Healthy Kids Expo

Archive for August, 2011

We know we should eat healthy. We want what is best for our family. So why don’t we eat the way we are supposed to eat? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why we tend to make unhealthy choices along with some helpful suggestions for healthy dinner recipes.

No Time to Make and Eat a Healthy Dinner

In today’s society, we are always on the go – working, running errands, driving our children to and from school and extracurricular activities; the list is endless. Grocery stores are turning into food malls. With all the aisles and selections to navigate, we may feel we don’t have time to go grocery shopping.

Because most people only have a few minutes to get dinner, they usually choose fast food, which is a convenient, albeit unhealthy choice. As a nation, the U.S. is getting fatter and unhealthier. What we need to combat this dilemma are healthy dinner recipe choices that can be prepared fast.

Quick and Healthy Dinner Choices

There are literally thousands of cookbooks on the market and many of them have exactly what we need: quick and healthy dinner recipes. But if you absolutely can’t find the time to make a healthy dinner at home; go to the grocery store. Most supermarkets have an area where they sell roasted chicken and deli meats such as sliced turkey. Both these options can be part of a healthy dinner. Grab a loaf of healthy whole grain bread, a bag of apples, and a gallon of milk and you have something much better for you than a quarter pound hamburger with greasy fries.

Healthy Dinners Save You Money

So you’ve decided that fast food isn’t the way to go. What about a sit-down restaurant? The food looks mouth-watering good! At only $12 a meal, you can have enough to satisfy you for hours. They serve steak, potatoes, pastas… and the desserts are to die for! When you look at their fantastic dinner menu you may want to think about what all the sugar, cholesterol and fat will do to your body.

As far as cost goes: It doesn’t cost $12 a person to eat at home. In fact, it doesn’t have to cost $12 for an entire meal for 5! What is more, you don’t save time this way. How long does it take to drive to the restaurant, wait for a table, wait for the food to be prepared, eat and drive home? In that amount of time you could have made an inexpensive, healthy dinner and eaten it at home.

How to Pick a Healthy Dinner Recipe

- Use recipes that contain low-fat ingredients like fresh vegetables, fruits, lean meat, whole grains and skim milk.

- Choose the freshest ingredients possible.

- Organic foods are grown without the use of pesticides and hormones and are the best food for your body.

It is all about having the best ingredients on hand at home to select and prepare a healthy dinner recipe for your loved ones.

Preparing dinner at home benefits you in more than time, money and health. It allows you priceless, quality time with your family. Sharing a nutritious meal around the family table is one of the many ways of enjoying healthy dinner choices.

Healthy eating is important for proper growth in kids. Parents want to give their children a variety of nutrient-enriched food and drinks to help them to grow stronger and healthier. Usually, life patterns are set in childhood and early puberty. Following a healthy diet routine and using healthy recipes will give them the benefit of enjoying a strong body for the rest of their adult lives.

Healthy recipes for kids can be prepared by knowing facts about the food we eat. There is high-protein, high-fiber food that works for kids, and nutrient-empty, processed junk food that works against them. Studies show that on average, kids receive around thirty-eight percent of their daily calories from fats. The bad fat is responsible for creating free radicals in the body, which harm our good cells–including the brain cells. This fat negatively contributes towards obesity, heart disease, allergies, and other harmful conditions.

Sensible diets make sure that your kids are well, prevent the risk of developing dangerous diseases, and keep the foundation for solid mental as well as physical health. Junk food and unhealthy food can leave your child open to food hazards and infection, especially during rapid growth periods.

Statistics show that the obesity rate in kids is four times higher than it was in 1960s.This leaves children more susceptible to problems like diabetes, growth disorders, and sometimes even cancer.

Good food doesn’t mean bland taste. Kids can easily be lured to eat healthy food by presenting it in a colorful and decorative manner. The carrot will look enticing if it is shaped like a cartoon figure, spinach can taste yummy if combined with a dash of cheese, and cereals will be wiped clean from the dish if presented in attractive serving plates. The trick is to educate them about the food, list the benefits, and make kids feel that they are eating something special and different each day.

