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Is nutrition an economic issue?

Posted on April 10, 2013 by in Health News, USDA MyPlate

Yes! A recent survey indicates that kids of better educated parents have healthier diets. The Philly Inquirer reports…

Researchers looked at nearly 15,000 children, aged 2 to 9, in eight European countries — Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden — to examine the connection between parents’ education levels and their children’s nutrition.

The study revealed that children of parents with low and medium levels of education ate fewer fruits and vegetables and more processed foods and sweet drinks, which are high in fats and sugars. Parents with higher levels of education were more likely to feed their children foods with more nutritional value, including vegetables, fruit, pasta, rice and whole-grain bread.

The study was published in the March issue of the journal Public Health Nutrition.

MyPlate Healthy Eating Poster from Learning ZoneXpressIt’s not a big surprise but it reinforces the need to target messages to parents with limited education. How can we help narrow that gap? Certainly the MyPlate icon has been helpful. It’s a simple, straightforward icon that demonstrates what foods should be served – starting with making half your plate fruits and vegetables.

Learning ZoneXpress has a range products that help to support the effort to promote better nutrition to all parents. There are handouts for teachers, brochures for healthcare providers and MyPlate posters to reach parents wherever they go.

Let’s Move! Active Schools – What is it?

Posted on March 27, 2013 by in FACS Resources, Health News, Special Offers, USDA MyPlate

Here’s the problem – only one in three kids is active every day!!
Here’s a result – active kids get up to 40 percent higher test scores

We need to get kids active. Let’s Move! Active Schools is a national program that promotes active students by encouraging schools to focus on five key areas:

  1. Physical Education – Learn how to build physical education programs that are inclusive, effective, and engaging.
  2. Physical Activity During School – Explore creative solutions for classroom-based physical activity that enhance existing lesson plans.
  3. Physical Activity Before and After School – Access programming guides and toolkits for successful before and after school programs.
  4. Staff Involvement – Find out how staff can effectively advocate for physical activity, from program planning to day-to-day details.
  5. Family and Community Engagement – Learn what steps you can take to make your school your community’s center for physical activity.

To support Active Schools, Let’s Move! has published a range of tools on:

  • Physical Education
  • Physical Activity During School
  • Physical Activity Before & After School
  • Staff Involvement
  • Community & Family Engagement

They also have some grant funding available:

Active Schools Acceleration Project - 1,000 to start the program of your choice: 100 Mile Club, BOKS, or Just Move. We’re awarding Acceleration Grants to 1,000 schools across the country.

Fuel Up to Play 60 – Up to $4,000 per year is available to any qualifying K-12 school enrolled in Fuel Up to Play 60. The competitive, nationwide funding program can help your school jumpstart and sustain healthy nutrition and physical activity improvements.

Presidential Youth Fitness Program – This funding opportunity supports participation in the Presidential Youth Fitness Program for a period of two years—providing eligible schools with 100% of the elements that make up the three core pillars of the Presidential Youth Fitness Program for Year 1 and 50% matching support for Year 2.

It’s a win-win-win situation. Kids win because they get healthier. Teachers win because kids are better able to concentrate. Schools win with grants and other support.

LZX Sugar Shockers Mentioned in USDA Blog!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by in USDA MyPlate, We're Famous!

Sugar Shockers Poster from Learning ZoneXpressThe USDA has been promoting healthy drinking with their Drink water instead of sugary drinks campaign. As USDA partners, we have been doing our part to promote healthy drink choices with our Sugar Shockers, which includes posters, banners, and handouts to help inform individuals of the sugar content in some of our favorite beverages.

We were pleased as punch (pun intended) to see our efforts recognized in the USDA blog post on healthy beverages this week…

Partner promotion activities vary for each message, but are far-reaching.  The following are examples of how several of our National Strategic Partners encouraged Americans to replace sugary drinks with water, reaching 91 million consumers and 4.4 million consumer influencers:

  • Nestlé Water North America created an educational Daily Buzz TV segment which reached 1.2 million viewers, as well as two Audio News Releases, which aired on nearly 1,900 stations.

