Eat to Learn - Spinach Why Your Kid's Brain Needs Spinach

Welcome to the Eat to Learn series! This is information pulled together for part of the Eat to Learn campaign the Healthy Lifestyles committee is bringing to my kids' elementary school. This program was put together to utilize grand funds from National PTA.  Sherwood Elementary did not receive a grant award.  We were able to implement the program with parent donations and food donations from HEB.

• Morning Announcements - Fun food facts to connect food available on the school lunch line to growing a big brain and creating energy for student success.
  
• Eat to Learn at Lunch : Parent Demonstration - sharing the foods facts with parents during monthly parent meeting, making healthy lunch suggestions.
• Eat to Learn taste off: Bringing the fresh produce available on the lunch line into the classroom and having kids compete in teams for the most produce tasted.
  
• Eat to Learn Game Night : interactive food education game Playnormous, kids and parents play together at an all campus evening event.
• Move to Learn Turkey Trot: Kids connect elevated heart rate with improved memory retention by checking their heart rate while trotting laps.
• Before and After Lunch Bag/Tray Assessments - Kids will assess their own lunch against green, yellow, red foods measures; once at the beginning of the program, and once at the end.
• Label and Ingredient Reading 101 - Parents and students will stop by a table at the Health Fair and learn how to read an ingredient list.  Participants will discover some of the tricky ways food manufacturers deceive consumers into thinking a product is healthy or has real ingredients.

student tasting cucumber at Taste Off

We don't need funding for me to write morning announcements, that show is going on regardless. I figured since I'm going to be pulling the information together, Kid Appeal readers would like to learn how each food impacts brain function for kiddos. Stay tuned as I dig into produce and find out how it helps us all learn.

I know I've said this a thousand times, but the most effective way I've gotten kids to eat up foods they are initially averse to is by connecting it to something that matters to them. Most young school age kids are eager to learn, so connecting nourishing food to a big huge smart brain, is um, well, a no brainer.

First up?

student coming back for more spinach at Taste Off

Spinach
Sadly, the kids only have access to "steamed" spinach on the lunch line once every 5 weeks (unless it's in some of the salad blends that are offered daily, I've never seen the PK, K or 1st Grade kids pick those). They do get steamed "greens" one other week, and the nutrients in most greens are similar. I've never eaten at school when steamed spinach/greens are served, but I doubt they are good eats. Maybe I'm wrong.

Here's why you want your kid's brain to be nourished by spinach:

• B Vitamins bring oxygen to the brain, protects neurons from toxins.
• Antioxidants prevent brain cell death, more brain cells = more brain power.
• Improves memory by making the brain breath.
• High iron amounts contribute to energy production
• Folic Acid – reverses memory loss and makes you happy. (the study citing this actually says it alleviates depression, but since young kids don't have a grasp of what "depression" is, I oversimplified by saying spinach makes you happy.)

Morning Announcement

Spinach makes memorizing math facts a breeze,
B vitamins bring oxygen to the brain helping it breath.
Antioxidants prevent brain cell death by the hour,
more brain cells = more spelling power.
Folic acid has the brain instruct your face to smile
while you put facts and figures in a huge brain file.
The iron in spinach will fuel you with energy,
run, swing, climb, slide and be done with lethargy.
Eat the spinach sitting there on your lunch tray
you’ll grow a big brain the Sherwood way.

Spinach Recipe Roundup
Green Mac N Cheese
Pasta with Spinach, Mushrooms, Chevre
Green Slime Dip
Green Milkshake
Spinach Basil Pesto

Kid Appeal Tip Don't forget to circle back to prior spinach tastings for the most effect. Even if your child just nibbles a bite spinach, next time they do something brainy connect the dots. When he reads a new word correctly or completes math homework without errors remark "I'm glad you tasted that spinach, it sure did help your brain remember your math facts."

Is this the kind of nutrition education program you'd like to see at your elementary school?

