It’s that time of year. Resolutions are falling by the wayside, particularly the #1 top American resolution: weight loss. If you fall into this camp, the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released Jan. 7 by the Agriculture and Health and Human Services Departments, may bring you hope.
The new guidelines emphasize the need to focus on a health-promoting eating pattern “across the life span” and skew away from restrictive dieting. With a primary focus on decreasing added sugar, the guidelines promote a lifelong eating pattern that contains adequate essential nutrients, a caloric intake that supports a healthy body weight and foods that reduce the risk of chronic disease.
This means, in a nutshell, eschewing processed foods for whole grains, eating plenty of vegetables and fruit, and choosing unsaturated fats like those found in a traditional Mediterranean diet. Moderate coffee drinkers and imbibers in alcohol will find the guidelines non-intrusive on their lifestyle. It’s the white rice and breads, cakes, cookies and pastries that take the biggest hit.
Happy Healthy Cooks, a local nonprofit organization, is working in the public schools to promote healthy eating patterns from an early age, in sync with the report’s message that good nutrition is one of the most important keys to a healthy life. Kids who eat healthful whole foods are better able to concentrate and focus in school, as a whole are better behaved, have more energy, and reduce their risk for chronic diseases and obesity as they get older.
Studies have shown that developing a taste for whole, non-processed foods at a young age increases the likelihood of enjoying healthful foods throughout one’s life. Happy Healthy Cooks turns kids and their families on to delicious, whole healthful foods. With the help of more than 50 trained community volunteers every week, Happy Healthy Cooks delivers a successful evidence-based curriculum of 20 interactive, experiential lessons to Roanoke City second graders in five elementary schools and 10 lessons to pre-school children in six TAP Head Start centers.
The teams of leaders and volunteers teach kids about nutrition in a fun, hands-on environment. They taste a wide variety of healthful food, safely learn how to handle a knife, and cook together in the classroom.
Volunteers report that it is tremendously rewarding to see these “picky eaters” ask for 2nds and 3rds of kale, spinach, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Green fruit smoothie? Wildly popular. Brazilian black beans? Yes, please! Recipes from around the world include guacamole, white bean dip, vegetable salad and dressing, Middle Eastern lentil soup, African American soul stew with collard greens, Egyptian tabbouleh, Native American 3-sisters stew, Chinese vegetable stir fry and many more.
The curriculum also incorporates learning about the different cultures from which the recipe originates with music, stories and geography. The hands-on, experiential based program stresses cooperative learning.
One in three children in Virginia is obese or overweight. And 50% of American adults suffer from one or more preventable chronic illness. Happy Healthy Cooks is in the schools trying to change those statistics, whipping up tasty and healthful food with young children, and having fun along the way.
You can learn more about the program and volunteer opportunities by visiting their website: www.happyhealthycooks.org
Kate Ericsson