Food for Thought: The Importance of Nutrition

Madison School District's Executive Chef and Wellness Coordinator Lauren Kemmer, RDN, joins us to talk about nutrition education and how to support healthy eating habits for the whole family. 

Transcript

Welcome to Parenting Future Focus Kids. Today, we are going to talk about the importance of nutrition and why nutrition matters now more than ever. We would like to welcome Lauren Kemmer, executive chef and wellness coordinator, who is calling in to our podcast today.

Lauren has been with Madison School District for four years and has been in her current role as executive chef wellness coordinator for three years. She holds a registered dietitian, nutritionist Aadi and Credential and has obtained a bachelor's degree in nutritional sciences from the University of Arizona.

Welcome to the podcast, Lauren. We're excited to have you here. Thank you so much, Nicole, for having me. It's a pleasure to be speaking with you today. So let's just jump right into it. I'm super excited. I love nutrition and food, and anybody who knows me knows that I love nutrition and food.

So let's start with the basics. What is the importance of eating a healthy diet? Why is that so important? So having a healthy diet is fundamental to support a child's physical, social and emotional growth. And it is also important for all of us, not only not only for children, so goes along with supporting their physical health.

It supports a child's growing body. Whole grains supply. A child with vitamins, minerals and fiber feel fuller for longer periods of time, so they stay more alert in school. Fruit and vegetables also serve as other areas of fiber and nutrition.

These food groups additionally help support a strong immune system. Fat free flavored or white milk supports growth to develop strong bones, muscles and teeth. And lastly, protein foods also help children curb hunger and develop proper growth for muscles.

So that's the physical side. The mental aspects of having a healthy diet allows for your child to concentrate more during school. And there's also the social aspects as well. So there's a social component that goes into hanging out with your friends at lunch.

And it's a great way for children to unwind and have a break throughout the day. So another great way to incorporate social elements into meal times as a family is having dinner at home at the same time all together at one table or a few times a week.

And actually, the family dinner project has decades of research to show better academic performance, lower risk of substance abuse, lower rates of childhood obesity, and higher self-esteem for students that have regular dinners with their family. So, again, it's supporting that physical, mental and social aspects of a child's health.

Yeah, that's incredibly important. And I love that you brought up sharing a dinner time together. We actually talked about that one podcast ago when we were discussing the social, emotional kind of, you know, the importance of that right now.

And I think that's just once again, tying it all back to food. Right? We all gather around food. And I think it's just, you know, that time to stop and be together to support nutrition, you know, the nutritional benefits of like sharing a family meal together and then then also the social emotional aspect of that.

So along those same lines, if we're talking dinnertime, how does a healthy diet support the academic side of things, learning maybe eating breakfast regularly? Yeah, so absolutely. So for breakfast specifically, studies have shown that students who eat a balanced breakfast, they actually score higher on standardized tests.

They have better concentration of memory. They're more alert, and they can maintain a healthier body weight as well. And I would like to also point out that all of our school cafes do serve a nutritious breakfast a half hour before school starts.

So I would encourage our families to drop off their students a little bit earlier so we can take care of breakfast for your child. And this year, specifically, breakfast is free for all students and again, that serve 30 minutes before school starts.

For more information, please have parents contact the school cafe. Yeah, that's awesome. That kind of takes one thing off of our parents plate, so to speak. If they are going to, you know, if they're running around in the morning that they can they know that they can drop their child off, that they'll be served a nutritious breakfast

. I mean, it's just one last thing to think about, but it's also prioritizing the health, you know, the nutrition and health of their child. But we know that students and adults sometimes don't always want to try new foods or try what's on the menu, especially whether it's at school or at home.

So tell us about how you get students excited about trying new foods at school. Yeah. So here at Madison, our school cafes. On occasion, we'll have what they call a tri it Tuesday, and this means that they can feature a new fruit veggie side dish entree sample, and it's provided on the cafe line for students to try

. And they're encouraged to be risk takers to try these new foods. And again, that correlates back to the IB learner profile traits at our ibee specific schools. And then, for example, we've done hummus and smoothies samples and we've done those on our blendr bikes that we have.

And the students love this. That's awesome. I think you actually posted and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you actually posted that blender bike on social media on your social media page. Yes, we did.