  • Weight Watchers International launched a 4-week challenge during which over a thousand members swapped a usual sugary beverage for water.

  • Other successful Partner activities included Sunkist’s promotion of water with lemon as the “Ultimate Diet Drink” and Learning ZoneXpress’ educational materials illustrated the sugar content of sweetened beverages though sugar cube equivalents.

Please help us toast our excitement with a tall glass of water!

Celebrate Breakfast Week with Free Activities from FreeMyPlate

Posted on March 5, 2013 by in Special Offers, USDA MyPlate

freemyplateTime to celebrate breakfast week and pass on the wisdom of breakfast to our kids!

Learning ZoneXpress has added two free activities to FreeMyPlate to help parents, teachers and nutritionists celebrate National School Breakfast Week and Nutrition Month. Both activities encourage students to eat a healthy breakfast every day.

The first activity, “Colorful Breakfast Collages,” combines art and breakfast and is great for a classroom or home setting.

The second activity, “Design a Breakfast Ad,” targets middle and high school students; it encourages them to create a healthy breakfast campaign for their school breakfast program. Both are great ways to start a conversation about the importance of a healthy breakfast.

Try them out – let us know what you think!

Healthy snacks make healthy kids – let’s support the effort with adequate funding for school nutrition

Posted on February 27, 2013 by in Health News, USDA MyPlate

1GTMyPlate-whThe U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed nutritional guidelines that would insure that schools sell only healthy snacks and drinks to students during the school day. They are asking for comments on the proposal. Now is our time as parents, educators, food services workers, health care workers, people who support kids - to let them know what we think.

According to the USDA press release, Highlights of USDA’s proposal include:

  • More of the foods we should encourage. Promoting availability of healthy snack foods with whole grains, low fat dairy, fruits, vegetables or protein foods as their main ingredients.
  • Less of the foods we should avoid. Ensuring that snack food items are lower in fat, sugar, and sodium and provide more of the nutrients kids need.
  • Targeted standards. Allowing variation by age group for factors such as beverage portion size and caffeine content.
  • Flexibility for important traditions. Preserving the ability for parents to send in bagged lunches of their choosing or treats for activities such as birthday parties, holidays, and other celebrations; and allowing schools to continue traditions like occasional fundraisers and bake sales.
  • Reasonable limitations on when and where the standards apply. Ensuring that standards only affect foods that are sold on school campus during the school day. Foods sold at an afterschool sporting event or other activity will not be subject to these requirements.
  • Flexibility for state and local communities. Allowing significant local and regional autonomy by only establishing minimum requirements for schools. States and schools that have stronger standards than what is being proposed will be able to maintain their own policies.
  • Significant transition period for schools and industry. The standards will not go into effect until at least one full school year after public comment is considered and an implementing rule is published to ensure that schools and vendors have adequate time to adapt.

Organizations, such as Prevent Obesity have made it easier to support the effort with ready-fill petitions, which is great. I suspect that anyone reading this post does indeed support healthy options for kids. BUT many of us also recognize that unfortunately competitive foods and snack items are where most school foodservice operations make their money and not from normal meals. Most foodservice runs independently from the school budget and they run on such thin margins that they offer the competitive foods to help just to break even.

So while we whole-heartedly support the initiative to promote healthy eating, we encourage people to remind the USDA and other policymakers that paying lip service to healthy eating may not be enough. We also need to adequately fund school food programs so that foodservice workers on the front lines are not put in a position where they must decide between nutritional and financial health.

Top Selling Education Resources of 2012

Posted on January 8, 2013 by in Garden Heroes, New Products, USDA MyPlate

Let’s hear the final drum roll for the top selling education product from Learning ZoneXpress. The format ranges greatly – but nutrition education seems to be the key…

USDA MyPlate Handouts3. USDA MyPlate Handouts

USDA MyPlate is the new Food Pyramid icon that teachers and nutritionists are using to promote healthy eating. Our USDA MyPlate Tablet of handouts or worksheets has been a hit with kids and parents. The simplicity of the nutrition graphic is perfect for kids and busy adults.

