Nutrition & Exercise Education Development

I live in the San Joaquin Valley in California, an area rich in...

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:33:40 -0400

I live in the San Joaquin Valley in California, an area rich in agricultural and diversity. Thus many large companies such as Taco Bell (Doritos Loco Taco was tested in Fresno and Bakersfield), test the acceptability of new products in this area before the product enters the national market.

This poses as an health concern because 34.4% of adults in Fresno county are overweight and 30.2% are obese. Children and adolescences are at ~30%.

The novelty of the new food concepts only encourages the consumer to continue to make unsavory choices by expanding the already saturated junk food market.

What can be done to make healthy eating just as exciting?

Delicious baby portobello mushroom burgers! Going meatless for a...

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:28:27 -0400

Delicious baby portobello mushroom burgers! Going meatless for a day can help reduce intake of saturated fat which is associated with heart disease.

For Healthy Eating, Bitter is Better!

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Wed, 30 May 2012 21:11:32 -0400

For Healthy Eating, Bitter is Better! :

How many times have you tried a fruit or vegetable until you actually enjoyed it? Trying it once is not enough, people should try foods 5-10 times before actually enjoying it!

The human palate has an affinity for sweet, therefore we douse our pancakes in syrup and add sugar to our fresh fruit. Saturating our food with sugar actually does us more harm than good not only are we increasing our caloric intake but we are creating an addiction to sweetness.

Our tongue is a muscle which needs to be exercised, and this article reveals how to broadening your flavor horizon will help in improving your waistline, health and repertoire of foods.

Protecting Children from Developing Weight Problems

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:32:08 -0400

Protecting Children from Developing Weight Problems:

An article outlining the issues of parenting and the development of childhood obesity.

NEED

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:51:47 -0500

Today I attended the first NEED event at El Encino Church for the purpose of helping children to learn about the importance of nutrition and exercise. It was a wonderful experience working with Jia, Kia, Josh and the kids. We started off with an icebreaker where we separated the kids into two groups, having them hold hands while trying to squeeze their body through a hula-hoop. The kids filled their faces with smiles and excitement during the icebreaker so I knew it was a success. After the game we headed to the “cooking” demonstration room where Jia and I would show the kids how to make a delicious parfait. Jia did a wonderful job at teaching the kids about the health benefits in the parfait in a matter so even the smallest child understood. The children then helped themselves by making their own parfait using yogurt, bananas, apples, and cheerios. Many of the kids kept saying, “This is good!” We handed out the recipe for the parfait, rulers, and the “my plate” sheet to the children at the end. It would have probably been better if we premade little baggies with the papers instead, that way they wouldn’t have to carry all those papers in their hand. When the parents started to take their children away, it left a few children (mostly the older kids) to play our last game. The last game was a relay race containing two opponents kicking a soccer ball through the cones, followed by hula-hooping, jump-roping, then kicking the soccer ball through the cones again. The wind was inevitable so the jump rope would sometimes fly its own way. We should have probably had two separate jump ropes because two kids going at once was a bit of a struggle, considering they were on different rhythms. Overall, the first event was fun and the children seemed to enjoy it.

-Deanna Lopez

First N.E.E.D event in 2012!

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:35:00 -0500

N.E.E.D inaugurated the new year by collaborating with El Encino Church to serve the community. Other organizations present were WIC (Women, Infant and Children), Healthy Smiles also donations from the community food bank and First Five were given out.

We worked with the kids. We began our program with a short ice breaker followed by a short “cooking” demonstration. At the demo we made a simple fruit parfait; the ingredients consisted of a Granny Smith apple, banana, low fat vanilla yogurt and Cheerios. I even worked food science into the demo by illustrating how to prevent oxidation of fruits by squeezing juice from an orange onto an slice of apple.

Then we encouraged the children to make their own parfait. The purpose of the demo was to get the children exposed to food, in this case it was yogurt, how to read a recipe and using tools such as measuring spoons.

Before the demo I surveyed the room, asking the kids how many has tried yogurt and only a few raised their hands. After trying it, the kids really enjoyed the yogurt and some even took the left over yogurt home! The experience proved to be meaningful and memorable for the kids and volunteers alike; we dialogue with the kids a more over eating snacking and some of the kids were really helpful with clean up too.

After the demo we went out to do a rely race. Good health also means getting up and moving. We challenged the kids to use their motor skills through activities like jump roping, hula hooping and weaving a soccer ball between cones.

