Take5 Newsletter - March is National Nutrition Month!
h4>In This Issue
Take1: Reading Food Labels: How You Can Make Healthy Choices for Your Child
Take2: Benefits of Breakfast
Take3: Building a Healthy Lifestyle, One Step at a Time
Take4: Salty Snacks Mean More Sodas for Kids
Take 5: Child and Family Wellness Forum: Raises awareness on the plaguing realities of child trauma
Nutrition Label in Spanish
Want to eat healthier? Every boxed, canned and packaged food item contains nutrition facts that can help you make healthier choices for your family. Knowing how to read a nutrition label is important for choosing foods with healthy ingredients. Understanding food labels can also help you avoid selecting foods with hidden fats and sugar.
Too often, reading the nutrition facts can be confusing. That’s why FIRST 5 Santa Clara County provides the following guide to help you understand nutrition labels and what they mean for your child.
Words to Watch – To make healthy choices for your child, pay close attention to the following “tricky” words.
On any given day, 51% of children go to school without breakfast. Make sure your kids don’t skip the most important meal of the day.
Higher Academic Scores
Students who eat breakfast earn, on average, a letter grade higher in math than kids who don’t, according to Pediatrics Magazine. Studies also show that eating breakfast results in higher test scores. www.schoolnutrition.org
Improved Behavior
Kids who eat breakfast won’t be hungry and therefore are less likely to have discipline problems.
Better Class Attendance
Children who eat breakfast are absent from school fewer days. Ironic as it may be, children who claim they don’t eat breakfast due to a lack of time in the morning are tardy more often than those who take time for a morning meal.
More Nutritious
Breakfast eaters generally meet vitamin and mineral requirements for prevention of deficiencies. They consume more fiber, vitamin C, calcium and folic acid. Unfortunately, children who miss breakfast do not make up for lost nutrients later in the day.
Helps Weight Control
Eating breakfast helps to establish a normal eating pattern. Eating regular meals and snacks is a key to maintaining a healthy weight throughout life. Increasing childhood obesity is in part attributed to the disappearance of normal eating patterns in many of today’s households.
Improved Behavior
Kids who eat breakfast won’t be hungry and therefore are less likely to have discipline problems.
Better Class Attendance
Children who eat breakfast are absent from school fewer days. Ironic as it may be, children who claim they don’t eat breakfast due to a lack of time in the morning are tardy more often than those who take time for a morning meal.
After a busy day at work or chasing a toddler around the house all day, parents can find the idea of preparing a home-cooked meal overwhelming. But even when you don’t have time to prepare meals from scratch, you can still provide your children a nutritious meal that will taste good, too!
In honor of National Nutrition Month in March, FIRST 5 Santa Clara County wants to offer all parents and caregivers the following quick and easy tips that will help every child grow up healthy. The research clearly shows that it is the eating habits that children learn when they are very young that will affect their health and nutrition for a lifetime.
Healthy Tips for Feeding Young Children:
Make food look good: Children, as well as adults, eat with their eyes first. If the food looks good, your kids will want to try it. Be creative, like topping off a bowl of cereal with a smiley face using banana slices for eyes and raisins for a mouth!
Get your children involved: If children are involved in the food shopping and preparation, they are more likely to eat a healthy meal.
Make fruits and vegetables a part of every meal: Children should consume five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day, with a single serving equaling the size of a child’s fist. Incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your child’s diet can be as simple as adding lettuce and tomatoes to a sandwich or offering berries or other fresh fruit with every meal.
Watch what your kids drink: Sugary beverages, like soda and juice drinks, can increase the risk of tooth decay. Instead, try serving water or milk.
Make healthy snacks: Toddlers and young children eat frequent small meals throughout the day. Give your child nourishing snacks that will give them a burst of energy, like raisins, fresh fruit or vegetables.
Build more physical activity into your child’s daily routine: Eating nutritious foods is essential to your child’s health, but so is exercise. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recommends that children engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week. Make it fun by playing tag in the backyard or taking your child on a walk around the neighborhood.
Preparing healthy food doesn’t take long: In the amount of time it takes to purchase fast food at a drive-thru – about 3 ½ minutes – you can prepare a delicious, healthy treat for your child.
Try these ideas for small meals that are low in fat, nutritious, and take only a few minutes to prepare:
Click here to download a food
pyramid for kids – help them eat right, exercise and have fun!
Salt is "a hidden factor in the obesity epidemic," said Graham MacGregor, a co-author of the study by researchers at St. George’s University of London.