The bright and colorful USDA MyPlate Tablet of handouts (also called tear-off sheets) highlights how to build a healthy menu and diet with tips for selecting the best choices within each food group. Additional tips include importance of fruits and vegetables, portion control and instilling a love of healthy choices.

  • 8 1/2” x 11” 50      sheets, 2-sided
  • Price: $9.95

garden heroes plush toys2. Garden Heroes Set

An assortment of 35 cuddly, plush fruit and vegetable characters to add fun and excitement to learning about healthy eating. Garden Hero characters included in the set may vary.

  • Garden Heroes® are machine washable, feature embroidered faces, and durable seams. Characters measure from 3″ to 7″ tall.
  • Price: $143.95

1 great tray dry erase board1. 1 Great Tray Dry Erase “18×24″

Promote 1 Great Tray™ every day for the best school day by displaying your daily lunch and breakfast menus on this colorful dry erase board! The 1 Great Tray™ Dry Erase Menu Board makes it easy to show daily menu items categorized by food group directly on a school lunch tray.

The whiteboard is coated with dry erase laminate and mounted on PVC board with grommets in the upper corners for easy hanging. This lightweight material makes it easy to change up location.

  • 18″ x 24″
  • Price: $89.95

Top Selling Education Handouts of 2012

Posted on January 7, 2013 by in New Products, USDA MyPlate

Last week we started tracking some of the top selling education resources from Learning ZoneXpress. Today we’re highlighting the top selling handouts or tear off sheets. Customers tell us that these nutrition education handouts are big hit in classrooms, doctors’ offices and public health centers. We weren’t surprised to see the popularity of UDSA MyPlate in the handout category – the icon is a simple, straightforward and effective way to remind people to make healthy choices.

Here are the top selling nutrition handouts of 2012:

USDA MyPlate Placemat Handouts3. USDA MyPlate Placemat Tablet

Build a healthy plate right at the dinner table with the USDA MyPlate Placemat Tablet! Tear-off placemats feature USDA’s food pyramid replacement, MyPlate. The new icon is surrounded by divided plates with a variety of healthy foods in portion sizes for adults, kids, and preschoolers. Backside features colorful photographs and tips to make your plate great. Use as a disposal placemat at meals or a giveaway to reinforce the nutrition and health messages of MyPlate.

  • 11” x 17”, 50 sheets
  • 2-sided
  • Price: $12.95

2. USDA Kids MyPlate Tablet

USDA MyPlate HandoutsFriendly and fun food characters deliver the message of balancing good foods with physical activity based on USDA’s MyPlate with this tablet perfect for preschool and primary grades. Kid sized portions of healthy food choices are shown on each food group section of MyPlate. Tablet backside features a blank plate for kids to draw their favorite foods in the corresponding food group section of the plate and tips for parents for making the best choices from each food group.

  • 8 1/2” x 11”, 50 sheets, 2-sided
  • Price: $9.95

1. USDA MyPlate Handouts

USDA MyPlate is the new Food Pyramid icon that teachers and nutritionists are using to promote healthy eating. Our USDA MyPlate Tablet of handouts or worksheets has been a hit with kids and parents. The simplicity of the nutrition graphic is perfect for kids and busy adults.

The bright and colorful USDA MyPlate Tablet of handouts (also called tear-off sheets) highlights how to build a healthy menu and diet with tips for selecting the best choices within each food group. Additional tips include importance of fruits and vegetables, portion control and instilling a love of healthy choices.

