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SUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATION

.SUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATIONSUMMER VACATION

The custom of throwing rice at weddings goes back to the time when people thought rice, a symbol of health and prosperity, would appease evil spirits so they would not bother the wedding couple.

To keep your lunch cool double bag your lunch! The layers of paper and air help keep the cold in. Or, you could put an ice pack or frozen juice box in a plastic baggie to make your lunch bag a mini cooler.

Calcium is critical to our health because it helps build strong bones and teeth. It is most important to get calcium when you are a kid because that is the time when the calcium has the most impact on your bones.

What is the difference between a fruit and a vegetable? A fruit is basically a sweet pulp that surrounds its seeds (oranges, apples, mangoes). A vegetable is a more leaf like plant (cabbage, beans, and potatoes).

An orange from Florida will taste different than an orange from California. Temperature and soil will effect how the fruit grows and tastes.

Try new tastes! Have a new food each day. Have you ever tried a vegetable like jicama, yogurt, pita bread, or dried apricots?

California is the #1 food producer in the United States. Milk and cream are the number one crops followed by grapes. There are about 89,000 farms in California!

What you eat for lunch really does matter! Healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low fat milk will give you more energy in the afternoon and could even keep you more fit.

The official state vegetable of Texas is the Texas Sweet Onion.

The popular soft drink Dr. Pepper was actually invented in Waco, TX back in 1885.

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Many people do not make their meals at home like they used to. In the 1920's 70% of people baked their own bread.

Ever wonder how Hush Puppies got their name? Years ago, pieces of the fried cornmeal batter were fed to hungry dogs that begged for food. After the scraps were given to the dogs, the owner would say “Now hush, puppy.”

It takes 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese!

The pineapple is a universal sign for hospitality

In Japan, Gerber companies top selling baby food is a sardine dish!

LABOR DAY

Each American eats 22 pounds of tomato per year. Over half of those tomatoes are in the form of catsup or tomato sauce.

The fruit that has the highest amount of antioxidants, or the highest fighting power against disease, is blueberries.

Many years ago, doughnuts were made of raised dough and a nut was actually baked into the center!

In the US, 13 boxes of Jell-O are sold per second. Can you guess what the most popular flavor is??STRAWBERRY

Have you ever noticed that many restaurants keep the temperature very cold? They do this because the colder you are, the hungrier you will be.

Did you know hot dogs, although popular in America, were first created in China!

Kiwis are a very healthy fruit. 2 Kiwis supply more potassium than a banana and twice as much vitamin C as an orange.

It takes 12 honeybees just to make 1 tablespoon of honey

Sometimes the cooking of foods actually increases the amount of good things in them. For instance, the heating of tomatoes brings out good nutrients that can help prevent cancer.

Don’t let the milk sit out! Within 2 hours of standing in daylight, milk loses between half to two-thirds of its vitamin B content.

Isn’t it weird that grapefruits, apples, and pears will float in Jell-O but cherries and prunes will not?

The fist breakfast cereal was made by adding sugar and milk to popped popcorn. Ground popcorn was also used long ago by bread makers in the place of flour.

If you cannot get raw or fresh fruits and vegetables, go for the frozen kind next. Usually, those fruits and vegetables are frozen right after they are picked so they

The custom of giving teachers apples originated when public school teachers were paid with whatever the community could afford, often in food or goods.

September

have less time to lose needed vitamins.

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Water is reusable. So, a portion of the water you drink has already been drunk by someone else, maybe several times over!

 

The first microwave ovens went on sale in 1947. They cost almost $3,000 each and were the size of a small refrigerator.

 Everyone should eat a variety of foods every day. This means that you must include foods from each food group because no single food can supply all nutrients that your growing body needs. Try to eat many foods of many different colors and textures in your diet.

 

What exactly is a calorie? It is the amount of heat energy that is needed to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water by 1 degree Celsius. Then, the calories in food becomes energy in our bodies.

Ants are eaten in some countries like Columbia, where they are fried or roasted and eaten as a snack at the cinema.

It is good to eat five helpings of fresh fruit and vegetables every day. But what if you don’t like them? Here’s the solution: make them into a smoothie or a milkshake.

