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!

Prime time, not snack time

Avoid having the family munching in front of the television this week. It’s harder to keep track of how much you’re eating!

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.

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.

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.

June is National Dairy Month and a great reminder that we need to help kids develop strong bones and good eating habits to ensure their bones stay strong.  Dairy is so important because it is the main source of vitamin D and calcium for most kids.  Bones need calcium and calcium needs vitamin D in order to get absorbed into the body.  So these two nutrients go hand in hand to help kids form strong bones.

There are so many studies that indicate our children are not getting enough calcium and/or vitamin D.   There could be lots of reasons for this.  Maybe the child does not like milk and refuses to drink it or maybe they are lactose intolerant, or perhaps they are on a vegan diet.  Whatever the reason, it is important to help kids get these two nutrients.

One thing about dairy, it can be very high in fat.  So look for lowfat or even better, if you can wean them down to nonfat (skim) that is the best.

For lactose intolerant kids, there are now plenty of lactose free dairy products.  I know, because both my husband and son are lactose intolerant and so I only carry lactose free products in my home.  They are usually located in the same section as the dairy products but read the labels and make sure it says “lactose free”.

For parents who have kids who don’t like milk- perhaps some creative snacking ideas.

• Make hot meals like oatmeal and soups with low-fat or fat-free milk instead of water
• low fat yogurt goes great with some fresh fruit, you can even add a little fiber cereal to give it some crunch (and fiber)
• Add a little lowfat cheese (1 ounce or 1 slice) to some scrambled eggs and wrap it in a whole grain tortilla
• Kids love to dip!  Try some veggies and a low-fat yogurt-based dip,
• Kids love sticks – try some skewers with low fat cheese cubes and fruit
• Serve low-fat or fat-free milk with meals
• Some may argue with chocolate milk, but sometimes it is the only way to get them to drink, but be careful of the calories and sugar

For our vegan kids:  look for foods that are high in vitamin D and foods that are high in calcium

There are many calcium fortified foods, orange juice, dark green leafy vegetables.

Vitamin D is a little harder to find in foods naturally.  Talk to your pediatrician about how to ensure that your child gets the necessary amounts of vitamin D in their diet. We are not experts on vegan diets but there are many out there and a dietitian consult can be very helpful.

Vegan Resources:

Vegan Health.org

Vegan Mom

You may be interested in:

Family Tips – Calcium Rich Foods for Each Meal

‘Building Strong Bones and Teeth’ Healthy Contract – Printable Agreement

Building Strong Bones and Teeth – Printable Calcium Tracking Sheet

National study shows that many kids in the US don’t get enough vitamin D

New study shows 70% of kids are low in vitamin D

High Calcium Food List

Milk Food Group Learning Sheets

Avoid barbeque binging.

Stay on track this Memorial Day by using small dishes instead of picking from a larger bowl or package.

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.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter weekend.  This weekend, many kids will be coloring eggs and then having fun partaking in an Easter Egg hunt.

I wanted to share some food (egg) safety tips about coloring and eating colored eggs for a fun a healthy Easter holiday:

Coloring eggs safety:

• Wash your hands thoroughly before you handle eggs at each step including cooking, cooling and dyeing.
• Refrigerate hard-cooked eggs if you won’t be coloring them right away
• Refrigerate them again right after you dye them and after you display them.
• Color only uncracked eggs.
• If you want to eat your dyed eggs later, use food coloring or specially made food-grade egg dyes dissolved in water that is warmer than the eggs.
• Throw away any eggs that cracked during dyeing or while on display,
• Don’t eat eggs that have been out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours.  They could be growing bacteria and make your family and friends very sick.
• If you hide eggs, consider hiding places carefully. Avoid areas where the eggs might come into contact with dirt, pets, wild animals, birds, reptiles, insects or lawn chemicals.
• Refrigerate the hidden eggs again after they’ve been found.

Healthy Easter Themed Nutrition Worksheets and Activities for Kids- Coloring pages, word puzzles, bookmarks and more!

