SnackTime Survival Kit Giveaway!

Food for Thought: The Nutrition Nanny™ Deirdre Pizzoferrato Educates Families on Healthy Eating & How to Fight Childhood Obesity

Introducing the Beanstalk Express® SnackTime Survival Kit, a Fun & Interactive Way to Teach Kids About Better Nutrition & Healthy Eating Habits!

New information from the US Department of Health and Human Resources reveals that despite national efforts to curb childhood obesity here in the US, rates are still climbing! Because the years of preventing childhood obesity are over by the time our children reach kindergarten, parents need products that offer a fun and practical approach to teaching their children balanced nutrition! And we have it!

Welcome to Beanstalk Express, the home of the world’s first snacktivity game, The SnackTime survival kit At Beanstalk Express, we’re parents too! And like you, we also envisioned raising fruit-and-veggie loving eaters, avoiding processed foods and “just saying no!” to drive through windows! But then something happened along the way … We had kids!

After enduring the preschool battles with picky eaters and around-the-clock requests for sweets and goodies, we realized what was missing when it comes to inspiring our kids with healthy habits that will last …Food marketers have been making junk food fun for decades. So what if we made healthy choices just as much fun? We decided to try it … and it worked! When you empower children with the ability to make their own choices, amazing things happen! At Beanstalk Express, we make healthy fun! And in the process, they become habit!


Wooden Clock Board

Features one working clock, 3 control clocks with moveable arms, and 3 corresponding hooks to hold snack cards in place.



33 Snack Cards

On the front are pictures of delicious snacks to choose from. On the back is important tips and information to learn from.



How it works!

1.Each morning, Mom or Dad selects between 4-6 snack cards that are available to make that day from the deck.

2.From these cards, kids can choose their 3 snacks for that day.

3.Mom sets the control clocks to the desired snack times and hangs the snack cards on the corresponding hooks.

4.And now it's up to the kids! By Keeping an eye on the clocks, the kids alert Mom to when it's SNACK TIME!

5.Mom takes the snack card off the hook and serves up the snack.

Deirdre Pizzoferrato, Registered Dietitian Certified in Child and Adolescent Weight Management & the founder of Beanstalk Express® - a child nutrition information and resource company promoting healthy habits, healthy bodies and healthy lives. “Children are subjected to the obese lifestyle from all sides. Many families have substituted high fat, high sugar junk food and soft drinks for regular well-balanced meals; or they have simply stopped preparing meals in the home.”

Lifelong Effects of Childhood Obesity

An alarming number of children are obese and developing diseases normally seen in adulthood. Overweight adolescents have a greatly increased risk of dying from heart disease in adulthood.

As with most health problems, the key is prevention, and the effort cannot be left up to the individual — parents need to be the first to take responsibility. “Dismissing childhood obesity as baby fat or relying on a kid’s will power is simply not a solution,” says Deirdre. “We cannot consider it just to be a cosmetic problem - it’s a health risk problem. We can no longer sit back and wait, and think a child may grow out of it.”

Overweight or obese adolescents may be at risk for many of obesity's health effects. These include:

Ø Type 2 diabetes

Ø Heart disease

Ø High blood pressure (hypertension)

Ø High cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia)

Ø Certain cancers

Ø Gallbladder disease and gallstones

Ø Fatty liver disease (also called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH)

Ø Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)

Ø Psychological and emotional effects



What Can Be Done About Childhood Obesity? Beanstalk Express® Teaches Parents that Prevention Starts At Home

Food for thought is taking on a whole new meaning. A slow but sustainable healthy food movement has been forming over last few years. Starting at local community levels and all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (aka the White House), people are acknowledging that obesity is a global problem. “Politicians and lawmakers to parents and individuals are realizing that their own poor decisions about what to eat are shortening life spans and increasing health care costs,” says Deirdre. In the last two years, state legislatures have enacted or proposed measures that require or recommend nutritional guidance for schools nationwide. In 2010, the First Lady Michelle Obama launched a national campaign to end childhood obesity and promote general good health across the country.


“It is up to parents and other adults to teach responsible alternatives to the obese lifestyle,” says Deirdre. “Parents must first become aware of the problems with their own personal and family eating habits and activity levels, and then they must make adjustments that will have a positive lifelong impact on their children. If a child learns good habits for diet and exercise as children, they will very likely carry these habits and this knowledge into adulthood as well.”

Beanstalk Express® is a child nutrition information and resource company that gives parents the tools and information necessary to prevent their child from becoming another statistic of childhood obesity. “Founded by parents for parents, at Beanstalk Express®, we believe that childhood obesity begins at home,” says Deirdre. “We understand that the critical period of childhood obesity prevention occurs during the early and sometimes most challenging years of infancy, toddlerhood and preschool.”
 
 

Win a SnackTime Survival Kit!!!

To enter, share your favorite healthy snack in a comment below. Must be a US resident. Follow me on Google/Networked Blogs/Facebook/Twitter for one entry each follow. Links are on my sidebar. Follow my new blog, Away We Go, with Google/GFC for two extra entries! Giveaway ends midnight July 10, 2011. Good luck!