And researchers say all that salt isn’t coming from the salt shaker: About 80 percent comes from manufactured food. "Most people think that sodium comes from the salt shaker. The salt shaker contributes less than 10 to 15 percent," said Dr. Myron Weinberger, a professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.
"Fast foods, for example, are just loaded with sodium. Processed foods are all very high in sodium," said Weinberger, who wrote an editorial related to the study published in the online journal Hypertension.
Not only could less salt translate to fewer soft drinks and therefore fewer calories, but a modest reduction in salt has already been shown to lower blood pressure, which increases the risk of later-in-life heart attack and stroke, researchers say.
Also, several studies have shown a link between sugary soft drinks and obesity in children.
Reducing salt in manufactured foods can be done gradually, without the public even noticing, said Dr. Feng He, lead author of the study and cardiovascular research fellow at St. George’s. She said a 10 to 20 percent reduction in salt isn’t even detectable.
"It’s important for the food industry to make a reduction," she said.
The study suggested that cutting in half the amount of salt British children consume a decrease of about half a teaspoon a day would lead to an average reduction of about 18 ounces of sugar-sweetened soft drinks per week.
The study was based on diet data from Great Britain’s National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Researchers looked at 1,688 British boys and girls ages 4 to 18 over a seven-day period in 1997.
They noted that the amount of salt eaten might be underestimated in the study because it didn’t include salt added during cooking or at the table. The researchers also found that more than half the fluids drunk by the children were soft drinks, and more than half of those were sugar-sweetened.
MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at St. George’s, says the study results should apply to kids in the U.S. as well.
The United Kingdom began a government-led campaign to cut salt consumption in 1996 and researchers say more recent studies show that salt intake has already decreased.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is taking public comment until March 28 on a consumer group’s proposal to restrict the amount of salt in processed foods, among other options. And the American Medical Association has urged the government to require strong labeling of high-salt foods because if salt’s connection to high blood pressure and heart problems.
Experts note that it will take more than cutting salt to get overweight kids in shape: healthy eating and exercise are needed as well.
"It’s another piece of the puzzle," said Dr. Pamela Sayger Cava, pediatric cardiologist at the Herma Heart Center at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. "The kids have to be active. They have to have more water, less soda. They have to eat less fast food."
MacGregor said that parents should look at food labels. And they should make sure children eat more fresh fruits and vegetables without adding salt, which stimulates the brain to want more fluid. "Thirst is one of the most basic instincts. When you get thirsty, you have to drink," MacGregor said.
Experts Victor G. Carrion, M.D. – Early Life Stress Research Program, Stanford University; Patricia Van Horn, Ph.D., J.D. – Child Trauma Research Project, UC San Francisco and Chandra Ghosh Ippen Ph.D. – Child Trauma Research Project, UC San Francisco presented their research and clinical experiences on the powerful effects of trauma on a child’s brain, the linkage between trauma and culture and best practice interventions. This forum was moderated by John Stirling, Jr., M.D- Medical Director, Center for Child Protection Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Attendees came from many professions from public officials, judges, physicians, and leaders in the early care and education field; to executive directors of community organizations, business leaders, foundations/grant-makers, and leaders of county social services, public health, and mental health departments.
“This forum is an important milestone for FIRST 5 because it resonates our principle that we do everything on evidence-based practice. This is only the beginning stage,” said Jolene Smith, Executive Director, FIRST 5 Santa Clara County.
Bay Area children’s musician and songwriter, David “PapaHugs” Sharpe and the “PapaHugs Band” have teamed up with the San Jose Libraries to perform free concerts at six local libraries throughout the County.
These children’s concerts, sponsored by FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, include songs that promote a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and exercise. As part of this theme, PapaHugs will be performing songs like Fit for Learning, Friends are Fun, The Vegetable Parade, and Let’s Make a Big Yummy Sandwich.
Schedule of Performances:
Saturday, March 15 @ 1:00pm: Hillview Library
Saturday, April 5 @ 2:00pm: Alum Rock Library
Friday, April 11 @10:30am: Rose Garden Library
Tuesday, April 29 @ 6:30pm: Tully Library
Wednesday, April 30 @ 4:00pm: Seven Trees Library
“The purpose of these concerts is to provide an opportunity for children of all economic and social backgrounds to enjoy an hour of free music, geared specifically to them which have positive social and health messages,” says Sharpe. “Music plays such an important role in creating and nurturing a healthy child. The songs that we perform focus on movement, verbal skills and interactivity while also creating a sense of community and of course, fun.