Happy and Safe Easter to everyone!

Source:  www.incredibleegg.org/egg

This week, check nutrition labels before you eat. And don’t be fooled by a low calorie count! Look at serving size and number of servings per package.

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 has been a lot of debate about the the different kinds of sugar put in many popular foods consumed by children.  In particular, there was been a lot of concern about high-fructose corn syrup.   I think it is important to look at the ingredients on food labels but if you don’t know what you are looking at, it can be a bit confusing.

So here is the 101 on sugar and the food labels:

Glucose:  This is the basic molecule of sugar.  The converts the foods we eat, breaks it down to glucose, so that it can be used by the body for energy.

Fructose: This is another basic molecule of sugar but it comes from fruits naturally.  Fruits are high in fructose but when eaten whole you get lots of other vitamins, fiber and nutrients.   But when you drink fruit juice, you are getting a lot of the vitamins but the fructose (sugar)  is concentrated in the juice.  This is why it is recommended that a child only get one serving of their fruit requirement from juice.  It is much better to get the rest of their fruit from whole fruits.  Another way to look at it, you would have to eat several pieces of fruit to get the same amount of sugar as one glass of juice.

Sucrose:  This is the plain white sugar that comes from sugarcanes or beet roots.  This is usually a combination of glucose and fructose sugar.

Lactose:  This is the sugar found naturally in milk.  Some people who can’t tolerate milk are allergic or have an intolerance to the lactose.  There are now lactose-free milk with the same amount of calcium as regular milk.

High-fructose corn syrup: This is a man made sweetener that is a combination of glucose and fructose.  The problem with this syrup is it is a very easy and cheap to make so food manufacturers can easily add this to their foods.

There are many studies that indicate the more sugar you have in your diet, the more your body will crave it.  I know, for myself, I have weaned myself off of adding sugar to my foods or coffee.  I did it gradually so it wasn’t too hard for me to get used to less and less sugar.  I have noticed that my taste buds are now much more sensitive, so a little bit of sweet goes a long way for me.

It’s better to teach your children to enjoy fruits and cereals and other foods without adding sugar.  Look for foods that say “no sugar added”.

Other resources:

Guidelines on how much fruit juice is okay for kids to drink

Learn about our free healthy food pyramid games for kids!

Learn about our healthy food pyramid games for kids

In my last blog, I shared with you a new report grading how well childcare facilities provided healthy eating and physical activity for children under their care. The report also discussed the “Model Child Care Regulation for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity”.

I am sharing with you these ideal regulations so you can see how your home or child care setting compares. Although these are “ideal” meaning ” if everything was perfect” and of course, it is hard to be perfect! it is still good guidelines and can help you evaluate some of your current family habits.

Healthy Eating

1. High fat*, high sugar, and high salt foods are served less than one time per week or are not served
2. Sugar sweetened beverages are not served
3. Children older than two years are served reduced fat milk (skim or 1%)
4. Clean, sanitary drinking water is available for children to serve themselves throughout the day
5. Nutrition education is offered to child care providers at least one time per year
6. Juice is limited to a total of 4-6 ounces or less per day for children over one year of age
7. Child care providers do not use food as a reward or punishment
8. Nutrition education is offered to children at least three times per year
9. At least one child care provider sits with children at the table and eats the same meals and snacks
10. Providers encourage, but do not force, children to eat

*saturated fat and trans fat

Physical Activity

1. Children are provided with 60 minutes of physical activity per day, a combination of both teacher led and free play
2. Television, video, and computer time are limited to one time per week or less and not more than 30 minutes each time
3. Child care providers do not withhold active play time as punishment
4. Children with special needs are provided opportunities for active play while other children are physically active
5. Children are provided outdoor active play time at least two times per day
6. Physical activity education is offered to child care providers at least one time per year
7. At least one provider joins children in active play at least one time per day
8. Shaded area provided during outdoor play
9. Children are not seated for periods longer than 30 minutes except when sleeping or eating
10. Physical activity education is offered to children at least three times per year