And that's specific to Madison. That's our own blender bike. That's so cool. So if if parents if you haven't seen that or families you're listening, I would definitely check out Madison Food and Nutrition Services Facebook page to check out that blendr bike.

So I think those are awesome ways to get students to try new foods at school. How can you get a picky eater to maybe try some new foods at home? What tips do you have for our families listening?

So this is a great question. And I think it's obviously important for all parents to encourage their kids to try new foods. Some ways to do that is to try utilizing different textures or try incorporating them into a recipe instead of serving them just by themselves.

So, for example, the common one is if your child doesn't like broccoli, that's usually one that comes up a lot. You could encourage your child to try it in a different form. So if you steamed it or if you had broccoli in a casserole, or if you added it as like a side ingredient in a wrap, that's

, you know, a piece of the recipe and not necessarily by itself or steamed. So it's got that different, softer texture. So those are those are good ways to try to encourage them to eat new foods. Another way could be to use different seasonings or condiments.

Popular ones at school are ranch or hummus. So they might like broccoli if it was tossed in something like a soy sauce even and incorporated into a stir fry. So, again, there's a lot of unique ways to do this.

And I do encourage everyone, myself included, to use Pinterest. And that's a great resource for finding healthy recipes for families. That's no cost for younger children especially. It's important to offer the food more than once. So research from healthy families of British Columbia actually wrote that children need to be exposed to a food at least 12 times

, but up to 30 before they truly decide whether or not they don't like the food. And again, going along with that, children also need to interact with the food. See it, touch it, smell, you know, using their senses right before they make their final decision.

So, again, just keep that in mind. It it could take a few times before they're accustomed to the food, but I would encourage parents to keep trying. It's just a matter of trying it again and again. And then again, utilizing those different textures or putting it into a recipe is also going to be helpful.

And then for both younger and older children, it's also important that we model the behavior for eating the foods that you would want your child to eat. So, you know, if you want your child to accept a new food, this means that you're also going to have to eat it and enjoy it.

So even if you have to fake it till you make it type deal. Right. You know, you're still encouraging that positive reinforcement to say it's OK to eat this new food. See, you know, mom, mom and dad are eating it, too.

And, you know, even if you don't like it, you're trying to kind of have, you know, model the behavior for them. That way they're more comfortable and they know it's OK and they have that reassurance. Absolutely. And I just want to reiterate that you said 12 to 30 times, which seems like a lot, but it does take

that much time for, you know, especially children, sometimes adults, to get used to new foods that they haven't tried before. So I think that's important for our families to remember as they're trying to incorporate, you know, diversity in the foods that they're serving at home.

So absolutely. Along those same lines, do you recommend you know, we talked about sharing family dinners together and trying new foods. So something that comes to my mind as children being involved in the kitchen, maybe helping prepare. Do you recommend that?

And if so, what does that look like? Oh, absolutely, yes. So that that while learning those skills in the kitchen and just being more involved and comfortable in the kitchen is going to help children, you know, make their own home cooked meals when they're older.

And also to you got to think about when they move out and they're in their college years, you know, that's just a skill that we don't see anymore. And so it's going to teach them that responsibility. You know, along with that, they're also going to learn some math, food science, and they're going to learn how to eat

healthier as well. So, you know, I think this is absolutely great to get your kids involved in the kitchen. And so one of the one of the ways that they can do that is to just kind of have your child help you with kitchen preparation.

So even if they're younger. Dr. Eric Bouchet, in the last previous podcast, he talked about having having the mixed dry ingredients together or just taking the food out of the fridge or the pantry and reading. Ingredients, instructions out loud to them, I think that was great, that was a great tip, and I just want to echo what

he said on that, because doing all of these things will help them develop their fine motor skills and again, aspects of responsibility as well. And then along with also a previous podcast, Dr. Mike Winters also mentioned that, you know, you're fostering a child's reading and comprehension skills when they're reading those instructions with them.

So they're able to follow along with a recipe and understand it. So, again, your practicing personal growth outside of a classroom, which is fantastic. Also, too, if they're older and they have time in their schedule, you know, have them take the lead on being in charge of cooking meals for the family a few nights a week.

