Author Archives: Stephanie Ronco

Nutrition Month at the Worksite: Activity, Display, and Presentation Ideas

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Want to celebrate Nutrition Month at your worksite? Check out these inspirational ideas, and let us know your plans by tweeting us @foodandhealth or writing on our Facebook wall…

  • Create a Nutrition Education Display board and display it in the lobby. It’s a great resource for employees and community members who are seeking services.
  • Make Nutrition Education bulletin boards available for all clinic sites to display.
  • Set up a 5 for 5 Challenge. This challenge will encourage employees to eat at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetables every day. It can also include an exercise component, calling for everyone to exercise for at least 30 minutes on each of the 5 workdays during the week. Employees will have a tracking form to keep up with their progress towards the challenge. If they complete the form, then that person’s name will be entered into a drawing at the end of the month’s activities. Feel free to offer prizes that you think would work best for your site.
  • Have a smoothie and healthful snack taste testing week. Make healthful snacks and smoothies will available for a one hour period at your workplace. Offer recipes and supporting materials to anyone who stops by to taste test the treats. Employees that participate could also enter their names into the drawings to be held at the end of the month’s activities.
  • Hold a healthful cooking demonstration. We had success with a 1-hour nutrition education session, which included the preparation of multiple recipes to encourage healthful eating and vegetable consumption. RSVPs were be requested for the session. Employees that participated could also be entered into the drawings to be held at the end of the month’s activities.
  • At the end of the month, drawings will be held for the people that participated in at least one of the month’s activities. Drawing prizes could include the following… MyPlate magnets, a professional apron, MyPlate wristbands, assorted kitchen tools, or even a cookbook. You could also work with the HR department to give work-related prizes like an extra vacation day.

By Kelly Whipker, RD, LDN

The Nutrition Education Store has everything you need for fantastic worksite wellness programs or fun Nutrition Month activities…

 

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Quick Display Idea: Fruit

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Adding a bit more fruit to an eating pattern is a great way to squeeze in a bunch of nutrients without excess calories, but some fruits are higher in calories than others. In fact, some fruits are even processed in such a way that they come with a boatload of empty calories and added sugars.

Help your audience navigate the fruit landscape with this quick and pretty display of fruit.

Arrange the following items in a highly-visible part of your space and make cards that list the calorie content of each item. For an activity, have people match the cards to the fruit. For a non-interactive display, simply place each card by the fruit it describes.

  • 1 fresh apple: 71 calories
  • 1 cup apple juice: 116 calories
  • 1 cup canned peaches in juice: 160 calories
  • 1/2 cup raisins: 216 calories
  • 1 cup canned peaches in heavy syrup: 251 calories

This display will show participants that dried fruit and canned fruit in heavy syrup are much higher in calories than their less-processed counterparts.

Variations and Additions:

  • To add more depth to the display, note the fiber content of each item. This is especially useful when comparing the apple and its juice, since a whole apple contains almost 3.5 grams of fiber, while the juice does not contain any fiber at all.
  • For a temporary display or discussion, place actual servings of all the fruit in this list in glass containers on a table. For a more lasting display, use images, food models, or empty packages instead. This can be done on a table or a bulletin board.
  • Instead of comparing total calories or calories per serving, you could also compare sugars, highlighting hidden sources of added sugars in each food.

For other great fruit activity and display ideas, don’t miss these amazing materials!

Fruit and Vegetable Challenge Tool Kit With PowerPoint Shows - Nutrition Education Store

Fruit and Vegetable Challenge Tool Kit With PowerPoint Shows - DOWNLOAD

$39.00
Add to Cart
4 Fruit Balloons 18" Mylar Foil: Watermelon, Kiwi, Orange, Strawberry - Nutrition Education Store

4 Fruit Balloons 18" Mylar Foil: Watermelon, Kiwi, Orange, Strawberry

$18.00 $24.00
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Fruits Bulletin Board Kit - Nutrition Education Store

Fruits Bulletin Board Kit

$49.00 $55.00
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MyPlate Meal Makeover Handout

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Check out this amazing MyPlate meal makeover! I originally kept this handout as an exclusive part of the soon-to-be-released My Plate activity book, but my resolve has crumbled and I can’t wait to share it with you today! If you like what you see, be sure to keep an eye out for the free printable MyPlate handout at the bottom of the post…

Meal Makeover: Use MyPlate to Rearrange This Plate of Fried Chicken

MyPlate Meal MakeoverRevise Fried Chicken:

A typical plate filled with fried chicken and macaroni and cheese weighs in at over 850 calories! That’s way too huge for a single meal. Plus, the plate is full of solid fats and processed grains, with very few nutrients in sight. This is where MyPlate comes in handy. Use MyPlate to rebalance the plate and make the meal more nutritious!

