What do children love? Having parties!

Healthy Child Healthy World took these two ideas and combined them to create the Healthy Child Party. It’s time to party! Let’s celebrate our healthy children!

Healthy Child Healthy World is an organization that focuses on ridding our environments of harmful chemicals with an important ...]]> What do parents love? Having healthy children!

What do children love? Having parties!

Healthy Child Healthy World took these two ideas and combined them to create the Healthy Child Party. It’s time to party! Let’s celebrate our healthy children!

Healthy Child Healthy World is an organization that focuses on ridding our environments of harmful chemicals with an important emphasis on getting the foods we consume free from pesticides and toxins. Jim and Nancy Chuda started the organization in memory of their five-year-old daughter Colette, who passed away from cancer due to pesticide exposure. They started Healthy Child Healthy World in 1992 to teach of the dangers of pesticide exposure in children. One of the ways they spread the word is through Healthy Child Parties.

Over 4000 families have already hosted Healthy Child Parties and you can too!

1. Sign-up to host a Healthy Child Party. For $25* (tax-deductible) you get a kit full of party-planning ideas, natural products free from pesticides and toxins, educational materials, and coupons for healthy products, like LUNA.
2. You can host your party almost anywhere – your house, a park, a recreation center, etc. Make sure it is somewhere that everyone can be comfortable, and kids can be kids.
3. Invite 15 friends and family members to watch the DVD from your kit, nibble on the yummy food samples, and share ways to  improve your children’s lifestyles.
4. The party costs nothing for your guests, and the knowledge they learn about protecting their children’s health is priceless! (Plus, it’s a great excuse to get together and have some fun!)
5. Click here for more information on Healthy Child Parties.

*For those unable to pay the $25 fee, Healthy Child Healthy World waives the $25 fee for ten kits per month as part of its Scholarship Program.

Did you and your family eat a rainbow today? Encourage your child to make balanced food choices and fill each day with plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables. But, as many parents know, sometimes children can be picky eaters, making it challenging to get their fill of the much needed, nutrient-rich produce. Today I Ate a Rainbow ...]]> EAT A RAINBOW!

Did you and your family eat a rainbow today? Encourage your child to make balanced food choices and fill each day with plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables. But, as many parents know, sometimes children can be picky eaters, making it challenging to get their fill of the much needed, nutrient-rich produce. Today I Ate a Rainbow is a great organization that has found a way to help make eating fruits and vegetables more fun: simply eat a rainbow!

Eat a rainbow? What does that mean?

It’s as simple as it sounds: have your child eat at least one fruit or vegetable from the five major color groups each day: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue/purple. The more colors your children consume the more varied the nutrients their bodies are receiving. Make it fun! Kids get a sense of pride and satisfaction when they can visually track their progress. Use crayons or markers to keep track of what colors your child has consumed, or check out the assembled game kit below.

1. Have your child help prepare meals. Getting your child to work with vegetables will make her want to eat them! She can do simple tasks like pulling apart pieces of lettuce.

2. Keep lots of fruits and vegetables in sight. Your child will grab what’s near when he is hungry, so if he sees accessible fruits and vegetables he will be more likely to eat them.

3. Serve simple fruits and vegetables without many sauces, as this is more appealing to children.

4. Make sure you eat fruits and vegetables. You are a role model to your child!  Lead by example.

5. Start with small servings of new fruits and vegetables. Children often have to eat a new food a number of  times before accepting it, and pressuring them to finish a large portion will make them less likely to eat the food. 

The Kids Food Festival, in partnership with Cooking Light, and presented by The Creative Kitchen, educates parents and children on making balanced food choices through fun ...]]> We are busy prepping for the next Kids Food Festival, in partnership with Cooking Light, Saturday, November 3 and Sunday, November 4 at Citi Pond at Bryant Park in NYC.

The Kids Food Festival, in partnership with Cooking Light, and presented by The Creative Kitchen, educates parents and children on making balanced food choices through fun and flavorful activities and entertainment, including our Balanced Plate Scavenger Hunt, hands-on cooking classes for children with James Beard Foundation curated chefs, cooking demonstrations, live family entertainment, and more!

We’re organizing a wonderful weekend of events that families will, no doubt, enjoy, and we’d love YOUR help too!   Both culinary and non-culinary volunteers are needed for the festival weekend!

Culinary opportunities involve working with and for famous chefs to prepare for their classes and demonstrations.  Specifically, volunteers will assist with prep work, assist chefs during cooking demonstrations, assist children during hands-on cooking classes, aid in setting up the kitchen space, and more.

Non-culinary opportunities include escorting VIPs and chefs to demonstrations, assisting festival attendees, working with children on the Scavenger Hunt and goody bags, and ticket handling.

