Middle School Kids’ Guide to Good Eats

1. Middle School Kids’ Guide to Good Eats By Jeanne Laird

2. Snack foods, candy, funnel cakes, French fries, ice cream, pop Yogurt, cheese, Kefir, butter, milk goats, camels & Yaks milk Nuts, seeds, beans, Soy and fish FOOD GUIDE PYRAMID FOR KIDS LET’S FOCUS ON HOW YOUR DIET DIFFERS FROM THIS AND DISCUSS THE WORST OFFENDERS Provide you with healthy options and alternatives

3. My Plate

5. How many of you ate breakfast today?How many had something similar to what was on the screen?What did you have?

6. Why Eat Breakfast??? • Here’s why… • Kids who eat breakfast are better able to concentrate in class during the morning hours. • It is statistically proven that they do better on tests. • You have more energy for physical activity such as is exerted in gym class. • You have more mental energy- 25% of the energy from the food you eat goes to brain function. • Overall, you just feel better.

7. Why Eat Breakfast??? In addition and most importantly- your body constantly needs energy to work. This energy comes from the food you eat. If you don’t give it the energy it needs by eating breakfast, it will begin breaking down your own muscle tissue to get the energy it needs to keep working. In other words, if you skip breakfast, your body breaks down your own muscle tissue for breakfast.

8. Best Breakfast Choices Old fashioned Oatmeal/steel cut oatmeal Fruit-kiwi, pineapple, mango, apples, strawberries, blueberries, pears, etc. Yogurt/Kefir Whole grain cereals Bran flakes Whole grain toast, bagels, English muffins Eggs-any style Buckwheat pancakes Whole grain waffles Peanut butter wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla Egg, salsa and LF cheese breakfast tortilla Grits/Farina Malt-O-Meal Cream of Wheat Bran muffin Quinoa

9. Worst Breakfast Choices • Pop tarts • Toaster pastries • Pastries-cake, pie, etc. • Donuts • Cookies • Pop • Chips or snack foods • Candy bars • Brightly colored, high sugar cereals High in empty calories. Gives you a burst then a severe drop in energy. (By mid morning, it’s as if you had no breakfast at all in terms of low blood sugar) Void of vitamins, minerals, plant chemicals, and fiber. Does anyone know what fiber is? Undigested plant fibers that act as a brush, cleaning the walls of your digestive tract, keeping things moving thru the digestive tract, and basically helping you to poop!

11. The Typical Teen-Age Diet… • Pop, high calorie fruit drinks, red bull • Chips, Cheetos, Fritos, Doritos • Lunch meats and hot dogs • French fries, burgers, and other high fat, fast foods • High sugar foods • Brightly colored candy, snacks and cereals

12. Don’t assume that everything found in the grocery store is good for you or completely safe to eat…….It isn’t!!

13. Brightly colored, artificially colored foods • The artificial dyes used to color foods are derived from petrochemicals. • They are known to cause allergic reactions • They are known to cause hyperactivity in certain individuals • They are known to cause cancer in laboratory tests • Many of them have been banned in many other countries

14. Examples • Pop/fruit drinks • Brightly colored candy-skittles, twizzlers, spree, starburst, gummy bears • Brightly colored cereals-fruit loops, fruity pebbles, Trix • Fruit roll-ups, fruit snacks • Pastries-frosting • Jello, popsicles

15. Water, Low-fat milk, Home-made chocolate milk, Juicy Juice, Orange juice, Grapefruit juice, decaffeinated iced tea, green tea, herb teas, kefir, vitamin waters, fortified water, sparkling water, carbonated flavored water • Cereals that are low in sugar, high in fiber and have no artificial dyes-Kix, Multigrain Cheerios, Quaker Oat Squares • chocolate (preferably dark chocolate) • Instead of brightly colored fruit roll-ups & fruit snacks, eat real fruit • Choose popsicles made from real fruit juice with no artificial colors • Cupcakes or cake with just vanilla or chocolate frosting and/or make your own cookies and pastries at home Alternatives

16. Pop, high calorie fruit drinks, red bull Why bad… • Red bull-high in empty calories, (7 tsp. of sugar) artificially colored and flavored, high in caffeine (causes anxiety, panic, jitteriness, can stunt growth) • High calorie fruit drinks-same as above minus the caffeine, also contain none or very little real fruit juice, just a lot of chemicals to make it look and taste good-a chemical soup!

17. Pop • Pop- high in sugar (a lot of sugar- 10 tsp.) no nutrients, high in phosphorus. • Throws off your calcium-phosphorus balance • Pulls calcium from the bones • Does not allow for the formation of healthy strong bones. • Can lead to osteoporosis in the future.

18. This is what osteoporosis looks like

20. Alternative: Pure filtered water Low fat milk or chocolate milk Decaf iced tea, green tea or herbal teas Almond milk, soy milk Coconut milk Homemade lemonade Sparkling water Real fruit juices such as Juicy Juice or orange juice Club soda or seltzer with a splash of fruit juice added. V-8 vegetable and fruit juices Flavored seltzer water Natural vitamin water Fruit smoothies.

