Now fortified and enriched.

When we heard that the USDA and the White House were holding a health games competition, we knew our name was written all over it. After all, Pyramid Pile Up was already using USDA databases and information from their MyPyramid website.  Because it’s a competition, we decided to give Pyramid Pile Up a slight makeover.

Introducing Pyramid Pile Up Plus!

Pyramid Pile Up Plus is a puzzle game many of you may be familiar with.  As with Pyramid Pile Up, you play against the Chompies to fill up a pyramid of healthy foods.  What makes Pyramid Pile Up Plus a “plus” is two-fold:

• Pyramid Pile Up Plus delivers health information to players using two USDA databases, FNDDS 3.0 and MyFoodapedia.
• Starting in level 2, scrolling over food tiles reveals nutrition labels.  Now it’s even easier to make healthier choices by choosing foods that are low in fat, saturated fat, and sugar.
• Pyramid Pile Up Plus is available in both English and Spanish.  ¡Olé!

Wow!  So fun!  You’ll only find Pyramid Pile Up Plus for this competition so play now or watch the video. You can vote for your favorite healthy kid app and game starting July 14.  We hope you enjoy Pyramid Pile Up Plus and want to vote for Playnormous!

About the Apps for Healthy Kids Competition.

The Apps for Healthy Kids competition is a part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation. Apps for Healthy Kids challenges software developers, game designers, students, and other innovators to develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially “tweens” (ages 9-12) – directly or through their parents – to eat better and be more physically active. Tools and games should be built using the USDA nutrition dataset recently made available to the public through the Open Government Initiative.

Researching food for thought.

During a quest for an interview for my healthGAMERS blog, I discovered the wonderful research that Cornell University is doing at their Food and Brand Lab.  They are a group of scientists that research nothing but those questions you’ve always wondered about the way we eat and why.  Why do we unknowingly overeat?  What do restaurants do to get us to eat more?  Are our fears about food safety valid?  Are the marketing statements on food packages misleading?  Needless to say, there is a plethora of interesting information on this site. What a great job!

Studies of interest on why we overeat.

Portion size is often overlooked by those wishing to maintain a healthy diet.  It’s not just what you eat but how much.  Unfortunately for the consumer, there are many external triggers that will influence how much we eat.  Here are just a few that the Cornell Food and Brand Lab have discovered:

• Our mood affects our eating habits - People who watch sad movies eat about 28% more popcorn than people who watch happy movies.
• How food is served affects our eating habits - People who eat from large bowls consume about 56% more food that people who eat from small bowls.
• Environmental distractions affect our eating habits - People who watch TV or read while eating tend to eat for longer periods of time.
• What’s available affects our eating habits - People who buy food in bulk increase their consumption rates especially when products are convenient to consume.
• What the label says affects our eating habits - People who eat foods labeled “low fat” eat 28% more than foods labeled “regular.”

Stay tuned to Monster’s Blog for more amazing research from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab!

Eat you broccoli, Timmy.

I’ve been wanting to do an article on how parenting can affect childhood eating habits for a while now.  It’s been in the draft pile until our VP, Richard Buday, sent this Newsweek article to me: “How Mac N’ Cheese Is Like A Cigarette.” That’s a mighty catchy title and powerful claim.  The article explains how parents that feed their kids macaroni and cheese, like many other high fat, high calorie kid-popular foods, are conditioning their children to a lifetime of hypereating.  According to the article, hypereating is “eating that’s excessive, out of control and has nothing to do with satisfying hunger.”

We know we can’t just blame macaroni and cheese.  If there were no demand for these high fat products then they wouldn’t exist on store shelves, right?  So it must be the parents who are to blame.  Well…maybe. Or you could side with the folks at The New Yorker who say that we’re overparenting kids already.  They would probably argue that parents should let their kids experience the joy of being a kid by letting them eat that high fat macaroni and cheese while they can.

What is a health-driven parent to do?

I’m not giving you much information here because I want you to tell me what you think.  Which is better:

1. A parent who restricts diet and steers their child towards healthier foods from the getgo…or….
2. A parent that exposes their child to all kinds of foods, high fat and all, and let’s the child ultimately decide?

Guitar Hero meets Schoolhouse Rock.

Dr. James Tour, a chemistry, mechanical engineering and computer science professor at Rice University is taking science education to the next level.  Dr. Tour is using the power of video games, specifically Guitar Hero and Step Mania, to teach science lessons through music.  Funded by the National Science Foundation, “SciRave” and “SciJam” pair science-themed songs these popular music video games to heighten the learning experience.  See the media release from the Texas Medical Center for more information or visit the SciRave website to get it straight from the source.

Free (and fun) science curriculum for teachers!

Dr. Tour’s group is looking for teachers to test out the SciRave and SciJam games and  so visit the SciRave website to download the games for free.  Print out the lyrics, listen to the music, and send them feedback on how your students liked the games.

Would you like fries, I mean, carrots with that?

Obesity always seems to be in the news.  The latest stats, the latest diets, the latest work-out crazes.  But have we really addressed this issue, especially when it comes to childhood obesity?  An article by my favorite health editor, Tara Parker-Pope interviewed the Director of the Rutgers University Nutritional Sciences Preschool on parenting and childhood eating habits.  Why do kids want a side of fries versus broccoli with cheese?    Parents, perhaps it’s time to look inward and evaluate how you approach nutrition with your child.

The six step program.

So how does a parent become a better host of nutritious foods?  Lock up the sweets and hide the carrots in the mac and cheese?  Not really.  Veggie stealth isn’t the way to go.  Experts have six tips for parents, some obvious, and some an eye-opener.

1. Get your child involved in meal preparation. Allow your child into the kitchen to see how food is prepared.  Take a cooking class together.  One study with 600 K-6th grade children found that kids who took a nutritional cooking class were more likely to ask for second helpings of veggies than those just learning about nutrition the conventional way.  Cool.
2. Don’t force-feed the good stuff, even just one bite. Studies show that pressuring children to “just take one bite” or “just try it” backfires faster than you can say Johnny-eat-your-vegetables.  Forget “eat your Brussel sprouts or no dessert.” and “You can play video games if you try your beet salad.”  Encourage your child to try the colorful tidbit, but don’t give praise or scold depending on their reaction.  Play it cool.
3. Don’t lock up the junk food. A good way to cause unhealthy snack binging is to restrict specific foods.  One study found that restricting cookies in a jar from children more than tripled cookie consumption versus when cookies are placed freely on plates.  If you don’t want your kids to eat it, don’t bring it into the house.  Period.
4. Don’t diet in front of your children. This is a tough one, especially this time of year.  Researchers have found that daughters of dieters are more likely to try diets as well.  Stop the dieting cycle by introducing balanced, portioned meals for all.
5. Serve vegetables, super-fun style. Don’t just steam ‘em, dress them up.  Make vegetables exciting with seasonings and trying new recipes that incorporate vegetables.  This is much easier than hoping a child will eat a whole pile of cooked cabbage.
6. Don’t give up. Studies show it can take up to 15 times before a child accepts a new food.  That’s a lot of trying.  So don’t give up!  Keep serving the healthy stuff and keep trying!

These are only some of many tips that are probably out there.  Feel free to send yours!