Read what's inside a lunchable.....think again before buying them for your children!

How do Lunchables take something so simple and complicate it?

Lunchable Turkey and Cheddar Cracker Stackers. Easy right? Crackers and cheese? Not so much. Here's the ingredient list: Ingredients: ROAST WHITE TURKEY – CURED, SMOKE FLAVOR ADDED: WHITE TURKEY, WATER, POTASSIUM LACTATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SALT, DEXTROSE, CARRAGEENAN, SODIUM PHOSPHATES, SODIUM DIACETATE, SODIUM ASCORBATE, SMOKE FLAVOR, SODIUM NITRITE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR. PASTEURIZED PREPARED CHEDDAR CHEESE PRODUCE: MILK, WHEY, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, MILKFAT, SODIUM CITRATE, SALT, LACTIC ACID, SORBIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE, OLEORESIN PAPRIKA (COLOR), ANNATTO (COLOR), CHEESE CULTURE, ENZYMES, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, WITH STARCH ADDED FOR SLICE SEPARATION. CONTAINS: MILK, WHEAT CRACKERS: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2],FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, SUGAR, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, SALT, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), WHEY (FROM MILK), SOY LECITHIN (EMULSIFIER). CONTAINS: WHEAT, MILK, SOY.

Hungry??

How To Read Supermarket Labels

With so many foods and drinks trying to pass themselves off as “healthy” these days, it can be hard to distinguish the good from the bad in the supermarket.

“Bad” foods would include those that contain multiple “junk” or “fake” ingredients, deceptive health claims or very misleading information on the packaging or box.

Take yogurt, for example. Yogurt gets high acclaim for its health benefits. Typically high in calcium and protein, yogurt can be an excellent snack or meal choice for most kids.Unfortunately, many yogurts today are high in sugar, and some contain more sugar than ice cream! For instance, on Breyers YoCrunch Cookies n’ Cream Yogurt, the ingredient list reads like a novel with shocking findings such as: modified food starch, enriched flour (really!), high fructose corn syrup, vanillin (an artificial flavor) and the word “sugar” 2 more times.This sounds more like food science than breakfast!

And, it’s not only conventional brands that are to blame - even some organic brands can be cause for concern. Stonyfield Farms is a wonderful brand, with lots of great, healthy and organic choices. However, some of their items are notoriously high in sugar.

Their 6oz Vanilla Truffle has 210 calories, 5 grams of fat and 33 grams of sugar per serving! To put this in perspective, Stonyfield’s Oikos brand of vanilla-flavored Greek Yogurt has just 110 calories and 11 grams of sugar. It has all the taste and flavor, but leaves lots of harmful added sugar behind.

Food manufacturers go to great lengths to emphasize their “healthy” ingredients, which can sometimes be misleading to consumers. Terms and phrases like “antioxidants”, “whole grains”, “Zero Grams Trans Fat”, and “heart healthy” are all examples of the jargon used to entice shoppers. Here’s a good tip: Avoid reading the advertising jargon on the front of the packaging and go straight to the nutrition label. Even items that tout “Zero Trans Fats” may contain up to 0.5g of trans fats per serving! That’s right, the FDA allows this loophole! (And there is NO amount of trans fats that are considered healthy in our diet.) Also, remember that ingredients are listed in order of amounts used in the item, so avoid products with ingredients such as sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or enriched flour at the top.

Bottom line: Read the ingredients list, especially on packaged or processed foods, and opt for those items made with real, whole foods (with words you can pronounce!). Scan the nutritional label too, keeping an eye out for serving sizes. Or better yet, skip the packaged foods and head to the produce section - it’s easy to find wholesome ingredients!

Some Interesting Facts About Soda-Scary Stuff!!

FAT HABIT #4: Drinking Soda
Researchers say you can measure a person’s risk of obesity by measuring his or her soda intake. Versus people who don’t drink sweetened sodas, here’s what your daily intake means:

½ can = 26 percent increased risk of being overweight or obese

½ to 1 can = 30.4 percent increased risk

1 to 2 cans = 32.8 percent increased risk

More than 2 cans = 47.2 percent increased risk

That’s a pretty remarkable set of stats. You don’t have to guzzle Double Gulps from 7-Eleven to put yourself at risk—you just need to indulge in one or two cans a day. Wow. And because high-fructose corn syrup is so cheap, food marketers keep making serving sizes bigger (even the “small” at most movie theaters is enough to drown a raccoon). That means we’re drinking more than ever and don’t even realize it: In the 1950s, the average person drank 11 gallons of soda a year. By the mid-2000s, we were drinking 46 gallons a year. A Center for Science in the Public Interest report contained this shocking sentence: “Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet.”