The demo is not something N.E.E.D typically does, but in the future I want to invest in adding this component to the program. Kids are very receptive to food when given the chance to try it. In addition learning through seeing, doing, playing and eating is important to encouraging the kids to develop healthier eating habits throughout their life.

- Jia

Vigilance needed for food allergies, doctors say

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:13:17 -0500

Vigilance needed for food allergies, doctors say:

Food allergies are a growing problem. The number of school-age kids affected rose 18% from 1997 to 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. About 8% of kids have them, a study in April in Pediatricsshowed.

In the USA, about 150 people of all ages die from food allergies a year; 80% to 90% of deaths are from peanuts or tree nuts. Continue…

Mother-Toddler bond influence teen obesity

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:30:00 -0500

Mother-Toddler bond influence teen obesity:

A new research revealing adolescent with low quality emotional relationship with their mothers influences their likelihood to becoming obese.

Planting the Seed: Models for Communities

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:37:47 -0500

Planting the Seed: Models for Communities :

Communities (including Fresno) throughout the nation are being proactive in promoting the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities project as a means to slow the rate of obesity. A short article to see what initiatives are happening through the nation!

N.E.E.D at Sequoia

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:09:29 -0500

At Sequoia School on Saturday it was a cold day to be outside. Some of the kids seem to enjoy the steal the beacon game. We did not have our cereal box game this time. The team still manage to have all the kids that wanted to participate with the two activities that where available. The first half went to the nutrition activity and the other half went with the steal the beacon. Then the kids rotated. The last group we had had only few kids so the a couple of the N.E.E.D team members participated and enjoy it.

Susan B. Anthony

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:09:15 -0500

Susan B. Anthony elementary there were more people than usual. The teams were divided into three groups each station had two team leaders and the third leader would guide the groups of children to the next station moving along with them. Some of the kids seemed really excited about playing the cereal bowling game. Each individual got two tries many of them wanted three or even four tries. When the cereal boxes went down and I had to put them back up some of the kids wanted to help me put it right back up and they insisted in helping instead of playing. There was this one boy who really wanted to be in my team and I thought that was neat. Before we even started playing we played jump rope.

Healthy helpings: What is on your child's plate?

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:19:10 -0500

Healthy helpings: What is on your child's plate?:

Providing balanced meals can make a big difference in the health and well-being of your child. Good nutrition fuels kids for school, family time and play. When children eat the right balance of calories and nutrients for their growing bodies, they’ll feel better, maintain a healthy weight and have more energy.

10 healthy snacks for children

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:35:47 -0500

10 healthy snacks for children:

A list of healthy AND yummy snacks for your kids!

Susan B. Anthony

fionaalanna — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:02:48 -0400

To be perfectly honest, I found the task of volunteering at Susan B. Anthony somewhat daunting. The whole semester we’ve been hearing about how many kids show up to participate in the programs on Saturdays at this school, and let me tell you, they didn’t disappoint. There were a lot more kids there than I was used to. But as Kia had mentioned the weekend before, they were very well-behaved.

Somewhat luckily, not all of the kids there actually participated in the program — I don’t know that we would have been able to handle it. While I believe we are prepared enough as a group to have dealt with it well enough, I don’t think we have enough people at this point in time. At least, as long as we use the station method. However, I do think that the idea of stations was a good one. But I thought that maybe we could try splitting the group up and move with the group we are assigned, rather than staying at one station. That way, we could build more of a relationship with the kids.

I also think that we should present the nutrition lesson to the group as a whole, before splitting them into smaller groups. Using the method we tried this past weekend, I don’t know that the children absorbed much of the material because some of them didn’t understand the relationship between the activities and the nutrition material.

Other than those possible areas of improvement, I think that our presentation at Susan B. Anthony went over very well. I, for one, learned a lot from helping present the material to the kids.

A little history...

earthtodork-deactivated20120531 — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:01:57 -0400

Nutrition Education and Exercise Development (N.E.E.D) was created in 2010 by dietetic students from California State University, Fresno for a community nutrition class. N.E.E.D collaborates with Every Neighborhood Partnership (ENP) as an outreach effort to help promote healthy living and wellness in ENP’s Saturday Sports program. Originally the program began as a class project created by a group of four students, but when the program was well received by the children and program leaders the created decided to continue with our outreach efforts.

Presently, N.E.E.D continues our efforts by inviting students from other studies to participate and expand the program.