As mentioned in my June 2010 post, I was fortunate to have my new game, Food Focus: Fruits, accepted into the contest.  It didn’t win, but it placed in the preliminary round of the Health Games Challenge with the help of my talented programmer and voice overs by a spirited four year old. A link on the www.Nutritionvision.info “Arcade” page  can be played for free on a pc.

I next developed Food Focus into an iPhone/iPod Touch app with the help of another talented programmer and graphic artist. The game’s point is to just get people thinking about fruit and all the many choices other than apples and bananas.  In Food Focus, players look at a magnified photo of 50 different fruits and try to guess the right answer in 10 seconds.  There are five levels of increasing difficulty.  Both the young and young-at-heart enjoy playing Food Focus. Food Focus teaches food recognition skills to children, an issue brought to light in Chef Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution television program. A young school class he visited could not name one vegetable he showed them.

A recent study at Baylor University showed that children who played a health game increased their intake of fruit and vegetables by 2/3 serving a day. According to www.mypyramid.gov , this amount is equal to about one-third of young children’s daily intake.

The young children’s character role model, Max, of www.MaxonSnax.com has a match game on his site with a nutrition theme. Click on the raspberry in the “Play” page. A new iPhone/iPod Touch app with multiple levels expands on this theme. I have had the pleasure of consulting on this game that will be available soon.

Other games with RDs on the development team include those at www.NourishInteractive.com , www.Nerdel.com , and www.FuelUptoPlay60.com .  Check them out to celebrate National Nutrition Month in a new fun way!  I am sure that this is only the beginning of a positive healthy trend. Download the list of RD nutrition games and apps on the “Resources” page of www.Nutritionvision.info and visit www.FoodFocusArcade.com to follow Food Focus on Twitter and Facebook, and keep up with nutrition game news. Nutrition games are a wonderful new way to learn and initiate behavior change by playing with food!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy National Nutrition Month!

Catherine Frederico, MS RD LDN

President, Frederico Arts LLC

cf@NutritionVision.info

But many of these same programmers have a softer side and are on to other genres, specifically, health games.  In fact, what I discovered is a growing community of serious, global academics and programmers using various game platforms to educate and entice the public to learn about and adopt healthy living strategies in a fun and engaging way.  OK–I want to do that. Heaven knows dietitians have their hands full trying to solve the nations nutrition-related health problems and we need to employ every strategy we can to help people make better food and lifestyle choices. And who can’t use a little constructive fun?

So I enrolled online for the game jam to join a group of any interested person in Boston to spend three straight days developing a nutrition game.  Developing a nutrition game is something I’ve thought about for years, but just didn’t know the right people to make it happen.  Health Game Jam brought all the talent together in one place.  According to www.healthgameschallenge.org, the event was “hosted by the IGDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a joint initiative of the Games for Health Project and Health Games Research. Both Games for Health and Health Games Research are supported by the  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio, which seeks out innovative ideas that may lead to significant breakthroughs in the future of health and health care.”

Groups worked feverishly all over the country during the same weekend in Boston, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Albany, Orlando, Athens, and Fairfax. In Boston we worked long hours, but in others they slept on-site in sleeping bags.  These guys were determined and purposeful in their work.  It was a pleasure to finally find them.

In Boston, I was the only health professional. We also enjoyed the company of a 4H group of students, a doctoral student in learning games (yes, you can get a PhD in this) from Wisconsin, and about nine game programmers, one of which was fourteen years old!  For me, it was like living a dream.  Imagine all that talent in one place! Imagine the possibilities!

So we brainstormed our collective ideas and the programmers quickly informed us what was actually possible to complete in a 3 day time span.  We divided into three projects, but actually helped each other during the process. All meals were provided each day. The results of the massive, national enterprise can be viewed at www.healthgameschallenge.org/games.php.

The first one is the game I helped develop.  It is playable on a pc, but needs polishing to be submitted to the Let’s Move Campaign contest.  www.appsforhealthykids.com   I’ve shot many new photos this week and developed a logo. The upgraded version will be only fruits. Once submitted to the app contest, I will need everyone’s help voting for Food Focus, as “popular choice” is a winning category. A team of esteemed judges will also be critiquing the entries.

