Lekita Jones is a program staff member with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan.
Healthy Choices, Healthy Children: Nutrition Edition is a very good program for our club. It provides a strong yet understandable message to our children regarding health and healthy habits for them to perform on a daily basis.
The session that we performed was our very first one, and we encouraged all of our members to participate. During the session, we talked about the plate (formerly the Food Pyramid) and good and bad carbohydrates are and the differences in fat and saturated fats. In addition, we discussed what sugar does to a person’s body and how important energy is to be able to play in a sport.
At the end of the session, we taught our members how to make a fruit salad and gave them Greek yogurt go-gurts (on-the-go yogurt) and they ate the fruit salad. In addition, we used the go-gurts as a teaching tool on how to read food labels.
Editor's Note: Nutrition can seem complicated, but learning to make good choices when eating is important for kids to grow up healthy! As the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation expands our Healthy Choices, Healthy Children curriculum, we aim to help you talk to kids about decision-making in all aspects of life!
How have you taught kids about healthy eating habits?