This is a guest blog post by Emily Kleiman, University of Maryland

Seventeen percent of children are currently obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and childhood obesity has become a dangerous national epidemic. Mission:FITPossible, a group of University of Maryland students working with medical experts from Children’s National Medical Center and professionals from the United Way Foundation, is combating the childhood obesity epidemic in Silver Spring, Md., through fun games that fuse education and fitness.

After hearing from two groups of children ages 10-14 in the local YMCA and Boys & Girls Club about their current eating and exercising habits, along with the fact that most had been teased for their weight at some point in their lives, the Mission:FITPossible team came up with a three-pronged approach to improve the health of these children:

1. Challenge Yourself,
2. Balance Yourself, and
3. Be Yourself.

Two games that Mission:FITPossible brought to the after-school programs are Grocery Dash and Balance Zone. Both are played in teams, but you can play these at home with your children if you make slight adjustments to the rules.

How to Play: Grocery Dash

You will need plenty of space for your agents to run for this game!

 1. Create a “Food Facts” sheet and a “Grocery Checklist” that shows healthy foods and their benefits.  You will also need items to represent the 10 power foods listed on the “Food Facts” sheet. We used large images of the foods, but feel free to use the real food! Set up the 10 foods at different stations in your backyard or a spacious room, and cover them so your agents cannot see which food is where.

2. Have your agents match the food facts to the items on their grocery checklist.

3. Once they match the items, each team must run to a station to check for the proper food. They must complete their list in order, but they can only check one station at a time. Once the agents check a station, they must return to the team’s “base” with or without the food item. If the food was not found, then the whole team must search a different station until it is found. The team that finishes its list first is the winning team!

4. Agents will have to work together to communicate which food is where. The team that finishes its list first wins.

In the pictures above, students at the YMCA Benchmarks Program raced to one end of the gym to capture the food items they needed to complete their list (left). The winning team holds up the power foods they found (right).

How to Play: Balance Zone

You can make a “Balance Zone Board” at home by using a spare bed sheet with markers, or by putting down colored paper on the floor.

Red = Fruit • Yellow = Dairy, Poultry • Green = Vegetables • Blue = Meats, Beans • Brown = Grains • Purple = DANGER ZONE: Fats, Sweets, Oils

1. Get into teams of 3 agents.

2. Each agent on the team should write down what he or she ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks the day before.

3. Together, go over each agent’s meals. Determine who had the most nutritious day and ate foods from the most food groups.

4. Have each agent represent one meal by using body parts to cover the different food groups. Try to avoid the Danger Zone (purple).

5. As each agent puts a hand, foot, elbow, knee or head on a square, he or she should yell out what food is being represented!

6. Once all agents have represented their meals, determine the winner by choosing the person who had the most balanced day.

Play these games with your children, and remember: Fit is possible!

-       The Mission:FITPossible Team

Nicole Andes, Devin Carroll, Julia Halloran, Emily Kleiman, Janet McClenny

There’s a war going on now in the food/health space. In the last few years, excess salt consumption has been identified by leading health organizations as a contributor to various diseases including hypertension, stroke, heart failure, kidney failure, stomach cancer, and osteoporosis. The Economist called salt the new trans-fat.

Amid this crisis, in the last 6 months, the Salt Institute in the US and the European Salt Association have mounted a counter attack, stating that salt in fact is healthy and that lowering the maximum daily amount consumed can produce negative results. The Salt groups have received the backing of the food industry, which has been trying unsuccessfully to reduce sodium levels in foods without affecting the flavor.

The American Heart Association (AHA) is now stepping in with a strongly worded submission to the FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Services, an arm of the USDA) stating that the industry information is misleading and not based on scientific evidence. The AHA is also recommending a reduction in the daily overall sodium consumption from 2300 mg to 1500mg.

The average American consumes 3800mg today!!!

Here then, are a few ways in which you can reduce your sodium/salt intake:

1. Reduce fast food consumption. Just 2 slices of pizza or a single patty cheeseburger carry over a 1000mg of sodium, half a day’s recommended intake. Eat less fast food.

