Love Your Heart - Today & Every Day

It's Valentine's Day and what better topic for a heart-themed day than loving your heart. It can sometimes be a struggle to get kids and young people to understand why healthy eating and good nutrition matters. I try to appeal to a lot of different aspects of life - how they feel, their energy, performance, appearance, etc. - but sometimes some simple science does the trick. My girls and I recently watched some YouTube kids videos about your heart and how it works and why it's important. They really enjoyed the videos and it was a chance to talk about how to take care of our hearts. When it comes to what we eat, here are the 5 things I focus on for a healthy heart and how I try to explain them to my kids.

1. Fruits & Vegetables  - Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables is essential for keeping your heart healthy. Your heart needs the antioxidants and nutrients found in fruits and vegetables to maintain optimal cholesterol and blood pressure levels so that it can have enough energy to pump the blood through some clear blood vessels to the rest of the body.

2. Whole Grains - The whole grains found in things like oatmeal, brown, rice, whole wheat flour, and some cereals are a great source of nutrients like B vitamins that your heart needs to fight the risk for diseases of the heart and to make sure things are working optimally. They also help form new cells and carrying oxygen to the blood, making the whole heart system stronger.

3. Fiber - Fiber is found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables and plays a strong role in lowering risk for developing a disease of the heart and managing blood sugar. Fiber is a regulator and having balanced blood sugar levels ensures your heart is able to do its job properly. Some studies have also shown that fiber is linked to clearer arteries, particularly those that deliver blood to your brain - that's important.

4. Not Too Much (sugar, processed, and fried foods) - While everyone loves a fun meal out and treat sometimes, avoiding overdoing it on sugar, processed and fried foods is the way to go if you're thinking about your heart. Too much of this stuff can clog your arteries and mess with the sugar levels in your blood, making it harder for your heart to get your blood where it needs to go.

5. Water -Your heart is constantly working and drinking enough water helps your heart do its job properly. When you don't drink enough water, you can become dehydrated and when that happens the amount of blood moving around your body decreases and becomes thicker. In order to compensate for the decrease and thickening of your blood, your heart has beat harder and faster. Drinking enough water helps your heart pump blood more easily and allows oxygen to reach your body and help if function more efficiently.

Teaching your kids the effect nutrition has on their hearts is awesome and goes hand-in-hand with other heart-healthy habits like getting plenty of exercise and sleep and learning to read nutrition labels. Heart-healthy habits formed now not only creates healthy kids, but health adults as well.

About Breakfast + 5 Suggestions for When You're Out of Ideas

Even though many sources have recently touted the health benefits of not eating breakfast (i.e. intermittent fasting), this supporting research is based on adult nutritional needs which are entirely different from those of kids and growing teenagers. Breakfast still plays a very important role for those is growth stages - it helps them pay better attention in school and provides an opportunity for them to consume needed nutrients for growth and development.

Additionally, kids, in particular, do not possess the mind over matter abilities that adults do, meaning when their energy levels dip and they begin to get hungry, they can't see into the future knowing they can hold off until later. Instead, they get tired and lose their ability to focus.

As both a dietitian and a mom, I give a lot of focus to breakfast at our house. I always shoot for three food groups to be present, including a source of protein to keep energy levels up and prevent the post-breakfast crash that can happen after a carb (or sugar) heavy meal. Some of my favorite breakfast options include:

1. Smoothie - A smoothie is a great way to get multiple food groups in one compact package. Not to mention, they're portable so slow morning people can take them on the go.

2. Yogurt Bowl - With yogurt, aim for a low-sugar option, like Siggi's and top it up with fruit and a nut butter for some added protein and fat.

3. Cereal + Milk + Fruit - Low sugar cereal options (some of our favorite brands include Kashi, Cascadian Farms, Nature's Path Envirokidz, and Multigrain Cheerios) get a dose of protein with some milk and some extra fiber from the fruit.

4. Eggs & Toast - Eggs cooked any way are a great source of protein and round out the whole grains from a piece of toast and the fruit from a fruit spread or some extra healthy fat from smashed avocado or a couple tablespoons of nut butter.

5. Waffles - It's no secret we love our Kodiak Cakes toaster waffles all kinds of ways - with peanut butter and sliced bananas or topped with syrup and served with scrambled eggs and some fresh berries.