It has been traditional to serve fish with a slice of lemon since the Middle Ages, when people believed that the fruit’s acid would dissolve the bones from the fish.

Zebra tomatoes are golf ball sized tomatoes with greenish or yellowish stripes. Try one if you can because they taste great!

The Texas Red Grapefruit is the state fruit of Texas.

It used to be the practice at festivals to grease a pig and let it loose among blindfolded contestants. The person who successfully caught the greased pig could keep it…..and so that person would “bring home the bacon.”

Green vegetables have a lot more nutrients than starchy vegetables like corn, potatoes, and rice. So, try to eat more green vegetables than white ones every day.

Carrots were first grown as a medicine, not a food. They originated 3,000 years ago and were white, purple and yellow.

Popcorn pops because there is moisture in it, and when it gets heated it turns to steam and explodes!

How long does it take our food to completely digest?? It could take up to 12 hours for your food to be entirely digested.

The word “breakfast” comes from “breaking the fast” since you go all night without eating it is like you are fasting. It is very important that you eat breakfast everyday.

Chewing gum for over 20 minutes a day stresses your jaw bone. But, if you chew a piece of sugarless gum for just a few minutes helps to clean your teeth.

If you are not feeling well, remember that garlic and onions can help kill flu and cold viruses.

Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites! The Native Americans used the pumpkin seeds for food and medicine.

99% of all pumpkins are sold for decorations. Championship pumpkins today weigh over 800 pounds.

Pumpkin halves were supposedly used as guides for haircuts in colonial New Haven, Conneticut, and giving rise to the nickname ‘pumpkin head.’

Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Thursday FridayA man from California, Frank Epperson, invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was just 11 years old!

 Salt was extremely rare in the past. It was so rare that it was often used as pay. Imagine earning a couple of tablespoons of salt for a hard days work.

 Good sources of Vitamin C are oranges, lemons, grapefruits, strawberries, tomatoes, and potatoes. Foods with a lot of vitamin C when eaten with meat or beans helps the body also get more iron.

 Bakers used to find that their loaves were under weight, so they would add an extra loaf to every dozen, hence the expression “baker’s dozen.”

If you were to burn 1 pound of fat, you would have to burn a total of 3500 calories!

In Egypt, breakfast is often bought and eaten on the street. Usually it is bread wrapped around assorted fried vegetables like eggplant, beans, tomatoes, and peppers.

Find ways to be active every day. You might even write down a list of fun stuff to do, so you can refer to it when your mom or dad say’s it is time to stop watching TV or playing computer games.

Leo Hirshfield brought his secret recipe for tootsie roll candy to New York in 1896. He named it after his daughter who was nicknamed tootsie.

Carrots really can help you see in the dark! That is because they contain a lot of Vitamin A which is known to prevent night blindness.

Onions are a very healthy food. The word onion came from a Latin word meaning large pearl.

George Washington liked ice cream so much he reportedly had a bill for $200 just for ice cream one summer

Sweet potatoes and Yams are not even related. Yams actually come from Africa or South America and are rarely seen here in the US.

Sometimes people blame that after dinner tiredness on the turkey. It is really a compound in the turkey, called L-tryptophan (L-trip-toe-fan) that makes you sleepy.

The idea for TV dinners came from a man named Gerald Thomas in 1954 when he could not figure out what to do with his leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner. The fist TV dinner was roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas and sold for just .98 cents.

Originally, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling like they are used now.

November

Cranberries or cranberry juice may help heal certain infections by killing the bacteria that caused them.

The first Thanksgiving meal celebrated by the pilgrims and the Native Americans included turkey, venison (deer meat), lobster, fish, sweet potatoes, cranberries and popcorn. Yum!

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAYChicken soup really is good for you. It actually contains a substance that helps to relieve congestion. Chilies, hot pepper, garlic, and other hot spices can also help you when you have a cold.

We sure do eat a lot of food here in America! Here, an average family of four consumes almost 6,000 pounds of food per year.

It is good to eat whole grains in your diet every day like brown rice and

whole wheat breads. Plain popcorn is also a whole grain you could

eat.