  • 8 1/2” x 11” 50 sheets, 2-sided
  • Price: $9.95

Top Selling Education Incentives of 2012

Posted on January 4, 2013 by in New Products, USDA MyPlate

New Year’s Resolution starting to get old? Wondering what you’re going to do to motivate you, your family and maybe your students to keep strong with resolutions? A little reward can go a long way to keep us interested. Learning ZoneXpress has a range of stickers, tattoos, bookmarks and other incentives that are perfect for classrooms, doctors’ offices – really any place where you are in a position to help reward a kid to stay on track.1 great tray bookmark

Here are our top selling incentives for 2012:

3. 1 Great Tray Bookmark

Promote building a healthy school lunch tray filled with all food groups with the 1 Great Tray™ Bookmark. Backside of bookmark gives suggestions for great choices from each food group. The bookmarks a great giveaway, non-food reward, or simple reminder to build a healthy tray for kids and adults alike!

  • 2 1/2″ x 7 1/2″
  • Package of 100, 2-sided
  • Price: $6.95

MyPlate Healthy Eating Stickers2. MyPlate Healthy Eating Stickers        

Promote healthy food choices with these vibrant and colorful Healthy Eating Stickers. Great incentives or prizes for children and adults alike!

  • 200 – 2” diameter stickers
  • 4 designs per roll
  • Price: $6.95

1. I tried it Stickersi tried it stickers

Reward healthy eating and trying new foods with these colorful stickers.
4 designs on each 2″ diameter roll,
200 stickers per roll

  • The I Tried It Stickers are great incentives or prizes!
  • Price: $6.95

Top Selling Education Posters of 2012

Posted on January 2, 2013 by in New Products, USDA MyPlate

If you’re a radio fan, you know everyone and their brother is looking back at the top albums and hits of 2012. So we thought we’d take a look back too. Today we’re looking back at the top selling education posters for Learning ZoneXpress. Not surprisingly – nutrition and MyPlate play heavily into the top poster choices.

Customers have told us that they like the MyPlate posters because the message is simple and colorful. The icons helps families, kids and even teachers make good nutrition an easy choice every day.

Here are the top Education Posters of 2012 (drum roll please!):

1 great plate for kids3. 1 Great Plate for Kids Poster

Encourage kids to make their plates great! The 1 Great Plate® for Kids Poster promotes an easy-to-remember USDA MyPlate equation to help elementary children visualize how to fill their dinner plates. A good-for-you and tasty meal is pictured showing the divisions of the new food pyramid, MyPlate. 1/2 fruits and vegetables, 1/4 whole grains, and 1/4 lean protein combined make “1 Great Plate®!”

Dimensions: 18” x 24” Laminated

Price: $14.95

Kids MyPlate Poster from Learning ZoneXpress2. Kids MyPlate Poster

This USDA MyPlate poster incorporates fun and friendly food characters delivering the message of balancing good foods with physical activity. Based on USDA’s MyPlate model, this poster is perfect for preschool and primary grades. Kid sized portions of healthy food choices are shown on each food group section of MyPlate.

Dimensions: 18” x 24” Laminated

Price: $14.95

MyPlate Healthy Eating Poster from Learning ZoneXpress1. USDA MyPlate – Poster

The bright and colorful USDA MyPlate Poster highlights how to build a healthy menu and diet with tips for selecting the best choices within each food group. Additional tips include importance of fruits and vegetables, portion control and instilling a love of healthy choices.

 

Popular Uses: Classrooms, School Lunchrooms, Workplace Cafeterias, Waiting Rooms, Childcare Centers, Bulletin Boards

 

Dimensions: 18” x 24” Laminated

 

Price: $14.95

Happy, Healthy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2013 by in Inspiration, USDA MyPlate

MyPlate Magnet

MyPlate Round Magnet

Just a simple wish to you for a healthy 2013. To help keep you focused, we wanted to remind you of the simple lessons learned from MyPlate:

  1. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
  2. Make at least half your  grains whole
  3. Switch to skim or 1% milk
  4. Vary your protein food choices

If you can keep those rules in mind, you’ll be well on your way for a healthy year. (And if you need some help remembering, Learning ZoneXpress has a number of great MyPlate posters to help keep you on track.)