Whole Grain Pancakes - Soaked Flour

Photo credit: Big Boo using Dad's Blackberry camera. He carefully placed the berries and posed the fork and knife. Must be the son of a food blogger and graphic designer.

A few months ago I started a kitchen goal of soaking grains, nuts and beans. I've soaked nuts a couple times. The dehydration step deters me from doing nuts more often. Can't get them dry without getting them too warm. The bean soaking is not going so well either. I haven't managed to soak them the night before cooking, so they end up off the menu entirely. Must remedy that soon. Surely unsoaked beans are better than no beans at all, eh?

One thing I was successful in creating a new habit was soaking steel cut oats for oatmeal. We have soaked oatmeal several times a week for breakfast. Another soaking recipe I like is this one from The Nourishing Gourmet for soaked flour whole grain pancakes. A few minutes of kitchen work the night before can shave cooking time off on a busy morning. Even weekend mornings are less harried with this pancake recipe, as half of the ingredients are measured and in a bowl ready to go when I stumble into the kitchen. Why don't school age kids sleep past dawn on weekends? Didn't they get the memo that weekends are for sleepin' in?

Soaking flour reduces phytates and increases mineral absorption in grains. I don't soak 100% of the time, but I'm gradually making my way to serving more soaked grains, nuts and legumes. Not sure why you might want to consider soaking? Here's some additional information, so you can decide if soaking is right for your family.

Kimi's recipe is dairy free. I was serving visitors and decided to use buttermilk as the liquid. They turned out really tasty. The first time I made them I used a combination of almond milk and the coconut water I'd saved from a fresh coconut. Those were also tasty.

Whole Grain Pancakes - Soaked Flour Recipe
ingredients - night before

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups buttermilk, regular milk, almond or rice milk.
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients, gently stir to combine, cover and place in oven overnight. (Oven should be off, OK if it's still a little warm from dinner)

ingredients - morning of

5 eggs
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup of coconut oil (liquefied)

Add remaining ingredients to the soaked flour mixture to combine. If mixture is too thick add some water (I needed about 1/4 cup of water in the morning). Cook on hot griddle or pan until bubbles start to form on one side. (They won't be completely bubbly like non-soaked batters). Flip pancake and remove when second side is brown. Remove to a plate in a warm oven. Serve with maple syrup and fresh berries. Freeze left overs in a zip top bag, toasting to reheat. Half recipe if you don't want left-overs, this is a large batch.

Vinegar? In Pancakes?
Yes, that's vinegar on the ingredient list. Before you freak out, the vinegar isn't awful in this recipe. I too was skeptical, but they don't taste vinegary. The vinegar helps give them a nice rise. Try it before you judge! I added an extra egg to the batter to up the protein a little.

Do you soak?

How to Get Healthy Food Down the Hatch

I've got a new spot as guest blogger over at Zisboombah. If you're interested in knowing what has had the biggest impact in getting my kids to eat real food, head on over and read the article where I share my secret weapon to get kids to eat healthy food. Hint: it's all about connections. Connections between the kid, the food, and the kid's activities. If you wouldn't mind, show Zisboombah some love and leave a comment on my post over there. I'd love for you to share your reactions or your secret weapon over there.

Remember that book I was writing in the Spring? This article is the summary of that book.

Zisboombah has a game for kids to build meals called Pick Chow. Each item they choose adds up to a score using protein, carbs, fat and fiber as health parameters. Each meal is given a star rating letting them know how it stacks up. There are also measures for sugar, saturated fat and sodium so kids know if any uh-oh foods are included in their meals. I could live without the sat fat indicator, but more on that later when I finally get to the review and giveaway I promised I'd cover for them. Stay tuned for the review and a chance to win some free loot!

Now, be off and read my article over there. Kay? Thanks!

