Fresh Healthy Vending Foods in Schools
According to Philip Brasher on his report yesterday at The Des Moines Register Online, the government wants children to eat nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables although it seems that they are putting the money where it is advice and expected to be. The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent buying the needs for healthy school lunches in a different manner. For every dollar spent, 55 cents went to chicken, beef and cheese and only 23 cents went to fruits and vegetables.
A group of lowa business leaders were stumped by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack when he asked them what was the single food item for schools that the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent the most on, and was answered, mozzarella cheese!
Ways to Get Kids to Eat Better
Children have different eating habits. Some may be picky eaters while some will try just anything. Getting children to eat better is extremely difficult. So, here are some diet suggestions for kids to eat better:
Schedule. To give your children a healthier and balanced diet, they need to be able to eat every three to four hours which consists of three meals, two snacks, and plenty of fluids. If this is done, your children will be less irritable and won’t be feeling hungry at all. So, whenever you’re going on a trip or just anywhere with your children, always put a cooler in your car. Stock it up with carrots, pretzels, yogurt, and water. That way, you wouldn’t have to bank on fast foods or junk from vending machines in schools.
New Program Tackles Childhood Obesity in Tween Boys
One of the most at-risk groups for childhood obesity and early onset diabetes is “tween” boys between the ages of roughly 9-13. The problem can be quantified by analyzing the habits of boys in this range: they have passed the ages where imagination and outside play peaks and oftentimes their metabolisms have not yet started climbing towards their teen year peaks. On top of that, they seem to have an affinity for video games or television and high-calorie foods like sodas and sweets. This tremendously increases their chances of struggling with early onset obesity.
However, there is hope for tween boys in managing the increased risks of these “awkward years” and making sure that they remain healthy and happy into their teens. Meet Dr. Eileen Kennedy, a pediatric psychologist who works with a new program called Fit Youth which is based at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. Since 2005, Kennedy has directly helped 211 families with kids ages 7 to 16 who were struggling with childhood obesity. The Fit Youth program only accepts children with BMIs for age in the 95th percentile and above, meaning that out of a group of 100 kids they would only accept the 5 children who were heaviest for their height.
Fixing America’s Obesity Problem
As each day passes by, Americans are getting fatter. The cause of obesity lies in a simple explanation. We consume too much junk food and spend too much time sitting down in front of the TV, phone, computer and so many other gadgets that do not give us any opportunities to move and burn those calories.
One solution to this problem is behavior modification. If only people would eat more fresh produce and do away with the unhealthy ones. If only children would exercise more or engage in physical activities rather than sitting around with chips and soda in front of their favorite TV shows.
Healthy Vending in Schools This Year
The school year is about to start. Parents are all excited in preparing back-to-school stuff like uniforms, school supplies, choosing school buses, and the usual “waking-up” early routine. But are they preparing for the important staple that goes with schooling? Yes, your child’s lunches. Are they healthy enough? Are you going to prepare them yourself or just leave it with the school cafeteria to take care of it? Considering the busy schedules of parents, most do not make home-prepared lunches for proper kids nutrition, making them resort to unhealthy meals served in school. Unless parents are sure that these foods served are healthy enough, then they can have their peace of mind.
What if not? While some local schools progress in fighting junk foods and improve the schools feeding program, some still face challenges in serving nutritious and healthy meal because of the costs. Nutritious food tends to be expensive than non-healthy meals. Others lack will power to implement healthy eating habit and others cannot even let go of vending machines offering unhealthy snacks. The issues at hand are not being addressed properly.
Is Obesity Making Girls Hit Puberty Sooner?
Puberty is defined as the period in life when a person becomes sexually mature. Accordingly, puberty involves physical changes that usually happen between ages 10 and 14 for girls and ages 12 and 16 for boys. But what if your girls start puberty earlier than the normal age range?
My elder sister’s puberty stage started at age eight, while I started at age seven. As young girls, it was never easy to go through such dramatic changes at an early age, when all I could think of was school and play. But instead, we went through menstruation, breast enlargement and lots of other physical changes that we maybe should not have gone through. No one in our family (except my sister and me) has had precocious puberty. My mother was frightened during those times and so she brought us to doctor after doctor. At the time it seemed that my sister and I were the only girls in the world dealing with such problems, but recently doctors have begun to notice that it is becoming all too common.
Illinois Farmers Market Seeks to Put Fruit on the Corporate Table
It seems like more and more people are making an effort to eat healthy these days. Stopping that craving for a high-calorie snack is one of the first steps down the road to better nutrition, but problems arise when temptation sets in and you have nowhere to go to satisfy your hunger but traditional high-calorie vending machine fare.
An innovative solution has arisen in Fruit My Cube, a new program offering boxes of fruit to employees on a weekly basis as a delicious and healthy alternative. Produced by The Farmers Market in Belleville, Illinois, Fruit My Cube offers fresh, high quality fruits and veggies in convenient packages. Belleville Farmers Market is promoting Fruit My Cube via a website which forwards the link to each employee allowing them to choose from a different selection of fruit varieties which can be ordered online for $9.99. Deliveries are made weekly directly to the customer’s office lobby.
Schools say Bye to Junk Foods, Hello Healthy Snacks
First Lady Michelle Obama has been going an extra mile just to promote her “Let’s Move” campaign. She has speaking to various events and in all forms of media just so she can tell the world that it’s to get junk foods out of the picture and welcome healthy snacks for our own benefit. In her first-ever live chat in AOL Health, she talked about her “Let’s Move” project.She started the initiative to target childhood obesity. Through these efforts, children today and of the future generation can live healthier lives. But this project can not work with the First Lady at all and so the project also calls for parents, doctors, government officials and the nation as a whole to cooperate.
Jamie Oliver: A Man of “Healthy” Inspiration
Five years ago, the Naked Chef star and Great Britain’s wonder boy, Jamie Oliver, started his food revolution. But his revolution went beyond the four corners of the studio. Instead, he went out to schools and embarked on a Jamie Oliver-inspired schools revolution.
Jamie Oliver has long been campaigning for schools to “junk” junk foods in schools vending programs once and for all. By doing so, kids can eat fresh, tasty and nutritious foods. Indeed, Oliver’s campaign has proved its worthiness through greater support from various schools.
Kansas Schools to Meet New Stricter Rules on Junk Foods
Kids in Kansas Schools will face a new challenge when it comes to junk foods consumption. The Kansas Board of Education recently approved new policies that will limit vending machines from dispensing certain types of candies including carbonated drinks in elementary and high school students. Junk foods will no longer be available during the day among elementary and middle students. High school students, however, will get to take advantage of them only an hour after lunch.
Profit from high school vending machines form part of the school’s financial support so limiting the type of food to buy from them will definitely create a huge financial impact. In the words of David Smith of Kansas School District in Kansas City,
If those [vending] sales that we have previously been used to, if those don’t materialize in the same way, then we’re going to have schools that have an even more difficult challenge in terms of running their buildings and funding their activities.
But even then, Assistant Superintendent with the Olathe School District Gary George is positive about the new policies implemented by the Kansas Board of Education. However, he understands that removing the soda vending machines from Kansas schools will be faced with criticism in some schools in the Kansas district.