We talk about it everyday, probably type it into Google’s search engine twice a week and order tons of books on how to live a healthier lifestyle, but the answer is right in front of your face. Your Surroundings!! Back in 2009, First lady Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move” campaign which empowers young kids to fight obesity and live a healthier lifestyle. “Let’s Move” is exactly what it sounds like, a movement. A movement to get healthy through physical and mental activities. It’s all about healthy physical activity and eating right. As cliche as it may sound, being healthy is easy, once you put your daily surroundings to good use.

[If you were in New York City, you would have to walk 3 miles from Yankee Stadium to Central Park in order to burn off the calories from a 12oz can of soda]

Eat Right:

Know the facts about the food and drinks you put into your body because not all that looks and tastes good is good for the body and your health.

Get Active:

Michelle Obama states “Kids and adults between 6 and 17 need to be active 60 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week for 6 to 8 weeks.” Did you know taking the steps instead of the elevator is a step towards limiting your chances of obesity? Taking the stairs is inexpensive, adds years to your life and adds up to a weekly exercise.

Below is a List of  Easy Steps to Living a Healthier Lifestyle:

1) Get Active! Move more and lessen the risk of obesity whether it’s by going for a twenty minute run, a bike ride or taking the stairs. If you ride the train get off a stop before your actual stop and walk the rest of the way.

2) Become Educated!  The more you know about the food you eat helps you to make better eating decisions.

3) Replace soda with water and fried foods with baked or steamed foods.

4) Maintain a positive attitude!

Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the two companies that make up a good 90% of the soda market in the U.S., are changing the way they manufacture their caramel coloring because their current method classifies it as a carcinogen under California law.

Caramel coloring, which gives the colas their signature brown color, is formed in heating and browning processes of sugars. It can be formed either naturally (if you’ve ever caramelized onions, you have some idea of what I’m talking about here) or in mass quantities as an added food coloring. Commercially, it’s added to pretty much every type of food and beverage you can think of, as well as some household cleaning products.

Source: glamour.com

The two soft drink giants are adjusting their manufacturing process for caramel color in the United States because otherwise they would have to slap a giant cancer warning on their California labels. See, the problem ingredient is 4-methylimidazole, also known as 4-MEI, high levels of which seems to only be a problem in commercially produced caramel color. California recently put into law that products need to have less than 29 micrograms of 4-MEI per 12 ounces, which is 1/4-1/5 of the level that Coke and Pepsi currently contain.

Since the color doesn’t add anything but aesthetic value (and since the rival Dr. Pepper Snapple group’s levels were already below that limit), the two companies decided that rather than fight the label mandate, they would just change their production of caramel coloring. Despite their decision, Coke, Pepsi, and the American Beverage Association (an organization which represents the interests of the U.S. beverage industry) still want us to know that these requirements are “scientifically unfounded” “scare tactics”, and are sure to add that “not one single regulatory agency around the world considers the exposure of the public to 4-MEI as present in caramels as an issue”. Duly noted–California is often ahead of the curve.

4-MEI has in fact been linked to cancer in rodents in lab testing, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims that you’d need to drink around 1000 cans a day to get the same dose as those mice and rats. Frankly though, I think it’s definitely possible for humans to get up to that level over a long period of time, especially for kids who grow up drinking soda like it’s water.  In a similar health case, complications from smoking cigarettes can take a good couple decades to manifest themselves but that doesn’t make cigarettes any less carcinogenic.

Regardless of the posturing, this development is yet another reason why people should really cut down on their soda intake. Water and juice might seem too bland in comparison, but if you give yourself a chance to get used to them you probably won’t even miss it. Plus, you’ll be so much healthier for it!

Come one, come all!

What’s On Your Plate? is a piece of the curriculum in one of the Studio in a School art education programs. The program works to promote lifestyle change in kids through visual arts. By combining nutrition lectures and art workshops, kids learn how to make healthier food choices by conceptualizing the food through art. Their Art & Healthy Living exhibit opened on February 28th and will be open for viewing until Wednesday March 14th.

Studio in a School gallery
1 East 53rd Street, Manhattan

Be sure to check it out!

Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/studioimages/6935562835/

Thanks to our Buy a Bundle, Give a Bundle Initiative, we were able to donate ten bundles to three organizations: The Project School in Bloomington, Indiana, Tribe One in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Harlem Seeds here in New York City. We asked these organizations to tell us how they used our materials- sharing stories and pictures.

Here they are!

The Project School

The Project School’s fourth and fifth grade class, led by their teacher Sarah Jerasa, incorporated the What’s On Your Plate? program in a unit on global and local homelessness and hunger in December. They held a screening of What’s On Your Plate? as a fundraiser, raising money to carry out projects related to their studies: funding a well for a village in Africa, donating an animal to a community through Heifer International Organization, and donating medical supplies and food to area shelters.  The bundles were used to educate their school and members of their community to promote awareness of larger food-related issues, like food insecurity and local food.

It was a great success, and the response they received from the screening was incredible. The students were able to raise over $300 for their projects! They engaged their community in a discussion that later continued into the classroom.

Take a look at some pictures from their screening!

Tribe One

Tribe One of Knoxville, Tennessee is an organization founded in order to encourage leadership skills and economic self-sufficiency in the youth of East Knoxville. Tribe One used What’s On Your Plate? as a part of their after-school holistic health programming in an effort to focus students on the importance of  keeping their body, mind, and spirit healthy.

Here are some pictures showing a few of the kids at Tribe One making Sadie’s Fruit Smoothie at an after-school program:

YUM!

As for Harlem Seeds, we’re expecting an update from them soon. They’re busy organizing events to bring healthy food to kids in Harlem. Watch out for a post about their event soon.

Thank you to all of our Bundle recipients and a very special thank you to everyone who helped us give these bundles away by purchasing one for their home.

Text reads: You can tell if a fruit or vegetable is organic or non-organic by the PLU code. If the number begins with a 9 and is 5 digits, then it's organic. If the number begins with an 8 then it is GM. A label that with 4 digits was conventionally grown.

This picture displays a section of my science project that I did with my friend Petra. We did a project on GMOs. GMOs are Genetically Modified Organisms, which means they were injected with a different animal’s or plant’s genes. All animals, humans, and plants have genes inside their cells. Their genes determine the animal, human or plant’s gender, their eye color (for animals and humans), their height, and so on. Genes are like a computer document that each human, plant, or animal has with information about itself.

What if I told you that when you eat tomatoes that are not organic, you are probably eating fish tomatoes? Eeew, right? Well that is exactly what could be in your tomatoes. The reason it could be a fish tomato is because someone took a tomato gene out of a tomato, and replaced it with a fish gene. Think of it as if genes were guts, and someone replaced your regular insides of a tomato with fish guts. When I first heard this, I was freaked out. I was even more freaked out when I heard that this GMO stuff is not labeled, and therefore, it can be in any food I eat! Then, I learned that there is one type of food that is GMO-free: organic food. Organic foods contain no chemicals, and no GMOs.

Recently, my friend and I found out that there is a way to tell if something is genetically modified, conventionally raised (grown with chemicals), or grown organically. The clue is the PLU codes. What are PLU codes? PLU codes are Price-Look-Up codes. When typed into a certain computer program, they give the price information for a product. Where do you find them? The price-look-up code is only on produce, which means apples, tomatoes, and other unpackaged fruits or vegetables. There are many GMOs that are produce, but most of them are packaged. If they are packaged, they do not need a price-look-up code. Have a look at the PLU codes, and buy organic!

By Morgan Carmen

Milk and Jails, what’s the connection? If jails don’t serve milk to their inmates, how do these two things go together? The organization Milk NOT Jails provides this link, and is in the process of changing rural New York.

Upstate New York used to be affluent in agriculture and animal produce in the late 1820′s, until the infamous car boom. After the transition from boats and railways turned to cars, farmland became abandoned for various reasons, like highways. This is where prisons come in. The government needed space to implement the prison system and the abandoned land of Upstate New York provided it at the time. Now, nearly 100 years later, the American government values the penitentiary system more than much needed agriculture systems, or at least it seems so. I mean, if during the 1990′s a prison was built in rural New York every fifteen days, what does that say about America’s priorities?

