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The enthusiastic participation of many different people and organizations made this fall’s Eat a Rainbow Week a success. Here are some highlights from the week.

On Monday, students from CCCC’s Natural Chef program visited Kindergarten classes throughout the county. They read fun fruit and vegetable themed books like Lunch by Denise Fleming and Rah Rah Radishes by April Pulley Sayre and talked to Kindergarteners about what it’s like being chef students.

On Tuesday, young and old joined for fun Eat a Rainbow activities at the Fearrington Farmers’ Market. It was yellow and orange day and there was an amazing variety of yellow and orange winter squashes on sale.

On Wednesday, the Children’s Librarian for the Chatham Community Library held one of her weekly story times, but this week’s story times were all focused on fruits and vegetables. And it wasn’t just fun for the kids, as she told us it was fun for her too! “My two favorite books this year were Lunch by Denise Fleming and Banana by Ed Vere. Lunch has beautiful, colorful illustrations showing the very edge of a veggie on one page, letting kids guess what veggie the little mouse is going to eat next. Lots of fun guesses, the hardest one to guess was a turnip. Banana is one of my new favorite books, it utilizes only the word ‘banana’ and ‘please’. When you get 20 or so kids yelling ‘banana’ at you, you can’t help but love your job.”

On Thursday, kids and families, wearing the colors of the day (blue and purple), braved the rain and cold to participate in Eat a Rainbow activities at the Pittsboro Farmers Market. Among the fun opportunities, Angelina from Angelina’s Kitchen gave kids the chance to turn different foods purple using beet powder!

Friday was a day off from school, but schools were busy throughout prior few days with nutrition-focused, colorful fun! Staff and students wore the colors of the day, ate the colors of the day at snack and at lunch, and participated in nutrition-focused lessons and activities in their classes. As one teacher told us, “It is much more meaningful when they (students) see a unified approach to promoting healthy eating, with the message coming from the cafeteria, their regular classrooms, their art, P.E., and music classes, in announcements, and from the principal and the rest of the school staff. The students are aware it is my job, as a health/PE instructor, to teach them about how to establish healthy habits, but it really hits home when the whole school is involved.”

On Saturday, a number of kids got the chance to do an Eat a Rainbow Scavenger Hunt at the Chatham Mills Farmers Market. They searched for different colored fruits and vegetables at the various stands and talked with growers about their favorites.

Throughout the week, Chatham residents enjoyed fruit and vegetable artwork created by Pittsboro Elementary School 1st grade students, Perry Harrison Elementary School 2nd grade students, and Jordan Matthews High School art students. The Chatham Community Library received many compliments on the art display in their lobby, and student artists paid a visit to Chatham Marketplace to see their artwork on display. Photos of some of this artwork are included in the slideshow above.

If you participated in Eat a Rainbow Week activities and would like to give us your feedback, please complete our online evaluation. Click here to take survey You can also direct questions and comments to Ellie Morris, School Health Liaison for the Chatham County Public Health Department at elizabeth.morris@chathamnc.org or 545-8443.

Glass of Water by Greg Riegler Photography on Flickr

You fill up a tall glass, the ice tinkling–there’s nothing like a cool drink to refresh you on a hot summer’s day!  There are so many sports drinks, flavored waters, and energy drinks on the market along with the old stand-bys of juice, milk and water, sometimes it’s hard to know what the healthiest choice is to quench your thirst.

Calories from beverages can really add up and soda consumption is thought to be one factor contributing to the rise in obesity in the country.  In Chatham County, the Youth Health Behavior Survey found that about a third of middle and high school students who were surveyed said that they drank soda once or more each day.  This is a higher percentage than when you look at high school students nationally and state-wide.

Below are some things to think about, the next time you reach for a beverage to cool off:

• First of all, between water and other beverages, you should try to drink enough that you rarely feel thirsty and that your urine is colorless or slightly yellow.

• Water is a great choice, and should make up at least half of what you drink in a day. When you are active, if you’re exercising for less than an hour, water is the best choice to stay hydrated.  For times when you’re exercising or working strenuously for more than an hour, or if it is very hot, sports drinks are recommended to help you stay hydrated.  If you like flavored waters, check the label- sometimes that flavor is tied to a bunch of calories.  Or make your own flavored water by adding a splash of juice or a spritz of lemon or lime.

• 100% juice has nutrients, such as vitamin C, but the natural sugars also provide calories.  So, the recommendation is to have juice once a day. And, watch out for juice drinks and other fruit-flavored soft drinks, as many of them have a lot of added sugar.  In fact, cranberry juice cocktail can pack more calories than cola!

• Sodas are sweet and usually pack a lot of calories. Diet sodas, because they have less or no calories, seem like a better choice, especially for curbing weight gain, but there have been a few studies calling that into question. The Harvard School of Public Health recommends skipping fully sweetened soda and going easy on diet soda.

• Low-fat and skim milk are both good choices for the calcium they provide. But, watch out for chocolate and strawberry milk- even lowfat versions can pack calories to rival cola.

For some comprehensive guidelines of what to drink for your health, see http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/healthy-drinks-full-story/index.html#level-6

For some low sugar beverage ideas see: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/low-sugar-drink-ideas/index.html

What is one thing you can do to save up to 8 lives? Become an organ donor. April is National Donate Life Month. Established in 2003, National Donate Life Month celebrates the generosity of those who have saved lives by becoming organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donors and encourages more Americans to follow their example.

