Nutrition
News From MERSD Food Services Department:
Dear Essex and Memorial School Parents,
I haven’t had a chance to
introduce myself to you yet, but my name is Julie Jacobsen and I will be with
the school district until Jan. 3rd, 2014, as part of my dietetic
internship rotations. I hold a Master of
Science in Nutrition and Health Promotion, a Certificate in Sports Nutrition,
and am currently fulfilling my last requirement to become a Registered
Dietitian. I’m also a mom of three, so
trust me, I know the challenges of being a busy parent and properly feeding a
family!
I have been working mostly at the
middle school and high school since Nov. 18th, but various teachers
at your schools have asked me to come and speak to their classes about healthy
snack options, so I’d like to share the same information and recipes with you
in case your child’s class was not one that I was able to visit.
More and more kids are eating too
much in the way of snacks that do nothing to fuel their bodies, critically
important in a community such as yours where so many of the kids are involved
in sports. In their classes, I likened
eating all those favorite snack chips to eating a glob of Crisco. We would never think to choose a scoop of
Crisco for a snack, and yet eating potato chips is basically providing the same
amount of nutrition—nothing, except a lot of saturated and trans fats, and
empty calories. Real health killers! I also reminded the kids that they wouldn’t
put sugary syrup or Coke in their car to make it run…because it would break
down! It’s not the right fuel to make
that machine work. So why don’t we
“fuel” our machines (i.e., our bodies) as well as we fuel our cars?
I showed the kids in a couple of
classrooms how easy it is to make a nutritious, energy-filled snack to appease
their hungry bodies and minds. The
attached recipes are courtesy of the dietitian on the Cooking Light webpage,
but they certainly can be tweaked to your liking. Personally, I always went for as much whole
grain, low sodium, and high fiber foods as possible when providing my kids with
snacks. It sustained them a lot longer while
getting all that much-needed nutrition into them. Just have fun being creative with this!
In class we
used Cheerios, pretzels, raisins, Kashi Autumn Wheat squares, and a very small
amount of M& Ms, but you can easily create your own mixes bases on your
child’s taste preferences and any allergy requirements. (Ideally I would have included some form of
nut such as peanuts, almonds or walnuts to provide an excellent heart-healthy
protein and fat, but for obvious allergy reasons I didn’t do that.) After learning how to mix up this trail mix
in a bowl, each child received a measured-out serving, along with a clementine,
and they loved it!
By the way, kids’ love fruit for
a snack. The trick? Have it ready –to-eat, washed and cut up in
the fridge, or out on the counter ready to grab. You can also have your kids help create and pre-package
these home-made trail mixes into ready-to-grab zip lock bags so all they have
to do is just grab one and run, anytime of the day. Getting your kids involved in the creation process
will mean better compliance with switching over to these healthier snacks, all
while getting that added fruit and nutrition into their daily diet.
Did you know, this is the first
generation of U.S. kids at risk of not living as long as their parents? As of 2010, over one third of U.S.
children were either overweight or obese, which puts them at increased risk for
adult overweight issues, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke,
osteoarthritis, and certain cancers! Remember, you have the ability to lay the
foundation for their future health. Being
a parent is the hardest job in the world, but it’s also the most
rewarding. Time and energy invested now
will ensure them a healthy future.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy
food.”
Hippocrates
c. 460 BC – c. 370 BC
To your health!
Julie Jacobsen, MS
Dietetic Intern
(Sugar
contents of sugar-sweetened beverages)