Since filling half the plate with fruits and vegetables is key to MyPlate, start there, replacing half of the chicken and macaroni with steamed corn and green beans. Then keep protein to a quarter of the plate, choosing white meat to cut down on saturated fat. This leaves the dairy and grain groups, which are represented by the macaroni and cheese. Look at the new plate! It’s got only 333 calories, and it looks just as full as the other plate!

Dinner Meal Makeover Details:

Using MyPlate to make over this meal saves you 517 calories!

This new meal is far higher in nutrients, especially fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It’s also lower in empty calories than the first plate.

You could make this meal even better by replacing the refined grain macaroni with a whole grain pasta like whole wheat pasta or quinoa pasta. If you replaced the full-fat cheese with low-fat cheese, you’d take the improvements even further!

The green beans add 30% of your daily value (DV) of vitamin C and 20% of your DV of vitamin K.

The corn adds 17% of your DV of fiber and 21% of your DV of thiamin.

Like what you see? Here’s a free (and printable!) My Plate handout:

MyPlate Meal Makeover

And don’t miss these other engaging MyPlate materials from the Nutrition Education Store!

MyPlate Coloring Book

MyPlate DVD

MyPlate Floor Sticker

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New Presentation Tips

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I’m so excited because I’ve finally gotten the tools I need to share an amazing new resource with you…

A Sauce Painting Kit!

This kit features the 3 tools that you need to arrange beautiful plates at your next cooking demonstration or presentation. It includes…

  • Stainless steel sauce spoon – This special spoon makes it easy to arrange sauce on a plate.
  • 4 ounce squeeze bottle – Put a sauce that you want drizzled on a plate into this bottle and see how beautiful your presentation will look. Plus, you can wash and reuse the bottle as many times as you want!
  • Silicone pastry brush – The is perfect for brushing thick sauces on a plate so that your food presentation looks like it was done by a professional chef!

Now I want to share a few fun ways that you can use the tools in this kit to create amazing presentations for different dishes. Know that you don’t have to actually buy this kit to make the most of these tips — the kit will just make it easier. Feel free to improvise with resources that you already have!

  1. Add a sauce to an entree plate by drizzling the sauce over the top of your food with the sauce bottle. You can also use the spoon to smear a colorful and flavorful sauce on the plate before adding a protein item, or you could even use the brush to put a highly-flavored sauce on the plate in a beautiful, artistic pattern.
  2. Use the spoon to add a beautiful dessert sauce and then drizzle a design into it.
  3. Use the brush to brush a sauce across the plate before placing food on top of it.
  4. Use the bottle to create dots in the white space around the food you’ve plated.
  5. Use the bottle to drizzle a sauce on top of anything.
  6. Use the spoon to pull a sauce or dressing across the plate before adding your food items.

With this trio of tools, anything is possible! Plus, with this kit, you will be taking your cooking skills and presentations to the next level for you and your family and clients!

Sauce Painting Kit - Set of 3 Essential Tools to Make Beautiful Sauce Paintings for Food and Cooking Demonstrations - Nutrition Education Store

Sauce Painting Kit - Set of 3 Essential Tools to Make Beautiful Sauce Paintings for Food and Cooking Demonstrations

$18.50 $18.50
Add to Cart

And here are a few other resources that would be great for your next cooking demonstration or presentation…

Cooking Demo Ideas Book and CD - Nutrition Education Store

Cooking Demo Ideas Book and CD

$59.00
Add to Cart
Cooking Demo Kit - Set of 7 Essential Cooking Tools for Cooking Demonstrations - Nutrition Education Store

Cooking Demo Kit - Set of 7 Essential Cooking Tools for Cooking Demonstrations

$135.00 $150.00
Add to Cart
MyPlate Cooking Demo Ideas Printed Book and Leader Guide - Nutrition Education Store

MyPlate Cooking Demo Ideas Printed Book and Leader Guide

$49.00
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Eat More Vegetables: 3 Activity Ideas

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Help your clients improve their eating pattern with these 3 great activity ideas…

Inspire Together! Have participants look up their daily vegetable needs at www.choosemyplate.gov. Divide everyone into groups based on how many vegetables they need each day, then have each member of the group share his or her favorite way to eat vegetables with the rest of the group. Have each group elect a spokesman who can write down the most popular suggestions. Once the groups have finished sharing, come back together as a class and have each spokesman share the most appealing ways to serve vegetables from his/her group.

