August is back-to-school time, a great opportunity to reinforce the importance of good nutrition and physical activity to help children form healthy habits. When children make healthful food and activity choices, it will not only benefit them now but also as they grow into adults. August is Kids Eat Right Month™, a nutrition education, information-sharing and action campaign created by the Kids Eat Right program, an initiative of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and its Foundation. Kids Eat Right Month™ spotlights healthy nutrition and active lifestyles for children and families.
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Tips to Help Kids Eat Right & Be Active:
- Give children nutrition knowledge for growth and success. Give children the chance to play a key part in preparing their food. There are age-appropriate jobs for all children, from setting the table to measuring and stirring ingredients or chopping vegetables. Bring children grocery shopping and talk about which foods belong to different food groups: fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, lean proteins and low-fat dairy. Let children pick out one new fruit or vegetable they want to try each week to broaden their food horizons and maybe even yours. Kids focus best when they're well-nourished. Encourage children to consume healthy meals and snacks, including taking part in school breakfast and lunch programs.
- Stock up on healthy breakfast foods. Breakfast eaters tend to have overall better school attendance, test scores, and concentration. They also have less tardiness, fewer hunger-induced morning stomachaches, and are less likely to be overweight. For most, time is the major obstacle to eating breakfast. Getting organized the evening before, keeping meals simple, and taking food to go are ways to make sure breakfast is eaten daily.
- Fast, easy and balanced breakfast ideas from kidseatright.org: Cheese slices on whole-grain toast; Iron-fortified, whole-grain cereal with low-fat milk and banana slices; Nut or sunflower butter spread on whole-grain toast or waffles or rolled inside a whole-wheat tortilla; Fruit such as peaches, strawberries or raisins in instant oatmeal made with low-fat milk; Apple slices and low-fat yogurt topped with crumbled graham crackers; or Lean turkey on a toasted whole-wheat English muffin.
- Encourage kids to get active. Reward and encourage kids' physical activity by providing praise, activity-related equipment, games or outings. Plan time to get 60 minutes of physical activity daily, which can be accomplished in shorter bursts throughout the day for at least 10 minutes at a time. Get active as a family and play interactive games, get up early to walk the dog, head to the park, do chores together and turn on music, or play backyard games such as tag, catch, or net ball sports. Reduce screen time by taking TVs out of kids’ bedrooms and only have them in common rooms. Turn the TV off while eating and have mealtime discussions instead, and limit extracurricular time spent in front of a computer, TV, or other electronic device to less than two hours per day.
Most importantly, parents and caregivers need to be positive role models. Make time to eat healthy and be active and they will follow your good example. Learn more about how to cook healthy, eat right, and be active at www.eatright.org/resources/for-kids. For more food, nutrition and health information from Nebraska Extension go to www.food.unl.edu.
Feel free to use/adapt Healthy Bites material (with credit) for your own articles, blogs, handouts, etc. An example credit line would be: Authored by or Adapted from Lisa Franzen-Castle, PhD, RD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Nutrition Specialist. Healthy Bites Newsletter, August 2016, at http://food.unl.edu/august-healthy-bites-kids-eat-right-month-2016.
Download a printable copy of this month's Health Bites Newsletter (PDF, 500kb)
More resources:
All the Healthy Bites. Healthy Bites is a newsletter that focuses on a different food, nutrition and / or health theme for each month.
Cook it Quick. Our goal is to make you "hungry for healthy food" by offering tips and delicious, quick-to-prepare, inexpensive recipes.
Food Reflections. Food Reflections is a monthly email newsletter. Each issue provides a "how-to" message on food, nutrition, or food safety for health professionals, educators, and consumers.
Family Fun on the Run. Monthly newsletters are designed to help you achieve a healthier lifestyle by making walking an important part of your personal fitness program.
Food Fun for Young Children. Serving up quick, healthy snack ideas for younger children.
Nebraska Extension Food, Nutrition, and Health by the Month Calendar. National Food Days, Weeks, and Months for August.