Teachers!

Work sheets and activity ideas that go along with these healthy heart articles can be found at www.HealthyPima.org If you're an Arizona Nutrition Network teacher, use these supplemental activities and log your hours!

Planting a Garden of Superstars!

Even if you live in an apartment, you can still grow a garden. “How?” you ask. Simply by planting some vegetable seeds in containers —like clay or plastic pots. Lettuces and cherry tomatoes do especially well in containers. If you have some bare land near your house, get a bag of outdoor potting soil and dig it into the bare dirt. Make sure the dirt is loose 4 to 6 inches deep so roots have a place to grow! Make sure your containers or garden plot are set up where they’ll get sun for most of the day (or at least six hours each day) and water is close enough that you can keep them watered regularly.

Now comes the fun question…what shall you put in your vegetable garden? There are several things to consider!

1. What veggies do you and your family like to eat? Do a survey and ask your family what they would like to eat fresh from a garden. Have your younger siblings taste new veggies.
2. Consider cost. Some veggies are expensive when you buy them organically grown from the store or farmer’s market. Perhaps ask the cook in your house if he or she would like you to grow basil, which can be expensive at the store. Or maybe some other herb or vegetable that’s hard to fi nd or expensive.
3. Think about the vitamins and minerals you get from veggies. Some are loaded with them, while others have less. As a general guide, remember that veggies that are dark green or orange are nutrientdense. That means they have a lot of nutrients and not very many calories.

Did You Know...

Seeds and vegetable starts can be purchased with an EBT or SNAP benefi ts card at anyplace that accepts those cards.

Gardening for a Healthy Heart

Not only will the veggies and fruits you grow in your garden give you plenty of potassium for a healthy heart, but the actual activity of growing them will keep your heart healthy too. Just 30 minutes of digging, raking or weeding in the garden can keep your heart healthy and build the muscles in your entire body especially in your back, legs and arms. Gardening involves a number of different kinds of exercises including stretching, weightlifting and a cardiovascular workout. The amount of energy you use hoeing your garden for 30 minutes is about the same amount of energy you use bike riding for 30 minutes.

When tending to your garden, remember to be safe in the sun. Wear a hat and clothes that protect your skin from the sun, drink plenty of water, tend your garden in the early morning when it’s cool, and don’t stay outside in the heat for too long.

Find Your Balance for a Healthy Body!

Last month you may have read our article about energy balance— making sure that you burned or spent about as many calories as you ate in order to maintain a healthy weight. So what have you decided to change or work on? Have you upped your physical activity level? Are you eating smarter when it comes to your meals and snacks? Check yourself to see if you’re fi nding your balance or if you still need to make some changes to achieve a healthy and balanced life!

Have you gotten bored of your regular physical activity or don’t know how to get active? Try something new and exciting so that being active doesn’t feel like a chore. Look for classes nearby, such as dance or martial arts, to learn a new skill and get your heart pumping. Join a team that plays a not-so-common sport like lacrosse or synchronized swimming. Or even at recess or lunch, join a basketball or soccer game to boost your energy and mood. Find something you love to do and keep doing it to help your balance!

Do you fi nd yourself getting hungry often? Think about the different foods that you eat throughout the day. One way to keep yourself full and energized is to eat whole grains like oatmeal and brown rice, which have a lot of fi ber. Fiber helps keep your heart healthy and also keeps you feeling fuller longer. Another way to keep up your energy is to choose meals and snacks with carbohydrates, protein and some fat. For example, enjoy a sandwich on whole grain bread with avocado, low fat cheese, tomatoes, turkey, cucumbers, lettuce or other vegetables that you like.

Web Enhancement: How much activity do you have to do to burn as many calories as are in common foods? Test your knowledge at: www.EnergyBalanceGame.com.

Roasted Eggplant and Red Pepper Sandwich Ingredients

• 8 slices French or Italian bread
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
• 1 medium eggplant, cut in 1/2-inch slices
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup roasted red pepper, cut in strips
• Vegetable oil spray

1. Wash hands with warm water and soap. Wash fresh vegetables before preparing.
2. Have an adult preheat the broiler.
3. Lay the bread on the broiler pan, spray with vegetable oil spray, and toast lightly on both sides.
4. Remove toasted bread from broiler with the help of an adult. Rub the top of each with garlic and set aside.
5. Reduce the oven heat to 450° F.
6. Lay the eggplant slices on a greased baking sheet and coat lightly with vegetable oil spray.
7. Season with pepper.
8. Roast for 20 minutes or until tender and caramelized.
9. Cover each slice of bread with the roasted eggplant and lay the red pepper strips over the top.
10. Give each one a quick spray of vegetable oil spray and serve.

