• Newsroom
• Calendar
• Blog
• Parent News

Newsroom

Simple Tips from Registered Dietitians Make It Easy to 'Get Your Plate in Shape' This National Nutrition Month

During National Nutrition Month® and beyond, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) encourages everyone to include healthy foods from all food groups through this year's theme: "Get Your Plate in Shape."

"Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean proteins and low-fat dairy products contain the nutrients we need to maintain healthy lifestyles," says registered dietitian and Academy Spokesperson Andrea Giancoli. "Make sure your eating plan includes foods from all the food groups and in appropriate portions. USDA's MyPlate is a great tool to guide and help us be mindful of the foods that make up our balanced eating plan."

Giancoli offers the following recommendations to "Get Your Plate in Shape":

Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.

Eat a variety of vegetables, especially dark-green, red and orange varieties, as well as beans and peas.

When buying canned vegetables, choose "reduced sodium" or "no salt added" whenever possible. Rinsing whole varieties like beans, corn and peas can also reduce sodium levels.

Dried and frozen fruits and those canned in water or their own juice are good options when fresh varieties are not available.

Make sure every meal and snack has at least one fruit or vegetable or both.

Make at least half your grains whole.

Choose brown rice, barley and oats and other whole grains for your sides and ingredients.

Switch to 100-percent whole-grain breads, cereals and crackers.

Check the ingredients list on food packages to find foods that are made with whole grains.

Switch to fat-free or low-fat milk.

Fat-free and low-fat milk have the same amount of calcium and other essential nutrients as whole milk, but less fat and fewer calories.
If you are lactose intolerant, try lactose-free milk or a calcium-fortified soy beverage.

Vary your protein choices.

Eat a variety of foods each week from the protein food group like seafood, nuts and beans, as well as lean meat, poultry and eggs.

Eat more plant-based proteins such as nuts, beans, whole grains and whole soy foods like tofu and edamame.

At least twice a week, make fish and seafood the protein on your plate.

Keep meat and poultry portions lean and limit to three ounces per meal.

Cut back on sodium and empty calories from solid fats and added sugars.

Drink water instead of sugary drinks like regular sodas, fruit-flavored drinks and sweetened teas and coffees. Choose 100-percent fruit juice.

Compare sodium in foods and choose those with the least amount listed on the Nutrition Facts Panel.

Season foods with spices or herbs instead of salt.

Select lean cuts of meat or poultry and fat-free or low-fat dairy products.

Use heart-healthy oils like olive, canola and sunflower oil in place of butter or shortening when cooking.

Giancoli recommends cooking more often at home, where you are in control of what is in your food. "And don't forget that exercise and healthful eating are crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle," Giancoli says. "Choose activities you enjoy like going for a walk with your family, joining a sports team, dancing or playing with your children. If you don’t have a full 30 minutes, carve out 10 minutes three times a day. Every bit adds up and health benefits increase the more active you are."

As part of National Nutrition Month, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' National Nutrition Month website includes helpful tips, recipes, fun games, promotional tools and nutrition education resources, all designed to spread the message of good nutrition around the "Get Your Plate in Shape" theme.

Community Approach to Child Health Summary Findings

CATCH stands for Community Approach to Child Health and is a grant project awarded to pediatricians from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Lester, our Executive Director, was awarded a CATCH Planning Grant in January 2011, to develop an Integrated Community Obesity Intervention Model.

Dr. Lester:
“I kept getting calls from school nurses, parents, grandparents, and healthcare providers, asking me where they could take their obese and overweight children for help. There was one child who kept coming to mind who is an obese first grader who was not able to walk down four steps without turning blue. When I started Teach a Kid to Fish, I knew there was a gap in intervention programs and services for overweight and obese children, but didn’t know the full extent. We are always focusing on prevention and early childhood, but at the same time have to do something to help the children of our community who are currently suffering from the epidemic of obesity. The goal of the planning grant project was to bring schools, healthcare providers, parents, organizations and the community together to develop a community model which will specifically help children who are currently overweight and obese.”

From January to June, 2011, Teach a Kid to Fish worked with many of you who attended meetings, and completed surveys. The CATCH Planning Grant focused on gathering information through these key areas:

• Focus Groups
• Partnerships
• Survey Data
• Community Meetings
• Community Asset Mapping
• Dissemination of Resources

Teach a Kid to Fish will work with our community partners to fund and sustain the implementation goals of the CATCH grant which include:

• Screening of BMI in all students
• Blood Pressure Screening for at-risk students
• Screening for diabetes in at-risk students
• Develop a Health Report Card and a series of communications from schools to parents
• Parent meetings on health topics
• Train parents as health liaisons
• 54321Go! curriculum in the schools
• Community Resource Directory of children’s nutrition and physical activity programs
• Healthy Families Intervention Curriculum and Program for Obese children
• Foster Healthy Weight in Youth Trainings for physicians

Teach a Kid to Fish realizes that this will take more than one program and one organization to implement this community model. It will take the entire community to find a solution to the epidemic of childhood obesity. Our organization is committed to our vision of creating those solutions to improve the health of our children.

A Note From Board President, Todd Fitzgerald

Father, Community Stakeholder and avid runner, Todd brings an enthusiasm and energy that ties in with Teach a Kid to Fish’s vision and mission to “Prevent and reduce childhood obesity by empowering Lincoln children and families to eat healthy and be active.”

He currently serves on the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Advisory Board of Directors and is a Community Stakeholder in the Martin Luther King Youth March and Rally, Belmont Tracks Leadership Program and the Dawes Empowerment Program. He has served as Community Columnist for the Lincoln Journal Star, Project All Academy for Leadership and State Farm’s United Way Planning Committee.

A 1996 Graduate of Hastings College with a BA in English, Todd was a member of the Men’s Basketball Team, Public Relations Council and President of Tau Beta Alpha Fraternity. He works for State Farm Fire & Casualty Company where he is a member of the Multi-Cultural Employee Resource Group.

Todd enjoys spending time with his family, running, and traveling.

A Take From Todd…….. This is an incredible opportunity and I am humbled and truly honored to become the President of the Board of Directors for Teach a Kid To Fish. The work that Dr. Lester, Rick Helweg and the board have done in the last 3 years is inspiring and remarkable.

The obesity epidemic has been identified as “the greatest single threat to public health”, and a study by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation determined this generation of children are going to live a shorter life expectancy than their parents. That is not acceptable; we must lock arms as a community and fight to save our children. Teach a Kid to Fish and its partners have a vision of reducing the obesity rate in our community from 19% to 15% by 2015.

We all have to do our part and it’s going to take community collaboration. You don’t have to be the biggest donor or the top volunteer, you can give what you can when you can and you will still make a difference.

My friends, the movement is here and the time is now! My life is greatly blessed from giving my time to fight this curable epidemic and empower the children and families of our community, I have learned true leadership comes from the heart and by sharing that with others will create a strong network of giving and support for Teach a Kid to Fish. I look forward to you joining the fight and your continued support.

Sincerely,
Todd Fitzgerald

• Healthcare: Prevent. Assess. Treat. Advocate.
• Families: Healthy living starts at home.
• Schools: Health is academic.
• Community: Everyone has a role.