Back to school means back to packing lunches. It can be a dreaded part of the school year for some parents. Trying to get your kids to eat healthy food away from home can be hard. That's why the American Heart Association teamed up with Albertsons to teach kids how to be heart healthy. The hands-on summer school sessions allowed students to create their nutritious snacks.
12-year-old Aidan Kizer wore his favorite shirt with the words “I heart bacon” to the class at the Whitney Community Center, only to discover something. “I learned bacon was not as healthy as I thought it was," says Kizer. It was one of the many learning moments the class of kids experienced during the sessions.
“Teaching children, educating them on healthy eating, selecting healthy foods in a grocery store, helping their parents and siblings is the best way to make potentially a life-long impact with them,” insists Cathy Silak the American Heart Association Board Chair.
On this day, kids learned how to make tasty and nutritious wraps and trail mix. Albertsons in-store dietitian Molly Tevis says getting kids to choose healthy foods is easier than you think. Maybe they love carrots with ranch raw. Maybe try and get them to eat carrots cooked or carrots shredded in their wraps like we did today. That way they see you can use carrots in different forms and tastes and they don't always have to be paired with ranch," suggests Tevis.
She also has plenty of great back to school snack ideas. “Even just like a veggie tray where it comes with the dip already. They are more apt to do it if it looks pretty and looks fun versus just a bag of carrots in a drawer," Tevis says.
Aiden says he likes the wraps, but he’s also not giving up bacon. But the South Junior High seventh-grader also says he’s learned the importance of eating in moderation, how to check food labels for sodium content and the difference between good and bad fats.
For the Back to School recipes, click here.