Makes 4 servings, 2 pieces each. Nutrition Information Per Serving: Calories, 220; carbohydrate, 32 g; protein, 6 g; total fat, 2 g; saturated fat, 0 g; trans fat, 0 g; cholesterol, 0 mg; fi ber, 7 g; total sugars, 5 g; sodium, 397 mg; calcium, 67 mg; folate, 107 mg; iron, 2 mg; percent calories from fat, 8%.

Recipe from “Do Yourself a Flavor” by Graham Kerr.

For more recipe ideas, you can download Heart Healthy Recipes from the US Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/ health/public/heart/other/ktb_recipebk/ktb_recipebk. pdf

Teachers — LOOK!

Work sheets and activity ideas that go along with these healthy articles can be found at www.HealthyPima.org.

If you’re an Arizona Nutrition Network teacher, remember to log your hours when delivering nutrition lessons or nutrition-integrated physical activities.

Take a Pass on the Salt

One of the important MyPlate messages is to limit the amount of sodium that you eat. Salt is a major source of sodium. Salt is made up of sodium and chloride, so to take in less sodium, eat less salt.

What happens if you eat too much salt? Doing so can lead to high blood pressure, which damages the heart. How? Salt attracts water. Therefore, when there’s too much sodium in the body, it makes the body hold on to water in an effort to fl ush out the excess salt. The added water puts stress on your heart and blood vessels. This causes high blood pressure in some people.

While eating too much can be bad, sodium is still needed to help the body run different processes. Sodium helps the brain send signals to the muscles in order for them to move. This is why it’s important for athletes to drink electrolyte- enhanced beverages after one or more hours of physical activity because so much salt is lost in sweat. Just remember that eating too much can be harmful to the body and that’s why it’s important to read nutrition facts labels in order to make healthy decisions. Many health experts urge us to eat less sodium by reading labels on packaged foods. Most of the sodium in foods is added during processing. One way to cut down on sodium intake is to eat fewer processed foods such as snack foods and convenience foods like meals in a box. Some common foods to look for that have low-sodium options include canned vegetables and soups, deli meats and crackers. Your taste buds will slowly adapt to reduced salt foods, and soon you won’t be able to taste the difference. When you’re helping in the kitchen, instead of reaching for the salt shaker, use fl avorful herbs like oregano, cumin or chili powder. Try a no-salt blend of herbs from the spice section of the grocery store.

Eating less salt is so important for heart health, the USDA has new regulations for the amount of sodium in school meals. Over the next eight years, schools will gradually use less sodium in the meals they serve students. Some of the ways that they plan to do this include educating food service staff workers on low sodium cooking techniques. They also plan to educate physical education teachers and nurses on the importance of lowering sodium amounts. Other strategies include organizing cooking classes for parents to learn low-sodium cooking techniques and providing materials for parents. Maybe you can learn more about eating less sodium and tell your class about it!

Web Enhancement: What’s your sodium and potassium salt IQ? Check it out at: http://www. sporcle.com/games/Health4U/sodiumand- potassium Source: Centers for Disease Control

Love Your Heart!

It’s February—so while you love those around you on Valentine’s Day, be sure to love yourself by taking good care of your heart muscle. What can you do to take care of it? Eat heart-healthy foods and be active every day.

Heart healthy foods include fi sh and nuts because they have special fats in them called omega-3 fats. These keep cholesterol levels low and your heart functioning fi ne. Walnuts and Brazil nuts are especially rich in omega-3 fats, as well as fatty fi sh like salmon and sardines.

Another type of food that keeps your heart healthy is a special type of fi ber called soluble fi ber. It binds the cholesterol in your body and carries it out as waste. Soluble fi ber is abundant in oats and oat bran. Fruits and vegetables have some too, especially apples, citrus fruits, carrots and peas. Dried beans such as pinto beans, black beans, and the legumes lentils and split peas are rich in soluble fi ber as well.

Do your heart a favor and eat at least one or two heart-healthy foods every day. Team that up with vigorous activity at least several times a week so that your heart muscle stays strong. Examples of vigorous activity include running, jumping, playing basketball, dancing and so on—any activity in which your heart pumps hard for 10 minutes or more. Take good care of your heart and it’ll help you live a healthy, long life!

A Healthy Heart for You!

Lub, Dub, Lub, Dub, Lub, Dub—this is what a heart sounds like every time it beats. The heart is a very important part of the circulatory system. With every beat of the heart, it either expands or contracts to push blood throughout the body. It’s important for blood to continually go to every part of our body. The blood carries oxygen and nutrients to cells. After reaching the far end of our fi ngers and toes, the blood returns to the heart to get more oxygen and make the trip around your body again. We need it to keep beating at a steady pace to survive. The heart is a muscle that needs to exercise to stay strong enough to last a lifetime.

