Food for Thought
By Lisa Von Drasek

For Lisa Von Drasek's latest audiobook recommendations click here

Fortifying reads – Add some nutrition-focused titles to your literary diet.

We are in the midst of a food revolution at our school. Parents, administrators, cafeteria staff and teachers are serving on a nutrition committee to help change the way we provide food to our students and staff. Are we serving healthy meals? Does our community have healthy choices? Is the lunch high in sodium or sugar? Is there a balanced vegetarian protein on the menu?

Where to begin
Sharron Dalton is an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University. She recommends that schools support kids' needs for healthy food and physical activity. In her book Our Overweight Children: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do to Control the Fatness Epidemic (University of California Press, 2006, 0-520-22574-9) she suggests that schools:

1. Phase out junk food on campus and offer healthy alternatives.
2. Overhaul the school lunch program to make it more appetizing, nutritional and popular.
3. Reinstate daily recess and physical education, and promote physical activity throughout the day.

Fast-food follies
For those who need convincing that the junk food has to go despite the amount of money that it may raise for programs, an enlightening read is the best-selling Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (Harper Perennial, 2005, 0-060-83858-2). For a book tackling the same subject that kids can sink their teeth into, Schlosser teamed up with journalist Charles Wilson to produce Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food (Houghton Mifflin, 0-618-71031-7). This is a highly readable indictment of the providers of the high-fat, high-sodium food so prevalent in kids' diets. Some stomach-turning statistics: "A single hamburger fast-food patty may contain meat from hundreds, even thousands, of different cattle" and "One out of five public schools in the United States now serves name-brand fast food."

How to improve your school's diet
For guidance in promoting dietary and lifestyle changes in your school, read the inspiring and energizing Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children by Ann Cooper and Lisa Holmes (Harper Collins, 2006, 0-060-78369-3). The authors tackle and rework the school lunch, providing sound nutritional advice as well as alternatives to foods children may beg for but are unhealthy. They also emphasize the importance of breakfast and healthy snacks by providing appealing recipes.

Cooper and Holmes encourage parents and teachers to become advocates of healthy choices for students. Does the school have a kitchen? Are our food contracts going to the lowest bidder, not the one with the most healthful and appetizing foods?

Finally, the authors outline a wellness policy that may be adapted for your school. It includes nutrition information, physical activity, school-based learning and establishment of nutritional guidelines.

Healthy change at home
Public libraries and community organizations around the country are creating programs in and out of schools to provide nutritional education for parents and children. The Preventive Medicine Institute/ Strang Cancer Prevention Center is an organization dedicated to cancer research and prevention. Obesity is documented as a major risk factor for certain cancers, especially among underserved populations. They've created a replicable program called "Healthy Children Healthy Futures" for children and parents to become advocates for healthy eating and increased physical activity.

One wonderful resource on their website is A Parent's Guide to Healthy Eating and Physical Activity with 30 Fun Family Recipes. This 76-page PDF provides tips for recreating favorites while cutting fat and sugar, lowering salt and adding fiber. Visit www.healthychildrenhealthyfutures.org/parentguidedownload.htm

Playing with food
Let's remember that cooking and eating are fabulous, fun teaching opportunities! The following two books include great recipes for the classroom curriculum.

Meals without Squeals: Child Care Feeding Guide and Cookbook by Christine Berman, M.P.H., R.D. and Jacki Fromer (Bull Publishing Company, 2006, 1-933-50300-4) is filled with dietary information, easy-to-make recipes and wonderful ideas for educators of young children. It contains a section to help us really think of the concepts and skills that cooking develops, including:

• Motor Skills: Scrubbing, tearing, dipping, pouring, rolling
• Language Arts: Naming foods, actions, equipment, processes, categories, comparisons, time designations, following directions, letter/word recognition
• Mathematics: Measuring, counting, sequencing, classification, numbers on labels
• Socialization: Sharing, teamwork, self-care, cultural foods, food professions
• Science: Heat, coolness, floating, dissolving, evaporation, sense awareness

Elementary-aged students can take a world tour with Food Network star Emeril Lagasse in There's a Chef in My World! (HarperCollins, 0-060-72926-3). Lagasse's newest collection offers recipes that respect the palates of children and their ability to enjoy tastes from many cultures. Each age-appropriate recipe entry shows where the recipe originated on a world map with information about the food and a few fun facts. Our world tour begins with breakfast in England with Toad in the Hole, on to Spain for Torrijas, India for a refreshing Mango Lassi, with a final stop in Switzerland for Muesli.

Healthy snacks for teachers
The danger time for me is right around 3:30 p.m. The last class is over but I usually have some clean-up, paperwork or meetings to attend. My blood sugar is low and this is the time I'm most likely to make poor food choices. I asked Sara Ryba, a registered dietitian and a certified nutritionist, to suggest healthy snacks. She says the five best snacks for teachers to keep handy are:

1. an apple with a scoop of peanut butter
2. a handful of almonds or other nuts
3. a granola bar
4. soy chips or other low-fat chips, preferably with protein like soy chips offer
5. string cheese and fruit

Here's to your – and your school's – improved health!

For Lisa Von Drasek's latest audiobook recommendations click here

Lisa Von Drasek is Children's Librarian at the Bank Street College of Education in New York, NY.

January, 2007, Vol.37, No.4