Students learn healthy food choices at World Food Day

Four-year-old Owen Culberson’s hand shot in the air when a registered dietitian asked him to name a food group.

Then he answered, “Chocolate milk.”

After a few laughs, Laurie McGuire, of Dynamic Dietetics, told him he wasn’t really wrong.

Chocolate milk represents dairy, which is included in the five food groups.

McGuire and other local dietitians met with Owen and families to help them learn about healthy food choices. Their programs were presented by Subway in recognition of National World Food Day on Oct. 16.

World Food Day represents a national effort to make sure everyone has access to healthy food.

The dietitians met with families in Dalton, Cleveland and Chattanooga and gave tips to help them eat more healthy.

Then youth visiting the restaurants got hands-on experience with choosing healthy foods by making their own sandwiches.

“It’s so important because so many families now are eating meals away from home, and a lot of times that includes a soda and a hamburger, and they forget that there are healthy options,” said McGuire.

Share the Color was the theme of the event.

“Remember what we talked about,” said McGuire. “Share the color. So now you have to tell your friends what you learned.”

Fruits and vegetables have lots of colors, explained McGuire.

Other food groups include grains, protein and dairy.

After they discussed the food groups, an adult carried a large tray of vegetables displaying a variety of colors to the table.

The tray included green lettuce, spinach and pickles. Red onions sat in one corner and tomatoes in the other. And there were black olives.

Owen and his older brother, Noah, 7, used the veggies as toppings and made their own turkey and cheese sandwiches.

“Remember what you put on your plate you have to eat,” said McGuire.

Emily Culberson brought her children to the Cleveland Subway after seeing a Share the Color advertisement on a home-schooling website.

“This made the idea of nutrition more hands-on for my kids,” said Culberson. “They were able to hear from someone besides me about how important it is to make nutritional choices. And then the hands-on element of it will help cement in their minds a memory they can draw on and continue to make

“(My children) were able to hear from someone besides me about how important it is to make nutritional choices.” EMILY CULBERSON

wise food choices.”

Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.

STAFF PHOTOS BY ERIN O. SMITH Owen Culberson, 4, takes a bite out of a Subway sandwich he made in a nutrition class focused on choosing colorful foods.

Owen Culberson, 4, and Noah Culberson, 7, of Ooltewah, Tenn., make sandwiches at the Dynamic Dietetics workshop at Subway in Cleveland, Tenn. Dietitians explained how to make better food choices to children and their parents.

STAFF PHOTOS BY ERIN O. SMITH Laurie McGuire, a registered dietitian with Dynamic Dietetics, explains the nutrition of different vegetables to Owen Culberson, 4, and Noah Culberson, 7, during a Dynamic Dietetics workshop at Subway in Cleveland, Tenn.