One way to keep our hearts healthy is to choose foods that benefi t the heart. Did you know that some fats we eat are good for the heart, while other fats can damage the heart if eaten in large quantities? Fats that can cause damage to our hearts are called saturated fats and trans fats.

These fats are solid at room temperature, such as butter and shortening. Saturated and trans fats can cause plaque—a buildup of fatty material in the blood vessels. The plaque narrows the blood vessels and causes the heart to have to work harder to pump blood all around the body. Sometimes the plaque can block off the blood vessel completely and cause a heart attack or stroke.

When reading a nutrition label, remember to choose foods with the least amount of these fats.

Fats that are good for our hearts are called polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats. These health-promoting fats are rich in nuts, seeds and oils such as olive oil and canola oil. Eat foods with these kinds of fats in moderation. Learn more about heart health at kidshealth.org

To help keep your heart healthy, try eating nuts like almonds, peanuts, walnuts or cashews. Maybe even mix in some sunfl ower seeds or dried fruit to make your own trail mix for a heart-healthy snack. Check out Eatwellbewell.org for some more heart-healthy recipes!

And remember to exercise your heart muscle every day by being active for at least 60 minutes.

Read & Move, Move & Read!

So you love to read? Or maybe have a lot of homework? That can interfere with exercising the ol’ heart muscle! It’s a good idea to take a quick activity break at least every hour. Stand up, move around and take some deep breaths. This will help your brain get more oxygen, and guess what—your brain works better when it has more oxygen!

Taking a break to be active is fun and doesn’t have to be complicated. Frequent breaks of physical activity help you build and maintain strong bones, muscles and maintain a healthy weight. Taking small activity breaks also helps you maintain good selfesteem, a positive mood and energizes you when you’re feeling sleepy or tired with your book. You’ll feel better all around if you set down your book for a few minutes and take activity breaks.

Here’s a plan you can try while doing your homework or reading. Every hour, take a 3-minute break to stretch your arms and legs. One easy stretch is to fl ex your arms while making a fi st, up over your head and down, 15 times each arm. Then do 20 jumping jacks. Then run in place for 2 minutes. Or, you can play during your break from reading. For instance, go outside to jump rope, hula hoop, or even put on a helmet and ride your bike or scooter for a few minutes. So go ahead, take a break and before you know it, you’ll go back to your reading feeling more focused and able to concentrate.

Read All About It!

Here are some fun books to read—check your library for them.

Gardening

• “Brother Eagle, Sister Sky” by Susan Jeffers
• “Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney
• “The Gardener” by Sarah Stewart and David Small
• “Plantzilla” by Jerdine Nolen, Brian Keliher and David Catrow
• “Tops and Bottoms” by Janet Stevens
• “Weslandia” by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawkes

Chinese New Year—It started Jan. 23

• “Bringing in the New Year” by Grace Lin
• “Lanterns and Firecrackers: A Chinese New Year Story” (Festival Time) by Jonny Zucker and Jan Barger Cohen
• “Celebrating Chinese New Year” by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith and Lawrence Migdale

Get Cooking!

• “The Kid’s Cookbook: A Great Book for Kids Who Love to Cook! by Abigail Johnson Dodge, Chuck Williams and Leigh Beisch
• “Kids’ Fun and Healthy Cookbook” by Nicola Graimes
• “Smart School Time Recipes: The Breakfast, Snack, and Lunchbox Cookbook for Healthy Kids and Adults” by Alisa Marie Fleming

Honey Nut Yogurt

• 2 cups plain 1% low fat or fat free yogurt
• 1/4 cup almonds or other nuts, chopped*
• 4 teaspoons honey*

*Do not give nuts to children under 3 years old due to risk of choking. Do not give honey to infants under 1 year of age due to risk of botulism.

Directions

1. Wash hands with soap and warm water.
2. Toast walnuts or other nuts in a small pan over medium heat until lightly browned.
3. Place 1/2 cup yogurt in a bowl. Put 1 tablespoon of nuts and 1 tablespoon of honey on top of the yogurt

Nutrition Information Per Serving: calories, 137; carbohydrates, 16 g; protein, 8 g; total fat 5 g; saturated fat, 0 g; cholesterol, 3 mg; fi ber, 1 g; total sugars, 14 g; sodium, 114 mg; calcium, 207 mg; folate, 7 mcg; iron, 0 mg; percent calories from fat, 33%.