If you are interested in volunteering, please email volunteer@kidsfoodfestival.com.

This is sure to be a fun event for all! Thanks in advance!

With childhood obesity at epidemic proportions in the U.S., the CDC has compiled tips on the micro-level to suggest how parents can encourage their children ...]]> Obesity affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States - triple the rate from just one generation ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention.

With childhood obesity at epidemic proportions in the U.S., the CDC has compiled tips on the micro-level to suggest how parents can encourage their children to eat healthfully, and on the macro-level has targeted changes at the state and community level.

States and Communities

States and communities can have powerful effects on children’s food environments by targeting local neighborhoods and schools. Citizens can sit in at their town or county’s next committee meeting or their school’s next board meeting and voice their opinion! Here are ways to get you thinking:

Local Neighborhoods:

1. Assess your state/community’s food retail environment. For example, map the availability and distribution of healthy food across the state. Then based on the findings, strive to increase access to healthy foods in areas that lack access to such commodities. One way to do this may be to create incentives for businesses to sell more nutritious and healthful products and to expand their businesses to lower income areas.
2. Map out state parks and playgrounds. Look for areas that are widespread or have few to no public play areas. Having public access to play areas allows children the opportunity to meet up with friends and engage in physical activity.

Schools:

1. Get the junk food out of our schools! The key idea is REPLACEMENT. Encourage your school to REPLACE the unhealthy options with more nutritious options. For example: instead of having an ice cream bar, have a salad bar. Instead of vending machines full of sugary drinks, have bottled water or water fountains.
2. What do children love? TEAM COMPETITIONS! Based on this idea, encourage your school to participate in the Healthier US School Challenge to win a gold, silver, or bronze medal as well as money for having a healthier school environment. What student wouldn’t want to say his school has a gold medal, and what school couldn’t use a few extra dollars? Click here for more information.
3. Increase physical activity. Does your school have a mandatory physical education program? Physical activity is key in developing teamwork skills and self confidence, while maintaining a healthy body weight.

Parents:

The CDC guidelines for parents are similar to the guidelines for schools. If your child is eating healthfully both at school AND at home, you will be well on your way to ensuring your child has a healthy lifestyle.

1. Follow the REPLACEMENT idea above. Provide fruits and vegetables at meals instead of food with high fat content. Give your child water instead of sugary beverages. Encourage your child to play outside instead of watching TV.
2. Get involved at your child’s school. By getting involved one can help limit junk food in schools, make the school healthier and unite community members in an important cause.

Most of these tips boil down to one idea: REPLACEMENT.  On the macro-level, REPLACE fast food restaurants with farmer’s markets and healthy grocery stores. On the micro-level, REPLACE desserts with fruits/veggies, sugary drinks with water, and TV with physical activity.

For more tips from the CDC on decreasing childhood obesity, please visit: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/solutions.html

Tip: Be sure to add labels with your child’s ...]]> School is back in session and kids are gearing up with their shiny new school supplies!  Along with the notebooks, pencil cases, and sneakers, kids also love to show off their special lunch boxes!  Check out some of our favorite, durable, reusable, eco-friendly, and stylish lunchbox items.

Tip: Be sure to add labels with your child’s classroom number on all of her lunch gear, so it can be returned to the correct classroom if left behind in the cafeteria.

BUILT Big Apple Buddies Lunch Bag, MacDougle Monkey

Send your little monkey back to school with this adorable BUILT Big Apple Buddies insulated lunch bag. This bag is perfect for the youngest of students with a side-release buckle for clipping on to backpacks, and an easy to open zipper. Fun Fact: The animal-themed bags are named after famous streets in Manhattan because BUILT is a New York City based company. (Amazon.com $20)

Kids' Konserve® Food Container Set

Keeping foods separate will help to preserve the fresh flavors. Separate bagels from hummus or salad from applesauce…using Kids’ Konserve® leak-proof nesting trio containers. These stainless steel containers are BPA, phthalate and lead-free, and they are dishwasher safe! (Landsend.com, $27)

Bug Music Happikin

How many napkins go into your child’s lunchbox per year? What a waste of resources, right? Be earth (and wallet!) friendly with a re-usable and adorable cotton Happikin! Clean the nifty napkin by simply rinsing and washing with the laundry! Happikins double as colorful placemats for snack time or as handkerchiefs, too! (Goodsie.com, $6)

CamelBak Groove Water Bottle - .6L

Worried about the quality of the water that comes out of your school’s water fountains? Send your kid to school with CamelBak® Groove™, and leave your worries at home! The CamelBak Groove filters your water as you drink.  The filter lasts three months, replacing up to 375 disposable plastic water bottles! The Groove water bottle is BPA-free and spill proof. No more wet book bags! (Camelbak.com, $20)

