MyPlate with HEAL Project Kids

Last week we had a fun, interactive lesson on MyPlate! HEAL Project kids and teachers enjoyed it very much!

The class started with the introduction to MyPlate. We printed a big poster of MyPlate, which can be found in the printable section of choosemyplate website.

In order to make the class engaging we included a cooking demonstration as part of the lesson!

Even though the lesson plan was focused on teaching children about MyPlate, we also used the opportunity to put their spelling skills to the test.

We started the lesson by placing butcher paper in the table and placing all ingredients on it. Each kid had the opportunity to go to the table circle an ingredient, write its name, and identify which food group the ingredient belong to. Although challenging at times kids loved it!

Did you know tomatoes and avocados are fruits not vegetables?

They also had the opportunity to prepare a delicious guacamole (which most of them haven't had before!)

After the guacamole was ready each kid had the opportunity to build their own wrap made with a whole wheat tortilla with quinoa. Yummy!

Even the school dean Mr. Sidney came and tasted the delicious food prepped by the HEAL kids! We can't wait to have more cooking demos in class they are definitely a powerful learning tool!!

All About Fiber

What is it?

You hear the word all the time, generally paired with "eat more". So what exactly is it and where can I find it?

Facts about fiber:

• Type of carbohydrate
• Doesn't add any calories to the diet
• Only found in plant foods 
• Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds are all good sources
• Two fiber types (soluble and insoluble)

Soluble vs. Insoluble Fiber

Soluble fiber is good for lowering cholesterol and blood glucose levels. This type of fiber is generally found in the flesh of fruits and vegetables.

Foods high in soluble fiber include:

• Oranges
• Strawberries
• Sweet potatoes (flesh)
• Black beans
• Oatmeal

Insoluble fiber is needed to maintain a healthy digestive system. It helps move food through the large intestine (colon) while it digests. This prevents constipation, helps increase regularity, and may also protect against colon cancer development. This type of fiber is generally found in the edible peels of fruits and vegetables.

Foods high in insoluble fiber include:

• Okra
• Carrots
• Kidney beans
• Lentils
• Fruit and vegetable peels

Remember the key is to eat more fiber in general, don't worry about what type you're eating.

How much fiber should I eat?

Women should consume at least 25 grams per day.
Men should consume at least 38 grams per day.

Curious about how many grams you should be getting?
Try out this fiber calculator: http://www.nationalfibercouncil.org/fiber_calculator.php

How can you tell if a food product is a good source of fiber?

All you need to do is look at the nutrition facts panel on the product. Locate fiber on the label and check out the percent daily value. This number is the percentage of your daily fiber requirement contained in one serving of that food.

Low source: 5% or less of your daily value or 1 gram or less
Moderate source: 6-19% of your daily value or 1.5 - 4.5 grams
High source: 20% or more of your daily value or 5 grams or more

6 ways to increase fiber in the diet*

1. Switch from fruit juice to the whole fruit (eat the apple instead of drinking apple juice)
2. Enjoy edible peels of fruits and vegetables (eat the sweet potato skin and eggplant peel)
3. Eat more whole grains/whole grain products rather than refined (ie. brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread)
4. In food products look for a whole grain listed as the first ingredient (especially in pasta, cereal, and bread)
5. Pick high fiber snacks (ie. carrot sticks and hummus/apple slices and peanut butter)
6. Add legumes to soups, chilis, and gumbos! (swap out some of the meat for black eyed peas and kidney beans)

*Note: As you increase fiber in your diet, you must increase your water intake as well. While fiber is eliminating that bad cholesterol in the intestines, it's also taking water with it.

More Fiber + More Water = Happy Healthy Body

Want more reasons to eat more fiber?

Heart disease: Fiber decreases cholesterol levels lowering your risk for heart disease
Diabetes: High fiber intake lowers blood glucose and may decrease risk for type 2 diabetes development
Colon Cancer: Eating fiber helps keep digested food moving in the body, possibly lowering colon cancer risk
Diverticulosis: This highly preventable disease can be avoided simply by eating more fiber
Weight loss: High fiber diets are generally lower in calories and keep you full longer causing you to eat less

HEAL Project Celebrates National Nutrition Month

In honor of National Nutrition Month, Sankofa's HEAL enrichment class and after-school club have been focusing on nutrition awareness and ways for students to improve nutrition in their own lives. By providing students at a young age with the knowledge and tools they need to make healthy choices, we believe they will be more likely to make those choices throughout the life-cycle.

