From Your Health Journal…..”A great article by Everyday Health by Amir Khan called Beating Childhood Obesity Takes More Than Cutting Calories. The article discusses food icon Rachael Ray’s organization, Yum-O, is dedicated to changing kids’ attitudes to get them excited about healthy nutritional habits, and, ultimately, to help improve their health. Yum-O works with schools to revamp lunch programs, help bring healthy food into communities and end childhood hunger. She also provides scholarships for kids who want to pursue a career in the food industry. What a great gesture by Rachel Ray and her organization. Helping children who are hungry, as well as educating children on healthy eating. Rachel and her organization should be commended. Please visit the Everyday Health web site (link provided below) to read the complete article.”

From the article…..

Kids need to get excited about their food to develop good nutritional habits and beat obesity, says celebrity chef Rachael Ray.

Growing up, food icon Rachael Ray never went hungry. There was always food on her table, and her parents always encouraged her to eat healthy. Unfortunately, she says, that childhood is not typical for most American children, and she blames its absence for the expanding waistlines of many American kids — not to mention less-than-stellar test scores.

Ray’s organization, Yum-O, is dedicated to changing kids’ attitudes to get them excited about healthy nutritional habits, and, ultimately, to help improve their health. So is her participation in First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, which celebrated its third anniversary this week.

“A couple of years into our initiative the First Lady decided that ‘Let’s Move’ would be her campaign,” Ray said at a Mississippi stop on Obama’s “Let’s Move” anniversary tour. “The birth of the White House garden and her commitment to ending food deserts paired so well with what we were trying to do.”

Yum-O works with schools to revamp lunch programs, help bring healthy food into communities and end childhood hunger. She also provides scholarships for kids who want to pursue a career in the food industry.

Three years ago, when “Let’s Move” was first getting off the ground, Ray said she reached out to the first lady to offer her “big mouth” in support.

She joined Obama in pushing for the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010, which put a limit on the amount of sodium that could be in school lunches, made whole grains mandatory, and provided monetary incentives designed to schools that complied. Since the act’s inception, 5,000 of the 100,000 schools in America have met the new nutritional standards, surpassing the goal not only for 2012, but for 2013 as well.

“We try and help schools make nutritional changes that help kids get excited about eating,” Ray said.

The idea is that if kids are excited about healthy food, they are willing to go out of their comfort zone to eat it, Ray said. One of the best ways to get them excited is to help them grow it themselves, she added, which is something she helped New York City schoolchildren do.

To read the full article…..Click here