One of our Project Learning Tree
activities was that we had a few different food items on the
table, and in groups we had to guess where each item came from. For
example, olive oil comes from an olive tree. Gum originally came from
chicle (the word for gum in Spanish!), which is a sap that comes from
the sapodilla tree. This exercise is a great way to get people to
think about what they're eating. Tennessee ranks one of the highest
in obesity rates. In school, I remember having the DARE program,
which gave us information on why not to do drugs, drink alcohol, or
smoke cigarettes; but I don't remember learning about the effects
that the food we eat can have on us. We hear how smoking can cause heart
disease, but obesity is also a major contributor to heart disease (which is
the number 1 killer in Tennessee). Obesity is just one health problem
that poor eating habits contributes to; there's also diabetes and other health
problems. Type 2 Diabetes was once rare among children. Now, the
number of children with Type 2 Diabetes is increasing, due to
obesity. When children (and adults) become aware of where the food
they're eating comes from, when they realize that we consume so many ingredients we can't even pronounce, when they
learn how to read nutrition labels, they become more aware of what they're putting into their bodies and are more likely to adopt wiser
eating habits. When I went to school, we did discuss the food
pyramid, but it didn't really get the point across. This is where the
Plate Method comes in handy. This exercise is a good way to implement
the Plate Method.
I have seen the Plate Method at work; I have seen adults and children lose weight on it and better
control their diabetes with it. The Plate Method basically says that
half of your plate is vegetables (non-starchy vegetables), a quarter
is your protein (which doesn't have to be meat; it can be beans or
other forms of protein), another quarter is your starch, and you can have 2
more starches with it, with each one being either a glass of milk, a
tortilla, a piece of bread, a fruit, etc. You also have to keep the
size of the plate in mind. The size of our dinner plates have really
grown from what they used to be in the past.
I can't wait to implement healthy
eating in my classroom! It is so important! Along with this exercise,
you could start a little herb garden by the window in your classroom
or even start a school vegetable garden! When children grow their own
vegetables, help their parents pick them out at the grocery
store, or assist in preparing the food they're going to eat, they are
much more likely to try new vegetables. Chop Chop magazine is a great
resource for getting kids to eat healthier. It has fun, easy, healthy
recipes they can put together on their own. I got a few tips from
this magazine that I use at home. For example, you can save about an
inch of the carrot tops and put them in a jar or bowl half covered in
water; soon it will start growing little leaves you can put in your
salads or food to give it a great healthy flavor! You can also keep
about an inch or two of the root tip of your green onions, put them in
a jar with water covering half of the vegetable, and it will grow new green
onions! It saves you money, and it's the part you probably throw away
anyway, and it's healthy!!! You can grow these things very easily in
your classroom with very little care. All you have to do is add a
little more water when it starts getting low. Check it out!
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| CHOP CHOP MAGAZINE |
Or check out their blog!!!
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| MY CARROT TOPS AT HOME |
The Health Department has free classes for schools where students get to cook and receive their own chef
hats, aprons, and a plate method plate. They love it! Look into it
for your classrooms. The Health Department's phone number in
Murfreesboro is (615) 898-7880. Ask for LaShan Mathews or Aubrenie
Jones.
I'm all about children eating healthy
to prevent them from getting deadly disease when they grow up. And the kids will take what they learn home, and even get their families to start eating healthier!!!
Here's a book that would go great with this lesson!!!
Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson
Chop Chop Blog: Eddie Gehman Kohan, Founder, ObamaFoodorama.com. (2015, April 29).
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