What Now America

Today we watched some nutritional videos and had quiz questions for Florida's Natural Fruit Snacks (pretty healthy for candy). We learned about calories, soda, and bleached and enriched flour. We will continue watching these videos in the upcoming weeks.

We learned that "calorie content" is the amount of energy that's in foods. How do we determine how many calories are in an apple? Scientists put it in an insulated box, light it on fire, and measure how much heat is given off as it burns up! We learned that sodas aren't just bad for you because they're full of sugar- they also contain phosphates, which make the tiny holes in your bones big. This makes your bones weak. Finally, we learned about what "enriched" white flour/bread is. Sounds healthy, right? Unfortunately, no. Food manufacturers bleach flour to make it look white and "delicious" but during this process all the nutrients are sucked out of it! Some will sell these nutrient-less products as "white bread" while others will put back the nutrients artificially and call it "enriched white bread". Doesn't make much sense, huh.

During fitness time we split into two groups. Those who wanted to do Brazilian dance and Cardio Kickboxing in one group, and those who wanted to play in the gym in the other. The kids broke a sweat doing Capoeira and Kickboxing. Both involve music, so the kids enjoyed it. The kids in the gym decided to run relays against each other. They dribbled the soccer ball around cones and did hula hoops and jumping jacks.

For our nutrition activity this week we continued our discussion of the benefits of apples. We learned that apples are low in calorie, are filling, and are full of vitamins and fiber. Fiber is good for us because it prevents heart disease and arteriosclerosis, which is when fatty stuff builds up in the lining of your blood vessels and hardens. When this happens, blood can't get to where it needs to go! For our cooking activity we made our own delicious caramel apples! Our healthy modification was to cover only the lower half of the apple.

Ingredients:
Apples
Individually wrapped caramel squares

Popsicle stick or chopsticks

1. Unwrap the individually wrapped caramel squares.
2. Heat the caramel squares and water in a saucepan over low heat.
Cook, stirring often, until caramel melts and is smooth.

3. Stick the popsicle stick 3/4 of the way into the apple.

4. Dip the apple halfway into the caramel and rotate it on its side, making sure to cover the lower half.

5. Set on wax paper and place in fridge to set.
6. Enjoy!

For our physical activity this week we had a special guest, Vu, from UC Berkeley teach us the Taekwondo basics. We learned the stance and all the basic moves including front kick, axle kick, and roundhouse kick. The hardest move was the front kick followed by the roundhouse kick, but most of us got it! Finally, we learned how to stretched properly so that we wouldn't hurt the next day.

At the end of the day, our caramel apples had set, so we enjoyed them together before we went home.

Our fruit of the day was bananas. We learned that the bananas are great fruits because they provide us with a lot of energy- just two bananas give you enough energy for a 90 minute work out. They're actually the number one preferred fruit for athletes! Although bananas have a high sugar content- it's all good because it's natural sugar- sucrose, fructose, and glucose. It's high in potassium (helps you learn) and low in salt (bad for your blood pressure) and delicious!

We made Baked Cinnamon Banana Delight

Ingredients:
Bananas
Cinnamon
Oranges
Brown Sugar
Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Juice the oranges.
3. Slice the bananas and put them in a pyrex.
4. In a medium sized bowl mix the 3 cups of orange juice with half a cup of brown sugar, a little bit of salt, and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon.
5. Pour the mixture over the bananas.
6. Bake covered with foil for 15 minutes.

We were going to continue with the fitness challenge today but a basketball game was going on in the gym. We took turns leading exercises and then Negar and Zoha taught cardio kickboxing for the remaining time. Cardio kickboxing is a non-contact modification of kickboxing, but with most the same moves. For example, jab, cross, hook, uppercut are some of the punches we learned this week.

Today was the first day of StayFit! To start things off, we learned about the hot new fruit pomegranates, which have actually been eaten as fruits for centuries in the middle east. We learned why they're good for you: they contain tons anti-oxidants, vitamins, and fiber.

Three students helped demonstrate how to peel and seed the pomegranates. Although most of us had tasted pomegranate flavored drinks and candies, some of us had never eaten it fresh. We all tried eating it the Mediterranean way- seeds and all! By eating the tiny, chewable seeds, we don't lose out on the insoluble fiber that's good for our heart and digestion.

Our first physical activity for StayFit! was a fitness challenge. We used kidnetic.com to time how fast we could complete 10 tasks including running a lap around the gym, jumping jacks, bicep curls. sit ups, step ups, and more. Our fastest girl was Fredrikka Lake with a time of 2:10 and our fastest boy was Angel Hirales with time of 1:44! We weren't able to get through everyone but we'll see next week if anyone can beat Fredrikka and Angel's times. Everyone did a great job and more importantly, had fun!