Volunteer Week

This week was my aptly named Volunteer Week. As part of the new year, I wanted to give back to the community in a structured and available way. In this volunteer week, I spoke in three different classrooms, hosted the second session of the four-session heart healthy class at the library, and updated tags at Olerud's (the grocery store in town that let me label their foods "healthy", "healthier", and "healthiest!").

 

Olerud's Grocery Store Tags

We'll start with the Olerud's grocery store tags. This actually started on Saturday the 9th with the first Nutrition Support Group meeting of 2016. We all met at Olerud's and walked around, discussing foods and which foods got labels verses which didn't. Olerud's had purchased some new foods (a few per my recommendations!), and these needed to get tagged too.

It took us twice the amount of time that we normally spend in a group meeting, but we combed through most sections of the store and discussed almost every food available. Some foods were defaulted to be healthiest! options (fruits, vegetables), and others were a bit more questionable, like why didn't Whole Wheat Ritz get a tag? Answer: it still has almost no fiber per comparable serving.

Tomorrow, Saturday the 16th, we'll meet at Howser's at 10 am.

 

Heart Healthy Class at the Library

This week was the second session of the four-session heart healthy class at the library and we discussed saturated verses unsaturated fat. We discussed plant oils (specifically olive oil as supported by the EPIC studies and the Mediterranean diet), lean meats, and the food science behind it all. In the first session (last Thursday), we had a packed library in Haines and a few people from outlying communities video-conference in. This Thursday it was the exact opposite - 10 people on video-conference and one audience member in Haines.

These library classes have shown to be really fun - I always end up hoarse at the end from laughing. The participants bring nutrition facts labels that we learn to read, we discuss foods in relation to heart health, and I field questions in the last 10 minutes to anyone that comes with curiosity.

Next Thursday (January 21st) will be our last session regarding food and heart health. We'll be discussing high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. We skip the next Thursday (January 28th) and meet up again in the first Thursday of February (February 4th) for a talk about physical activity and preventing heart disease. I like to compare the library sessions to the James Bond movie franchise - you don't have to see all of them to get something good out of the most recent one. They are standalone. Not like the Star Wars movies.

 

Speaking with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Classes

Each class had the same general outline of discussion: introductions, talk about favorite foods, talk about helping cook at home, and moving onto discuss My Plate, "special occasion foods", and whole grains. Then we moved onto my favorite game: Stump The Dietitian.

 

I always preface Stump The Dietitian with "now I wanted to bring this game to you kids, because I play this game with grown ups and they never beat me. But I thought you guys might be able to beat me because kids come up with the best questions". Each class did beat me.

 

The question that stumped me from the 5th grade (on Monday): Are GMOs bad for you?

This was very tricky. A big point that I wanted to get across with these talks was to eliminate the fear of food in kids. Although orthoexia (an obsession with only eating "healthy" foods) is not recognized in DSM-V, I see signs of it emerging in some people, and even some kids. So when I discussed foods that didn't fit in the My Plate diagram (such as cakes, cookies, candies, ice cream, soda), I made sure to call them "special occasion" foods and not "unhealthy" foods.

 

Making kids afraid of food is not my job. Answering the question about GMOs is tricky, because when it comes down to it, it's more of a political question. In the end, I answered, "it's a personal preference and a decision that your parents make for you. There isn't enough good evidence for me to say if they're bad or not."

 

The question that stumped me from the 4th grade (on Tuesday): Why is there a new flu shot every year?

To be fair, I'm a dietitian - not an immunologist. I did my best to answer this question, but I fear I may have just confused the kids. So yes, I was stumped on this question, but it was a really hard one! If you have an easy way to explain this to kids, please let me know.

 

The question that stumped me from the 3rd grade (today, on Friday): Are GMOs bad for you?

This question came from the younger sister of the girl who tried this question out on Monday. Tricky kids - working together to beat me at my game. But by this time, it got a little easier to answer. Next time I'm asked by kids, I'll have the answer streamlined: "that's a decision for your parents to make for you". They stumped me, those sneaky kids!

 

 

Although I continue volunteering through February (through the last of the library sessions), this week was chocked-full of giving back to Haines. I'm glad I had these opportunities as Haines has helped me countless times over the years.

 

 

Kate Fossman, RDN, LD

 

January 15, 2016