2. Challenge the Chef. Even at fine dining establishments, salt is used in significant amounts. (Butter too). However, most chefs will omit salt when requested by you. You can always add salt form the shaker on the table.

3. Read the Label. Sodium content appears on food labels on packaged foods. And may products have sodium though they don’t tase salty (bread and cereal, for example). Watch out for especially salty foods including anchovies, pickles, soy sauce, canned soup, luncheon meats, salad dressings, hot dogs, tomato juice, and ketchup. Some brands have lower sodium options. At the end of the day make sure your consumption level is less than 2300mg.

4. Salternatives. When cooking, try to use different spices and herbs to flavor the dish instead of salt. Fresh choices include Italian parsley, ginger, garlic, basil, chives, and lemon grass. Try dried spices such as chili, paprika, cumin, turmeric.

5. Choose frozen, not canned. Salt and Freezers are both “preservers”, keeping foods from spoiling. Choose frozen over canned veggies because they don’t need the salt to protect the food. As a bonus, flash frozen veggies have a higher level of nutrient content. If you do use canned vegetables, try rinsing them to get some of the salt out.

6. Delay Salting. When cooking, add salt just before serving, and in a smaller amount than called for in the recipe. Each diner can then add salt to taste.

7. Cut down on salty junk foods. A no brainer. Potato chips are brutal – a serving of 12 chips (as if) has 340mg of sodium, about 15% of the recommended daily intake.

8. Watch the sauce. Sauces and gravies add tons of sodium to your meal. Trim down the amount you add to your salad, sushi, and sub.

9. Salt detox. Train your taste buds to enjoy less salty foods. Gradually reduce the amount of salt you sprinkle over foods. After several weeks, your salt comfort zone will be lower. (By the way, you can do the same with sugar in your coffee.)

What do you do to reduce the salt in your diet?

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A research paper published in Public Health Nutrition posits that price is less of a factor in deciding to buy vegetables and fruits. Rather, it’s the convenient access to quality produce that increased purchases.

The research was conducted in low income neighborhoods in Chicago, where you would expect every dollar to count.

Participants who agreed that they had “convenient access to quality” produce were more than twice as likely to eat the FDA-recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, compared to those who said they did not have such access. read more from the Washington Post…

While this proves a correlation, it does not necessarily mean causation. The laws of economics have taught us that low prices are indeed a factor in food purchase decisions. Obviously not the only factor.

What we’ve heard and seen (qualitatively) is that many people don’t purchase vegetable because they don’t quite know what to do with them. Or can’t be bothered with the cleaning and trimming which takes time.

That’s why simple and quick recipes need to be made a part of kids’ curriculum in school and extra-curricular activities. If it’s too late for our generation, perhaps our kids can come from school one days and teach us how to prepare broccoli that doesn’t stink.

What’s holding you back from consuming more produce?

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Did you know that less than 10% of Americans consume tree nuts in their raw form?  Tree nuts include walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts,cashews, pecans, pine nuts, almonds and pistachios.  Today we’ll talk about walnuts.

Walnuts are simply wonderful. They’re tasty, affordable and healthy. They’re full of antioxidants, vitamin E and have been shown to help in the digestion of fats.

A serving of walnuts (about 1/3 cup) can provide you with about 10% of your daily protein AND fiber needs.  Although walnuts are high in fat, these are healthy fats. A 1/3 cup serving clocks in at 180-200 calories, yet a recent study showed that walnut consumption does not cause weight gain.

In 2010, the FDA issued a warning letter to Diamond Food, that it had gone overboard with its health claims for walnuts, to the point that they would have to be classified as drugs.

In order for you to get the best health benefits from walnuts, follow these suggestions:

1. Eat raw walnuts. Roasting them reduces antioxidant levels.

2. Do not remove the thin skin layer. Many of the beneficial phenols are in the skin.

3. Adding walnuts to meals with saturated fat content aids in digestion.

You don’t need to eat tons of walnuts to get their benefits. Adding a mere 7 walnuts a day to your diet would bring positive results.

How do you incorporate walnuts in your meals?