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Steamed Okra - Recipe for Gut Health

I've been wanting to share this recipe for a long while, but always forget to get a photo! In our house we call steamed okra "Benny Ben Okra" after little boo's best buddy. We were served steamed okra for the first time for dinner at his house. Ben's mom told me he loved okra. When I made it at home I named it Benny Ben Okra-just the way Ben loves it, to encourage the boys to try it. Prior to this the only way the boys would eat was fried. Check out the fried okra recipe for details of what okra does that's good for the gut.

It worked. I serve it like finger food, and that helps with appeal I think. They can pick up the intact stalks and nibble away, leaving just the fibrous stem end on their plate. Through the summer, it's consistently been the first thing eaten and gone off their plates regardless of what else I'm serving with it.

Little boo is at a new school with no Benny Ben, so eating his favorite vegetable once a week is a fun way to remember his buddy and to inspire me to make plans for a get together.

Steamed Okra Recipe aka Benny Ben Okra
1 package fresh okra, rinsed, stems intact

Directions: Place whole okra in a steamer basket placed inside a sauce pan, and add a touch of water to the bottom of the pan. Close the lid, and cook over high heat, steaming the okra for 4-6 minutes. Timing is crucial, too much and they get slimy. Too little and they are too crunchy. Perfection is when they are slightly al dente with minimal slimage. Be careful not to let the okra touch water, that will produce excess slime.

Frugal
When I buy okra at a big box store it's usually $4. When I buy from my local farmer Kathy of Happy Heart Farms, it's $2 and often picked the same day I buy. I've been getting okra weekly for most of the summer. It's one of the few veggies that thrives in Houston's dog days of summer. I know hubby is ready for okra season to be over. To put it mildly, steamed okra is not his favorite. I love him for being a good role model, gnawing a few stalks stoically when I serve it. I steam it most often because the boys love it so much and it's easy. Hubby would prefer I sliced it and gave it a quick saute with fresh tomatoes and onions.

Steamed okra remains one of the biggest vegetable enjoyment surprises for both my kids. No matter how many weeks I serve it and I watch them gobble it up and ask for more, I remain astonished that they like it so much.

Kid Appeal Tip Sometimes positive peer pressure is very helpful in getting kids to try food. Kids are often anxious that unfamiliar food will taste bad, so they won't try it. But if they know their best buddy, grandpa or favorite tv character loves a particular food, the food is deemed safe for consumption. It won't help to guilt your child into trying it by saying "This is your nana's favorite chicken, why don't you eat up like nana does." Try this instead, "Here's that snack your friend Ben is cuckoo about. Let's see what all the excitement is about, have a taste of Ben's Snack." I recall one facebook fan who was successful getting her daughter to try oatmeal by calling it "Princess Oatmeal" and tell her daughter it was the Princess's favorite thing to eat for breakfast.

This post is participating in the blog carnival's Pennywise Platter and Cooking Thursday.

Who has the honor of having a dish named after them at your house?

Off topic question, my Cannon PowerShot G6 camera is on the fritz. It's taking photos fine, but when I try to read the data with the USB cable the computer won't see the device. Putting the data card in another camera and reading it that way seems to work. Any ideas? Seems like a visit to the camera repair shop is needed.

Help! My Child Doesn't Eat Enough School Lunch

I am getting a lot of hits to this article from search engines with from key words like

"my child won't eat at school"
"preschooler doesn't eat at school"
"what can happen if kids don't eat enough"

This is the time of year when parents notice lunch boxes coming home full or partially eaten. I hope this helps shed light on what's going on in the cafeteria and gives you multiple solutions to each problem. This article was first published last fall. Somewhere in here there will be a solution that will help your child eat more lunch at school. If it's possible, go have lunch with your child, so you know what the environment is like in the lunchroom.

_____
About once a month I go eat lunch with my 5 year old at the elementary school and with my 3 year old at preschool. I always make some sobering observations. Here are some of the issues young kids face when eating start to finish is 25 minutes, there are limited adults assisting with the eating process, and there are lots of distractions, namely other kids to be silly and socialize with. With each issue I've listed some possible solutions to the light school lunch problem. In each case, it's necessary to do some practice at home. Sure in time, your child may learn to eat a decent lunch in a fixed amount of time, but you can be his partner in acquiring that skill quicker. The sooner they can eat a good lunch, the sooner they'll thrive at school.