For more information and a schedule of performances, please visit www.davidsharpemusic.com.
The First 5 F.A.N. Club has a new partnership with Hobee’s, a family-owned restaurant chain that has been in business for 35 years. With a Latino and Asian customer base, Hobee’s has locations throughout Northern California in Stanford, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Redwood Shores, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and North San Jose. Thanks to the new partnership, 1,600 First 5 F.A.N. Club placemats and crowns will be distributed to customers every Wednesday, when kids eat for free. Additionally, the English and Spanish-language Kit for New Parents will be displayed at eight Hobee’s locations.
Take2: Benefits of Breakfast
Take3: Building a Healthy Lifestyle, One Step at a Time
Take4: Salty Snacks Mean More Sodas for Kids
Take 5: Child and Family Wellness Forum: Raises awareness on the plaguing realities of child trauma
Take1: Reading Food Labels: How You Can Make Healthy Choices for Your Child
Nutrition Label in EnglishNutrition Label in Spanish
Want to eat healthier? Every boxed, canned and packaged food item contains nutrition facts that can help you make healthier choices for your family. Knowing how to read a nutrition label is important for choosing foods with healthy ingredients. Understanding food labels can also help you avoid selecting foods with hidden fats and sugar.
Too often, reading the nutrition facts can be confusing. That’s why FIRST 5 Santa Clara County provides the following guide to help you understand nutrition labels and what they mean for your child.
Words to Watch – To make healthy choices for your child, pay close attention to the following “tricky” words.
- Serving Size: Serving size is the amount of food to be eaten at one time by an adult. All information below the serving size is based on only the individual serving, not the entire box or can of food. Be sure to look at the servings per container to find the total number of servings in a food package.
- % Daily Value: The percent daily value tells you what percentage of the total recommended daily amount of each nutrient is in each serving for an adult (based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet). Keep in mind the recommended number of calories a child should consume is far lower. Look for foods with high percentages (20 percent or more) of good nutrients, such as vitamins.
- Protein: Your child needs protein to develop parts of his or her body, especially building muscles. The foods highest in protein are meat, poultry, fish and dairy foods.
- Vitamins: Vitamins help build strong bones, give your child energy and can help prevent illness. Ask your doctor for the recommended amount of each vitamin – including vitamin A and C, iron and calcium – for your child.
- Fiber (or Dietary Fiber): Fiber is important for keeping your child’s digestive system healthy. Doctors generally recommend that 1 to 3 year olds have at least 19 grams of fiber per day and 4 to 8 year olds have 25 grams per day. Some of the best sources of fiber are whole-grain breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, beans and nuts.
- Calories: Bodies use calories for energy. However, any calories your child does not use become stored as fat. Children who eat too many calories can become overweight. Look for foods that have a low or average amount of calories, between 40 and 100 calories per serving. Foods with more than 400 calories per serving are unhealthy for your child.
- Sodium: Sodium is another term for salt. Children should eat small amounts of sodium to prevent high blood pressure and heart problems later in life. Generally, a food with less than 5 percent sodium is considered healthier.
- Fat: Limit your child’s intake of foods high in saturated and trans fat. Eating too much saturated fat increases the risk of childhood obesity and can lead to heart disease. In particular, limit fried foods, whole-milk dairy products, fatty meats, vegetable oil and butter.
- Sugar: Eating too much sugar can also cause childhood obesity and increase your child’s risk of dental disease. Look for foods that are naturally low in sugar. However, be careful of some foods that are sugar-free. Often, these foods replace sugar with artificial sweeteners, which are not recommended for children under age 5.
Benefits of Breakfast
Benefits of Breakfast Flyer
On any given day, 51% of children go to school without breakfast. Make sure your kids don’t skip the most important meal of the day.
Higher Academic Scores
Students who eat breakfast earn, on average, a letter grade higher in math than kids who don’t, according to Pediatrics Magazine. Studies also show that eating breakfast results in higher test scores. www.schoolnutrition.org
Improved Behavior
Kids who eat breakfast won’t be hungry and therefore are less likely to have discipline problems.
Better Class Attendance
Children who eat breakfast are absent from school fewer days. Ironic as it may be, children who claim they don’t eat breakfast due to a lack of time in the morning are tardy more often than those who take time for a morning meal.
More Nutritious
Breakfast eaters generally meet vitamin and mineral requirements for prevention of deficiencies. They consume more fiber, vitamin C, calcium and folic acid. Unfortunately, children who miss breakfast do not make up for lost nutrients later in the day.
