Stuff I’ve found digging around on the net … with my take on it ..c

Physical Education Key To Improving Health In Low-income Adolescents School-based physical education plays a key role in curbing obesity and improving fitness among adolescents from low-income communities, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and UC Berkeley.

It’s what we all know: physical activity is good for your body and your mind – and it’s much more fun than sitting in the classroom all day.

TV Bombards Children With Commercials For High-fat And High-sugar Foods Childhood obesity in the United States is reaching epidemic proportions. With more than one fourth of advertising on daytime and prime time television devoted to foods and beverages and continuing questions about the role television plays in obesity, a study in the November/December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

Every food-conscious parent should watch this from TED blog (ideas worth spreading) — US school-lunch chef Ann Cooper has been touring the US this summer, asking locals to change their approach to food in schools. Her own revolutionary school lunch program, in which kids eat local produce and fresh bread, has taken hold in Berkeley, California; Cooper just moved to Boulder, Colorado, to revamp that lunch system.

To help other school systems transform their own meal programs, she just launched a beta version of The Lunch Box, a website from her nonprofit F3: Food Family Farming Foundation. Inside The Lunch Box are budget models, menus and lots of recipes.

Watch Ann Cooper below and catch her enthusiasm for feeding kids good food:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cindy here : I’m proud to say that in our little corner of the world (in NZ) one of my local primary schools has just installed a pizza oven as part of their ‘Garden to Table‘ program. Students all take turns working in the vegetable garden, tending the worm farm and collecting food scraps from the playground for composting.  From next year all Year 4 kids (8-9 year-olds) will gather produce from the school garden and learn to cook. This fantastic program is the NZ adaptation of  Stephanie Alexander’s  Kitchen Garden Program founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2001. This is one of three NZ schools trialling the program.

Let’s hope it extends to many more schools soon.

“I hope you’re going to wipe that off before it dries.” The Qantas attendant smiled at my son who had carefully smeared chocolate ice-cream all over his face, military commando style, and was grinning proudly, waiting for my reaction. I laughed and fished in my handbag to find a mirror so he could admire his handiwork. Then we wiped it off before it set in the dry cabin air. I guess that’s one way to entertain yourself on a long flight!

My first impression of the Qantas kids meals was that they must have had a dietitian to advise them. There wasn’t a chip, fatty salty cracker, fatty sweet biscuit or lolly to be seen. On our flight from Auckland to Sydney the child’s meal was chicken with a fresh tomato sauce, rice and broccoli plus vegetable sticks with hummus to dip them in. The bread roll was wholemeal and the dessert was yoghurt, carton of fruit and a healthy muesli bar. It looked and tasted good – it’s a mummy’s prerogative to try her child’s meal, of course!

Our breakfast flights were just as good with healthy high fibre cereal, milk, bread roll and fruit. I’m really impressed that Qantas give the children cartons of Just Juice Splash. It is basically diluted fruit juice – ideal for kids. Our only disappointment was getting sausages, mashed potato and peas on two flights. I guess they are on the menu because most kids love sausages even though they are full of salt, preservative and saturated fat. My son traded them for his dad’s cheese and chocolate – and everyone was happy. It is so nice to finally see some children’s meals made with real food rather than junky, snack foods.

Congratulations, Qantas.

“Boy you’re doing well with your yummy stickers!” Christl exclaimed as she looked at the sticker chart on Sandra’s fridge. “The classes at school are all competing to see who can get the most,” Sandra replied. “They’ve already won heaps of neat sports equipment.” I had no idea what they were talking about – yummy stickers? What were they?

The other two mums explained it to me as we stood nibbling left-over pizza and popcorn while the group of kids we taught at church watched a movie in the  lounge. The stickers did look vaguely familiar and then I realised where I had seen them before – on the apples we eat after dinner. What a great way to get kids eating more apples. I was so excited to see a promotion for healthy food that was obviously working. OK, so maybe I’m the only person to get excited about a chart with yummy apple stickers but it sure is a refreshing change from most food ads that our kids get bombarded with. I’m definitely letting my children’s school know about it.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Related:  Get the fat out of fundraising (Sydney Morning Herald)