Child nutrition bill could limit school bake sales

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Don’t touch my brownies!

A child nutrition bill on its way to President Barack Obama — and championed by the first lady — gives the government power to limit school bake sales and other fundraisers that health advocates say sometimes replace wholesome meals in the lunchroom.

Republicans, notably Sarah Palin, and public school organizations decry the bill as an unnecessary intrusion on a common practice often used to raise money.

“This could be a real train wreck for school districts,” Lucy Gettman of the National School Boards Association said Friday, a day after the House cleared the bill. “The federal government should not be in the business of regulating this kind...

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Top 5 vegetables for healthy eating

Iva Young, The Healthy Mom

We all know we need to eat our veggies, especially with the new wave of processed food companies touting how their sauces and canned pastas now contain a full day’s allotment of vegetables — but Iva Young thinks that’s just a bit deceiving.

“It’s a tricky definition of terms,” said Young, author of Healthy Mom (www.ivayoung.com). “It’s really not as healthy to eat processed foods to begin with, but for them to say that using vegetables as fillers somehow makes processed foods healthy is disingenuous, at best. It’s like saying ‘don’t pay attention to all the chemicals, dyes and sodium we put in the can — there’s vegetables in there, too, so that makes it all okay!’...

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Schools, with some prodding, are making lunches healthier

By Georgina Gustin, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

First it was the Pop-Tarts. Then the french fries. Then the nachos.

And this year, another school lunch staple got the ax.

“We’re not serving any chicken nuggets,” said a triumphant Carol Kon, the food service director for the Maplewood-Richmond Heights School District, in Maplewood, Mo. “We’re the first to do that.”

The district of 1,150 students has incrementally, but very deliberately, weaned itself from less-than-healthy offerings, transforming its progressive food program into the envy of school districts around the region.

Students tend the district’s own vegetable gardens. Preschoolers look after the district’s chicken coop. Local farmers supply...

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Tips for helping you raise a healthier child

From the editors of Weekly Reader Digital and Print

Who wants to raise a healthy, confident, self-sufficient child?

All right, we know; every parent wants to do just that. But how many parents know that one of the best ways to put your children on the path to those qualities is to get them into the kitchen — and put them to work?

It’s true. Evidence suggests that when kids are involved with food preparation, they tend to eat healthier. In addition, children who cook their own meals are more likely to try new foods, says Sandra Nissenberg, registered dietitian and author of “The Everything Kids’ Cookbook.”

The simplest tip of all is this: Invite your children to help as you prepare a meal.

Encouragement alone is enough...

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Kids learning to add colors to their diets

By Cheryl Powell, Akron Beacon Journal

Two Northeast Ohio sisters are trying to bring a colorful new nutrition education program to preschool and school-age children.

Registered nurse Kris Rosenfeld of Akron, Ohio, and school counselor Kelly Hickey of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, developed and began marketing the Eat a Rainbow Make Your Body Smile program through their startup company, Soof-Soof LLC.

The program integrates nutrition and health education while teaching children to take care of their bodies and the planet.

“The model that we came up with is designed to be a self-monitored approach to good nutrition,” Rosenfeld said. “The approach is a simple, flexible and affordable teaching model that tries to nurture a healthy self...

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Michelle Obama talks anti-obesity to food giants

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Michelle Obama is urging the nation’s largest food companies to speed up efforts to make healthier foods and reduce marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

Obama asked the companies, gathered at a meeting of the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Tuesday, to “step it up” and put less fat, salt and sugar in foods.

“We need you not to just tweak around the edges but entirely rethink the products you are offering,” she said.

The first lady has talked to schools and nutrition groups across the country in her effort to reduce childhood obesity. This is the first time she has confronted the food companies that make the snacks and junk food that stuff grocery aisles and school vending...

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First lady tackling childhood obesity

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — By now, it is abundantly clear that Michelle Obama loves french fries.

The first lady talks about this “guilty pleasure” all the time, trying to ward off any notion that she is a nutrition nanny even as she cajoles Americans to eat better.

Now, her conversation with the public about the nation’s health and fitness is about to get a lot more pointed.

After laying the groundwork for nearly a year, she launches a campaign on Tuesday against childhood obesity that she hopes will change the way millions of Americans eat, exercise, look and feel.

To succeed, she will have to take on powerful forces that have left one-third of children overweight:

• busy parents who hit the...

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Mom learns to change lifestyle in weight loss challenge

By Cammy Clark, McClatchy Newspapers

KEY WEST — Leigh Smith, an out-of-shape, 240-pound mother of two, wanted to get healthy, but growing up on Southern fried food and routinely putting her family first, the 35-year-old admitted she didn’t know how.

Enter three Key West nutrition and fitness experts who spent November giving her a head-to-toe wellness makeover after choosing her from nearly 90 applicants for a “30 Days to Help Yourself Challenge.”

It wasn’t easy, but on Nov. 30, Smith showed off her new body, new confidence and new attitude about food and exercise at a celebration at Nine One Five Bistro and Wine Bar.

“It was more than what I had hoped for,” Smith said. “I feel now like how a 35-year-old...

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Family Meals Matter: Make-ahead Christmas dinner

From MealsMatter.org

To help families take some of the stress out of Christmas dinner, we’re switching up the column again this week to share with you more of our favorite make-ahead holiday dishes. We’re even sharing them a week ahead of time so you have plenty of time to plan on spending more time with your family, instead of preparing food, this Christmas.

For a festive family feast that’s healthy and relatively stress-free, plan on Low Fat Eggnog, Lasagna Rolls and Red and Green Salad with Cranberry Dressing. Each serving will provide nearly half the dairy recommendation for calcium and less than 550 calories.

Other festive make-ahead recipes to serve while entertaining include Artichoke Nibbles, Home-style Green Bean Bake, Roasted...

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Parents need to be good food models for kids

By Brenda Guiterrez, McClatchy Newspapers

With more than 108 million adults, or 61 percent of the adult U.S. population, either obese or overweight, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it’s no wonder our children are headed toward unhealthy, sedentary lifestyles.

By setting good examples early on and establishing habits of healthy eating and physical fitness, parents can give their children the gift of health to carry them through adulthood.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 50 percent of American adults do not get enough physical activity to provide health benefits, and 25 percent of adults are not active at all in their leisure time.

Obese children can have serious health...

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