The Seal and Healthy Eating for your Children

When you receive the Seal God leads you to healthy eating choices. He cares about nutrition and wants you to lead a long and healthy life. And He cares about your children. A new study shows they may be responding.

Your children may not be as resistant to healthy foods as you thought. You may have had problems getting kids to eat foods they did not "like." And this may have included many of the healthier foods.

But one place this is not happening as much as you thought is at school. Kids at school when offered healthier meals are not rejecting them in droves but instead are eating them--and enjoying them.

A University of Minnesota study shows that at least in Minnesota schools for the last few years kids have been happy to eat healthier school lunches. The study is published in the December issues of The Review of Agricultural Economics.

Researchers looked at 330 Minnesota Public School districts. They looked for schools that met federal guidelines for nutrients and also calories and fat. And when they calculated the results they found something interesting.

Schools serving the healthiest lunches did not see any reduction in demand for those lunches. Kids were still buying the healthy school lunches in as many numbers as those buying the older, less nutritious versions.

The study also looked at how cost-effective more nutritious meals are in the school setting. The labor costs for nutritious foods is higher. And many school workers need to be trained to provide nutritious meals.

But there is also a lower cost--the cost of the food itself. Fruits and vegetables do not cost as much as their processed alternatives. So a balance was found between labor costs and supplies costs, showing that healthy meals would not cost much more.

The Saint Paul school district is the example others may follow. They serve over 46,000 lunches a day and when they started changing to healthier foods, the students responded well. They actually saw an increase in those buying lunches.

They served more fruits and vegetables and got more kids to eat them at the same time. What you may have thought an impossible task has been easily accomplished in Saint Paul.

And their "junk foods" are also compromises between bad and good. They do offer hot dogs on their menu. But they are made of turkey and are low-fat. So the kids can have indulge once in a while without going overboard.

Now some other regions might do similar studies without finding exactly the same results. But the researchers believe this is happen everywhere in America. Kids are showing willingness to eat healthier foods at school.

You may have the experience that kids simply refuse to eat what is good for them, or what is better for them. But this study may be the beginning of healthier alternatives in schools that the kids actually like to eat.

And that may help kids to learn to like healthy foods everywhere else too and not just at school. This is what God is doing for the youth today. Showing them that they can enjoy taking care of their bodies and starting at a young age.

When you are sealed God writes His Name in your forehead. And He wants you to be fit when you bear His Name. Fitness includes diet. He wants you to eat the right foods. He does not want you to suffer any health risks for your diet.

God also wants your kids to avoid health risks. And they can start with their diets. This study is showing kids already have started. You can start too. You can start today by learning how to receive the Seal.