Not sure how much your child eats at school? Ask them what happens to the food they don't finish. Does it go in the trash? How much goes in the trash? A little? A lot? Have they ever thrown away an item that hasn't had any bites taken out of it? Every day? Every week? You may be surprised to hear that your child's teacher doesn't observe them eating. At our public school the classroom teacher is not present during lunch in the cafeteria. It's possible that no one is managing how much or little your child eats! There are aids available to help and kids are taught to ask for help, but the aid to kid ratio is pretty high. Not all kids ask for help and not all kids wait long enough to be helped.


Drinks a lot, Eats a little
Most of the kindergartner's I've observed at lunch start with their drink. Perhaps they are thirsty and need their thirst quenched more urgently than their hunger tamed. The problem is many kids guzzle their entire drink, which is usually between 8-14 oz BEFORE they take a bite. Now even if the drink is zero calorie water, their little empty tummies have just ballooned up. If they are sugar (juice drinks, vitamin, flavored milk drinks) or protein/fat (milk, vitamin drinks) calories in the beverage then the false sense of fullness is accompanied by 1-200 empty or less nutrient dense calories. While plain white milk and 100% juice offer some nutrients, they can't provide enough fuel for your child's day. Drinks containing some nutrients can take up precious real estate in your child's tummy. When the tummy expands from a drink it sends a signal to the brain that it's full and the child nibbles and picks at the rest of their meal. Sadly the full feeling doesn't let up until after the child has returned to the classroom. Then the child is faced with learning the rest of the day's curriculum on an empty stomach.

Possible Solutions:

• Send no calorie beverages (water, unsweetened decaf tea). Hopefully kids don't guzzle these drinks (because they are less tasty) allowing them to fill up on food before filling up on drink. Avoid artificially sweetened beverages. They do meet the no calorie requirement, but are full of chemicals. We just don't know enough about these chemicals and their long term effect on organs. Giving them to kids is playing with fire in my opinion.
  
• Teach your child to sip their drink while eating. Work on this skill while eating meals at home. Tell your child to save some of their beverage for after they've eaten some/most of their food. This skill will take time. If you have preschoolers, start now!
  
• Work on the skill of eating after finishing a drink at home meals. Offer the same size drinks for breakfast, dinner and weekend meals that your child drinks for lunch and give your child time to practice eating a decent meal while also consuming their drink. In the long term this over-rides the brain's ability to help the child slow down eating when fullness is sensed in the stomach, and it could lead to over-eating. I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just saying be aware of the possible consequence.

Lots of Silly, Little Eating
Sadly, the elementary school day does not provide many opportunities outside the classroom to socialize, be silly and playful. There are 20 minutes or so on the playground. Even Kindergartners are expected to have a lot of responsibility and master a lot of new content, not to mention (at least in Texas) attend school all day, every day. The temptation to ignore food and talk with friends or unwind from a skill building morning, is high. Kids who don't know the purpose of food, miss a window of opportunity to refuel for the afternoon.

Possible Solutions

• Teach the value of food. Food is fuel. Food fuels their brain and their body to learn all the stuff the teachers present for 7 hours. Think of the last time you learned a lot in 7 hours. Extrapolate that to 5 days a week, 9 months a year. Think of how hard it would be to be attentive and cooperative during the process if you were hungry, or your body didn't have the right kind of fuel. Finishing lunch enables them to have fun while learning. Make the food body connection during family meals. Macronutrients are nutrients the body needs a lot of to function and are : carbohydrates, protein and fat. In a car analogy, macronutrients are "the gas" that fuels a car.
  
