unhealthy foods.  Will this make a difference in kids choices?  It certainly won’t hurt.

We are facing a serious issue and just like everything else, it may mean some drastic measures.

Whatever happens, it probably won’t be soon (most likely).

Parents, you can prepare your children for eating out and setting some expectations.  For example, they could order the happy meal but must have milk instead of soda or fruit instead of french fries.  In other words. there is room for some healthy food.  And in all fairness to McDonalds, they do have some healthier choices.

Here is our printable  guide and tips that you could use with your child before you eat out.  Once you get there, it is much harder to set expectations.  Kids are much more negotiable when you are deciding whether you will take them there.  Use your leverage to vie for some healthy choices.

The Surgeon General Regina Benjamin was interviewed earlier this month and she really emphasized the need for fun as part of a key strategy in fighting childhood obesity.

She said that kids need to find activities that they enjoy so that exercise is not viewed as a chore but rather “fun”.  We all like to have fun, so if kids combine something they love to do as part of their exercise regime, then it makes it more enjoyable and something they are more likely to stick with.

I could not agree with her more!   She also said it was important to talk to kids about activity goals rather than “weight” goals.

Have them make a list of the things they like to do and focus on the ones that involve being active

Create family time and make having physical activity time a priority.  This can be the most challenging part, not to let the other little stresses of the day takeover and before you know it, the activity time has come and gone.

Resources to help you get started:

Family Fitness Tips, Being Active and Fit

Turn Off the TV Tips – Fun Activities for Kids

Kids Daily Exercise Needs Article
How To Get The Children Off The Couch And Get Moving!

Improving Kids TV Habits Article
How to Reduce Kids TV Time and Unhealthy Snacking

Keep Kids Active During Summer Article
Get kids active during summer and avoid too much TV time.

Getting kids involved in the meal planning is a good strategy to promote a balanced meal and a healthy one.

I know this sounds so simple but some of the best strategies for dealing with kids are pretty straightforward.  If they help decide the menu and help in the preparation, then they are a little more vested in eating it.

Here is a simple way to get started:

Print this free colorful and kid friendly food pyramid.

Have the kids plan the menu requiring them to pick a food from each of the food groups.

Have the kids help pick out the fresh fruit and vegetable at the grocery store.  Here is a cute guide for kids and parents to buying fruits and vegetables in season and how to pick them.

Have your child help in the preparation.  Depending on their age, kids can do quite a bit to help.  Here is a quick guide on cooking activities based on the child’s age.

Have the child name the meal or special dish.  Yes, add the little extra fun in it.  ”Tony’s SuperSonic Meal” or “Jazzie’s Dreamy Surprise” .  Kids are very imaginative, let them come up with a fun name that they can use to introduce their meal to the family.

Think beyond the fryer

When eating out this week choose steamed, broiled or grilled dishes instead of greasy fried foods for your family. It’s a simple switch that will drastically cut your family’s saturated fat intake!

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!

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

A new poll suggests that parents are concerned about the growing childhood obesity crisis in America but they are not recognizing that their child may be overweight.  This is a huge disconnect and we have to ask ourselves “why?’

Why are Americans not seeing that their own child may be overweight or obese and could be facing serious illness as they grow older?   There are several reasons that parents are not seeing the problem:

• the child has been putting on weight slowly, over time, so it is less noticeable
• kids overall (25-30% of kids are overweight or obese) are bigger so maybe the overweight child looks to be a normal size in comparison to the other kids
• parents may be holding on to the notion that “a plump baby or child is a healthy one”

I have children, myself, although grown, and I know as a mother it is not easy.  You don’t want to point out their weight and make them feel self conscious.  We love our kids and we don’t want to focus on their problems but rather on their achievements, we want to be supportive.

We are in danger of having the first generation that will be sicker and die younger than their parents.  How can we change this if we don’t recognize the problem in our home?

The best way to fight childhood obesity is by identifying issues early.  Have your pediatrician calculate the child’s BMI to age percentile as a starting point and see where your child falls.  Although this is not exact, it does give you a guideline and starting point for discussion.

Focus less on body image and more on their eating habits and getting a balanced meal.  Help your child be more active by finding activities they enjoy and activities that you can do together as a family.  Your pediatrician and dietitian can really help you curb eating habits with meal planning tips and suggestions.

And, it is so important to keep changes positive and something for the whole family instead of singling out the child.  Remember, that even small changes will add up over time.  These small changes will help your child build healthier habits and be a healthier person in the long run.

Resources to help you get started:

BMI tool

Pediatrician visit discussion sheet by age (just print and take to your next visit)

Setting healthy goals as a family guide

Easy tips on how to get the family moving this summer

help the kids learn about the fun of being healthy, play nutrition games

Part 2:  Anne Kolker RD, NourishInteractive.com

Does low fruit and vegetable intake really matter when children are young? Chronic illness such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer are usually concerns for adults. However, life-long positive eating habits (such as eating low fat foods, consuming foods with high fiber, eating less processed foods) are habit-forming when started young. Furthermore, certain diseases such as diabetes and high cholesterol are starting to appear in children who are overweight. Finally, fruits and vegetables have so many naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber that are good for your health.

Are our busy lifestyles to blame? Certainly, if you have kids you are getting in the car to go somewhere (to a restaurant, to soccer practice, etc.). Packaged food such as chips or power bars are very convenient and there is something about opening up a package that seems so easy compared to slicing up that lonely piece of fruit. It really is just a mindset though. Once you start packing up the fruits and veggies in Tupperware containers you will get in the habit. Plus, fruits and veggies are low in calories and fill you up.

We are constantly bombarded with food advertisements and not necessarily for healthy food such as fruits and vegetables[1]. In fact, children 2 to 11 years old are exposed to an average of 150 to 200 hours of commercial messages, or 20,000 commercials a year and the majority of these advertisement are for cereals, candies, or other sweets [2].

So, what is a parent to do? Role modeling is my motto. If you are eating your fruits and vegetables, your children will too. In 2002, researchers at Pennsylvania State University examined parental pressure (“finish your vegetables” or “do as I say”) vs. role modeling (“do as I do”) among 191 five year old girls. The results showed that a daughter’s fruit and vegetable intake was positively related to their parent’s reported fruit and vegetable intake[3].

Fun Resources for KIds – Increasing your child’s fruit and vegetable intake:

Fruit Food Groups Learning Sheet

Healthy Food Diaries and Goal Tracking Sheets for Kids

Printable – Fruits and Vegetables Coloring Sheet 1

Printable – Fruits and Vegetables Coloring Sheet 2

Matching Food Groups Game

Yummy Drops -Deliver Fresh Fruits Game

Build a Healthy Meal Game

[1] www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

[2] www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov

[3] Journal of the American Dietetic Association Jan 2002); see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0887/is_2_21/ai_83661583