Written By: Ellie Wilson, MS, RD Senior Nutritionist, Price Chopper Supermarkets
I hear a lot from people these days about getting back to basics, cooking and eating at home more, and reconnecting to families. I love this trend, and hope it becomes the new normal, for the sake of some very important people, our children. I say that because a great number of children are struggling with poor nutrition, particularly being overfed and undernourished. We have some work to do.
Children learn almost all of their food skills and practices from their parents. They add those skills up the same as they add the ability to walk, talk, think, play and draw, with different skills gained at different stages of childhood. To help parents develop the food skills their children need, I am sharing some make-it-happen ideas, tested by USDA, to help our children grow strong and healthy. Here they are:
- Parents of preschoolers: eat well, and your children will too. They will eat the fruits and vegetables you eat. They can learn basic food preparation by helping you with safe food tasks, picking out some fruits or vegetables when you shop, and having you explain what you are doing as you cook and prepare food. Be persistent with new foods – it takes time and sometimes more than 12 tries with a new food before a child will accept it.
- Parents of elementary school-age children: make it easy for kids to reach for a healthy snack – keep fruits and veggies ready. Use carrots and cut up veggies for snacks after school, and count them as part of their dinner veggies! A great way to ensure kids are getting nutrition that helps them grow and keeps them strong is to have low-fat milk with meals. A nine-nutrient package, low fat milk is a powerhouse, a shortcut to better nutrition, and is an easy way to round out any meal.
- Parents of 8-10 year olds: these kids are growing fast, and are active. Support that activity by helping them snack well, with fruit and yogurt. They need to eat smart to play hard. They can assist with preparing fruits and vegetables, and the more they know how to do that, the more they will do it (so you don’t have to!). Super kids need superfoods!
Written By:
Ellie Wilson, MS, RD, CDN Senior Nutritionist, Price Chopper Supermarkets
New Years’ resolutions, top ten lists, favorite ways to be more healthful – January signals the start of “wellness season” for most of us, and the appearance of many stories and articles that will offer to assist us all take charge of our health. Not to be outdone, I hope you will find this one to be even more helpful, as my goal is to offer some very specific information you can use as you move through the store. Check out these aids and ideas to help you meet your own goals for better nutrition, feeling good and looking good.
A little reminder – Price Chopper was the first supermarket to install the NuVal ®Nutrition Scoring system in all of our stores, to help our guests easily compare foods and “trade up” to better choices. Choosing foods above the average for the food category can help you be sure you’re doing a great job for your health and for your family. Here are some best practices;
- Eat Breakfast – More and more research is showing the power of breakfast to assist with weight loss, improve energy and productivity, and assist with managing hunger over the whole day. It is so important, many schools are offering breakfast for all children, even right in the classrooms, and reaping the benefits of better attendance, better attention, better attitudes and the best “better” – better test scores.
- Fruits and Vegetables – more matters! Americans are eating more, but are still not making the recommendations for servings (5-9 servings per day). This may be due to defining what a serving is, so here we go: one serving is ½ cup cooked fruit/vegetable, or 1 cup raw. Try this: 1 medium banana in the morning (= two fruit servings); 1 small salad plus lettuce and tomato on a half sandwich (=1.5 servings of vegetables); 1 medium apple for an afternoon snack (= 2 servings of fruit); 1.5 cups cooked spinach with dinner (=3 servings of vegetables). Total servings = 9.5!
- Lean protein for lean bodies – Choose lean meats to reduce intake of saturated fats. Choose seafood with scores over 84 – higher scores in seafood also mean better sources of omega-3’s.
- Thinking about whole grains, higher fiber, and lower sodium can really help you throughout the middle of the store. Added sugars also impact the healthfulness of food items. Choosing cereals above a NuVal score of 25 (the average for cereals) is a move in the right direction – higher is better in every category. Choose the average or above in granola bars (22), yogurt (35), bread and rolls (30), and you will automatically be turning up the fiber and whole grains, and lowering the sodium and added sugars in your diet.
Learn more about NuVal scores and averages online at
www.PriceChopper.com/Healthandwellness. At Price Chopper, we are committed to your health and well-being, and we put the best tools in place to make sure you can do that. Happy New (You) Year!
I hear a lot from people these days about getting back to basics, cooking and eating at home more, and reconnecting to families. I love this trend, and hope it becomes the new normal, for the sake of some very important people, our children. I say that because a great number of children are struggling with poor nutrition, particularly being overfed and undernourished. We have some work to do.
Children learn almost all of their food skills and practices from their parents. They add those skills up the same as they add the ability to walk, talk, think, play and draw, with different skills gained at different stages of childhood. To help parents develop the food skills their children need, I am sharing some make-it-happen ideas, tested by USDA, to help our children grow strong and healthy. Here they are:
New Years’ resolutions, top ten lists, favorite ways to be more healthful – January signals the start of “wellness season” for most of us, and the appearance of many stories and articles that will offer to assist us all take charge of our health. Not to be outdone, I hope you will find this one to be even more helpful, as my goal is to offer some very specific information you can use as you move through the store. Check out these aids and ideas to help you meet your own goals for better nutrition, feeling good and looking good.
A little reminder – Price Chopper was the first supermarket to install the NuVal ®Nutrition Scoring system in all of our stores, to help our guests easily compare foods and “trade up” to better choices. Choosing foods above the average for the food category can help you be sure you’re doing a great job for your health and for your family. Here are some best practices;