The Milk NOT Jails organization strives to change the fact that Upstate New York’s economic success rides on a penal system and they need your help to do so. Join the Milk NOT Jails Campaign by signing up here. Spread the word, email all your friends about them. Fill out their survey that asks about grocery dairy choices by clicking here. For more information on this much needed project please visit their website.

Hello, everyone it’s Reginald, and I am back to inform you about East New York Farms.  It’s springtime, and farming is fun to do with your family and friends.  I’m from Brooklyn, and I’ve never heard of a possibility  like this.  If you’re also living in Brooklyn, or you’re just interested in volunteering in a great organization, East New York Farms is open for volunteers.

How could you turn down a chance to educate yourself about urban agriculture?  Help East New York Farms by participating in fun and exciting activities that will start your summer off right! Below is a list of skills and volunteer opportunities that East New York Farms displays on their volunteer page.

Skills:
- Seeking volunteers, to host 1 hour activity for small children (children ranging 5 – 10 years old).
- Must be enthusiastic, creative, friendly, patient and able to work well with kids
- Must be 18 or over
- Must be available to work outdoors from 11:30 – 1:00 on Saturdays

Volunteers Needed – Children’s Story Hour

Volunteer at our farmers’ market and coordinate Children’s Story Hour. We are looking for individuals who will commit to 3 Saturdays or more during our market season. You would receive community service hours.

Hello everyone, Today I bring you information on a the Salad Bar Project. It’s run by our friend, Chef Ann Cooper who is trying to bring healthy salad bars into schools across the country. Schools can apply here for a grant for their school’s very own salad bar. Check it out!

This is urgent, Internet, so I’m not even going to try to devise a clever post. Straight copy-paste, people, Small Planet has the lowdown:

We thought you might like to see, and take action on, this urgent and exciting message from our friends at One Tray and the Community Food Security Coalition:

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES NOW AND URGE THEM TO VOTE YES ON CHILD NUTRITION REAUTHORIZATION

If your Representative sits on the House Education and Labor Committee (click here to find out), we need your help!

Today, the House Committee on Education and Labor is marking up their Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill: H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010. H.R. 5504 contains significant improvements to Child Nutrition Programs including increases in program access, improvements to nutritional quality and program integrity,and $50 MILLION IN MANDATORY FUNDING FOR FARM TO SCHOOL PROGRAMS. Yes, $50 million!!!

Please make your call today to let your voice for healthy school lunch be heard. Your Members need to hear from you!

THE MESSAGE IS SIMPLE. Tell your Representative to act quickly in marking up the bill and moving it to the House floor for a full vote. Now is the time to improve access to food assistance programs and to enhance the nutrition quality of these programs for our nation’s children.

IT’S EASY. Call the number below, and ask to speak to the Legislative Aide listed. If they do not answer, leave a voice mail with your name, phone number, and the message to vote yes on H.R. 5504 and pass the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill out of committee.

If kids can do it, so can you! Even if your Representative is not on the committee, get inspired by watching a video of kids lobbying Congress to pass a strong Child Nutrition bill this year.

Questions? Please contact the CFSC Policy Office: 202-543-8602

Thanks for pitching in,

Anna & Frances & the Small Planet Team

Healthy Schools Campaign and the National Farm to School Network have set up a competition for students across America. They were challenged to concoct a new and improved healthy school lunch. The will be lasts for two days, from May 17-19^th. The competition is meant to encourage schools to promote real food, rather then the cheap and gross substitutes. The students with the most ideal school lunch – meaning healthy and tasty – win. The finalists include The Tohono O’odham Community Action Cooking Club, who gave an interview recently on their experiences with the contest.

When asked about their experience, they said,

…it’s not only creating a healthy meal, it’s creating a healthy community. To show that healthy food tastes good. It’s our traditional way to be healthy and we need to get back to that with our traditional foods.

We think they’re doing a great job, and look forward to seeing the schools make positive change in the lunchroom.

Little Chefs