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This is a guest blog post by Toby Amidor, MS RD

Recently, my 9-year old son fainted in religious school and needed to get checked out in the ER. Thank goodness he’s okay, but the food he got served bothered me to the point that I’m writing this blog post to gain some perspective and insight from my readers. As a parent and registered dietitian, I always take note of what my child is served no matter where we are. Here’s my story…

The Meal
After my son got checked out in the ER and was determined to be in good health, the doctor wanted to make sure that he was able to eat and tolerate “normal” food. I’m trained as a clinical dietitian and have worked in hospitals and the ER before, so this was usual protocol. My son was starving by the time they brought his tray out (which was pre-selected for him) and I was surprised to see what was on it:

• 1 mini cheese pizza (about 6-inches)
• ½ cup apple juice
• ½ cup vanilla ice cream
• 1 pack Oreo cookies

I calculated the nutrition breakdown of the meal. Here are the numbers:

• Calories: 841
• Fat: 38 grams (58% of the daily recommended amount for an adult)
• Saturated fat: 18 grams (90% of the daily recommended amount for an adult)
• Cholesterol: 60 milligrams (20% of the daily recommended amount for an adult)
• Sodium: 1,122 milligrams (49% of the daily recommended amount for an adult)
• Carbohydrates: 104 grams (35% of the daily recommended amount for an adult)
• Fiber: 4 grams
• Sugar: 52 grams
• Protein: 24 grams

This meal was composed 40% of fat, which is above the recommended Dietary Guidelines maximum of 35%. The fat, saturated fat, and sodium high compared to the recommendations for an adult—can you imagine this was served to a 9-year old kid!  In addition, much of the carbohydrates and sugar came from the juice, ice cream, and cookies. There were no whole grains, fruits or vegetables provided. What about some steamed broccoli or baby carrots on the side? Or making the pizza from whole wheat pizza crust? Many brands are very tasty these days.

My Response
When the hospital called to follow up on my experience, I explained how the staff was amazing, compassionate and caring for my son however the food was not up to par. As I’ve previously worked in hospitals and work in the food biz, I know there are healthier options to provide kids that are also tasty.  I also know with the focus on preventing childhood obesity and the new MyPlate guidelines, this meal needs to be vastly improved.

LET’S DISCUSS: Have you had a similar experience or an opposite experience?

Toby Amidor, MS RD is the owner of Toby Amidor Nutrition, the Nutrition Expert for FoodNetwork.com, and Nutrition Advisor for Sear’s FitStudio.com. Follow her on twitter or Facebook

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This is a guest blog post by  Melissa Halas-Liang, MA RD CDE

Today’s children are at an ever increasing risk of becoming overweight and obese and developing related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and certain cancers. Here’s my story, and how I hope to help the next generation increase their chances for healthy adulthood.

A few years ago, as a new mom, I’d see others give their children alphabet cookies (“aren’t they so cute?!”), fruit roll ups (“it’s fruit right?”), low fat girl scout cookies (“they’re only 110 calories -they must be good for you!”) and realized that in order to protect tomorrow’s future, we needed to engage not only today’s youth, but their parents as well.

As a Registered Dietitian (RD) with a focus on functional foods, I knew that other mothers would feed their kids well, if they only knew that green leafy vegetables protect the eyes or that blueberries could improve memory. Parents want to do what is best for their children, but without sound nutrition knowledge, how can they know what is best and act accordingly?

I decided to make it my life’s work to teach them. My overall goal was no small task: “to save the world one healthy food at a time”. But how can one dietitian compete for both a child’s attention and their parents?

I decided to create cartoon characters to entertain kids while subtly promoting healthy eating ideals. I built a website called www.superkidsnutrition.com that would be a trusted source of accurate and evidenced-based nutrition-related information AND entertaining as well. The Super Crew characters featured on the website, are the basis for two children’s books, and utilized in community outreach programs and curriculum.

Each of the eight Super Crew characters obtain different super powers from whole foods they eat and enjoy. The Super Crew is a teaching tool, used to attract kids towards eating whole foods rather than those that are processed and packaged and teach children that good nutrition can not only taste great, but can be fun too!

