By Courtesy of ARA Content
– Courtesy of ARA Content
Back-to-school brings many thoughts to mind: new clothes, new notebooks and supplies, new friends, new ideas to learn. It also bring a new opportunity to make sure kids eat healthy and nutritious meals and snacks.
Did you know that currently less than 15 percent of kids in the U.S. are eating the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day? An amazing 75 percent of children consume a diet that exceeds the maximum recommended dietary fat levels. Clearly kids need to learn more about why eating fruits and vegetables is an important part of their diets.
A Resource for Parents
Parents looking for ways to get their kids to eat more fruits and vegetables can turn to www.aboutproduce.com, a Web site filled with free recipes, a fun kid’s area, and valuable nutrition information for all members of the family. On aboutproduce.com, parents can search the recipe database for a wide variety of fruit and vegetable dishes — from breakfast ideas to salads to main dishes to desserts to snacks — discover how long the meals take to prepare, and add the ingredients to their printable shopping list. There is also a free e-mail recipe club for visitors to sign up to receive a weekly recipe.
In “The Produce Patch”
After parents have found a healthy meal for the family, the kids can go to aboutproduce.com to have some fun. In the kids’ section, called “The Produce Patch,” four characters (Chirp, Paulina, Caleb, and Hoyt) help children become more familiar with fruits and vegetables. Kids can:
• Learn how to make tasty, after-school snacks such as fruit smoothies, shakes, or fruit cups
• Take an interactive adventure on a make-believe farm to find certain fruits and vegetables
• Paint coloring book pages online or print the pages in black and white for offline entertainment
• Discover different ways to use produce items in crafts
• Get answers to their produce questions
Kids can also use the Web site as a source of information for homework, school reports, projects, and more. It’s like a produce encyclopedia!
Nutrition, News, and Trivia for the Family
In addition to the recipe database and the fun kid’s content, another area of aboutproduce.com that the whole family can use is the health and nutrition dictionary. It can help family members learn about the “5 A Day” program, which advocates eating five servings of fruits and vegetables a day for better health. There are also tips on how to get fit with “5 A Day.”
The dictionary explains how much a serving actually is. It’s smaller than you think. One serving can be: 1 medium-size piece of fruit, 3/4 cup (6 oz.) of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice, 1/2 cup cooked or canned vegetables or fruit, 1 cup of raw leafy vegetables, 1/2 cup cooked dry peas or beans, or 1/4 cup dried fruit.
Armed with this knowledge, parents can show the kids that eating “5 A Day” really isn’t all that hard.
