5-2-1-0

Our youth today face many challenges when trying to eat right and be active. They are bombarded daily by TV and advertising messages that repeatedly encourage them to eat junk food and drink soda. It’s easy to be inactive when surrounded by TV, computers, and video games. Most youth find it hard to be active when it is either too far or unsafe to even walk to school. To help keep our youth healthy, a useful set of messages has been developed by the Maine Center for Public Health in collaboration pediatricians in Maine, and it’s as simple as “5-2-1-0” – the countdown to good health!

www.5210goestoschool.org

The Kids CO-OP, a division of the Department of Pediatrics at The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center , teamed up with nine schools in York County this fall to roll out a new pilot project to children in grades K-8: "5210 Goes to School". This creative program endorses the "5-2-1-0" theme and promotes lifelong habits of healthy living, nutrition and physical activity. Click here for more info.

Brown Bag Lunches

Here are some quick and easy tips to help you pack a healthy lunch.

Make it Healthy

• Use the Food Guide Pyramid to plan your lunch. Include a lean protein, 2 grains (at least on whole grain), a fruit or vegetable, and a low-fat or nonfat dairy.
• Go for variety. A starch does not have to be bread. It could be whole grain crackers, rice cakes, tortillas, homemade quick bread or muffins, even popcorn.
• Experiment with bread. Instead of white bread, try whole wheat, whole grain, rye, or pumpernickel.
• Choose lean meats, like roast beef, turkey, chicken, or ham.
• Find healthy alternatives to snack chips. Trail mix, pita chips, pretzels, soy chips, baked chips or occasionally a small snack size bag of regular chips.
• Kids are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if they are small. Try grapes, strawberries, chunks of melon, apple wedges and orange sections. For vegetables; try baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, or pepper strips.
• If kids won’t eat their fruit or veggies, liven them up with dips. Try lite dressings as ranch for veggies or a yogurt dip for fruit. Peanut butter is also great for fruit.
• Sneak vegetables in where ever you can. Try grating a carrot into your tuna or chicken salad. Add leaves of spinach or romaine lettuce, with a slice of tomato to their sandwiches. Carrot or zucchini muffins make a great healthy sweet treat.
• Reduced fat yogurt, cheese sticks, or cottage cheese make a great protein and dairy source.
• Experiment with different sandwich fillings. Top your peanut butter with fruit as raisins, apples, bananas or pineapple, instead of the usual jelly.

Make it Fun

• Involve your child in the planning and preparing lunches. Provide some choices and let them decide what to pack that day.
• Make your own lunchable using divided containers.
• Skewer chunks of fruit or veggies on cocktail toothpicks to make fun and healthy mini-kabobs.
• You don’t need to need to include a lot of candy or cookies. Throw in a bite-sized candy bar or some chocolate kisses. Or just 2 cookies not the prepackaged 4 (better cookies choices are graham crackers, fig newtons, or oatmeal raisin). Pudding also makes a great treat and can be counted as a dairy source.
• Treats do not have to be edible. Try adding a couple of baseball cards, small toy or a nice note.

Brown Bag Menu

Peanut butter and banana on whole wheat bread

Carrot sticks

Granola bar

Skim or low fat milk

Turkey roll up in a whole wheat tortilla; spread with a low fat dressing and stuffed with shredded carrots and other vegetables or try broccoli cole slaw.

Grapes

pretzels

Skim or low fat milk

Zucchini bread spread with low fat cream cheese

pretzels

Melon cubes

Skim or low fat milk

Cubed ham and cheese

Whole wheat crackers

Cherry tomatoes with ranch dressing

Apple

Yogurt

Pineapple chunks

Whole wheat bread sticks

Animal crackers

By: Michele Howard, Registered Dietitian

~Brought to you by Scarborough Wellness~

Local citizens promoting healthy lifestyles for people of all ages!

Kids in the Kitchen

It’s no coincidence that as families are on the go more often, and ready to eat and fast food meals become more popular, the obesity epidemic continues to grow. If your child’s favorite foods come from a bag, box or a drive through window, then giving them some ownership and responsibility in the kitchen could increase the likelihood that they will make more nutritious choices in the future.

It’s true that including the kids in preparation and cooking meals requires time, patience and some extra clean-up, but the benefits are well worth it! For example, cooking with your kids can help them become interested in trying foods they might normally skip over. In keeping with the theme of the new food guide pyramid, kids should be trying to

·      Choose more whole grains

·      Vary your veggies

·      Focus on fruits

·      Get calcium rich foods

·      Eat more lean or low-fat proteins

·      Choose fewer foods and beverages that have sugar or other caloric sweeteners as one of their first ingredients.

Kids are more likely to accept healthier foods if they’ve had a hand in preparing or shopping for them. Imagine the calories and fat that are saved when preparing fresh meats, whole grains and fruits and vegetables as opposed to the typical drive-through window meal. Many fast food kid’s meals can contain up to 600 calories and 26 grams of fat (a portion of that being artery clogging saturated and trans fat), not to mention the 700+ mg of sodium.

Encouraging kids to try healthier foods isn’t the only benefit of cooking as a family. Cooking can give your child a sense of accomplishment. Presenting children with age appropriate cooking experiences can help build their self-confidence. Watch how fast children will gobble up even the healthiest snack or meals as long as they helped prepare it. Also watching the rest of the family eat every last bit of what a child has prepared fosters self-esteem and teaches kids that hard work is rewarding. Because of challenging work, school and sports schedules, families often struggle to sit down to even one daily meal together. Involving kids in the kitchen teaches them to appreciate family meals.

One of the biggest benefits for parents is spending quality time with their kids. Parents may be amazed at what their child will talk about while working together in the kitchen. They may hear about what happened in school other than the usual “nothing”, or something that a child is excited about. Cooking together gives parents and children time to talk and share thoughts and stories instead of spending time in front of the T.V. or computer.

Kids of all ages can participate to some extent in the kitchen whether the task is as simple as washing fruits and vegetables, to stirring ingredients in a bowl all the way to preparing simple recipes with the supervision of an adult. It’s important for children to participate in the whole process from preparation to clean up.

Just remember, parents are responsible for which foods are being offered at home. If you want your child to make healthy decisions away from home and make physical activity a daily part of their lives, it’s important for the whole family to embrace healthy eating, and living…and include kids in the kitchen!

Anne LaPierre M.S., L.D., R.D

~Brought to you by Scarborough Wellness~

Local citizens promoting healthy lifestyles for people of all ages!