LunchBots 16 oz Insulated Stainless Steel Food Container

For those cold winter days, or days when kids are feeling a little under the weather, send them to school with a LunchBots Insulated Steel Food Container filled with hot soup…or even hot chocolate! The LunchBot works great for keeping foods hot or cold for hours and is leak-proof, so go ahead and toss it into the lunchbox without worry! (Reuseit.com, $25)

Founded by the National Dairy Council and the NFL, Fuel Up to Play 60 rewards ...]]> Want to get your kids moving, but need something to motivate them? Fuel Up to Play 60 is a fun, interactive program that allows your child to make a commitment to healthy eating and 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

Founded by the National Dairy Council and the NFL, Fuel Up to Play 60 rewards students for choosing healthy foods and staying active. There are tons of rewards to be earned including tickets to the Super Bowl, perfect for the future NFL players out there! Empowering your child and his school to make healthy choices with Fuel Up to Play 60 is simple with these three easy steps:

1. Register for free. Create an online profile for your children that they can use to make personal goals (ex. eat 3 fruits per day and play a game of tag), keep track of the healthy foods they eat, record how much time they spend being active, and track their success along the way. They can even earn neat badges and rewards for achieving their goals!
2. Challenges. Fuel Up to Play 60 has created several challenges that kids can participate in to keep things fun, interesting and motivating.  For example, your child can make a video of himself doing a touchdown dance, then friends and family can vote. If he gets the most votes an NFL player will visit your child’s school and PERFORM HIS DANCE!!
3. Motivate. Motivation is key to any successful health-adjustment. From the Fuel Up to Play 60 online dashboard, your child can send messages to her participating classmates and even send them badges.

If you’re an educator… 

Follow these six steps to get your school involved in Fuel Up to Play 60:

1. Have your school become a participating Fuel Up to Play 60 school here.
2. Have a large school-wide event to introduce your students to the program, such as a pep rally. This will fire students up and get them excited!
3. Fuel Up to Play 60 stresses the importance of teamwork. Create teams and get faculty involved in reaching the school’s goals.
4. Take advantage of these online tools that even include polls to see what will best motivate your students to eat healthfully and stay active.
5. Instruct students on how to track their healthy eating and exercising progress online.
6. Share your school’s success through pictures and videos. Students will love watching their school gain recognition!

Whether you’re a parent, a child, government or school official, health professional, or general community supporter, find out more information on how you can support Fuel Up to Play 60.

Are you ready to eat healthy and get active? Register to get started and join the Fuel Up to Play 60 team today!

Eating a smart breakfast leads to healthier choices all day long. Make any one of these quick breakfast recipes ahead, and that’s one less thing you have to do tomorrow morning. 

It's easy to add whole grains to your diet when you spoon into this sweet, crunchy breakfast cereal. ...]]>

Eating a smart breakfast leads to healthier choices all day long. Make any one of these quick breakfast recipes ahead, and that’s one less thing you have to do tomorrow morning. 

Three-Grain Breakfast Cereal with Walnuts and Dried Fruit

It's easy to add whole grains to your diet when you spoon into this sweet, crunchy breakfast cereal. The nuts add even more fiber as well as heart-healthy fat, and if you eat the cereal with low-fat milk, you'll get calcium as well. Munch on it throughout the day, use it as a topping for Greek-style yogurt, or enjoy a bowlful with milk. 

View Recipe: Three-Grain Breakfast Cereal 

Greek Yogurt Parfaits

Grano, which means "grain" in Italian, are the polished whole berries from durum semolina wheat. Look for them in health-food stores or Italian markets. If you can't find grano, try wheat berries, barley, or brown rice instead. If your mornings are time-crunched enough, pack this parfait in a plastic container the night before. Just don’t forget to grab it from the fridge as you head for the door. 

Five-Grain Cereal with Apricots, Apples, and Bananas

Store this dry cereal in a zip-top plastic bag in the freezer to keep it fresh. To make the cereal a batch at a time, add 1/2 cup dry cereal mix to 1-1/2 cups boiling water for each serving once you get to the office. Don’t be surprised when your co-workers stop by to see what smells so good. 

Fig, Applesauce, and Almond Breakfast Loaf

This recipe takes a bit of time to prepare so we recommend making it on the weekend to have on hand during busy weekday mornings. It is packed with ingredients that will keep you from counting down the hours until lunch. Bonus: The recipe makes two loafs—enjoy one and freeze the other to bring out for the next busy week.  

View Recipe: Fig, Applesauce, and Almond Breakfast Loaf

Click here for 12 more great breakfast on the go ideas!