American Heart Association Staff - American Heart Association Healthy Family Meals: 150 Recipes Everyone Will Love

And we adults need nutritious food as well to stay healthy and productive. The general shift to a sedentary lifestyle has reduced the level of physical activity for both adults and kids. The result is that about one in every three children and two out of three adults are overweight or obese. Todays typical American diet increases childrens risk for health problems, including high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol. These are problems that have serious consequences later in life. Diseases that in the past have developed in adulthoodfor example, type 2 diabetesare becoming more and more common in children.

If this trend continues, its quite possible that the current generation of young people may be the first in American history to live shorter lives than their parents. What can we do to improve our childrens eating habits? Start with a commitment to provide children with the most nutritious foods possibleone meal or snack at a time. At the American Heart Association, we know that its never too earlyor too lateto eat well and to enjoy the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. This book, Healthy Family Meals, is geared to the nutritional needs and tastes of all ages so you can create one meal everyone will enjoy. It also will help you make the right food choices thatover timewill become second nature for you and your family. Youll find 150 all-new, family-focused recipes here, including No-Guilt .

These and the other recipes in this book shatter the idea that nutritious food has to be boring, bland, and time-consuming. We hope youll try all our recipesand that many will become family favorites. Youll find you can cook delicious dishes in the same time asor less thanit takes to eat out or resort to convenience foods. Since were all busy, we need Healthy Family Meals to show us how to offer a variety of appealing, nutritionally packed foods to the families we love and care for. In addition to heart-smart recipes, Healthy Family Meals includes information on the American Heart Association dietary recommendations and provides strategies for healthier shopping, cooking, and dining out, as well as other family-friendly topics. To help get your children creatively involved in the kitchen, weve devoted an entire chapter to cooking with them.

Your kids can acquire hands-on experience with 10 fun recipes designed especially to teach age-appropriate cooking skills. Throughout the book, youll also find nutrition tips and suggested substitutions to make the recipes more versatile and give you even more ideas on how to keep your family as involved and as healthy as possible. By bringing nutritiousand deliciousfood to your table, youll give your whole family a giant head start toward a longer, more vibrant life. From the American Heart Associations family to yours, we wish you happy cooking and a lifetime of good health. Rose Marie Robertson, M.D., FAHA, FACC Chief Science Officer American Heart Association/American Stroke Association

Kids beg for french fries and refuse to eat their carrots. Youre too exhausted to figure out what to feed the kids and what to feed yourself. The kitchen, once the heart of the home, may now be more like a hub where family members cross paths on the way to the next car-pool appointment or soccer practice. You may be sacrificing good nutrition for convenience and paying the price with your health. After a generation of easy access to junk food and a significant increase in eating out, reports of increasing obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease in American children make it very clear that they should eat a heart-healthy diet from infancy on. Heart disease starts in childhood, and the best defense is a wholesome lifestyle based on good food choices and regular exercise.

But its not easy to know what to do. If youre the one choosing the meals that go on your familys table, youre making important decisions every day. You need a plan for success, and Healthy Family Meals is here to help. With 150 recipes in hand that are easy, nutritious, and created with the entire family in mind, you can start to develop a healthy food culture in your home. This book will help you take three important steps: You can simplify cooking for the family.