During our work meetings, I learned about the IGDA, which just happened to be having their annual meeting in Boston the days following the jam.  The program included a day-long symposium on mobile health games with presenters and academia from all over the world.  It was fascinating and heartening to find this extraordinary group of cutting-edge innovators all working to make the world a healthier place in a fun way. How great is that!

I admit, I am now smitten and feel like I have a new career as a health game and information technology designer.  I still can’t program, but I have a basket full of ideas, and I’m betting that this movement will take the world by storm.  The pieces and players of the puzzle are all falling into place.  In fact, I’m betting that someday the American Dietetic Association will have a Nutrition Games Dietetic Practice Group. Who’s up for a good game?

Catherine Frederico, MS RD LDN

They had some good questions during the Q&A. One person asked why all the fuss about educating kids, if the parents are buying the food and setting food agendas at home? Keep in mind that many school children have lunch available at school, and sometimes even breakfast.  Some towns even have summer meal programs. I believe they said 88,000 out of 100,000 schools offer lunch.  School meals reach 11 million children during the school year, and 2.4 million during the summer.  According to www.census.gov 2006-2007 figures, there are about 55 million elementary and high school children. BIG gaps here.

But getting back to the parents–yes, folks involved in Let’s Move have their sights set on parent nutrition education, too.  I hope it becomes ubiquitous. Children are going to be learning about food and nutrition in school, so parents need to seek nutrition education venues where they can to support their children when they are home. We need everyone on the same page.

During the live video stream there was a Facebook link to engage in a conversation there. I posted a question just as the conference ended.  Here’s my thought about one way to engage adults to help with the childhood obesity crisis:  Is it possible to regulate grocery stores to make a registered dietitian available on site for education and questions?  It’s mandated for hospitals.  It makes enormous sense to make this service available at point of food purchase, instead of dreaming up ways to avoid junk foods once they reach kitchen shelves and have added 20 pounds to our frames.  Food variety, preparation and portion education could also be addressed in stores.

About 5 summers ago I was looking to get back into the work force from my semi-retirement from dietetics while raising our children.  I thought grocery stores would be a fabulous place to work.  I envisioned giving talks and cooking demonstrations, making videos and strolling the aisles with customers teaching them how to use food labels.  I searched online for info about the major grocery stores near me and called them all to see if any had an interest in such a service.  Most of what I heard is “You want to do what? Why? Here?”

So that went nowhere, but I did notice that there were a few brave chains out there, like Wegmans, and Weis who were way ahead of the game.  They got it! No fear, just responsibility. Flash ahead 5 years to today and go to most any chain grocery stores and you’ll find pamphlets and newsletters, videos, demonstrations, and oodles of website nutrition content provided by registered dietitians.  There are a few store hold-outs, but they are in the minority and very late to the show, but it’s not impossible to catch-up.

Yet, there is still more they could do–more smart cart tours, more demos, more in-store classes and counseling. And, yes, I think it should be mandatory (if self-regulation doesn’t work)  for medium and large store chains.  There is still money to be made, but it has to be done responsibly with full disclosure upfront, rather than buyer beware.

A recent New England Healthcare Institute meeting hosted a panel of insurance officers who head wellness programs for corporations.  Although wellness programs have been shown to be financially beneficial, at least to large companies, workers do not take as much advantage of these programs as they could or should.  Unsubstantiated fears of divulging too much personal medical information or fear of a “big brother” mentality are major drawbacks.

It’s a shame to see such good intentions go to waste.  It hurts the worker, it hurts their children and it hurts our country.  We American citizens are all in this health basket together–watching our loved ones fall ill and while paying for it dearly in higher medical and insurance costs.  A healthy nation is a strong nation. To quote Michelle Obama in her cover letter that accompanied the release of the report today, “Let’s Move!”

White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President

www.letsmove.gov/taskforce_childhoodobesityrpt.html

Catherine Frederico, MS RD LDN

My favorite was the Laos program, where he dines with a family whose father in recent years has lost a limb to a landmine dropped by US forces in Laos during the Vietnam War. To this day, they still find and detonate hundreds a day. The tension at dinner is palpable and memorable.