21. Snack foods: Cheetos, Chips, Pringles, Fritos, Doritos, etc • These foods contain low or no fiber. • They are high in calories. • They are high in fat. • They are highly processed & therefore very low in nutrients. • They’re high in sodium (salt). • They may contain acrylamide (a toxic and potentially harmful substance).

22. Why bad? • As mentioned earlier, fiber is very good for the digestive tract. Diets low in fiber are at a greater risk for colon cancer. • Diets high in empty calories contribute to being over weight or obese. • Diets high in salt can contribute to high blood pressure, which if allowed to go untreated, can lead to heart attacks, brain attacks, and kidney failure. • Diets high in fats can also lead to heart attacks, strokes, cancer, obesity, poor circulation and many other ailments. • Lastly, acrylamide is a substance found in starchy foods like potatoes that are cooked at very high temperatures. • Eating a lot of foods high in acrylamide • can increase the risk of getting cancer.

23. High Blood Pressure

24. Heart Disease

25. Diabetes

26. 13. Unsalted cashews, almonds and pistachios 14. Black or green olives* 15. Raisins, prunes or dried cranberries 16. Dried goji berries 17. A pickle* *only in moderation b/c they’re high in sodium, too Alternatives Light popcorn (not loaded with butter and salt) pop it yourself Baby carrots Crunchy pea pods Mini cucumbers sliced into round wheels with a little added sea salt. Raw cauliflower or broccoli (may dip in LF ranch dressing) Cherry tomatoes Crispy celery sticks stuffed with Low fat cream cheese or peanut butter A crunchy apple sliced up Whole grain pita chips Blue tortilla chips Whole grain chips Sweet potato chips

27. Get used to eating as close to nature as possible!!!

28. hotdogs • most lunchmeats like salami, bologna, ham, deviled ham, spam, pepperoni and bacon • contain sodium nitrite which is a harmful preservative • include a good source of vitamin C with the meal • Vitamin C helps to neutralize this preservative. • Alternative: Lunchmeats such as chicken and turkey that do not contain nitrites, • tuna or salmon salad, • egg salad, • vegetable salads, • nut butter and jam, • beef or chicken salads, or slices from leftover roasts. Keep the “pink meats” at a minimum.

29. Try to keep visits to fast food restaurants to only once a month if you can. • Choose healthful alternatives-many fast food establishments are now offering healthier options such as creative salads, fruit instead of fries and chili, soups and whole grain buns.

30. Reduce consumption of fried foods such as French fries, onion rings, donuts, funnel cakes, churros, etc. • Eating a lot of fried foods from fast food restaurants, fairs or carnivals is not good for your arteries. • The fat used to cook these foods is an unhealthy oxidized and rancid fat. • Eating foods cooked in oxidized, rancid fat contributes to arteriosclerosis.

31. Atherosclerosis is responsible for the following diseases: Stroke Heart Disease Dimentia PVD Leg ulcers

32. Lastly- kids eat too much sugar Which foods are high in sugar you might ask…

33. What’s wrong with sugar??? Causes weight gain Causes inflammation Contributes to aging Can lead to diabetes Causes low blood sugar Contributes to high blood pressure & high triglycerides 7. Keeps you craving more 8. Causes tooth decay 9. Can weaken your immune system! 10. Void of nutrients

34. The sugar/diabetes link • The more sugary foods you eat, the more your pancreas has to secrete insulin to get the sugar out of the bloodstream and into cells. • Too much sugar constantly flooding your bloodstream causes a feedback mechanism to kick in- cells become insulin resistant. Cells either reduce the number of insulin receptors or the receptors lose their affinity for insulin. High blood sugar ensues and a pre-diabetic state results. Eventually this can turn into full blown diabetes if dietary changes are not made! • In addition, when the pancreas is constantly having to secrete high levels of insulin b/c of too much sugar constantly flooding the bloodstream, the beta cells that secrete insulin can give out causing Beta Cell Exhaustion.

35. Foods to focus on are the foods closest to nature: Whole unprocessed foods.>Whole grain breads, pasta, bagels, muffins, cereals and brown rice>Brightly colored fruits and vegetables, especially berries, dark green leafy vegies &cruciferous vegies.>Lean, unprocessed meats, fish, poultry>Low fat dairy like yogurt, milk and cheese>Nuts, seeds and legumes (beans, peas and lentils) • Getting the good stuff in..

36. Eat Your Colors! Try to include foods that are different colors on your plate. The different colors represent different nutrients Your plate should have a variety of different colored foods on it so that your meal has a wide variety of vitamins and minerals.

37. Let’s not forget about protein • Protein enables your cells to repair, maintain & build new tissue. • Dietary protein gives your cells the building blocks it needs to • accomplish the above jobs. • Protein is found in every cell of your body and particularly high • amounts are found in your heart and muscle tissue. • And especially for you athletes, good sources of dietary protein • are important to rebuild and maintain muscle tissue broken down • by vigorous activity, exercise and weight training. • Good sources of protein include chicken, turkey, fish (any type) • lean beef, pork, eggs, beans, lentils, seeds and nuts

38. So when you are older, instead of being this… You’ll be this…