You know, obviously, if they have a really busy schedule, you know, you don't want over schedule your kids either. But if they have those time management skills and they're able to work it into their schedule, you know, again, you're having them show that leadership and again, responsibility for your family.

And they're also practicing cooking skills. You know, those are all great things. So those are those are some ways children can get involved in the kitchen. Another great way to have children just be involved in healthy eating is to also have them help during grocery shopping.

So if they're older, you can give them a task of, you know, making that grocery list with you and giving them a budget to spend for the family. And again, you're bridging mass skills and you're teaching them nutrition and cooking.

So the other thing along with that is I would encourage families to also shop the perimeter of the grocery store. And what this means is that perimeter shopping is where the consumer shops, the outer perimeter of the store and avoids all of the innermost sections.

So this is the perimeter is where most stores keep their fresh produce and they're refrigerated and frozen sections generally are on the perimeter. And so if you're only shopping the perimeter, then you'd be less likely to encounter those packaged, processed, often higher and sugars that are usually found in the center aisle.

So that's a great way to, again, incorporate healthy eating as a family. And then to have that conversation with your child, look at a nutrition label together. You know, look at the look at the serving sizes, look at the macronutrients and micronutrients, what you're actually eating.

And I would recommend families check out the Food and Drug Administration has a great platform called Read the Label, and it has a bunch of resources for kids on how to read labels and to understand them. Well, thank you for all of that great information.

Again, that's read the label by the Food and Drug Administration, I think that's a wonderful resource for parents who are looking to kind of incorporate learning with food and nutrition. And then I'd like to ask you a little bit about the importance of eating a varied diet.

We know that it's it's essential for our children. It's essential for adults eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. So can you explain a little bit about that and how to ensure a balanced diet when you have a picky eater at home?

Yes. So a very diet is really essential to help achieve a wide range of benefits from different vitamins and minerals. So, for example, you've got red veggies and you have red fruits and they have lycopene and carotenoids in them.

So those are great for your heart and they're great at regulating blood pressure. So conversely, you can have blue and purple fruits and vegetables and they have powerful antioxidants that protect cells from damage and reduce the risk of cancer.

So, again, it's important to eat a very diet because different fruits and veggies are going to give you different health benefits. And one popular phrase that registered dietitians usually use for children is to to eat the rainbow. And again, it's this aspect of incorporating eating a diet that's full of variety.

So it's easy to remember. And it'll also help parents teach their children that they should be selecting different fruits and vegetables from each of the colors of the rainbow to help fuel their bodies. So, for example, you could ask your child at dinner to eat their broccoli because again, you're helping build their food rainbow with green.

So, again, it's an easy way to encourage your child to eat a variety of foods. And going along with that, another way to help teach your child how to incorporate eating a balanced diet is to show them the United States Department of Agriculture's My Plate.

And this is a pretty popular graphic. It's a plate that's divided into five different components, each with their own category, and they're color coded as well. One section has fruits, one section has veggies, one has grains, proteins and dairy.

So, again, I would encourage all parents to review this with their children. That way, it'll help give them a foundation of healthy eating. And visually, you can see what it looks like on a plate. And lastly, to that point, I would like to say that eating meals at school will help expose your child to a variety of

fresh fruits and veggies. So, again, something you could talk about with your child when they come home from school or if you're picking them up. You know what colors of the rainbow did you try today? So, again, encouraging them to eat that rainbow is going to be very important for them to eat a variety in their diet

. Absolutely. And I love that comparison. I think that's great and something that kids can really relate to and be excited about when they pick out their fruits and vegetables. And I know that's something that even I sometimes get overwhelmed with, is finding like a healthy snack idea, right.

Where maybe we're caught up with, oh, we need a variety of fruits and vegetables or, you know, all these things that we're trying to incorporate into our diet. So what are some healthy snack ideas that families can provide to their students at home?

You know, even if they're learning at home throughout the day or on the weekends and in the evenings. Yeah, so this is a great question as well. So some of the most nutritious snacks are those that combine and unrefined carbohydrate with a protein.

So that'll give your child a boost of energy long enough to get them through before the next meal time. And what I mean by unrefined carbohydrate is that most of carbohydrates that to incorporate in a healthy diet, you know, you want them to be found in their most natural state.