At the same time, the Super Kids Nutrition website and blog provides parents with child feeding tips and advice on a wide variety of topics such as baby’s first food, teens and body image, quick inexpensive meals, healthy ways to celebrate holidays and birthdays, how to stay fit as a family and many more.

So far, Superkids Nutrition has partnered with over 3,000 schools in 40 states and have close to 40 million visits per month on the nutrition and health content! We do our best to inspire, providing nutrition and tips to stay fit every day and share helpful resources with organizations that share a similar vision of a healthy America. Join the discussion on our facebook page, follow us twitter and be inspired to help children reach their full health potential. Ultimately, good nutrition practices provide children with the foundation for a healthier future and build healthier communities.

Melissa Halas-Liang, MA, RD, CDE, is a nationally recognized nutrition educator and wellness expert and founder of superkidsnutrition.com. She teaches nutrition through www.nutritioned.net and serves as spokesperson for the California Dietetic Association. Follow Melissa on facebook or twitter: @fitnutrition

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photo: Forbes

Mars, the candy maker, not the planet, is trying to do its share to help America lose some weight. While it won’t go to the extreme of making Kale Kandy bars, the company announced last week that it will be discontinuing its King size Snickers Bar (540 calories) by the end of 2013.

In fact, Mars will be discontinuing all chocolate products with more than 250 calories (A regular bar has 280 calories). Additionally, Mars will reduce Sodium by 25% in all its products within the next 3 years.

Should we applaud?

We were going to, but then realized that the replacement product is actually 440 calories!  You see, the new “2ToGo” product will have 2 bars, each with 220 calories. The package will be resealable, so you can “save one for later.”

Yeah right. Show us the man, woman, or child who will stop at one bar. Snickers are tasty, to Mars credit, and we have no doubt that people will be wolfing the 440 calorie snack in one sitting. On the bright side, that’s still 100 calories less than the King size bar.

Two additional suggestions for Mars on the health front:

1. While we applaud you for the brave 2007 decision to stop advertising to kids under the age of 12, how about raising that to kids under 16? High-schoolers are highly impressionable too.

2. Get rid of the artificial colors in M&Ms. They mess with our bodies.

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It seems European lawmakers are more in tune with their constituency than Congress. After reviewing the French Food Safety Authority (ANSES) report on Bisphenol-A (BPA), the French parliament issued a ban effective January 2014.

(Reminder: BPA  is a chemical compound used as a building block of several polymers and polycarbonates that in turn are found in plastic bottles and cans. Which means all of us are exposed to tiny amounts, whether drinking canned juice, milk from a baby-bottle, or any other product sold in a plastic container or a can. Oh, and it screws with human hormones too. Read more here)

The upcoming ban has got the USDA worried because of the financial implications for American exporters of meat and seafood products packaged with materials containing the potentially harmful chemical. According to the USDA:

The French food industry believes it will not be able to avoid a BPA ban due to the public sensitivity on the issue and has requested more time for a transition to BPA-free food packaging.

And here in the US?

Is there not enough public sensitivity? Or is the problem that our elected officials are sensitive, but mostly to their campaign funders?

We propose that the USDA start worrying about consumers in this country, and together with the FDA urge Congress to ban BPA as well.

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Omega-3 has been a hot buzzword in the food space for the better part of the last decade. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that omega-3 is important for a healthy diet.

But not all omega-3′s are created equal. Which means you may be buying a product fortified with omega-3 that has almost no health benefits for you. Be sure you will be paying more than you would have for the standard, un-enriched version.

In order to better understand what’s going on, here’s a quick primer on omega-3, in 10 bullet points.

What you need to know:
1. Food can be broken down to three categories – protein, carbohydrate, fat. Our bodies need all three to function.

2. Fats can be broken down into the “good” and “bad” fats (though this is an over-simplification). The bad fats are “saturated” and “tran-fats” – they increase the risks of heart disease, for example. Again, this is highly simplified, not all saturated fats are bad.

3. The “good” or “heart healthy” fats are called unsaturated fats. They are further divided into polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats. They can be found in olive oil, walnuts, avocado, and fish.

