Michelle Obama is taking a front seat in the fight against childhood obesity.  She reminds us that today, one-third of all American children are overweight or obese. The rate is even higher among African Americans, and one-half of all minority children born in 2000 or later can expect to develop early-onset diabetes.

A new website Let’s Move.gov was launched to reach out to individuals, teachers, parents, leaders and anyone that wants to join the fight against childhood obesity.

We are proud to say that Nourish Interactive has joined Michelle Obama and the Let’s Move Organization to help kids eat healthier and be more active.  It is going to take “a village”!

Let’s Move will:

• give parents the support they need
• provide healthier food in schools
• help our kids to be more physically active
• make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s day, visit the produce section of your local market and stock up on lots of green! Try to incorporate some green veggies into every dish this week.

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.

Our kids may be having too many snacks and they are not the healthy kind.  This new study just released by University of Carolina, may be fuel for the big debate “should we tax sugary drinks and junk food”.

A recent study shows the following concerning trends:

• kids are moving towards three snack a day
• more than 27% of their daily calories are coming from snacks
• salty snacks and candy have the largest increase
• desserts and sweetened beverages are still the main
• Children increased their caloric intake by 113 calories per day from 1977 to 2006

This is a great time to talk to kids about healthy snacks during National Nutrition Month!  They are probably talking about it at school.  There are some ways to control snacking habits and more importantly, help kids learn to choose healthier snacks.  Here is some tips to help you teach your children when to snack and what to snack on.  Once kids are teenagers and more independent, it gets very difficult (some parents may just say “impossible”) to control their habits.  So it is best to start when they are young.  And remember, you do have control over the snacks in your home.

Read Healthy Snacks for the Kids (this article talks about summer time but the tips are still very applicable to helping kids choose healthy snacks.

American Dietetic Association gives us 25 Healthy Snack Ideas

Help kids change their habits with our cute kid-friendly “Healthy Snacks” agreement

Then make and fun and track their snack habits with this kid-friendly “Healthy Snacks” tracking sheet

Kids Coloring Page – Chef Solus Healthy Snacks

Make the most of TV time this Monday. Challenge your family and see who can do the most jumping jacks or leg lifts during commercials.

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.

As we come to the end of February, National Heart Health Month here are some great tips to keep in mind all year long.The American Heart Association’s top ten ways to help kids develop healthy habits.  This should sound pretty familiar, but it is always good to have a reminder.

If you are doing all of these, don’t worry.  What’s important is to start making changes now and gradually change.  Pick one item on the list and work on that.  Set a goal and be positive.  Remember, it takes time to change our habits and every positive change is a step toward a healthier child.
Here are the top 10 tips for helping children develop a healthy heart -  drum roll please!

1. Be a positive role model.  Kids are little sponges and absorb your habits.
2. Be active as a family. Here is some “Being Active” tips and ideas.
3. Limit screen time.  For more help, read “how to limit TV time”
4. Find activities that kids like to do.  Here is a list of ideas.
5. Be supportive.  No nagging please.
6. Set Goals and limits.  Here is a list of kid friendly goals and tracking sheets
7. Avoid rewarding kids with food
8. Make dinnertime, family time.
9. Make it fun to read food labels.  Here is a fun game for kids to learn how to read food labels.
10. Stay involved.  Make healthy choices a priority for the family.

Source AHA

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.

It’s National Children’s Dental Health month.  I am reminded of how important it is to not only teach your children good dental care habits like brushing and flossing but also teaching them about healthy foods and not so healthy foods for their teeth.

I was visiting my great niece last week and she tells me she has 3, yes 3, cavities!  She is only five.  Now doesn’t that seem like, way too many!?  Neither one of my kids have had any cavities and they are both fully grown.  I noticed she likes to have candy and juices alot.  I think part of it is that it is eaten in small doses over different times of the day.  I know she brushes her teeth every morning and night.   But here is something that most of us non-dental persons may not be aware of.

Bacteria starts to grow about 20 minutes after eating.  So frequent snacking means your child needs more brushing and flossing.

I know her grandmother, my sister, is working to help her change her little habits into healthier ones.  I think the 3 cavities was a kind of a wake up call.

After all, candy and juices everyday aren’t good for your teeth or your diet.

Teach your children the foods that will give them a beautiful smile:

• Milk and other high calcium/vitamin D foods
• Water
• vegetables
• fresh fruits like apples and kiwis

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

A very exciting and ambitious goal was set by President Obama this week.

President Obama has announced that a task force on Childhood Obesity has been created.

Spurred by the sad fact that:

• kids are predicted to have a shorter life span than their parents
• childhood obesity and the related diseases has tripled among children
• current strategies are not working

President Obama has made this one of his key missions:

TO FIGHT CHILDHOOD OBESITY

He is:

• redoubling the efforts to solve the problem
• he wants the problem solved within a generation!
• he wants a comprehensive plan delivered in 90 days!!

Wow, that is quite a hefty goal and schedule.  I applaud the fact that he is taking such a strong stand to address this serious issue head on.

I still don’t think most people/parents realize what this will mean to our children’s lives, health care system and economy if we don’t figure out how to stop this trend.

But under this new leadership, I am hopeful. I am excited and energized!  We can make a difference if we all make this a priority.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day- Nourish Interactive has NEW Kids’ Valentine’s Day cards, printable worksheets and nutrition activity pages! Our nutrition printables promote nutrition and teach kids about healthy choices- The Fun Way to Learn About Nutrition!

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Fun Healthy Valentine’s Day Activities and Free Holiday Theme  Nutrition Worksheets. Free printable activities for kids- healthy heart coloring pages, bookmarks, healthy lunch notes, food pyramid education worksheets, Valentine’s day healthy foods coloring pages, and cute Valentine’s cards for kids to give to friends at home or school.

Choose full color valentine's cards or cards to color!