Donating organs can have a huge impact on someone’s life. The mother of one of our health department employees was lucky enough to receive a life saving kidney transplant about 25 years ago.

Mrs. MacDonald* was a young mother of an eight month old girl when she went into full kidney failure. Because her kidneys were no longer functioning, Mrs. MacDonald started dialysis.  “It takes about three months to adjust to life on dialysis… it takes a lot to get used to the subclavian (collarbone) port, blood flowing in and out of the dialysis machines, and the smells of bleach for four hours, three times a week.” Then there were the side effects of dialysis Mrs. MacDonald had to deal with- tiredness, nausea, diet and fluid intake restrictions, all while raising her young daughter.

After more than three years on dialysis and worsening health, Mrs. MacDonald was placed on the donor waiting list. Not sure if she would survive a kidney transplant, Mrs. MacDonald wrote a letter to her pre-school aged daughter in case she was not able to watch her grow up.

Luckily, after six months on the waiting list, Mrs. MacDonald received the most important phone call of her life. A kidney matching her blood type from a deceased child in Minnesota had been found. “What is amazing about my kidney is the very close match, perhaps closer than my own family members.”

She, her husband, and daughter raced to the hospital in order to prepare to receive the new kidney. Mrs. MacDonald relives the moments after the operation 25 years earlier, “Before you know it, you are waking up and uncomfortable and people are telling you how well your kidney is performing. For me it wasn’t long before I was feeling just great.”

When asked how her life changed since the transplant, Mrs. MacDonald described, “It was a rebirth. It saved my life. I was able to become a ‘normal’ mother at an early age in my daughter’s life.” She also added that because of her new kidney, she has “lived a full life ever since. Without that energy, I could not have participated or contributed.”

After experiencing the life saving results of being an organ donor recipient, Mrs. MacDonald advises, “Everyone should sign his or her donor card AND talk to their family about his or her wishes to ensure that the organs will go to save someone else.” Over 72,000 Americans are currently on the waiting list to receive an organ; there simply are not enough to go around. If more people would donate, there would be more lives saved.

Mrs. MacDonald shares one last bit of wisdom regarding becoming an organ donor. “Dialysis can keep a person going for up to fifteen years albeit faded and restricted, but people in liver, lung and heart failure have no alternatives. Everyone has two kidneys, but we need only one to live a long life.”

For more information on how to become an organ donor, please go to https://www.donatelifenc.org/becomeadonor/ or http://www.ncdot.org/dmv/other_services/general/electives.html.

*Name changed to protect privacy.

We hope you have been enjoying eating a rainbow this week and learning about the benefits of eating a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables.  Don’t forget to check out the Eat a Rainbow page (found by clicking the Eat a Rainbow! tab above) and tell us how you’ve been celebrating this week by using the comment function at the bottom of the page.  We’re updating that page daily with great new tips and information to help you eat a rainbow this week, and there are some great photos from around the county to take a look at.

Get your apron on- it’s time for the first annual CHEF Holiday Recipe Contest!

If you’ve been following this blog, you will be familiar with our CHEF Recipes series.  CHEF stands for Cheap, Healthy, Easy and Fast, and we offer videos of how to make recipes that meet these criteria.  For examples of past recipes, see http://www.chathampublichealth.com/chef-recipes-panzanella-salad/.

Now it’s your chance to be a CHEF! This time of year, there are lots of recipes floating around for holiday fare.  We want to make sure that people can find quick and healthy options for holiday cooking and entertaining, and we are looking for your help! 

Submit your favorite cheap, healthy, easy and fast recipe for a holiday main dish to the CHEF Holiday Recipe Contest, by e-mailing it to chathamcountync@gmail.com by December 3, 2010 at 5PM.

The winner will…

• have their recipe appear as part of the CHEF Recipes video blog series on the Chatham County Public Health Department blog,
• have the opportunity to make a guest appearance in this video,
• receive a $25 gift card.

As you’re deciding on a recipe, keep the following in mind:

• Limit is one entry per person.
• The recipe must be for a main dish that has been prepared/tested by you.
• Recipes will be judged on how well they meet the CHEF principles and on a couple other measures described below.  The recipe with the highest score will win.
  • Cheap: Your recipe should serve 4 individuals for $12 or less. You will receive an extra point for providing us with the price for each ingredient along with the recipe.  Salt, pepper, oil and vinegar do not need to be accounted for in the price.
  • Healthy: In order to be considered a healthy recipe, the finished dish should not include too much fat or sodium or too many calories, overall.  Limiting these will get you points. You will also receive points for including one or more fruits or vegetables.   
  • Easy: Your recipe should not require specialized kitchen techniques or tools. For example, a normal blender is fine, but not everyone has an immersion blender. Chopping and sautéing is fine, but not everyone knows how to make an emulsion.
  • Fast: Your recipe should take about 30 minutes to prepare from start to finish. You will get the maximum points for clocking in at 30 minutes or under.
  • Substantial: Your dish should be able to feature as a main dish or substantial side dish, not an appetizer or dessert.
  • Festive: Your dish should have a holiday theme (ie, holiday flavors, colors, etc) that makes it a fun addition to the holiday table.

Again, the deadline for entry is December 3, 2010 by 5:00 pm. Submit recipes by e-mail to chathamcountync@gmail.com .

With questions, please call Ellie Morris at 545-8514 or Marissa Jelks at 545-8517.