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!

I came across this video about kids being active.  I love the music.  Made me get up from my computer and break out some moves.

With the weather still being pretty cold, here is a fun aerobics video for kids, you can even do the DVD with them. Make being physically active a fun part of your day together.

This is a fun way to encourage kids to be physically active for 60 ‘Move It Minutes’ a Day. You can get a taste of the DVD from this youtube video.  Show it to the kids and see if they start to move.  Finding different ways to get your kids having fun while they are active is the key to helping them build this as a life long habit!

Fit Factor for Kids Website and DVD

Resources from Nourish Interactive- The fun way to learn about nutrition:

Move It Minutes- Printable Daily Physical Activity Tracking Sheet

Get Kids Moving Tips- Healthy Family Article

Family Fitness Tips, Being Active and Fit

More Resources:

Let’s Move - New initiative for improving kids health, nutrition and increasing daily physical activity.

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a report in January showing just how much time kids were spending on entertainment media, like tv, video, computer, ipod etc in a typical day.  The study was conducted with kids from 8 to 18 years old.

You may surprised to read these results:

There is a lot of correlations and stats about what was found.  But let me just make it simple.

Kids are spending way too much time in front of the screen.  Cell phones and ipods are adding to that.  What was interesting was according to this study, only 3 out of 10 young people said they had rules about how much time they could spend in front of the screen.

Some other interesting finds:

• big increase in mobile media usage – cell phones and ipod
• 64%of young people said the TV is usually on during dinner time
• 45% said the TV was on most of the day

Read the full report from Kaiser

Related resources: Reducing tv – screen time articles- printable goal trackers

How to limit your child’s TV habits in a positive way- ‘Managing TV Time’ -Nourish Healthy Kids Article

Ideas for ’screen free’ alternative activities- ‘TV and screen free’ list of ideas- fun activities for kids.( printable pdf)

Limiting TV time-  printable time tracker for kids -Printable daily/weekly limiting screen time goal sheets for kids

Set a Limit TV time (or whatever media device) Kids GOAL sheet- Printable agreement sheet

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 a very colorful  little book called, “H is for Healthy Diet” by Keith Turner.

Kids nutrition book

This mini book is packed with good information and tips about healthy eating and why it is important.  It is great book for older kids to read for themselves.  I think parents can also use this book to review key nutrition messages with the younger child.  There are lots of food image and cartoon illustration to help reinforce the message.

Some of the key points I really liked in the book are:

• the visual examples of what is a healthy breakfast:  one at home and one for the on the go breakfast
• the visual example of the difference in portion sizes, one for adults and one for children
• the examples of what foods are low energy foods (unhealthy foods) and what exactly is healthy foods

Kids are open to receiving healthy messages when they are presented in a positive and especially fun manner.  Really, no different than adults.  We all enjoy learning about things that are presented in an interesting way that keeps our attention.  Books are a fun, colorful way to introduce healthy choice concepts.

For more information about this book, you can go to their website -Parents and teachers will find several books written for children in this series- Health/Nutrition, Safety, Hygiene and more!

I was not paid to share this information.  If I find something I like, then I am always happy to pass it on to you.  Happy Reading.

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

If your child is overweight and you are worried about how to best help them lose weight in a healthy way, I recommend seeing your pediatrician and having a meeting set with the pediatric dietitian.

But there are also a great deal of good, credible resources available to you.

I just read an article written by Pediatric nurse who is creating a 12 part series called “Why Weight”.  This 12 part series will dedicate itself to taking an in-depth look at the factors and behaviors that contribute to obesity in children. I think this will be a great resource and a wealth of good information so I wanted to share this with you.

Each week she will focus on one of the following 12 issues that contribute to childhood obesity with strategies to help parents address them.  Here is a list of the 12 issues she will cover each week  (Affectionately termed, “The Dirty Dozen”)

The Dirty Dozen (in no particular order):
1.  Drinking Soda
2.  Use of Convenience Foods
3.  Daily Sugar Consumption
4.  Hidden & Obvious Fat Sources
5.  Hunger
6.  Balance and Rhythm of Meals and Snacks
7.  Not Enough Produce (Fruits & Vegetables)
8.  Too Much ”Screen Time”
9.  Activity (Structured vs. Unstructured)
10.  Portion Distortion
11.  Bad Habits Start Early (Sneaking, Hoarding, Skipping)
12.  The Magic of Mealtime

Read part 1 – Kids and Soda

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that another year has rolled by.   We believe that the best way to fight childhood obesity and keep our kids healthy is through early fun nutrition education.

We thank you for your support over the last two years.  We could not have grown to over 350,000 hits per month without you kind words about our site.

We are so appreciative and grateful to all the moms, dads, grandparents, teachers and nurses  and kids who took the time to pass our site along to others.

We are so excited for 2010 and look forward to working with you in a fun way to promote healthy eating and daily activity to our children.

Look for us in twitter, facebook and myspace as we join the social networking world with new free games, nutrition tools and printable worksheets!

We will see you in 2010!

The Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Act of 2009 was introduced to Capitol Hill on December 16th.  This bill essentially would require all elementary schools to offer a salad bar as part of their lunch program.

Research has shown that having a variety of fruits and vegetables in the cafeteria significantly increases the amount of fruits and vegetables kids eat.

We also have learned that kids will be more apt to try new items when a variety of fruits and vegetables are offered.

This makes sense.  Kids, just like us, need variety and have personal likes and dislikes.  A salad bar would give them a nice array of choices to meet most kids preferences.  Getting kids to eat more fruits and vegetables is so important for a balanced and healthy diet.  Unfortunately, most kids don’t get the required amount of these foods which means their body is not getting the nutrition it needs to be healthy, fight diseases and build a strong immune system.

We know that schools across America are trying to find ways to offer better, healthier foods but are strapped by their current budget.  We need to step up and support them.  Kids are the future of our country.

The Child Reauthorization is happening in early 2010 and important decisions about funding, food quality and requirements will be decided.  You can make a difference by contacting your local congressperson.

Tell congress you want healthy school lunches for kids

More resources and information about this campaign.

Other resources for creating a healthy lunch for your child

Get the kids involved in easy and fun “back to school healthy lunch food” ideas

Put a smile on your child’s face at lunchtime with fun printable healthy lunch cards

Tips on handling the picky eater’s school lunch- healthy school lunch foods for kids

Simple solution to get kids eating their school lunch.

Back to school – help kids make healthy food choices in the school cafeteria

Everyone is getting ready for the holiday and looking for creative ways to liven up their table. Remember, how I am always saying to make nutrition fun. Well here is a simple and free activity that reminds kids to be healthy!

For your special holiday meal, have the kids help set the table with special “Happy Healthy Holiday Season” place cards. Your guests will love the personal touch from the kids.

Just print the sheet of name cards on regular or heavy paper. There are 8 name cards per sheet.

Then cut them out.

Have your kids write in each special guests name and place on the plate.

For added fun, have the kids paste them on green or red construction paper (cut the construction paper into rectangular shape about 4″x3″)

holiday name cards

Other resources for a healthy holiday:

Cook your Holiday Turkey germ-free!

Healthy Holiday Food Substitution Guide

Holiday Grocery Shopping List

How to prepare Healthier Holiday Snacks and Desserts

Free Gift of Time Coupons teach kids valuable lessons

Serving a balanced meal for the holidays