Helps Weight Control
Eating breakfast helps to establish a normal eating pattern. Eating regular meals and snacks is a key to maintaining a healthy weight throughout life. Increasing childhood obesity is in part attributed to the disappearance of normal eating patterns in many of today’s households.
Improved Behavior
Kids who eat breakfast won’t be hungry and therefore are less likely to have discipline problems.
Better Class Attendance
Children who eat breakfast are absent from school fewer days. Ironic as it may be, children who claim they don’t eat breakfast due to a lack of time in the morning are tardy more often than those who take time for a morning meal.
Take3: Building a Healthy Lifestyle, One Step at a Time
After a busy day at work or chasing a toddler around the house all day, parents can find the idea of preparing a home-cooked meal overwhelming. But even when you don’t have time to prepare meals from scratch, you can still provide your children a nutritious meal that will taste good, too!
In honor of National Nutrition Month in March, FIRST 5 Santa Clara County wants to offer all parents and caregivers the following quick and easy tips that will help every child grow up healthy. The research clearly shows that it is the eating habits that children learn when they are very young that will affect their health and nutrition for a lifetime.
Healthy Tips for Feeding Young Children:
Make food look good: Children, as well as adults, eat with their eyes first. If the food looks good, your kids will want to try it. Be creative, like topping off a bowl of cereal with a smiley face using banana slices for eyes and raisins for a mouth!
Get your children involved: If children are involved in the food shopping and preparation, they are more likely to eat a healthy meal.
Make fruits and vegetables a part of every meal: Children should consume five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day, with a single serving equaling the size of a child’s fist. Incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your child’s diet can be as simple as adding lettuce and tomatoes to a sandwich or offering berries or other fresh fruit with every meal.
Watch what your kids drink: Sugary beverages, like soda and juice drinks, can increase the risk of tooth decay. Instead, try serving water or milk.
Make healthy snacks: Toddlers and young children eat frequent small meals throughout the day. Give your child nourishing snacks that will give them a burst of energy, like raisins, fresh fruit or vegetables.
Build more physical activity into your child’s daily routine: Eating nutritious foods is essential to your child’s health, but so is exercise. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services recommends that children engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week. Make it fun by playing tag in the backyard or taking your child on a walk around the neighborhood.
Preparing healthy food doesn’t take long: In the amount of time it takes to purchase fast food at a drive-thru – about 3 ½ minutes – you can prepare a delicious, healthy treat for your child.
Try these ideas for small meals that are low in fat, nutritious, and take only a few minutes to prepare:
- Red, orange, yellow and green pepper strips
- Fruit salad made with pineapple chunks, bananas, apples and berries
- Peanut butter and banana on whole-wheat bread
- Homemade gorp (“good old raisins and peanuts”) or trail mix
- Celery or carrots with peanut butter
- Dried fruit
- Guacamole with blue corn chips
- Turkey with lettuce and tomato in a pita pocket
- Yogurt or cottage cheese
- Cubes of low-fat cheese
Fun Food Pyramid – Just for Kids!
Click here to download a food
pyramid for kids – help them eat right, exercise and have fun!
Take4: Salty Snacks Mean More Sodas for Kids
DALLAS Kids who load up on salty meals and snacks get thirsty, and too often they turn to calorie-filled sodas. So maybe cutting back on the salt is a good way to cut the calories. That’s the idea coming from a British study published Wednesday in an American Heart Association journal.Salt is "a hidden factor in the obesity epidemic," said Graham MacGregor, a co-author of the study by researchers at St. George’s University of London.
And researchers say all that salt isn’t coming from the salt shaker: About 80 percent comes from manufactured food. "Most people think that sodium comes from the salt shaker. The salt shaker contributes less than 10 to 15 percent," said Dr. Myron Weinberger, a professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.
"Fast foods, for example, are just loaded with sodium. Processed foods are all very high in sodium," said Weinberger, who wrote an editorial related to the study published in the online journal Hypertension.
Not only could less salt translate to fewer soft drinks and therefore fewer calories, but a modest reduction in salt has already been shown to lower blood pressure, which increases the risk of later-in-life heart attack and stroke, researchers say.
Also, several studies have shown a link between sugary soft drinks and obesity in children.
Reducing salt in manufactured foods can be done gradually, without the public even noticing, said Dr. Feng He, lead author of the study and cardiovascular research fellow at St. George’s. She said a 10 to 20 percent reduction in salt isn’t even detectable.
"It’s important for the food industry to make a reduction," she said.