With this activity, your participants will all get a few fun new ideas about ways to eat more vegetables each day.

Team Transformations! As a class, brainstorm some traditional meals that are generally low in vegetables. Divide your audience into groups of 3-4 people and give each group a different meal to make over. How can vegetables be added to the meal in an appealing way? After their discussions, have each group pick their top three ideas and share them with the rest of the class.

Now a few staple meals can be transformed into vehicles for more veggies.

Get on Board! Have your participants think about their favorite vegetable snacks. Ask each person to find a photo or draw a picture of these snacks at home or on their own, then reconvene as a group to post those images on a blank bulletin board that you’ve set up. Title the board Healthful Vegetable Snacks.

With this activity, you will get an engaging and unique display, made by your own students. Plus, this board will offer fun ways to try new vegetable snacks, which in turn can help your participants improve their eating patterns.

What do you think? What are your favorite activities to promote eating more vegetables?

Don’t miss these top vegetable resources from the store!

Lettuce Eat Light Vegetable Poster 12X18 - Nutrition Education Store

Lettuce Eat Light Vegetable Poster 12X18

$22.75 $25.50
Add to Cart
Vegetable Poster - Slicing, Chopping, and Cooking Guide - Nutrition Education Store

Vegetable Poster - Slicing, Chopping, and Cooking Guide

$22.75 $25.50
Add to Cart
Vegetables Bulletin Board Kit - Nutrition Education Store

Vegetables Bulletin Board Kit

$49.00 $55.00
Add to Cart

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Presentation Idea: Motivation Kit

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Don't Wait -- Motivate!Motivation readily waxes and wanes. It’s both common and normal. We can help our clients by teaching them to nurture their motivation as they pursue their health and fitness goals. Motivation is often at its highest in the beginning of an individual’s weight loss or health management plan. This is the perfect time to create a Motivation Kit.

Have your patients gather the things that remind them of the importance of their efforts. In a box or a notebook, they can collect photos, a list of reasons to lose weight or get healthier, magazine articles, motivational sayings – anything and everything that pumps them up. When they can’t remember why they need to keep up their efforts, it’s time to dig through that Motivation Kit. Showcasing a sample motivation kit and then helping participants build their own would make a great presentation or activity.

Here are Ideas for a Personal Motivation Kit:

  • A magazine article about people in the National Weight Control Registry. You can find a sample in People magazine — look for the issue about losing half your body weight.
  • A list of reasons to lose weight, including better blood glucose control, make family proud, maybe taking less medicine for diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol, etc.
  • Wedding picture
  • Photos of children/grandchildren
  • Progress report including milestones like I can cross my legs, I sleep better, people tell me I look great, exercise is more fun, etc
  • Motivational saying such as “We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough” (Helen Keller)
  • Lab reports

The above is not an actual kit, but a compilation of several. The key is that it must be personalized.

By Jill Weisenberger, MS, RD, CDE

Here is a template you can use: Motivation Kit Template

Looking for more great motivational resources? Check out the Nutrition Education Store!

Lighten Up Your Cooking Poster

Exercise to Lose and Control Weight Presentation

Getting Started Handout and Presentation Set

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Sneak Peek from the Member Library

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Have you heard about the Food and Health Membership program? It’s chock-full of fantastic resources for educators, including…

  • Access to all materials with a comprehensive, searchable database that is loaded with nutrition articles, chef-tested recipes, and engaging handouts.
  • White-label newsletters that you can use to create your own content.
  • Memorable handouts. Access all of these handouts in a library that is categorized for easy use.
  • Presentation and interactive project ideas for wellness fairs, classes, lunch-and-learn sessions, cooking demonstrations, and health fairs.
  • Chef-developed and exhaustively-tested recipes for meals that are both delicious and healthful.
  • The latest food news and scientific research. (Since we don’t accept outside funding or sponsorship of any kind, we can bring you the latest news, free of bias).
  • A translation tool that helps you translate all your articles for non-English-speaking clients. You can copy and paste to create handouts in all languages!
  • A food and health celebrations calendar that features monthly themes, food- and health-related holidays, seasonal produce, relevant clip art, handouts, and more.
  • Satisfaction, guaranteed!

holiday

Today I want to share one of those popular articles with you. Lisa C. Andrews, MEd, RD, LD has put together a great guide for throwing and attending healthful holiday parties this year. Here’s what she has to say…

The holidays come upon us fast, and so can holiday weight gain… if you’re not careful. Below are some simple swaps to prevent “a little round belly that shakes when you laugh like a bowl full of jelly.”