According to Dominoes Pizza, some of the more

popular international pizza toppings are

pickled ginger, minced mutton and tofu in

India, squid in Japan, and green peas in

Brazil.

Yard long beans really do grow to 3 feet long,

although they are picked before they reach that height, They taste and

look like green beans and originated in Africa or

Southern Asia.

Ice cream is really Chinese food! Marco Polo, a famous explorer brought a recipe to Italy for a dessert called Milk Ice he found in China. The Europeans substituted cream for the milk, and ice cream was officially born.

Although it is good to eat a low fat diet, there are some fats, like that found in nuts, which is good for you and can help you stay healthy.

Being fit is a way of saying a person eats

well, gets lots of physical activity, and has a

healthy body weight. If your fit, your body works well, feels good, and can

do all the things you want to do.

Arugula is a type of salad green. It is popular in Italian

cooking. The ancient Romans used to eat it

for good luck.

White fuzz that develops on your ice cream is

grown from fertilized ice cream spores. This

happens when you have another container of ice cream or cool whip and

they mate in the darkness.

Did you know that about 88% of all milk is water and only about 12% has solid food value? So if you are thirsty it may be best to drink water or milk.

Even during the holidays you should eat all foods in moderation. This means that you have to be careful not to eat too much of any one type of food.

Why do we say a person “Eats like a bird” when they are small eaters?

Birds actually eat ½ their own body weight in food every day. If humans did

this, a 50 pound child would have to eat 25 pounds of food a day!

Kwanzaa is an African-American feast celebrated from

December 26 – January 1st. Originally it was to

celebrate the first harvest of crops. Sweet potatoes and banana

custard with raisins are the foods eaten for this

celebration.

The eight day Jewish Festival of Lights is

traditionally celebrated with doughnuts or potato pancakes (latkes), which are fried in oil. This is a reminder of the oil that burned in the temple for

eight days.

WINTER BREAK

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In Japan, New Year’s food is red snapper, which brings good luck because of its color, which the Japanese consider lucky.

In Madrid, Spain, people count down the last minutes of the old year by popping grapes into their mouths!

Washington State grows the most apples than anywhere else in the United States. Fresh apples float because 25% of their volume is air.

Pasta is one of America’s favorite foods with 1.3 million pounds of 16 ounce spaghetti packages sold last year. That much spaghetti could circle the Earth’s equator almost nine times.

A cow has 4 stomachs – one to store food, one for food more thoroughly chewed, one where extra water is squeezed out and then the one where the remaining food goes. Some of the digested food is then stored in the cows udder where it is made into milk.

A hive of bees flies over 55,000 miles to bring you one pound of honey. They must tap two million flowers to make that one pound of honey. Each worker bee makes 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

The same chemical that gives cherries their color may

An egg shell may have as many as 17,000 tiny pores over its surface.

Americans eat 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per

Distribution of Animals in a box of Animal Crackers: 6

January 19th is National Popcorn Day. Some Native American tribes

relieve pain better than aspirin in humans. Be sure to eat cherries often.

Through them, the egg can absorb flavors and odors. That is why storing them in their cartons keeps them fresh.

second. Each man, women and child in America eats an average of 23 pounds of pizza a year.

Gorillas, 5 bears, 4 camels, 3 rhinos, 2 tigers, 2 monkeys, 2 sheep, 1 buffalo and 1 lion.

popped corn right on the cob by spearing the corn cob with a stick and holding it near the fire. The kernels would pop and stay attached to the cob.

One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of soda. Farmers can grow corn on every continent except Antarctica.

Colonists thought that the flavor of ham was related to the number of snakes eaten by pigs – the more snakes, the better the flavor.

The dairy cow can produce enough milk for 40 people for one year, which is about 16,000 glasses. Milk is very good for you; make sure you drink milk every day.

Soybean oil is the most widely used vegetable oil. It is found in margarine’s, salad dressings, canned foods, sauces, baked goods, and processed fried foods. These foods should be limited in your diet to stay healthy.

Ketchup, or catsup, originated in China in 1690. It was used as a pickled fish sauce.

