Kids and Healthy Lifestyles: How Camps Can Help

	Website Resources The American Academy of Pediatrics National Food Information Council National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Institutes of Health American Academy of Family Physicians American Obesity Association Mayo Clinic USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion American Dietetic Association

Many camps look for innovative, fun, tasty ways to provide
healthy choices and decision-making skills to their campers
and staff. Parents can adapt these tips to promote healthy
eating and enjoy the results along with their children. Watch
what happens when you:

 

1. Teach your children to alter food preferences by giving
   them good choices
   
    
   1. Serve only green leaf (or other dark green versus
      iceberg lettuce).
   2. Serve whole wheat bread items in place of white (i.e.,
      hamburger buns).
   3. Serve all sauces, dressings, and gravies on the side.
   4. Make fresh vegetables and dips available in colorful
      arrays.
   5. Offer whole wheat or graham crackers instead of chips.
      
       
2. Offer taste tests, expose your children to new foods.
   For example . . . .
   
    
   1. Make kiwi the "fruit of the day" by providing your
      child with a half kiwi and a spoon.
   2. Serve slices of jicama and cookie cutters at the
      table for your child to make edible shapes.
   3. Provide frilly toothpicks for eating Gardenburgers
      or other new items.
   4. Offer a dinner table contest, giving points for numbers
      of spinach leaves consumed.
   5. Provide an array of "Guess what it is" taste-testing
      food items.
      
       
3. Encourage eating breakfast
   
    
   1. Studies show children perform better in school and
      at play.
   2. A healthy breakfast is a good deterrent for overeating
      at lunch.
   3. Those who skip breakfast have more problems with
      weight control.
      
       
4. Introduce a new exercise or activity program
   
    
   1. Consider enrolling your child in a dance/ethnic dance/movement
      program.
   2. Offer your child the opportunity to try a new sport.
      
      
       
5. Promote a "5-a-Day Summer Club" at home
   
    
   1. Offer different colored fruits and vegetable pieces
      and toothpicks so your child can build a fruit animal
      shape or vegetable creation, and then eat it.
   2. Display a poster in your kitchen to track 5-a-day
      foods.
   3. Offer points for healthy eating choices.
      
       
6. Reduce "fast food" and junk food for snacks and side
   dishes (chips, cookies, candy, etc.)
   
    
   1. Replace chips at meals with soy crisps or home-made
      potato dishes.
   2. Have a "make your own trail mix" party, providing
      healthy choices (dried banana or other fruit chips,
      nuts, raisins, Cheerios, sunflower seeds, coconut flakes,
      toasted oatmeal or granola, carob chips).

Camps play a vital role in addressing the obesity epidemic
but so can you. Children need to be given the opportunity
to start and practice good nutritious habits both at home
and at camp. Camp is a great place to offer good food, great
activities, a positive environment, a safe and secure location,
and most of all, fun.

Adapted from the article, "Kids and Healthy
Lifestyles," by Viki Kappel Spain; M. Deborah Bialeschki,
Ph.D.; and Karla A. Henderson, Ph.D., which will be published
in the September/October 2005 issue of Camping Magazine.

Healthy Kids