Our most recent classes have been about the food groups and sugar content in beverages. We utilized MyPlate (shown below) as a tool to demonstrate how students should be eating. There was a focus on eating more fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These three food groups should comprise most of your plate. Students learned about the process of refining grains and the nutrients which are lost during processing (ie. fiber, vitamins, and minerals).  For this reason it's crucial to eat your grains in their whole form (oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa) or eat products made from whole grains (whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta) for the best nutrition. We discussed different protein and calcium sources from both plants and animals. Ample protein can come from legumes (beans + lentils), nuts, and seeds, as well as animals. Dairy is a recommended part of the diet for the calcium it contains. Dark leafy vegetables (kale, broccoli, spinach) and soy products are also great sources of bone-strengthening calcium.

Sourced from: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

To bring National Nutrition Month to a close, we had a Smoothie Day with the enrichment students. Prior to this class, the students learned about the high amounts of sugar in commonly consumed beverages. Highly sweetened beverages include soft drinks, most iced teas, sports drinks (Gatorade), energy drinks (Red Bull), and juice that isn't 100% fruit juice.

To show the students how to choose a healthier alternative, we helped them create one. The class was first divided into two teams.







Each team was provided with healthy ingredients from which they could choose to add to their smoothie. There were strawberries, blueberries, and bananas for them to choose from. Ice and 100% cranberry juice were also added to the smoothies to cool down the drink and add some liquid.

Bright red smoothie from the strawberry group

Deep red smoothie from the blueberry group

National Nutrition Month Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup 100% cranberry juice
• 2 cups frozen strawberries (or frozen blueberries)
• 2 bananas, peeled
• 1/2 cup ice

Directions: 

• Add juice, strawberries, bananas, and ice to a blender. Blend until smooth.

Lots of fruit about to be blended

The final product about to be enjoyed!

Happy National Nutrition Month! 

Learning Heart Health with HEAL Students

This morning ARISE academy's enrichment class of 5th and 6th graders learned about heart health. Being that February is American Heart Month we invited Dr. Daphne Ferdinand, Executive Director of Healthy Heart Community Prevention Project, to teach children how the heart really works.

She began the "How to be Heart Smart" class by introducing students to the heart as an organ. Students held up their fists to gauge how large the heart is, they placed a hand on their chest to feel their hearts beat, and repeated heart terminology such as "cardiovascular". Dr. Ferdinand wanted the children to become familiar with and recognize words that are frequently used to describe the heart. She went on to explain arteries, veins, chambers, and valves. Diagrams of the heart enabled the children to see just what the vital organ looks like and the path in which blood flows.

After describing cardiovascular disease (ie. heart disease), Dr. Ferdinand prompted the students to think about how this disease could affect each one of them. She asked them to recall someone in their family with the disease. Many of them could. She also asked what they thought it felt like to have a heart attack. Responses included, "It's really hard to breathe", "There's a really bad pain in your heart", and "You could almost die."A drawing of a plaque- filled artery was presented to illustrate why a heart attack occurs. One student commented, "It looks like something's stuck in there." She was exactly right. As plaque builds up, less and less blood (and oxygen) can pass through the arteries. When the artery becomes completely blocked off, part of the muscle dies and a heart attack occurs.

Some great questions were posed by the students. Alexis asked how heartburn was related to the topic being discussed. Dr. Ferdinand explained that heartburn actually has nothing to do with the heart, but rather a re-flux of food/gastric juice from the stomach into the esophagus. It's called heartburn because the sensation is generally felt near the heart.

The "lecture" portion of the class ended with an explanation of risk factors and means of prevention. Un-modifiable risk factors, such as age, gender, and family history, are just some of the factors to be aware of. Thankfully, modifiable risk factors are plentiful and are things that we have the ability to change. These risk factors include: high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, smoking, being overweight or obese, diabetes, and being inactive. Consuming more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains was emphasized as means of prevention. There was also a large focus on exercise and drinking more water instead of sugary beverages.

The more interactive portion of the class involved students dividing into groups and listening to each others' heartbeats using stethoscopes.

 

The heart health message will continue this afternoon in the HEAL club, as the students create a heart- healthy fruit smoothie!

6 Fun Facts About the Heart:

1. The word coronary means "crown", hence the coronary arteries crown over the heart.

2. Aerobic exercise (aka. cardio) is a form of exercise that increases heart rate, therefore working the heart muscle.
                                        
3. "Heartburn" has nothing to do with the heart, rather the digestive system.

4. The heart beats on average 100,000 times per day.

5. Each year almost 1 million people have heart attacks in the United States alone.

6. Heart disease is the number 1 killer of Americans each year.