1. Serve veggies and dip for appetizers. Pepper strips, grape tomatoes, and cucumbers look beautiful when arranged around a bowl of hummus or dip.

2. Swap plain Greek yogurt for sour cream in your favorite dips. Your guests likely won’t notice the change and they’ll get a nice dose of protein and calcium.

3. Sauté onions and garlic for stuffing in non-stick spray or low sodium broth in place of oil, butter, or margarine.

4. Try mashed sweet potatoes with orange juice, ginger, and cinnamon in place of marshmallows, brown sugar, and butter.

5. Use 1% or 2% milk in mashed potatoes in place of whole milk or heavy cream. This cuts calories and fat from the dish.

6. Keep selzter water on hand for “mocktails”. Pour over ice and add a twist of lime. Voila! No hangover.

7. Use whipped butter or light margarine in place of stick butter. This reduces fat and calories.

8. Use reduced-fat mayonnaise in place of full-fat mayonnaise in dips and dressings. Olive oil varieties provide heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.
9. Try a salad dressing spritzer in place of bottled dressings. Blend olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and dijon mustard together for your own dressing.

10. Substitute jarred baby prunes, mashed bananas, applesauce, or plain yogurt for the fat in baked goods (such as quick breads).

11. Split desserts with your spouse, a friend, or other party guests. You may not be hungry for a full piece of pie, anyway.

12. Chop vegetables and add them to soups, stews, salads, and casseroles. This boosts the fiber and nutrient content, and also adds color to your dish.

13. Add seasonal fruit such as apples, pears, or pomegranates to salads in place of dried fruit. This adds texture and taste to your salad while reducing added sugar.

By Lisa C. Andrews, MEd, RD, LD

Remember, this article (and thousands of others) was only available to members until I decided to preview it today. If you liked what you saw, check out what a membership entails or just sign up today!

Oh, and here’s a printable version of the handout Lisa wrote…

trim

And here are some other holiday resources…

Holiday Buttons Fruit and Veggie Lights 2.75" X 1.75" rectangle - Pack of 10 - Nutrition Education Store

Holiday Buttons Fruit and Veggie Lights 2.75" X 1.75" rectangle - Pack of 10

$28.00 $32.00
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Holiday Color Handout Tearpad - Nutrition Education Store

Holiday Color Handout Tearpad

$42.00 $46.00
Add to Cart

 

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Tabletop Flip Charts

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Here’s a collection of tabletop flip charts that can be used for student, patient, and client education!

Use them in employee wellness fairs, health fairs, exam rooms, offices, and classrooms. They fit on a table and flip easily to teach people important lessons about a variety of topics including MyPlate, diabetes, and cholesterol.

Take a look!

chart1

chart2

myplatechart

Best of all, these charts are very portable and can be used without electricity. They are hands-on because clients can read them and flip them at their own pace.

After all, pictures and infographics speak a thousand words!

Speaking of MyPlate, here’s a free copy of one of our most popular MyPlate handouts, just in case you missed it!

holidaymyplate-nes

And here are a few more MyPlate resources that you might like!

MyPlate Education Materials Bundle - Nutrition Education Store

MyPlate Education Materials Bundle

$69.00 $69.00
Add to Cart
MyPlate Plate Plastic - Nutrition Education Store Exclusive Design - 1 Plate With Free Shipping - Nutrition Education Store

MyPlate Plate Plastic - Nutrition Education Store Exclusive Design - 1 Plate With Free Shipping

$30.00 $29.00
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MyPlate for Kids 40X30 Wall Decal Poster - JUMBO - Nutrition Education Store

MyPlate for Kids 40X30 Wall Decal Poster - JUMBO

$125.00 $150.00
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Resource Spotlight: Walloons

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walloon_tomato_1024x1024

Here are some new educational resources that just happen to be both creative and engaging.

Walloons!

What are walloons, you ask?

They’re wall decals shaped like balloons. You can use them as decorations and teaching tools.

These wall decals come in handy when you want to add a little pizzazz to your walls. They’re great anywhere that you might want to fill in the space between posters, and they are spectacular in cafeterias, exam rooms, classrooms, offices, and more! I created them after I got a request from our dietitian customer Sonya Angelone, MS, RD, who wanted to perk up her children’s school cafeteria. They have been hanging on the walls there ever since. Sonya said the walls looked bare and she wanted to have some fun and positive decals that matched our fruit and vegetable balloons. We had these drawn up by our artist and Sonya fell in love with them so we made a special order of these wall decals for her. We figured everyone else might want some. They are perfect for walls that cannot hang posters or walls that need sprucing up or small places. You can even stick them on bulletin boards. See below for our directions for how you can make your own, too!

walloon_aspargus_1024x1024

There are several varieties of walloons to choose from. Which best match your style?