So whole grains, whole wheat beans, fruits and veggies, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables are awesome. They're great. They also, too, are you know, if you're purchasing fresh, sometimes it can go bad quickly if you don't eat it as fast.

So frozen is awesome. And then I would just like to say, too, that if you do choose canned or packaged. Just make sure that you're looking at your labels and see if there's like a low sodium or no salt added option and or no added sugars, too.

And some examples of these unrefined carbohydrates with the protein for snack could be a fruit in a yogurt, veggie sticks with hummus, apples and peanut butter. You could do protein wrap you. You can use, you know, for the wrap you can use.

Whole wheat tortilla, and then you can do low sodium, sliced turkey, low fat slice cheese and kind of roll it up together. Dried fruit nuts is also a great one. Wholegrain graham crackers and chocolate milk and whole wheat crackers and tuna.

So, again, combining that car with a protein and another thing to know to for snacks is and I am I tend to do this. I overeat, you know, with portions. So another great way to help keep that in check is to proportion them out.

And so not only are you prepositioning them out, but you're also putting them also know easy access. So, you know, when you're when you're looking in your fridge or pantry, if it's right at eye level, you're going to mostly draw to eating that.

So if you if your proportioning it with a snack sized baggie, you've got it ready to go or if it's in a Tupperware container and it's right at that eye level, you're going to want to eat that because it's nice, ready, ready to eat for you.

So, again, having having it within easy access, you know, you can market in your pantry or maybe there's a drawer in the fridge that just right snacks on and then your children will know, OK, I'm going to pull it out of the snack drawer and it's easy to grab for me.

Thank you. And I think you gave some great examples of, you know, healthy snack choices that we can make. I know that sometimes I struggle with like the mindless eating, especially if things are in close reach. We kind of just grab and keep eating or maybe there are, as you know, if they're unhealthy, options in the pantry

were drawn to that more. And I know that some families and children struggle with making healthier choices because these things might taste a little bit different or they're more drawn to them. So what impact does maybe something like soda consumption have on children's health?

And how can parents apply healthy guidelines instead of, you know, taking it away or banning it completely? So this question, you know, is obviously very important as well. You know, soda is one of those things that what you just said, it's easy.

It's in the fridge right at eye level usually. So, yeah. So soda for when we're talking nutrition. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children who are two years old and older, they should aim for no more than twenty five grams of added sugar.

So this is about six teaspoons. So to put that into perspective, that's just one regular 12 ounce can of the typical soda, pretty much because they're eight teaspoons already. So you're getting more already in one can. So there goes the entire limit.

And so eating and drinking too much added sugar puts kids at risk for obesity, tooth decay, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type two diabetes and other health problems. So, you know, there are more there are more nutritious options to serve other than soda.

So water and fat free or two percent flavored or unflavored milk or greater alternatives, because water will aid in hydration and milk will also give them those extra nutrients. So the calcium, the protein and the vitamin D.. So with that being said, instead of banning soda or any food entirely, for that matter, you know, moderation is key

. So soda can be considered a child's sometimes food. So this is something that a child should be drinking every day? No. Is it something that a child should never have in their life ever realistically? That answer is going to be No.

So generally speaking, by limiting their intake of soda to just one or a few times a week, a child can still enjoy that experience of having that beverage without the negative consequences that would go along with having soda potentially every day.

So and again, I would encourage families to consult with your child's pediatrician and or a primary care provider for medical advice specifically related to your child. Yeah, thank you. I think you mentioned a really good point, and that's moderation.

And sometimes, you know, we create unhealthy relationships with food, and I think that leads to larger issues. So how do you create healthy relationship with all foods? So I'm a huge supporter of another popular dietitian phrase along with Eat the Rainbow is the phrase the 80-20 rule.

So 80 percent of the time dedicated to eating those nutrient dense, those few those foods that fuel our body. So foods that. You know, a rainbow of colors like we touched on earlier, foods that are packed with nutrients that make you feel energized and full, but not being stuffed.

And the other 20 percent of the time can be dedicated to eating those sometimes foods. So those are the foods that are not necessarily rich in nutrition. They're typically called empty calories, but they're savable. So foods like ice cream, soda, potato chips, candy.