So knowing Anthony knows a thing or two about working a restaurant kitchen and  food culture, I was at first delighted to see him do a show about basic cooking skills.  It was creatively done with Anthony first giving a knife skills lesson, and then starting to make beef bourguignon,  which he cuts back to throughout the episode.  He talks passionately about how sad it is that not many Americans know how to cook these days, and I totally agree. Anthony asked some very well known chefs to join him in doing simple demonstrations on how to make an omelet, grill a burger, make spaghetti sauce, and cook a lobster.

“How timely,” I thought.  So much is being written these days about how our elders are passing and the advent of convenience food has left few of us with basic cooking skills. With more people needing to cook at home because of the recession, it is important that someone pick up this gauntlet and get everyone eating healthy at their home tables again. I am one of the few who, as a child, was expected to help in the family garden and cook and can for the winter. But that’s another story, and I digress.

So, as a dietitian interested in this problem,  I was thrilled to see him tackle it. The boiled lobster demonstration was great. But slowly, slowly, as the show progressed, I realized this was no primer on how to cook healthy.  My heart sank with each demonstration.  A well-known chef plated up a runny omelet, not breathing a word about possible salmonella poisoning if you eat it uncooked.  Another chef demonstrated how to cook a hamburger and of course, he likes his rare, and thus didn’t mention the possible deadly effects of Ecoli contamination.  It also had cheese and bacon and I bet they weren’t low fat or low sodium versions. The next chef made spaghetti sauce from scratch, which started out fine, blanching the tomatoes for a minute to make peeling the skins easy. Then he says to add a “tablespoon” of oil to the sauce pan to  cook them, but he really adds about 1/2 cup.  Later he adds another 1/2 cup olive oil near the end of cooking, and still more when he plates it.  Wow!  Each teaspoon of oil is 40 calories. My internal calorie meter was going, “cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching.” Handfuls of salt were thrown into the pot of boiling water. And finally another hero chef talked about how much he loved using a lot of salt in cooking as he liberally seasoned a chicken with it. UNCLE!

Now, I can understand how some people would be thrilled to watch these pros work their craft because they have been around the block a few times and are true celebrities, but what this all points up to me is that, yeah, those guys can cook, and yeah, it probably tasted great, and OK it’s probably fine to eat it once in a while when you dine out,  but geesh, you can’t teach folks at home how to cook that way.  We already have an obesity and cardiac crisis on our hands! Haven’t you been paying attention to your doctor and the news? This is not to mention the 5,000 people who die each year due to food poisoning of some sort.

My hat is off to these masters, for many of today’s chef’s stand on their shoulders. However, it is clearly time for the Food Network or Travel Channel or Cooking Channel to host a show on fresh, nouvelle, healthy, herb-based cooking techniques that we can use at home everyday. We need the kind of instruction where you don’t have to worry about how many days you’re shaving off your life with the food you prepare.  I would be happy to be that person. Do you think I could get them to send me around the world with a camera crew, seeking out the healthiest cooked food in homes and restaurants?  It may initially be a short series, but momentum is growing rapidly and has got the attention of lots of important folks at the White House in Washington and the CDC in Atlanta, and insurance companies all over the country. Someone has got to do it, before there is no one left over twenty-five to watch TV at all. It’s worth a try. Call me. I’ll be in the kitchen.

Catherine Frederio

Later this year the ADA, American Dietetic Association, will be holding their annual meeting in Boston for the first time in many years.  The ADA is over 70,000 strong.  I can’t wait to attend the larger meeting. It should, likewise, be quite an informative, energizing, and impressive time.

Usually it takes hours to get to the selection procedure, most folks keep to themselves and read (or sleep) quietly.  Fraternizing is just not encouraged.  The atmosphere is likened to sitting on a bus or plane full of strangers, but you’re not going any where.

So that’s why it was pleasantly surprising to me that we all seemed to enjoy our time together during an afternoon break while legal bargaining was going on in the courtroom without us present.  About four of us had already eaten lunch together, so we knew a small bit about each other.  Remember, jurists are instructed not to discuss anything about the trial during breaks.  It sounds easy to do, but try being in a room with 13 people for two hours and not discussing the only thing you know you all have in common.  It breaks all the rules of common cocktail chatter.