The What’s on Your Fork? Walloons are the newest additions to the Nutrition Education Store and are perfect for National Nutrition Month. After all, the theme is “Put Your Best Fork Forward.”

Of course you can also make your own walloons. Draw a balloon with a black magic marker on a large white piece of paper. Copy it on a copy machine. Allow everyone to cut and paste their favorite food photos on the balloons. Then adhere the balloons to the wall using a 3d removable poster tape. This allows them to stick to the wall but keeps them removable, too. Of course you can also have everyone take pictures of their forks for your social media channel. Be sure to use a hashtag that reflects your name so you can post them with ease.

And, in case you missed it, here’s another Nutrition Month resource: the printable handout that comes with the What’s on Your Fork Bulletin Board Banner…

whatsonyourforkhandout-copy

And here’s a peek at these walloons from the Nutrition Education Store…

Cartoon Fruit and Vegetable Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6 - Nutrition Education Store

Cartoon Fruit and Vegetable Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6

$45.00
Add to Cart
Fork Photo Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6 - Nutrition Education Store

Fork Photo Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6

$45.00
Add to Cart
Fruit and Vegetable Photo Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6 - Nutrition Education Store

Fruit and Vegetable Photo Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6

$45.00
Add to Cart
MyPlate Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6 - Nutrition Education Store

MyPlate Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6

$45.00
Add to Cart

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Inside Look: What’s On Your Fork?

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Have you ever gotten a bit carried away on a new project?

I know I have.

But that doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.

In fact, getting carried away on a wave on enthusiasm and creativity often leads to the creation of some of my favorite materials!

Take these fork photo resources, for example.

Forks!

I was experimenting with forks holding different foods and I… well… got carried away. I had just made a new photo studio with strobe lights and all kinds of props. As I played with each one, I saw styrofoam and stuck a fork in it.

The rest is history.

The timing was extra fortuitous for this particular round of inspiration because it turns out that the theme for National Nutrition Month 2017 is “Put Your Best Fork Forward!” These materials — which I have been creating since this summer when I was working on my food photo portfolio — will be perfect for that celebration.

Lettuce

Here’s a collection of the fork lessons in different formats. Which will appeal most to your clients?

Display Resources:

Prizes:

And here’s a closer look at my artist’s statement, which captures why and how I do what I do…

The concept of my work is that I create art with food and then photograph it in an evocative and dramatic manner. I am drawn to working with fruits and vegetables. The first reason is because my business is dedicated to nutrition education and the promotion of foods that are nutrient dense, high in fiber and low in added fat, sugar, and salt (three evils of processed food in the Western world). The second reason is because I love finding fruits and vegetables in farmers’ markets and coming home with them and exploring new and creative ways to photograph them. My experience as a pastry chef leads me to want to arrange my subjects in a very artistic manner and to create salads and many other types of dishes that appear decadent even though they are healthful.

The materials that I use consist of fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein foods that are fresh, in season, and available in local markets. I have a variety of props and backdrops as well as a light table. I have a full sensor Nikon D800 camera, strobe lights, and a natural light studio, also known as my dining room, which has a taller table for my shoots.

My process consists of researching and shopping in local food markets to purchase items from local farmers and food producers. I create a scene and shoot it different ways in my studio. This makes my shots more compiled than found and they have a theme for the viewer. They might be based on Mediterranean foods, phytochemicals, food groups, or just one seasonal ingredient like berries. The outcome is an artistic photograph that is inspirational to the viewer. It is a celebration of food as it nourishes the body!

By Judy Doherty, AOS, BS, PC II

As a special treat today, I want to share the printable handout that accompanies the Wise Choices Poster. Take a look!

wisechoicesposterhandout

And here are a few of the fork resources that you can get today!

Fork Banner 48" X 36" - Nutrition Education Store

Fork Banner 48" X 36"

$88.00 $110.00
Add to Cart
Fork Photo Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6 - Nutrition Education Store

Fork Photo Wall Decals - "Walloons" Set of 8" Wall Decals - Set of 6

$45.00
Add to Cart
Fork Stickers 2" - Pack of 100 - Nutrition Education Store

Fork Stickers 2" - Pack of 100

$12.99 $12.99
Add to Cart

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