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First Lady Michelle Obama announced that next week she will be releasing her action plan to tackle the childhood obesity crisis. With 17% of school children obese and one third overweight a national agenda spearheaded by the First Lady may be just what the doctor ordered.

At a press conference she made her intent known. She plans on crafting specific solutions to the childhood obesity crisis. "She wants to get families, sc…

Contributed by Andrea Bossenmeyer. Food/Nutrition Blogger


New York State has got a "Are You Putting On the Pounds" campaign to encourage their residents to stop drinking sugary drinks like sodas. In fact they share the statistic that drinking one can of soda every day can make you gain 10 lbs in one year. They even have a subway billboards and videos that take the fat concept literally, and are honestly quite gross to watch...See it HE…

A small group of parents met with a group of district administrators outside of Chicago to express concerns over the school lunch menu. What they learned about bringing change to a district-wide lunch menu was a big change even for a small district.

But a Tribune examination of school food in Illinois' 10 largest districts found small positive changes are possible. Several districts serve only fruit for dessert four days of the week; some re…

A new study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine finds that the majority of the nation’s Head Start programs report doing more to support healthy eating and physical activity than is required by existing federal regulations. Head Start is the nation’s largest federally funded early childhood education program, serving one million low-income preschool students, 30 percent of whom are obese or overweight.

Study findings.

Perhaps its…

In the December issue of Educational Leadership you'll find a great article on physiologically why we over-eat. It is called, "Finding Our Way Back to Healthy Eating: A Conversation with David A. Kessler."

Kessler points out that "forty or 50 years ago, the U.S. food industry shifted from food that was locally grown to a highly interdependent food distribution network that had many advantages in terms of cost and food safety. …

Feeding and fitness for preschoolers

Harvard University researchers propose these guidelines for healthy preschoolers. Aimed at child-care centers, they also are good goals for parents.

• Two hours of daily physical activity, half in structured play and half in active free play

• No more than 30 minutes of sitting at a stretch

• Only 1 percent or fat-free milk for kids 2 and older

• No more than 6 ounces of 100 percent juice a day

• No sugar-sweetened…

Should schools serve chocolate milk? A recent story in the Chicago Tribune looks at the question and examines district policies across the nation.

When an IL school district banned flavored milk from its lunch menus, a group of 5th grade students persuaded administrators to give it another chance. Now the sweetened drinks are served on "Flavored Fridays" as the district tries to decide whether the benefits of calcium and vitamin D are…

Are you receiving the WOWS Newsletter from the Healthy Kids Challenge?
It is a great resource and full of ideas and tips for keeping kids healthy. Below is a sample of a item that was included in this week's Wednesday Wows Newsletter.

....Easy HEAR-SEE-DO action tips each week

HEAR .... Provide a message to increase awareness of knowledge/skills
SEE .... Show people HOW to make healthy changes
DO .... Help people practice and make healthy chang…

Edible Gardens are all about teaching kids to grow and cook. On their website you can download a number of free programs, competitions and hot tips for developing your own edible playground. The initiative originated in the UK and is similar to the School Garden Movement here in the U.S.

Here is a couple of samples of some free information from the website:



Part of the sow it grow it set of activities, students grow grass seeds in a tube and me…

This posting is from a new blog I've discovered called Fooducate Blog. It has interesting information for those interested in nutrition.

The consumer watchdog group CSPI published [PDF] a provocative list of 10 healthy foods that have been involved in large scale contamination in the past few years:

1. LEAFY GREENS: 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness
2. EGGS: 352 outbreaks , 11,163 illness
3. TUNA: 268 outbreaks ,…

The Research Report called, " Bubbling Over: Soda Consumption and Its Link to Obesity in California" found that 41 percent of children (ages 2 - 11), 62 percent of adolescents (ages 12 - 17) and 24 percent of adults drink at least one soda or other sugar-sweetened beverage every day. Regardless of income or ethnicity, adults who drink one or more sodas or other sugar-sweetened beverages every day are 27 percent more likely to be overwe…

Talk about "hands-on" learning. School gardens continue to spread across the U.S. and now even preschoolers are getting into the action at University City Childcare Center in St Louis, Missouri.

The garden bed — about 110 feet long and a few feet high — has become the latest "classroom" at the center, a place where children as young as 1 and 2 spend part of their day learning how to grow their own food.

More on Growing Minds.

The makers of Hidden Valley Salad Dressings are now accepting applications for the 2009-10 Love Your Veggies grant program. The purpose of the program is to help schools execute innovative programs that will increase the access to, and consumption of, fresh fruits and vegetables in the lunchroom.

Ten $10,000 grants will be awarded to elementary schools across the US to support the development of a vegetable program offering fresh produce to be i…

As the school year begins you may be considering low cost solutions to problems. Recess Before Lunch is one such example. And schools that are implementing Recess Before Lunch are getting some amazing results. Kids eat more, waste less food, return to class calmer, behave better and as a result, instruction time is increased.

You might be wondering, “So exactly what is recess before lunch?” Basically it is where kids go to recess first and eat …

Cute video on eating healthy.




Related Blogs:
School Lunch Program Struggling to Meet Demand

Parent-Child Eating Behaviors Differ


Healthy Food, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds

New Policy Guide for Health, Physical Education, Nutrition and Physical Activity

New Recess Before Lunch Study Released

You've hear the saying, "like mother like daughter" or "father like son" but that may not be the case when it comes to eating behaviors. A study released on parent-child dietary intake found variances in eating habits both in food groups and nutrients. The study was conducted by Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Center for Human Nutrition, Department of International Health.

The National Association of State School Boards released a policy guide on Preventing Childhood Obesity.

Schools have many powerful tools at their disposal to serve as one of the primary agents to address the obesity crisis. Schools access to children is unique as children spend a significant amount of their day in school. The ability to educate and reinforce healthy behaviors provides the opportunity for schools to effect the community at larg…

by Andrea Bossenmeyer

Childhood obesity has taken center stage as children’s #1 health problem. Peaceful Playgrounds champions the efforts of individuals and organizations who actively work towards creating healthy bodies and minds. One such person we’d like to spotlight as a health advocate is Alice Waters.

She is known in the school community as the person behind, "The Edible Schoolyard" which demonstrates the transformative power of g…

Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools: Leading the Way Toward
Healthier Youth is available from the CDC.

Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools

The CDC developed a set of four audience-specific fact sheets as a resource for school
staff, parents, and youth to use in support of developing strong
nutrition standards that will impact the health of students at school.
These fact sheets answer commonly asked questions about the Nutrition
Standards for …

If you are enjoying the Recess Blog feed from Peaceful Playgrounds then you should also check out the Nutrition and Physical Activity News Blog from Morten Copenhagen. He has an amazing blog with 10 topics merged into one Rss Feed. You can sign up for one of the feeds below or all 10.

1 News on Nutrition, obesity prevention, obeseogenic environments and related policies
1.1 Fruit and Vegetables
1.2 Whole Grains
1.3 School Nutrition
1.4 Food Servi…