Bio-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 19, 1994
Kids Learn The Secret For Having A Happy Heart
LINDA WILLIAMS
Bedford Co. Correspondent
BEDFORD (Bedford Co.)
The American Heart Association
wants kids to have healthy hearts.
To teach kids how to have healthy
hearts, the Heart Association
sometimes sends speakers to the
schools to talk to the children
about their hearts.
Exercise is very important and
most kids get plenty of exercise by
running, jumping rope, or on the
playground at school.
One of the things that might
make the heart not work properly
is a poor diet
Too much sugar can mean
added weight. Too much weight
makes the heart worker harder
therefore causing it to wear out
sooner.
Too much salt can bring extra
water into your blood vessels. The
fluid presses on the walls of the
blood vessels and can cause your
blood vessels to thicken. Once this
happens, the blood may have a
difficult time getting to the heart
Since the heart pumps your
blood throughout your body, it is
very important that the arteries
remain open and clear.
Too much fat can cause bumps
in your arteries. Then, your arte
ries would look much like a bum
py bicycle path and the blood
would again have a hard time get
ting through to your heart.
Kids can’t control a lot of their
diets. For instance, our parents or
older brothers or sisters usually do
the cooking at home. At school,
we eat what the cafeteria serves.
However, the cafeteria must
serve a balance diet according to
the standards set by the govern
ment and by the American Heart
Association. And, we can tell
whoever cooks at home what we
leant about a good diet.
Children do often have options
when choosing snacks.
Today, most foods that comes
in packages or cans have a label
on them which tells how much fat,
salt which is called sodium, and
sugar is in them. Sugar is referred
to as carbohydrates.
There are two kinds of carbohy
drates. There are simply carbohy
drates which include sugar, syrup,
honey, molasses, jams and jelly,
candy, soda pop, and most sweet
desserts.
Simple carbohydrates taste
good but are not really good for
us. They should be eaten only
once in a while.
Complex carbohydrates, on the
other hand, are good for us. They
are found in bread, cereal, pasta,
vegetables, potatoes, fruit, juice,
and milk.
Salt or sodium is found in pota
to chips, cheese curls, pickles,
ketchup, lunchmeat, and hot dogs.
There is a lot of salt in some fast
food hamburgers because they put
a lot of salt in the meat as well as
in the ketchup and sauces they use
on the meats.
Our bodies require only 1000
mg of sodium each day. One hot
dog has 430 mg. of salt
Fat is very high in fried foods,
meat, nuts, whole milk, and ice
cream. However, we do need
some fat and it is best to get it
from eating lean meat and dairy
products.
We should eat Med foods only
once in a while which might be
once a week.
Foods that we eat anytime and
as much as we like include fruits
and vegetables, bread, cereals,
low fat milk, cottage cheese,
chicken or turkey, fish, tuna, or
lean hamburgers.
Foods which we should eat no
more than once a day might
include salty or sweet crackers,
cheese, ice cream, peanut butter,
eggs, ham, port, butter, or
mayonnaise.
And, food to be eaten no more
than once a week might be french
fries, potato chips, cheese curls,
donuts, cake, cookies, hot dogs,
sausage, bacon, or sweet soda pop.
The American Heart Associa
tion has suggested some recipes
which are easy to make and with
only a little help, you could make
yourself.
1 package light microwave
popcorn
14 cup dried apples, peaches, or
other dried fruit
14 cup unsalted pretzels
A cup unsalted peanuts
'A cup raisins
Measure 114 to 2 cups popcorn
into a bowl.
With kitchen scissors, cut dried
apples, peaches. Or other favorite
dried fruit into V* inch pieces.
Add dried fruit to popcorn.
Add pretzels, peanuts, and rai
sins to popcorn mixture.
Using wooden spoon, toss to
mix. Serve at once.
If you like the new Mexican
foods that are very popular, you
should try these. 'Hiey have some
good dairy products in them.
MEXIDIPOLE
Vegetable oil spray
1 9-ounce can bean dip
3 green onions
4 ounces Cheddar cheese (grated)
2 to 3 small tomatoes
6 tablespoons light sour cream
Sprigs of parsley
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Spray dish with vegetable oil
spray. Open can of bean dip. With
rubber spatula, spread dip over
bottom of dish.
Rinse and slice green portions
of onions. Throw away white part.
Measure 1 / cup onion slices into a
small bowl. Grate cheese if it is
not preshredded. Add grated
cheese to green onions and mix
well. Sprinkle mixture evenly
over bean dip.
Place dish in preheated oven.
Bake uncovered for 7 to 10
minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
Eat with unsalted Tortilla
Crisps.
If you in a hurry in the morning,
you can still get all the nutrition
you need for breakfast by using
the following recipes.
POPCORN
SHAKE ONE-BANANA
1 cup skim milk
1 ripe banana, peeled and cut in
half
'A cup low-fat cottage cheese
l'/i teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
3 to 4 ice cubes
Dash of gound nutmeg
Put in the blender, mix, and
drink.
Or, you can use the same recipe
and use 'A cup frozen
unsweetened whole strawberries
and 'A ripe banana, peeled, and
cut in half. Add a tiny bit of
orange juice or some orange
flavoring.
Now that you have made these
recipes, you can see how easy it is
to eat right
Million
Dollar
Caramel
Candy
Class
HERSHEY (Dauphin Co.)
The Million Dollar Caramel Can
dy class will be held on Saturday,
February 26, from 10 -11:30 a.m.
forages 5-7. Milton Hershey earn
ed his “first million” by manufac
turing caramel candy in the city of
Lancaster. Youngsters in this class
will make and wrap their own spe
cial batch of caramel candy to take
home and share with others.
They’ll leant about Mr. Hershey’s
stan in the candy business and
how he experimented with recipes
until he found one people really
liked. $6 musuem members. $9
non-members. Call (717)
534-3439 for information.
Alice shows a boy how to listen to his own heart.
Alice brought along a bottle of cream which she asked
the children to shake. After shaking for a long time, the
cream turned into butter. By doing this, Alice was able to
show the children how fat can form on the inside of our ar
teries.
Alice Corle, a registered dietitian, and a volunteer for the
American Heart Association, talks to a group of boys and
girts about the Importance of eating a balanced diet. A diet*
Itlan Is a person who studies how different types of food af
fect your body.