You are intelligent enough to know that the purpose of most science fair projects is to teach students how to use scientific methods to solve problems on their own. A science fair project can allow students, parents, and teachers to make new discoveries together. One of those discoveries might be how clean your drinking water is.

Students may expect faucet water to be clean, but is it? A science fair project on testing drinking water can help them learn what is in the water they use. This outline will help them and you conduct a drinking water test.

State Your Hypothesis

A good example might be, “If I test drinking water from different sources, which will I find to be the best for my health?” A poor example would be, “If I drink tap water, what happens?”

Background Research

Learn all that you can about what water may contain. Research the effects of various contaminants, minerals, etc.

Develop a Drinking Water Test

What kind of drinking water test will you use? What kinds of drinking water will you test? Will you buy a kit, or simply order appropriate test materials? How will you collect the water to be sure you do not change its content?

What You Need for Drinking Water Tests

Students will need Colorimetric test strips for many drinking water tests. Kits are available from science fair websites. Water Safe Drinking Water Test is an EPA standardized, laboratory certified simple kit that identifies harmful levels of 8 different common contaminants in water: bacteria, chlorine, lead, nitrates, nitrites, pesticides, pH, and water hardness.

Predict Results

Write out a prediction of what you expect. Will your city tap water be the best water for your health? Should your family pay money to drink only bottled water? What do you predict your drinking water test will reveal?

Conduct Your Drinking Water Test

Students may choose from many drinking water tests. Here are a few possible tests. Younger students may want to use only one. Older students may combine a series of drinking water tests.

1. Basic: A basic drinking water test might allow students to test water for alkalinity, chlorine (both free and total), nitrate and nitrite, pH, and water hardness. What is the basic make-up of your water?

2. Bacteria: Along with a basic drinking water test, you might test for bacteria in the water. Water from a drinking fountain may show bacteria that collect on the bubbler and wash into the water.

3. City Water: What is in municipal drinking water? You can use the basic drinking water tests above, but check, too, for metals and sediment. Are corroding pipes contaminating the water?

4. Well Water: Since the government does not test private wells, there may be contaminants in the water taken from them. What might you find? Would you expect more sediment or less? Would your drinking water test be likely to find pesticides if the well is near a farm or garden where they are used?

5. Bottled Water: Is bottled water really pure? Is it better than tap water or worse? Run a drinking water test on it and see what you find.

6. Water Cooler: If your water cooler is typical, a large five-gallon bottle is turned upside down into the drinking water crock. Might there be germs on the bottle top? Will a drinking water test show up these germs?

7. Pet Water Bowl: Pet drinking water tests will show you what your pet’s water contains. The pet bowl should not be cleaned right before the test. Allowing your pet to drink from it will show whether or not the water is still pure enough for humans.

Repeat Your Drinking Water Test

A good scientist repeats tests to be sure the results are the same. You will not have accurate results if you run your drinking water test only once.

Analyze

Analyze the results of your tests. Which water is purer? Which one tastes better, looks better, and smells better? From your analysis, do you think your prediction will hold up?

Arrive at Conclusions

Draw conclusions from your drinking water test. Look at all the evidence and decide what it means in regard to healthy drinking water.

1. Which water contains the fewest contaminants?

2. Which water contains the fewest bacteria?

3. Which water is best for your health?

Prepare Your Display

Decide early how the display will look and leave plenty of time to complete it. Will you have photographs? Will you have clear glasses containing water samples? How will you display used test strips?

Most science fair projects require a display board to communicate your work to others. A three-panel display board that is 36″ tall by 48″ wide when unfolded is standard. On your board, include these elements.

1. Title: Make it catchy – and big enough to read from across a room.

2. Hypothesis and research: Organize your information from top to bottom, left to right, as though you were planning a newspaper page. Put Hypothesis and research information on the left side of your board.

3. Materials and procedures: Place this information just under your title in the middle of the board.

4. Data / Charts / Photos: These go at the bottom of the center part of your board.

5. Results and conclusions: The right side of your board holds the final information about your drinking water test.

A science fair project on testing drinking water can be interesting and exciting, appropriate for any age student. The results may surprise everyone.