{"id":4112,"date":"2016-03-05T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-03-05T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/?p=4112"},"modified":"2016-07-15T23:56:42","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T03:56:42","slug":"healthy-food-makes-happy-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/archives\/healthy-food-makes-happy-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Food Makes a Happy Child"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story & Photo by Leah Shapiro<\/p>\n

\"Healthy<\/a>

Rainbow in My Tummy<\/p><\/div>\n

As you may know from personal experience with young ones, children can be picky eaters. At the dinner table, you may find them exploring their choices (perhaps with their fingers) and exercising their decision-making abilities. Yet, children are also very impressionable and inquisitive. When given access to fresh fruits and vegetables, they can learn by example and by asking adults questions about what\u2019s in front of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lives are surrounded by food,\u201d says Kate Justen, executive director of FEAST<\/b> (feastasheville.com<\/a>), a nonprofit organization in Buncombe County that offers hands-on cooking and gardening education programs in schools during the day and after school, from kindergarten through eighth grade. \u201cYou can\u2019t go through a day without thinking about food in some way because you have to eat every day. So it\u2019s always at the forefront of people\u2019s lives, but we kind of treat it as something that is not important for some reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

FEAST (Fresh Easy Affordable Sustainable Tasty) focuses on the process of building healthy relationships with food. Children learn basic cooking skills, such as chopping and cleaning the kitchen area. But perhaps most importantly, they get the chance to explore healthy options and why they feel how they feel about certain foods.<\/p>\n

\"Healthy<\/a>

Rainbow in My Tummy<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIn classes, we talk about what it is that kids do not like about the food,\u201d says Kate. \u201cIf someone says \u2018I do not like tomatoes,\u2019 we will ask questions to find out why. Do you like pizza sauce? Salsa? Have you had roasted tomatoes? Pureed? Cooked versus raw? Chopped small? Seasoned with different herbs and spices?\u201d The statement \u201cI don\u2019t like tomatoes\u201d can then be qualified and the students will know how they do<\/i> like them prepared.<\/p>\n

Kate says, \u201cYou never know what may turn someone off when it comes to food. It could be listening to someone else talk about how much they do not like something, so they won\u2019t even try it. On the flip side, positive verbal encouragement can be a great motivator when it comes to trying new foods.\u201d One of her students ate bok choy and loved it. Three years later, the whole family is eating it as part of their regular diet.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s never too early for children to begin eating healthy and balanced meals. Verner Center for Early Learning in Asheville developed Rainbow in My Tummy<\/b> (rainbowinmytummy.org<\/a>), a nutrition program based on widely accepted best practices and designed for childcare centers. Two-thirds of a child\u2019s caloric intake is often served by their childcare center through breakfast, lunch, and snack. Ensuring that this portion is nutrient-rich is very important for a child\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is that over the course of a week, they will eat the whole color of the rainbow in naturally colorful foods,\u201d says Kelly Brandon, director of resource development at Verner. Kitchen staff refer to seasonal recipe guides that feature fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, no artificial ingredients, and no trans fats.<\/p>\n

More than a hundred childcare centers across 20 states have purchased the Rainbow in My Tummy guides to change the quality of food offered in their centers and support healthier lifestyles of the children who attend.<\/p>\n

An important part of the Rainbow in My Tummy program is for teachers to eat the same food during mealtime. \u201cIf other children are eating the food, and the teachers are eating the food and talking about how yummy it is, the other children are much more likely to eat it,\u201d says Jacque Penick, executive director of Verner.<\/p>\n

Growing Minds<\/b> (growing-minds.org<\/a>) is another way for people to learn more about food. This farm-to-school program of Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) works with preschool through high school students. \u201cThe four components are edible gardens, farm field trips\/farmer visits, classroom cooking\/cafeteria taste tests, and locally-grown food served in meals and snacks,\u201d says Emily Jackson, program director. Additionally, for the last seven years, Growing Minds @ University has worked with college students for gardening, cooking, and taste testing opportunities with younger eaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story & Photo by Leah Shapiro As you may know from personal experience with young ones, children can be picky eaters. At the dinner table, you may find them exploring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,57,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-lifestyle","category-wellness"],"yoast_head":"\nHealthy Food Makes a Happy Child with Growing Minds and Others<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""We talk about what it is that kids do not like about the food,\u201d says Kate \u201cIf someone says \u2018I do not like tomatoes,\u2019 we will ask questions to find out why"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/archives\/healthy-food-makes-happy-child\/\" \/>\n<meta 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