Getting kids to eat more fruits and vegetables at school could be as simple as presentation, according to this article in The Washington Post. When the director of Cornell’s Food and Brand Lab looked at school cafeterias in New York, he noticed whole fruits were displayed in steel bins in dimly lighted areas of the lunch line. When he put the fruit in a wire fruit rack and used an extra desk lamp to shine some light on it, sales went up 54 percent in one school by the end of the second week. Maybe he’s on to something – here’s another report that shows kids eat more fruit if they like the way it looks.

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First, we heard that kids like to keep things simple when it comes to vegetables. Now, Dutch researchers say, to get kids to eat more fruit, you might want to make it flashy. The report shows four to seven year-olds ate almost twice as much fruit if it was presented in a visually appealing way versus a more run-of-the-mill manner. Do you get creative with the way you display your fruit?

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Could celebrity chefs be the recipe to healthier eating in this country? Paula Deen is teaching kids how to cook healthy foods, Rachael Ray is working to reform school lunch, and Jamie Oliver is using fresh fruits and veggies to help students in West Virginia eat healthier. Could their star power help us eat our way out of the obesity epidemic?

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Want to know the secret to getting your kids to eat their vegetables? Dutch researchers may have the answer. They cooked carrots and French beans in six different ways – mashed, steamed, boiled, stir-fried, grilled and deep-fried – and served them up to children to find out which they preferred. The result? Most of the kids liked the steamed or boiled vegetables the best.

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With so many reports like this one showing the health problems in children because of obesity, it’s good to see efforts to turn things around. A new study shows a program aimed to sell healthier drinks in U.S. schools has helped cut the amount of full-sugar soft drinks in schools by 95 percent compared to 2004. Many health experts believe non-diet soft drinks are a big source of extra calories and that they are helping to fuel the obesity epidemic.

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Did you know children now eat 168 more calories a day from snacks than they did in 1977? That’s according to a new study which also finds kids are snacking three times a day, mostly on sugary drinks, cookies, cake, candy, salty stuff, and other high-calorie junk food. Researchers say this unhealthy snacking may be contributing to the growing rates of childhood obesity.

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Signs of heart disease in three-year-olds? A study on this came out last year. Now, another report finds the same thing – that obese children as young as three have higher levels of C-reactive protein, a sign of inflammation and heart disease risk. How disturbing is that?

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Don’t plan on your kids spending too much time in one sitting at the new Small Step Kids website. If they do, they’ll get a message to get moving and come back later. And the fun content is well worth the return trip.

Features include funny commercials, cool screen savers, and play time with Shrek. Plus fun quizzes and games help kids learn a lot about diet and exercise. They can even send in their own ideas on how to be healthy and fit. With so much to see and do, it may be tough to want to leave the computer. But if kids stay on the site too long, these reminders to stay active pop up to encourage them to get moving:

• “If we catch you hanging out here too long, we’ll tell you to get up and do something active! You can always come back tomorrow.”

• “It’s just as important to do something active away from the computer every day.”

• “Exercise your brain with this short quiz. When you’re done, jump up and get your parents, or skip to get your brothers and sisters, or run to get your friends to take the quiz too!”

Which reminds me, it’s time for ME to take a break from this computer sitting stuff…

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Here’s another benefit to being active. A new report from the New York City school system shows elementary- and middle-school students who are physically fit do better academically than their out-of-shape classmates. The study found students in the top third of the school system’s fitness scale had higher math and reading scores on average than students in the bottom third.

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What do five northern fur seals have to do with kids and exercise? A new exhibit at the New England Aquarium is designed to inspire the obese generation of kids to get moving. The “Move It!” program has seals stretching, jumping, and swimming, while panels around the aquarium show the moves and encourage children to try them. Some kids will even be allowed to exercise with the seals.

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