• Connect the food with the function. Every kid has a favorite part of the day. Many like the playground. Many prefer a subject. Many like art or health fitness (PE) or music. Make the connection relevant. How does food make their day possible? Enjoyable? Energy foods are carbohydrates (good ones have carbs and fiber or carbs and protein or carbs and fiber and protein). Brain foods are protein and fat. Micronutrients are needed in smaller quantities and are: vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals. They prevent disease, repair cells, improve/maintain organ function. In the car analogy micronutrients is the "oil" that helps the engine run smoothly.
  
• Build focus on eating skills. Kids have to learn to multitask. If they need an outlet for socializing or unwinding, they must accomplish that AND eating at lunch. Practice eating while doing something else at family meals. Take turns telling news of the day, telling stories, or even doing an activity. Remind you child to take bites while participating in the conversation, story telling, activity. Over time they'll build the skill do eat and do something else at the same time.
  

No assistance, no eating
Many kids just haven't developed the skill to eat unassisted. They eat OK when an adult is sitting with them reminding them to focus on food, cutting food up, taking food out of containers, or feeding them bites. However, when there is little direction, there is little eating. Self directed eating is a skill that needs building.

Possible Solutions

• Make sure your child can open the containers/packages you send with them, or that come with cafeteria lunches. Let them practice opening bags of chips, plastic reusable containers, Ziploc bags, thermos, juice boxes, pulling foil lids off yogurt/applesauce, straw wrappers, etc. at home. At my son's school, kids can raise their hand to get help opening something but they usually have to wait for a few minutes or more before one of the staff can help. Often the child will put their hand down and opt out of getting help when it's not available immediately. There are containers with foil lids in school lunches too.
  
• Talk about an school lunch eating plan with your child. It can be simple. Step one, decide what to eat first. Step two, open up first thing and eat it/grab a utensil and eat it. Step three, open thing two and eat it. Step three, open drink and drink it. Step four: finish eating and drinking.
  
• Practice self directed eating at home with a timer. If you habitually help your child finish his meal by feeding him bites or reminding him to eat, stop doing this. Tell him it's his job to start and finish his meal. Finish should not be defined as "eating all the food." A better definition of finished is eating until full, or eating enough to refuel the body. Set a timer and don't assist (unless asked to). After the timer goes off, give him some feedback. Start by telling him what he did well. "wow, you ate almost half of your XYZ without any help from me." Then prompt the child to tell you what he could improve on. "can you see anything on your plate you didn't eat enough of?" Follow that up with "how could you get more XYZ bites in your tummy?" Help out if he's stumped. "I think if you remembered to put another bite in you mouth right after you swallow, you'll finish more food."

Too many choices, not much eating
The younger the child the harder it is for them to choose. You may think you're helping your child by sending lots of options and letting them pick the things they want to eat, but many young kids spend valuable time taking all the options out of the bag, organizing them on the table, then deliberating on which to eat. I watched a 3 year old in my son's class take 10 full minutes to empty his lunch box and pick something to eat. In fact, he didn't make a choice until I prompted him. He took about eight individually wrapped/contained items out of his bag, carefully placed them on the table and sat there observing them for several minutes. I noticed he hadn't started eating and asked "Wow, look at all those choices you have, so many delicious things. Where do you want to start?" He then opened several items up before taking a bite. It was half way into lunch period and no food had been consumed! Pair slow eating with a late start and you have a cause for a lunch that's too light.

Possible Solutions

• Menu plan lunches. Before packing a lunch for the day/week, ask your child what they want. Let them make their choice before arriving at cafeteria. Have several options for each lunch component (fruit, sandwich/main course, snack, veggie). You should include a protein, a carb and some fruit/veggies. Carbohydrate only lunches wreak havoc on blood stream, making attentiveness and cooperativeness difficult to achieve. Fiber (whole grains, fruit, veggies, beans) and protein (meat, dairy, nuts, beans, eggs) are must haves at lunch.
  
• Send no more than 4 items. They don't really have time to make choices. Take the choice off the table entirely. If they spend a lot of time opening up items (or waiting to get help opening up items), there is less time to eat them.
  