So finding that balance between eating healthy but still being able to incorporate your favorite sometimes foods is challenging for students and for adults. So quitting all sometimes foods and restricting to never eating those foods again is not realistic.

And it also doesn't develop a positive relationship with food either. So if you're looking at it from the perspective of food is fuel for our bodies. But that doesn't necessarily mean we can't have that birthday cake at a party.

It doesn't mean that we can't have a movie night with pizza and soda as a family. So, again, it all goes back to that balancing game of moderation. And again, it's difficult to master for kids and adults. Yeah, absolutely.

So thank you again for bringing up that point. I think it's super important for all of us to understand that it's that it's all about moderation when we're talking about nutrition and health and healthy habits. One of the things that I think we probably everyone can agree upon is that water is essential for nutrition.

So if you can explain a little bit about why water is so essential for children and what the daily requirements are and how that can be a part of a healthy diet, especially here in Arizona, where we really have to worry about, like, being dehydrated all of the time.

Yes. And it's also funny you ask this question, because I was literally sipping my water as you were reading this question. So, yeah, water, you know, it's the cornerstone of all bodily functions because it makes up 60 percent of our body weight.

It regulates our body temperature, serves as a transport vessel for nutrients and oxygen to ourselves. It carries waste and products away. So water helps maintain blood volume and it helps lubricate our joints and body tissues. So the daily amount for water that a child needs would depend on their age, their weight and also their sex.

So it's important to note that doing activities also in hotter temperatures, like you just mentioned, being in Arizona, especially if it's outside and if you're participating in increased physical activity, that's also going to require even more water as well.

But for for the purposes of this podcast, water recommendations are set by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies as part of the dietary reference intake or sometimes commonly called drys. And they apply to generally healthy kids living in temperate climates.

So, again, this isn't necessarily applicable for every child. So, again, I would ask parents to consult your child's pediatrician in our primary care provider for medical advice specifically related to your child. But generally speaking, for ages four, three, eight, for girls and boys, the dry is seven cups of water per day, or 56 fluid ounces for girls

, nine to 13 year, nine to 13 years old. nine cups of water per day or seventy two fluid ounces. For boys, it's 10 cups of water or 80 fluid ounces. And then for children that are ages 14 or 18, 10 cups per day or 80 fluid ounces for girls and 14 cups

or one hundred and twelve fluid ounces per day for boys. So, again, the amount of water that your child needs each day might seem like a lot, but keep in mind that the recommendation is also for total water.

So this includes water from all sources. So not only is it regular drinking water, but it's also in our other beverages and our food and some fruits and veggies have much higher water content than other solids. So that's also important to keep that in mind.

And so one way to help your child to meet their water intake would be to encourage them to bring a reusable water bottle to school. And then also along with that, you know, creating a routine practice of using and cleaning it because no one wants to use a water bottle that's all gross. And also making fruit and veggie infuse water at home could be a great way to help encourage higher water consumption for your for your child. So using citrus berries, melons, fresh ginger and mint are all really, really good choices for making that delicious fruit or veggie infused water.

And generally, you can float all the ingredients, all the ingredients freely and water, or you can use what's called an infusion pitcher. And you can infuse it two to four hours before tasting or overnight in your fridge. And so think about imagine if your house had a colorful pitcher of ice, cold, strawberry, lemon and mittens, used water

sitting in the fridge. Wouldn't that look amazing to drink compared to canned soda? So, again, you're visually seeing it. And we eat with our eyes, too. So there's a ton of simple recipes that are easy to do on Pinterest or on the Internet.

That would be easy to do. Fruit infused water recipes. Yeah, that definitely sounds good to me. And I know that sometimes that helps me keep my water intake up as when there's like lemon in it or something that so it's not just plain water, but I think that's what we all need to work on.

Like I said, especially in Arizona, I, I know that most days I probably don't hit my water recommended water intake. So it's just a reminder that students, children, families, all of us probably need to up our water intake, especially in the warmer months.

So I'd like to circle back a little bit to talk about the types of food and the experiences that are offered here in Madison. So what would a child who is attending a Madison school see in a cafeteria?

