Leading up to National Nutrition Month a team of nutritionists and dietitians are launching a public service campaign directly to parents to motivate their kids to tie the benefits of healthy food choices to their being the best they can be. The team of Family Food ExpertsTM educates families about nutritional health using its Kid Kritics ApprovedTM Seal (www.KidKritics.com), so that parents can quickly find foods that are “kid approved” (taste good) and meet firm nutrition guidelines.
Fuel Your DreamsTM (www.FuelYourDreams.net), just announced, uses a variety of educational and online tools to motivate kids to want to eat healthier so they can optimize their potential, and empowers parents to understand that kids will eat healthy foods as long as they taste good.
Family Food ExpertsTM Founder Ellen Briggs, challenges the notion that nutrition needs to be hidden in foods. “When did broccoli become a 4-letter word? We believe in transparency with kids – they’re too smart. Rather than hiding, pureeing, masking vegetables, we believe if prepared and presented properly, kids will embrace vegetables and create healthy, lifelong habits,” she explained.
The campaign’s message to kids is simple…you become what you eat and drink. However, Fuel Your DreamsTM realizes that kids need a reason to eat healthy food beyond “your mom said so.” So, for example, if a kid wants to be an NFL football player (a popular choice among boys) or a veterinarian (the number one pick among girls surveyed), the program educates them on what specific foods can “fuel their body for success.”
The Fuel Your DreamsTM program uses fun and motivating educational components such as posters, flash cards, and online resources to teach kids about how foods fuel their bodies for success. “Beyond teaching the concepts, we’ve included easy meals and recipes that are searchable by what foods feed each body part,” said Briggs.
This is a logical extension of the Kid Kritics “Foods from Head to Toe Chart” that lists the foods that feed different body parts, and lets kids pick which areas they want to focus on, given their goals. The majority of kids surveyed picked strong muscles, smart brains and sharp eyes.
The Fuel Your DreamsTM team has found that kids are critical thinkers (love to ask and understand the “why”); they love to vote (power); and they appreciate being heard by food companies. Further, kids are egocentric, focused primarily on their own desires. This public service campaign was written with that in mind, realizing that once kids understand WHY nutrition fuels success, they will crave it.
Kids already know that carrots are good for your eyes, and that Popeye claimed a can of spinach leads to bulging muscles, but there’s so much more to the story,” said Kid Kritics ApprovedTM Seal Ingredient Standards Board Member Carolina Lima Jantac, MS, RD, LD, and Manager of Healthier Recipe Moms. Jantac explained, “The connection between what kids eat and drink and what happens inside their young bodies was absent until now. Once they learn that 100 billion neurons in their brain send thousands of messages so they can run fast, they are totally motivated to eat avocadoes and sweet potatoes so they can be the best they can be.” Further, she asserts that kids will eat healthy foods that taste good.
By combining these resources, the Family Food ExpertsTM team hopes that Fuel Your DreamsTM will be a powerful motivation for kids around the country to take ownership of better food choices.
About Kid Kritics:
The Family Food ExpertsTM team is dedicated to providing healthier food solutions that kids love to eat so they can become the best they can be. The team developed the Kid Kritics
ApprovedTM Seal as a way to make food purchasing and meal preparation easier for families by identifying foods that are “kid approved” that also pass firm ingredient standards. Founder Ellen Briggs authored “Are Your Kids Running on Empty?” and “Mom, I’m Hungry. What’s for Dinner?” Briggs hosts the “Family Food ExpertsTM Kitchen” radio show, and along with co-host, Carolina Lima Jantac, MS, RD, LD, and Manager of Healthier Recipe Moms, hosts “Better Food Choices,” both found on iHeartRadio. Briggs has been featured on Fox and Friends and on NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX, and more. More information available at www.FuelYourDreams.net and www.KidKritics.com
- The White House and the Agriculture Dept. “proposed marketing regulations that would ban in-school advertising for foods that are high in sugar, fat and salt and do not meet new federal nutrition rules.” (The Washington Post, 2/25) Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
local/education/agriculture- dept-plans-to-regulate-food- marketing-in-schools/2014/02/ 25/8de7231a-9e3d-11e3-9ba6- 800d1192d08b_story.html
- CNN reported, “nutrition labels are getting a makeover.” The FDA proposed label changes to make nutrition labels easier to read and understand. Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/
health/nutrition-labels- changes/