So I guess it was only natural that our conversation would turn to food and then cooking and then traditional foods that we each were planning to prepare for the upcoming major holidays.  One woman was from Russia, and one was of Italian decent.  A young married man was from the Dominican Republic and I grew up with my own multi-heritage mix of holiday food traditions.  A lot of time was spent on pies–Kentucky pecan, apple, pumpkin. It seemed we all liked to cook and age, social status, profession, ethnicity or gender didn’t matter.  So instead of discussing the trial, we talked about food for over an hour, swapping recipes and web sites and sharing our holiday menu traditions.

The courtroom proceedings were going on so long and late, at one point we were convinced that everyone had left the building except us, and they would find us the next morning in the room in which they had locked us. The conversation quickly turned back to food for a while before the knock finally came on the door. It was the judge.  A petite, but commanding and courteous woman, she explained that they had settled on a plea, and that we were no longer needed.  After she left the room, we all sat just a little stunned, and I don’t think it was my imagination that we were also just a little sad to leave each other without a formal way to communicate, most likely ever again.  It was like we had just created this great recipe club, and then disbanded it all in one day.  We collected our things, and went our separate ways as we exited the building, politely saying our goodbyes similar to a graduation day.  I hope they, and all of you, have a wonderful holiday season in your own special, traditional way.

Feel free to post your special holiday dishes.

Happy Holidays!

Catherine

The holiday season is in full swing now. Thanksgiving slipped by me while I was tweaking my website, www.NutritionVision.info.  I have to say I honestly tried to watch the calories this year, at least until it was time for dessert.  But I am determined not to bring too much junk into the house this winter, and here’s why.  A colleague of mine at the Extension office in Nebraska has been creating powerpoints on various nutrition topics and, because they use government funds, their office posts them for all to view on the web.  This month she did one called “Tiny Tastes Can Total BIG Calories over the Winter Holidays.” It is very nicely done and the gingerbread people are cute.  More importantly, it addresses a problem we don’t tend to think about much, and that is how all those tiny tastes we take throughout the day can add up fast.  Here’s the link.

Tiny Tastes

http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/tiny-tastes.shtml

I also wanted to mention that I just posted a new podcast today about keeping good health in mind when planning holiday dinners.  Here’s the podcast link.

http://www.nutritionvision.info/podcasts.html

Wishing you many joys of the season.

Catherine

Oleana starters of whipped feta, red bean pate, and tuna deviled eggs

As a dietitian I belong to multiple, national dietetic practice groups that fall under the umbrella of the American Dietetic Association.  One of those groups is the Food and Culinary Professionals group.  Members are organizing all over the country and dining together in events called “Flings.”  This past week I had the pleasure of attending the Boston area’s first Fling with seven colleagues in Cambridge, MA for a fabulous dinner and conversation at Oleana.  Executive Chef Ana Sortun trained in France and has traveled extensively in East Asia.  Oleana reflects her Mediterranean travels and relies heavily on exotic spice blends in her signature style. One of her favorite herbs is Za’atar, which she pairs with warm olives, chopped apple and pear salad, and lemon chicken dishes.  The staff if welcoming and eager to answer any questions about their exotic menu.  Pictured here is a sampler of starters: whipped, spiced feta, red bean pate, and tuna deviled eggs. Not a crumb was left of these or our dinners. My cod with white beans and chorizo was fabulous, as well. So if you find yourself in Cambridge and yearning for something different from typical fare, then I suggest Oleana.  In warm weather you have the option of dining outdoors. Take a friend and share dishes to take advantage of the opportunity to try as many different flavors as possible.  

Enjoy! 

Catherine

I’m a dietitian among other things.  Lately I have been a web designer, and what a learning experience it has been.  But I’m confident that this will be a wonderful space to share experiences about food and nutrition. It’s a little like decorating a new home.

I am all about good tasting, healthy food.  If it doesn’t taste good, then I don’t have the time for it.  Life is too short.

Once in a while I eat out with family and friends, or learn of a new nutrition fact, or discover a new food or dish, and I will be sure to share my experiences and hope you will do the same.  

For the past couple months I have been working on my website, www.NutritionVision.info, and it still has some sections I need to develop and videos I need to complete.  Check it all out.  The Portion Library is going to be very helpful and the videos are cool and fun to make.  Colleagues are adding videos about the products they have produced.  It’s a flurry of activity, very much like moving day, everyday.  I hope you will agree that it is all very dynamic and interesting.  

Thanks for visiting Sustenance.  Check back often.

Catherine