Family Health

Salad Chefs

Do you have a garden in the summer? If so, that's a great way to get children involved in the food they eat, right from the source. Or, visit farmer's markets, local vegetable stands, orchards, and berry farms where you can pick your own. The closer to the source, the healthier a food is because it hasn't gone through lots of processing.

Colorful Food

What colors are you eating-red, blue/purple, green, white, orange/yellow? Check out www.5aday.org, from the Produce for Better Health Foundation, for a list of choices under each color and information on the benefits the different colors provide.

Create an Eat Your Colors Chart Have a chart for each member of your family. Keep track of what colors each person ate each day for a week. Then do it for a second week. Pretty soon, eating your colors will be a healthy family habit! Blueberries anyone?

Say it with Poetry!

Read the following poem, then have children taste each of the foods mentioned!

Healthy Foods
I like to eat the foods I should.
Like crunchy carrots - oh, so good!
Peanut butter on whole wheat bread.
Apples - crisp and juicy red!
Broccoli pieces shaped like trees,
Pineapple with cottage cheese!
Healthy foods make me grow tall!
So, I try to taste them all!
From the Caillou website

Take the NHPTV LiveFIT NH Challenge

One of the challenges on the LiveFIT NH Challenge Card is to Eat a Rainbow- 5 servings a day.

The Produce for Better Health Foundation describes 1 Serving as any of the following:

•  One medium-size fruit.
•  ¾ cup (6 ounces) of 100% fruit or vegetable juice.
•  ½ cup fresh, frozen, or canned fruit (in 100% juice) or vegetables.
•  1 cup raw leafy vegetables.
•  ½ cup cooked dry peas or beans.
•  ¼ cup dried fruit.

Related Children's Programs

Arthur
Just Desserts
Arthur has a hard time resisting sweets, and one evening his overindulgence wins him an upset stomach and a series of rather 'Grimm' dreams... starring Mr. Ratburn as a child-eating witch, the Tibbles as seven dwarves, and a fearsome giant made entirely of food! Related activity: Healthy Snacks

Children's Books

You can combine early literacy development and healthy eating by reading aloud books about food and talking about the story. Visit your local library to see if these titles are in their children's collection.


The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain (1985)
Mama Bear starts a campaign to convince her family that they are eating too much junk food.

Bread and Jam for Francis by Russell Hoban (1993)
Francis decides that bread and jam are all she wants to eat

D.W., the Picky Eater by Marc Brown (1998)
D.W. doesn't know what she is missing by being such a picky eater!

Eat Your Peas, Louise, by Pegeen Snow (1985)
In this rhyming book, Louise's brother tries his best to get his sister to eat her peas!

Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat (1989)
Gregory the goat is strange, he wants orange juice and eggs for breakfast instead of tin cans and neckties!

I Will Never Not Even Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child
Lola's older sister Charlie figures out a creative way to get her sister to eat her food. Orange twiglets from Jupiter anyone?

Oliver's Vegetables by Vivian French (1995)
On a visit to his grandparents' farm, Oliver declares he will only eat French fries. Crafty Grandpa comes up with a way to get Oliver to try some other vegetables.

Rabbit Food by Susanna Gretz (2001)
John the Bunny refuses to eat his vegetables.

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman(2000)
In this rhyming tale each of Mrs. Peters seven children have a very particular food preference.