4. Fats are actually composed of different types of fatty-acids. It is the fatty acids that are saturated or unsaturated. For example, Canola oil is regarded a relatively healthy oil because it is composed of 90% unsaturated fatty acids – oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid, and only 10% saturated fats.

5. Fatty acids are further broken down into groups based on their chemical makeup. The omega-3, omega-6, omega-9 classification of fatty acids is based on position of certain carbon-bonds inside the fatty acid molecule. This is the most difficult part of today’s post, so hang in there. Omega-3 and omega-6 are also called “essential fatty acids”; this means our body does not manufacture them on its own, so we need to get them from food.

6. If you’re still with us, omega-3 is actually a family of fatty acids which includes alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). All three are polyunsaturated (reminder: that means good).

7. Studies have proven unequivocally that omega-3 consumption is good for our health, in an all round sort of fashion. From raising the IQ of unborn babies, to better heart health, and even more mental stability.

8. But not all omega-3 fatty acids yield the same benefit. They are further classified into 2 groups -  “long chain” such as DHA and EPA, and “short chain” such as ALA (alpha linolenic acid). The long chain fatty acids are the ones that are considered most beneficial. They are readily available from oils of cold water fish such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel.  The short chain ALA is found in flax seeds and chia seeds for example.

9. The human body does know to turn ALA into the more useful EPA and DHA, but only at a 10-15% efficiency. The omega-3 health claims have  regulatory organizations in a tizzy, because manufacturers are fortifying foods with cheap (read vegetable) sources of omega-3 in order to plaster health claims on them, when in fact they may prove less beneficial than omega-3 sourced from fish oils.

10. To complicate things even further, it appears that consumption of foods high in omega-3 is not enough. The proportion of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in our bodies also plays a role in improving health outcomes. The modern diet has raised our consumption of omega-6 (through soybean and corn oils) to levels that way too high compared to our omega-3 levels. This imbalance needs to be rectified by either consuming less omega-6, or more much more omega-3.

What to do at the supermarket:

As you can see from the above example, nutrition is quite complex. Scientists are discovering new interactions every day. And while a better understanding of how our body works with nutrients is important, let’s keep in mind that food itself has been, for thousands of years, a pretty straightforward affair: Grow, harvest, prepare. And somehow, humanity survived.

The modern supermarket has changed our relationship to food. Now it’s pretty much just one verb -  “buy”.

While fortification of processed foods with omega-3 won’t cause harm, and in some cases be healthy for you, the naturally good sources of omega-3 are sardines, salmon, flax oil, with other seeds and nuts to some extent.

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photo: FingerLakesFeasting.com

Happy Presidents Day folks! Lots of friends from abroad are jealous of us for the great long holiday weekends we as a nation have put together during the year. So if you are off work today to celebrate Presidents’ Day, make the best of it.

One of the legends around our founding president was that he chopped down his father’s cherry tree. And of course how he came forth honestly. But had little George known the health benefits of cherries, would he have thought twice about hacking the tree?

What you need to know:

There are 2 main types of cherries available to consumers in the US. The sweet dark red cherries we see in the summertime, and the tart cherries most people use for pie filling. The most famous sweet cultivar is the Bing Cherry.

Nutritionally, cherries have been called a superfood because of their high antioxidant content. They contain an assortment of antioxidants including anthocyanins. These are a type of flavonoid responsible for the red pigment in cherries and berries. In various clinical trials they have been shown to reduce inflammation in lab animals. This can be of potential benefit to people suffering from arthritis and gout.

Cherries are also a good source of vitamin A. Tart cherries are only 9% sugar by weight compared to 13% for sweet cherries.

Another nice benefit of cherries is that over 90% are “Made in the USA”. Top states include New York, Michigan, Washington and Oregon. Cherries are not native to the New World. The earliest known cultivation was in what is now Turkey, over 2000 years ago.

What to do at the supermarket:

When in season, red sweet cherries are glorious. Look for big, firm fruit, with a glossy dark hue. Little kids love cherries, just make sure to pit them beforehand.

Although fresh red cherries have a very short marketing window, you can buy dried or frozen tart cherries all year round. Add them to your granola, cereal, yogurt, and salads.

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