The study suggested that cutting in half the amount of salt British children consume a decrease of about half a teaspoon a day would lead to an average reduction of about 18 ounces of sugar-sweetened soft drinks per week.
The study was based on diet data from Great Britain’s National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Researchers looked at 1,688 British boys and girls ages 4 to 18 over a seven-day period in 1997.
They noted that the amount of salt eaten might be underestimated in the study because it didn’t include salt added during cooking or at the table. The researchers also found that more than half the fluids drunk by the children were soft drinks, and more than half of those were sugar-sweetened.
MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at St. George’s, says the study results should apply to kids in the U.S. as well.
The United Kingdom began a government-led campaign to cut salt consumption in 1996 and researchers say more recent studies show that salt intake has already decreased.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is taking public comment until March 28 on a consumer group’s proposal to restrict the amount of salt in processed foods, among other options. And the American Medical Association has urged the government to require strong labeling of high-salt foods because if salt’s connection to high blood pressure and heart problems.
Experts note that it will take more than cutting salt to get overweight kids in shape: healthy eating and exercise are needed as well.
"It’s another piece of the puzzle," said Dr. Pamela Sayger Cava, pediatric cardiologist at the Herma Heart Center at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. "The kids have to be active. They have to have more water, less soda. They have to eat less fast food."
MacGregor said that parents should look at food labels. And they should make sure children eat more fresh fruits and vegetables without adding salt, which stimulates the brain to want more fluid. "Thirst is one of the most basic instincts. When you get thirsty, you have to drink," MacGregor said.
Take5: Child and Family Wellness Forum: Raises awareness on the plaguing realities of child trauma
There are more than 20 million abused, neglected and traumatized children in the US according to the Child Trauma Academy. This prevalent problem was addressed by three experts in the field of child trauma at the first annual Child and Family Wellness Forum held February 29, 2008 from 8am to 12pm at the Holiday Inn in San Jose.Experts Victor G. Carrion, M.D. – Early Life Stress Research Program, Stanford University; Patricia Van Horn, Ph.D., J.D. – Child Trauma Research Project, UC San Francisco and Chandra Ghosh Ippen Ph.D. – Child Trauma Research Project, UC San Francisco presented their research and clinical experiences on the powerful effects of trauma on a child’s brain, the linkage between trauma and culture and best practice interventions. This forum was moderated by John Stirling, Jr., M.D- Medical Director, Center for Child Protection Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Attendees came from many professions from public officials, judges, physicians, and leaders in the early care and education field; to executive directors of community organizations, business leaders, foundations/grant-makers, and leaders of county social services, public health, and mental health departments.
“This forum is an important milestone for FIRST 5 because it resonates our principle that we do everything on evidence-based practice. This is only the beginning stage,” said Jolene Smith, Executive Director, FIRST 5 Santa Clara County.
FIRST 5 Sponsors PapaHugs to Perform Free Concerts at Local Libraries
Bay Area children’s musician and songwriter, David “PapaHugs” Sharpe and the “PapaHugs Band” have teamed up with the San Jose Libraries to perform free concerts at six local libraries throughout the County.
These children’s concerts, sponsored by FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, include songs that promote a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and exercise. As part of this theme, PapaHugs will be performing songs like Fit for Learning, Friends are Fun, The Vegetable Parade, and Let’s Make a Big Yummy Sandwich.
Schedule of Performances:
Saturday, March 15 @ 1:00pm: Hillview Library
Saturday, April 5 @ 2:00pm: Alum Rock Library
Friday, April 11 @10:30am: Rose Garden Library
Tuesday, April 29 @ 6:30pm: Tully Library
Wednesday, April 30 @ 4:00pm: Seven Trees Library
“The purpose of these concerts is to provide an opportunity for children of all economic and social backgrounds to enjoy an hour of free music, geared specifically to them which have positive social and health messages,” says Sharpe. “Music plays such an important role in creating and nurturing a healthy child. The songs that we perform focus on movement, verbal skills and interactivity while also creating a sense of community and of course, fun.
For more information and a schedule of performances, please visit www.davidsharpemusic.com.
Hobee's Partnership
The First 5 F.A.N. Club has a new partnership with Hobee’s, a family-owned restaurant chain that has been in business for 35 years. With a Latino and Asian customer base, Hobee’s has locations throughout Northern California in Stanford, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Redwood Shores, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and North San Jose. Thanks to the new partnership, 1,600 First 5 F.A.N. Club placemats and crowns will be distributed to customers every Wednesday, when kids eat for free. Additionally, the English and Spanish-language Kit for New Parents will be displayed at eight Hobee’s locations.