What options would they have? So all of our meals include whole grain rich grains, lean proteins and a variety of fruits and veggies. And students also have the choice of selecting nonfat, white or nonfat flavored milk. So all of all of our school cafes have all these wonderful, healthy ingredients in our menus.

And there is also a lot of options for elementary students. They have three main entree options. And for middle school students, there are four main entree options per day. So and it also, again, we serve a variety of different fresh fruit, dried fruit, fruit bowls with no added sugar, 100 percent juice options.

And we also have a rainbow of colorful veggies that are fresh, frozen and oven baked. So we pride ourselves in having appealing food that tastes great, too, which is why there are new recipes and taste tests that we do every year.

We also provide nutrition, education opportunities. The idea is that we also talked about earlier and a bunch of free and fun enrichment online activities located on our website. Madison Azy dot org slash food and nutrition. So also to know that this year school breakfast and lunch is free for all students until June 30th.

Twenty twenty two, regardless of eligibility or financial status due to the USDA legislation passed from financial barriers of the pandemic. So we also encourage applicable families to apply for free and reduced meals online at family Titan K12 dot com, or with a paper application that's located at your school's front office or at the school cafe if they

think this situation applies. And the reason why we still encourage free and reduced meal applications to be filled out, even though all meals are free, is because this allows funding for school athletics, future grants, PBT and much more.

Yeah, I think you described all the awesome options that we offer in our Madison cafeterias. I know that when I first started working at Madison, I was so happy and excited to see all of the colorful kind of, you know, eat the rainbow options that we have for our students.

It got me excited about food and seeing all of that as I visited our schools. So thank you so much for bringing that up. And like you said, breakfast and lunch is free and it will continue to be free until June 30th of twenty twenty two.

So we highly encourage all of our families to let their students know that there is free breakfast and lunch available to them. So as a district, what else do we offer? What kinds of exciting things do we offer here at Madison to get students involved in in cooking and learn about food and nutrition?

So we have our very famous annual Top Chef student cooking competition. And this is a competition where it allows all students K through eight to be involved. They submit their own unique recipe and we pick a winner from each of our eight schools.

And those winners then go on to compete one. Right. And they all cook their dish that they submitted. And we have a lot of great community engagement. We have local chefs from around the valley serve as judges to pick the top two winners.

That's awesome. And all students receive prizes regardless if they won first or second. But there's also runner up and a grand prize. And this grand prize is amazing. And in the past, we've had students be featured on an actual restaurant's menu.

So as an option at night. So, yeah, it's it's a great competition. And a lot of and it's a free event to any any parent or child in the community can come out to support this. And it is amazing because the food is also free.

So you're able to get a free dinner out of it as well. So that's Madison Top Chef. And we're so excited to continue that tradition. Once things resume to a little bit more normal. Awesome. Well, thank you so much.

So if our families are listening and they're thinking, hey, I want to get involved with the Food and Nutrition Services Department at Madison, you know, what what opportunities are available and how can they go about applying? We are hiring food service heroes that we want to feed the next generation and be part of an amazing team.

So we have openings as cashier, caterer working in our school kitchens. These shifts are in the morning and released before the end of the school day. So you can enjoy time with your students. These jobs also follow the same schedule as the district calendar.

So you're not scheduled to work on holidays and breaks the other career opportunity within our department operates on an annual basis during nights and weekends. Selling packaged concession items as a concession is during shows booked in the state of the Art Madison Center for the Arts.

So this is a great opportunity to make some extra money on the side for adults. It's great for college students and for high school students who are older than 18. So if you would like to join our team, please visit Madisonaz.org/jobs to apply as a food service caterer, cashier or concession test.

Those sound like great opportunities. Thank you so much. Again, that is Madisonaz.org/jobs. We offer amazing benefits here in the district as well. So go ahead and check all of those things out. And I just want to say thank you so much, Lauren, for being here today.

I think nutrition and health is important, like I said before, now more than ever. So thank you so much for all of this great information for our families. Thanks, Nicole. Thank you for listening to Parenting Future Focused Kids to listen to our latest episodes, visit our Web site at Madisonaz.org/podcast or search Madison School District

on Spotify.