Bonus Tip: When it comes to making us fat, soda is only one of the big offenders. Other sugary drinks can add belly fat fast, too--so never imbide anything on this shocking list of The 20 Worst Drinks in America. Otherwise you can be slurping more than an entire day's worth of calories, sugar and fat--in just a few minutes.

The statistics are alarming: Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years, the Centers for Disease Control reports. Currently, 12.5 million American kids ages 2 to 19 are obese—17 percent of the population. And another 16.5 percent are at risk for becoming overweight.  But the good news is that three surprisingly simple family habits can help kids maintain a healthy weight. Practicing even one can trim risk for obesity by 25 percent, a recent study found, *Dine Together. “Children who eat dinner with their parents at least five times a week tend to weigh less and have healthier eating habits,” says Goutham Rao, MD, clinical director of the weight management center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and author of Child Obesity: A Parent’s Guide to a Fit, Trim, and Happy Child (Prometheus Books, 2006).  “When families eat together, meals are typically healthier than when the child just grabs food on the run without adult supervision.”

Keeping Good Habits over the Holidays

Keeping good habits over the holidays

The holidays are a time of memories, family get-togethers, and of course, an overabundance of sugary treats at every turn.

Since the majority of holiday traditions happen around the dinner (or dessert) table, it can be a challenge to keep kids from going overboard. (Let's be honest, it's hard for us adults, too!)

Here are a few tips to help keep those good habits going, even through the holiday season.

1. Keep plenty of fresh fruit, raw veggies and other healthy snacks in close reach. When sliced red pepper and hummus are just sitting out, children will find it hard to bypass it for the fattening stuff.

2. Let kids help with more than dessert baking. Ask them to help toss the salad, or prepare a soup (with help, of course). Kids always want to help in the kitchen and they can be relied upon for more than cookies! They’ll be filled with pride when their item hits the table, and be more likely to eat it, too!

3. Set a good example. It's hard to ask kids to just take a small sampling of sweets when they see their parents with 3 huge slices of pie! Lead by example and enjoy the dessert table, but in moderation.

4. Make memories with something other than food. Spend time going through old pictures with your kids, making crafts or handmade gifts for friends. Take them to a soup kitchen or shelter to prepare meals for those less fortunate, or hang out with Grandma and have her tell stories about when she was young. Those are the real, cherished memories of the holidays and when you focus on those, the food becomes secondary!

Students Eat More Whole Grains When it's Gradually Added to School Lunch

Students eat more whole grains when it's gradually added to school lunch

Elementary school students will eat more whole grains when healthier bread products are gradually introduced into their school lunches, a new University of Minnesota study shows.
Whole grain breads are strongly recommended as part of a healthy diet, but children and pre-teens won't always eat them.

For this study, researchers from the university's department of food science and nutrition monitored how much bread students threw away, and whether that amount increased as the percentage of whole-grain flour in the bread and rolls was gradually increased. The study included meals fed to kindergartners through sixth-graders at two Hopkins, Minn., elementary schools over the course of a school year. Red and white whole-grain flour was added incrementally to products, but students showed no strong preference for either type of flour. Students didn't throw away more bread products until the percentage of whole-grain flour in the bread and rolls reached about 70 percent.

The research is important because it shows that a gradual approach to improving children's overall diets can be successful both for parents and school food-service workers, said Len Marquart, one of the study's authors and an associate professor at the university.

Wholesome Tummies is in Palm Beach County!!!

Our children's health is in jeopardy.  Lunch programs within our schools are in trouble.  There is a proliferation of offerings that are unhealthy and this should not be the case at school.  The ice cream cooler is at the beginning of the lunch lines at many schools.  More and more children are considered obese.  Parents feel guilty and are not sure what to do to fix the situation.  Wholesome Tummies-Palm Beach County wants to help.  Opening in Palm Beach County in January 2011, we have made it our mission to get our kids healthier.  We want to give easy, healthy choices to parents and kids.  We will deliver a hot (or cold) lunch directly to your child's school.  We offer 6 choices daily and include all of your child's favorites, except that our meats contain no nitrates and our foods have no artificial colors or flavors, no high fructose corn syrup, no added trans fats or artificial ingredients.  We only use fresh and natural foods and design our menu to give children the highest nutritional values possible.  What is not to love?

We are currently offering school tastings.  If you would like to see Wholesome Tummies as a choice at your school, let your school administrator know today and call us at 561-822-3122.  We look forward to building partnerships with schools and parents in our quest to get Palm Beach County kids wholesome and healthy!!