Healthy cooking challenges are not just popular on TV, now schools in Fairfax Count, Va. are cooking up healthier meals in the Real Food For Kids (RFFK)'s Culinary Challenge and Wellness Expo to change school menus, offering kids the chance to cook up something different, healthy and tasty. To help change school menus to offer more healthy and tasty foods, the challenges gives kids the chance to cook up something different, healthy and tasty and help sprout new ideas into the school menu, all while staying in school budget limits. Twelve Fairfax County Schools competed for awards in three categories, including Smart snacks, Grab 'N Go, and Makeover Lunch Challenge. The challenge was to make a meal that would work within the schools nutrition, portion and cost standards. Judges ...
A new study from Yale University indicates that a school breakfast may help ensure a healthier weight range for kids. Latino kids who are more at risk for unhealthy weight ranges and at risk for higher chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease may benefit from this research as the study suggests that students who consumed breakfasts were more likely to have a healthy weight trajectory. Researchers reviewed over 580 middle school students from fifth grade to seventh grade, from 12 school districts in urban schools where free breakfast and lunches are served daily. Evaluating breakfast location patterns, and the link between breakfast patterns and weight of students over time, researchers looked at six patterns of eating, and the odds of being overweight or obese for ...
A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans don’t come even close to the recommended 7 to 13 servings of fruits. Research has proven that, when we add fruits to our daily diet, we significantly decrease our risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and numerous cancers. Here are 2 "super fruits" that can positively influence your health:
Apples
I know you’ve heard this before, but according to research an apple a day does literally keep the doctor away. Apples are full of powerful antioxidants, which protect cell damage and significantly reduce the risk of cancer.
Blueberries
Blueberries are loaded with anthocyanins, which improve vision and brain functions. Blueberries have also been found to help lower the risk ...
A study from Preventing Chronic Disease showed that after districtwide policies were implemented across Boston schools, students had less access to sugar-sweetened beverages. The data showed that after a ban of sugar-sweetened beverages in 2004, 89.6% of all schools studied met beverage nutrition standards, with elementary schools showing the most compliance at 93.6 percent. Through the study, researchers also found that when these nutrition standards were met at 85.5 percent of schools studied, only four percent of students had little to no access to competitive beverages or sugary beverages at school. Rebecca S. Mozaffarian, MS, MPH of the department of social and behavioral sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health explained in a recent article that these ...
Gaby Medina, a mom and health educator in the neighborhood of Westwood, in Denver, Colo. (79.36%), didn’t have a lot of faith in the safety of local tap water when she arrived here from Mexico. Much of Denver's foreign-born population similarly distrust the safety of tap water. However, Gaby eventually learned to trust the water. She then took a big step to make sure her family, friends, and fellow Latino residents across the community understand that tap water is far safer, healthier, and more affordable than sugary drinks.
Is tap water safe? Gabriela “Gaby” Medina is your average Latina mom who wants to help her 10-year-old daughter and her family live happy, healthy lives. In Mexico, tap water is not always safe to drink. “Initially, yes, I was hesitant ...
Can a computer help kids get interested in growing healthy food? Culinaria, a food-focused non-profit in San Antonio, hopes to inspire kids and all visitors to "The Farm" in northwest San Antonio, to do just that, allowing all visitors and kids to be inspired to explore new ways of growing their own food. On Culinaria's website, they explain that in San Antonio, there are more than 325,000 people that go hungry each day and that unless Americans are growing their own food, by 2050, all Americans will face some form of food insecurity. Set to open in the fall of 2016, The Farm will show San Antonian's how to grow their own food through offering educational tours, summer camps, chef-led cooking classes and other unique activities and events. Within The Farm is a new "Technology ...
Helping to encourage kids to be advocates for their own lunchrooms, Sprout Urban Farms helps provide kids access to fresh foods by planting gardens in their school, getting local food in their cafeterias and helping the community with their "Fresh on Wheels" mobile market. The agricultural group is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Binda Foundation, United Way, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Pennfield Schools Educational Foundation and is part of a Farm to School program that helps incorporate fresh foods from the school garden to the school cafeteria and beyond with their mobile markets. Each school has their own projects with Sprout that incorporate hands-on lessons taught in the gardens. Sprout leader Jeremy Andrews said in a recent article that the ...
A recent study explored gardening, nutrition and cooking interventions impact on obesity within Latino youth. The study involved two elementary schools, and two randomized control groups and had students take 90-minute sessions once per week for twelve weeks. The collected data reviewed included body mass index (BMI), waist size (circumference) and dietary fiber intake, fasting blood samples and body fat before and after the program. Although longer-term studies are needed, researchers found that the LA Sprouts program was effective in reducing obesity and metabolic risk in students studied. Students within the program in the control group had significantly greater BMI scores and waist size. Healthier food access and education on how to use healthier foods may help many Latino ...
In 2013, Shaun Lee wanted to start a company that would allow people access to fresh healthy foods, in and around San Antonio. Lee's company, Truckin' Tomato is a trailer-turned-farmers market, that delivers online ordered foods to homes in San Antonio on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Lee works with various local farms across the state to pick in season vegetables that are at their peak in freshness, allowing people to have fresh local foods. But some areas of the city are hard to reach with limited funds to expand his business. Working to expand his deliveries, Lee is using a crowdfunding campaign to help him reach new delivery sites in San Antonio and work on ways to address the needs of the larger community to learn about healthy eating and cooking habits. In some delivery ...
