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Tips For Parents & Schools |
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Create an Active Home Environment:
- Make time for the entire family to participate in regular physical activities that everyone enjoys. Try walking, bicycling or rollerblading.
- Plan special active family-outings such as a hiking or ski trip.
- Start an active neighborhood program. Join together with other families for group activities like touch-football, basketball, tag or hide-and-seek.
- Assign active chores to every family member such as vacuuming, washing the car or mowing the lawn. Rotate the schedule of chores to avoid boredom from routine.
- Enroll your child in a structured activity that he or she enjoys, such as tennis, gymnastics, martial arts, etc.
- Instill an interest in your child to try a new sport by joining a team at school or in your community.
- Limit the amount of TV watching.
Create a Healthy Eating Environment:
- Implement the same healthy diet (rich in fruits, vegetables and grains) for your entire family, not just for select individuals.
- Plan times when you prepare foods together. Children enjoy participating and can learn about healthy cooking and food preparation.
- Eat meals together at the dinner table at regular times.
- Avoid rushing to finish meals. Eating too quickly does not allow enough time to digest and to feel a sense of fullness.
- Avoid other activities during mealtimes such as watching TV.
- Avoid foods that are high in calories, fat or sugar.
- Have snack foods available that are low-calorie and nutritious. Fruit, vegetables and yogurt are some examples.
- Avoid serving portions that are too large.
- Avoid forcing your child to eat if he/she is not hungry. If your child shows atypical signs of not eating, consult a healthcare professional.
- Limit the frequency of fast-food eating to no more than once per week.
- Avoid using food as a reward or the lack of food as punishment.
Creating a Healthy Eating Environment in Schools
A coalition of five medical associations and the USDA proposed a "Prescription for Change: Ten Keys to Promote Healthy Eating in Schools" to be used for guidance in school nutrition programs.
Their prescription is:
- Students, parents, food service staff, educators and community leaders will be involved in assessing the school's eating environment, developing a shared vision and an action plan to achieve it.
- Adequate funds will be provided by local, state and federal sources to ensure that the total school environment supports the development of healthy eating patterns.
- Behavior-focused nutrition education will be integrated into the curriculum from pre-K through grade 12. Staff who provide nutrition education will have appropriate training.
- School meals will meet the USDA nutrition standards as well as provide sufficient choices, including new foods and foods prepared in new ways, to meet the taste preferences of diverse student populations.
- All students will have designated lunch periods of sufficient length to enjoy eating healthy foods with friends. These lunch periods will be scheduled as near the middle of the school day as possible.
- Schools will provide enough serving areas to ensure student access to school meals with a minimum of wait time.
- Space that is adequate to accommodate all students and pleasant surroundings that reflect the value of the social aspects of eating will be provided.
- Students, teachers and community volunteers who practice healthy eating will be encouraged to serve as role models in the school dining areas.
- If foods are sold in addition to National School Lunch Program meals, they will be from the five major food groups of the Food Guide Pyramid. This practice will foster healthy eating patterns.
- Decisions regarding the sale of foods in addition to the National School Lunch Program meals will be based on nutrition goals, not on profit making.
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