Plan to spend several months (or longer for preschoolers) helping build self directed eating habits with your kids. It won't happen over night. Good luck and let me know if you have questions along the way!


If you need ideas here are 25 healthy ideas for school lunches and a post about the guidelines I follow when making school lunches for early grade school and preschool years.

For more recipes and kid appeal tips on how to make real food relevant to your kids, click there to join the food with kid appeal facebook fan page, or there to become a subscriber via email or google reader. We share What's for Dinner (WFD) daily on Facebook, and I pose a "Question of the Day" (QOTD).

Frozen Fruit - Kids' Favorite Summer Snack

Hubby always wants those nasty food coloring, HFCS laden Otter Pops (Flav-R-Pops), he can down six or more at a time, ick. I was hoping we could skate by this summer without any of those seeing the inside of my freezer box. So far so good.

But I didn't want to deprive my boys the joys of treats from the freezer, so we've been making popsicles from yogurt, banana and berries and a frozen fresh fruit.

I wash grapes, berries (blueberry, raspberry, strawberries, black berries) or peaches and put them in a metal bowl in the freezer for 30-90 minutes and they're ready for after camp/school treat. The peaches and strawberries get sliced, the others go in whole. If your freezer wasn't packed to the brim like mine, you could lay the fruit out flat on a cookie sheet in single layer and the freeze would take less time. Be sure to gobble the fruit up while it's still frozen, at room temp it's texture will be much less desirable....How hard is that recipe?

The boys look forward to it and seem to enjoy it as much as those nasty popsicles that turn their tongues and lips blue. If I'm out of fruit or forgotten to put some in the freezer they are pathetic. My favorite are grapes and blackberries. Something about the icy half flaky, half crisp texture of a sweet n tart berry your mouth can linger on is so refreshing and satisfying.
Big Boo's favorite are the peaches.


Little Boo's favorite are the grapes.

Be sure to move any uneaten fruit into a freezer bag for a later smoothie. We rarely have any left.

Frugal Fruit Treats
It's pretty easy to find berries and stone fruit on sale in the summer, stock up when they're on sale and toss some in the deep freeze to snack on plain, to top yogurt or to blend in your favorite smoothie.

This post is participating in Pennywise Platter, hosted by The Nourishing Gourmet.

Kids, Make Your Brain Happy - Drink Water

Little Boo has never been much of a drinker - milk, water, juice, anything (although he has a new love for soda which he was exposed to on our summer vacation, sigh). I reluctantly open his lunch box every day after school and discover he, yet again, has not had much water to drink.

I'm trying something new with him, something I picked up from an article in Kiwi magazine. I can't find a link to it so you'll have to live with my paraphrasing. The feeling of thirst means you're already dehydrated, and one of the first signs of dehydration is fatigue. I don't know about you, but when I'm feeling sluggish, I'm not ready to learn new stuff and I have a hard time paying attention.

Of course I've been asking and reminding him to drink water since I weaned him, but now I don't see him 5 days a week for 8 hours at a stretch and there is likely no one at school reminding him to guzzle a few sips here and there. So to remind him I drew a picture on his napkin and tucked it into his lunch box. I'm not the best artist, but I think he got the message! Drink water, your brain is thirsty! Make your brain happy.

It's been two days of the picture message, and he's still coming home with plenty of water in his cup, so this is not a home-run....yet. I will keep trying to get that little camel to drink his water.

As part of the Healthy Lifestyles Events I am planning for the Boo's Elementary School, I will be sharing Grow Your Brain foods with parents and kids through various activities and mediums. From time to time I'll be popping onto the blog here to share the same with Kid Appeal readers. Hope you enjoy the Grow Your Brain series! I still haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like. I'm working on my first ever grant application to fund Healthy Lifestyles events on our campus. Deadline is in 10 days egads!

What do you find left in the lunch box at the end of the day?