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Sometimes a hen will produce double-yoked eggs. It is rare, but not unusual, for a young hen to produce an egg with no yolk at all.

Pepperoni is America’s favorite pizza topping. Anchovies always rank last on the list of favorite toppings. In Japan, squid is the number one pizza topping!

One acre of soybeans can produce 82,368 crayons. Soy crayons were created in place of wax crayons because they are brighter in color, and less expensive to make.

The top 10 most recognized Food Characters by Pillsbury are: Doughboy, 7-Up Spot, California Raisins, M&M Characters, Tony the Tiger, Trix Rabbit, Nestle Quick Bunny, Ronald McDonald, Chester Cheetah, and Elsie the Borden Milk Cow.

Chop suey is not a Chinese dish, but was invented in America by Chinese cooks. The name chop suey means “odds and ends” and first appeared in print in 1888.

Drink water and milk most often. When you are really thirsty, cold water is the number 1 thirst-quencher. And, there is a reason your school cafeteria offers milk. Kids need

Abe Lincoln’s mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Mrs. Lincoln drank the milk.

Try to taste new foods and old ones you have not tried for a while. Some foods, like green veggies, taste better the older you get. Shoot for five servings of fruits

The dye used to stamp the grade on meats is actually edible. It is made from grape skins.

The sandwich is named for the Fourth Earl of Sandwich in the 1700’s, for which sandwiches were made so that he could stay at the card table without interruption for meals.

calcium to grow strong bones, and milk is a great source of this mineral.

and vegetables a day – 2 fruit and 3 vegetables.

Chocolate contains a natural substance that has been reported to give you the same reaction in the body as falling in love.

Peanut butter sandwiches have been a long time favorite of kids. The average child will eat 1,500 PB sandwiches by their high school graduation.

A law forbidding the sale of sodas on Sunday back in the 1800’s motivated William Garwood to invent the ice cream sundae.

How can you tell if a Chile pepper is spicy? It does not depend on the color of the pepper at all. Usually, the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is. The hottest pepper in the world is the Habanero.

Potato chips were invented in 1853 by chef George Crum. They were made as a joke for a customer who complained that their French fries were too thick!

Be careful when eating your next peanut butter sandwich. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments and one or more rodent hairs in every jar of peanut butter,

In a Chinese meal, the last course is always soup. This is because they used to believe it allowed the meal to “swim” towards digestion.

Pound cake got its name because of the pound of butter that it contained.

In Russia, they serve pizza covered with mockba, which is a combination of sardines, tuna, mackerel, salmon, and onions. In France, a popular combo is called the Flambee, with bacon, onion, and fresh cream.

Rice is a healthy food and is very abundant throughout the world. Rice is the staple food for more than ½ of the world’s population.

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How much Calcium do kids need? If you are 9 or older you need 1300mg a day. You can get calcium from milk, cheese, and yogurt or even cooked white beans. Try to eat 3 servings of foods a day that have calcium.

More than 1/2 of the weight of your body is water. The higher amount of water you have usually the lower amount of fat you may have on your body.

Aerobic exercise, like walking, running, swimming, skating, and playing soccer burns fat and calories in your body. Try to do 30 minutes or more of activity on most days of the week.

The next time someone says “Eat like a pig,” take it as a compliment! Pigs don’t overeat, and their diet is the closest to the human diet than any other animal.

According to folklore, pretzels were given to children who knew their prayers. The pretzel shape was supposed to signify arms folded across the chest in prayer.

Antioxidants are It is important for Watermelons are The ancient The day before Lent

things found in foods that help protect our bodies from illness and disease. Fruits and vegetables contain lots of antioxidants, like Vitamins A, C and E to keep us healthy.

everyone to maintain a healthy weight by balancing the amount of calories you eat with the amount of calories the body uses for activity.

very healthy and delicious. They contain good nutrients like vitamins A, B6, C as well as potassium. Every part of the watermelon is edible – even the rind!

Egyptians thought onions kept evil spirits away. When they made a promise, they would place one hand on an onion.

is called Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. Traditionally, people made pancakes to use up their butter and eggs, which were not allowed during Lent.

SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK

What do you, the trees, and a hamster have in common? You all need water. All living things must have water to survive, whether they get it from a water fountain, a rain cloud, or a little bottle attached to the side of a hamster cage.

16 billion jelly beans are made for Easter. Can you guess which color jelly bean is kids’ favorite? Red

Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are made each year. In the United States, 76%

of people eat the ears on chocolate bunnies first.

According to the Guinness World Records, the largest Easter egg ever made was more than 25 feet high and made of chocolate and marshmallow. The egg weighed almost 9,000 pounds!

Fat contains more than twice the amount of calories as equal amounts of carbohydrates or protein. You should not eat more than ~65 grams of fat per day to stay healthy.

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In France, a person who is fooled on April 1st is called “April Fish.” Chocolate fish are the treats for the day.

In the US long ago people poured chocolate over pieces of cotton on April 1st to fool others with “cotton candy.”

Fish is actually good for your brain because of the mineral zinc it contains. If you are low on zinc it can affect your memory and thinking.

For many years Europeans have used garlic as a charm against the evil eye. Some wore bulbs of garlic around their necks. Others would place wreaths of garlic over their doors for protection.

One of the important nutrients you get from food is fiber. Good sources of fiber are beans, oatmeal, wheat breads, cereals and the skins of many fruits and vegetables. Fiber can help your heart, help you from getting diseases and it helps you digest your food better.

What is Jell-O made of? It consists of 4 ingredients: gelatin, water, artificial sweetener, and food coloring. Not to gross you out but gelatin is made up of a kind of protein found in cow and pig hides, hooves and bones.

Why does cutting onions make you cry? In 1830 pizza began Americans should not Spinach is good for

Does it really take years to digest gum if

When you cut into an onion, a powerful acid sprays up into the air. The acid causes your eyes to sting and begin to tear up until they have gotten rid of the irritation.

with the opening of the world’s first pizzeria. The pizzas were cooked in an oven lined with lava from Mount Vesuvius, a volcano located in Italy.

eat more than 10 teaspoons per day of sugar. One soft drink alone contains about 9 teaspoons of sugar. Make sure to limit the amount of sugar you eat every day.

your spirits. It contains a lot of a vitamin called folic acid. If you do not have enough folic acid in your body you may feel sad and depressed.

we swallow it? Nope, that is just a myth. Our stomach doesn’t digest gum at all. Because it is made out of soluble fiber, chewing gum passes right through us! It comes out with the rest of our waste, usually a day or two after you eat it.

Wash your hands before eating! Germs, which can make you sick, are spread more easily from your hands, than say, your lips. When you have a cold, keep your hands clean and don’t worry about kissing someone.

British sailors used to be called “Limeys” because they ate limes to prevent scurvy, a disease caused by lack of Vitamin C in the diet.

The first recorded watermelon harvest appeared in hieroglyphics on an Egyptian tomb 5,000 years ago. Early explorers also used watermelons as canteens to carry water during dry seasons.

Chew your food! Food needs to be well mixed in your mouth with saliva so it can slide down easily and start being digested.

The word “pothole” came from the Irish. They use to boil their potatoes in a pot, when they were finished cooking, the pot was lifted off the fire and set on the ground to cool. In the process of mashing the potatoes, the pot would be pushed into the ground and in time a deep hole would develop – a pothole!

Turkeys lay eggs just like chickens do. But turkey eggs are twice as big as chicken eggs. They are pale and a creamy tan color with brown speckles.

If you’re hot should you cool off with ice cream? No. Ice cream feels cool, but because it is loaded with a lot of calories, or energy, it actually makes your body warmer.

Today we are eating 900% more broccoli than we did 20 years ago. Today, the average person in the US eats four and a half pounds of broccoli each year – which is great because broccoli is very nutritious.

Your body is made up of a large amount of protein. Protein is part of all your cells, muscle, bones and skin. In your diet you can find protein in meats, eggs, cheese, nuts, beans, and soy. Make sure to include protein foods in your diet every day.

To get more of the good nutrients in your diet eat highly colored foods like sweet potatoes, carrots, cantaloupe, squash, apricots, pumpkin, mangos, and leafy green vegetables like collard greens, spinach, and kale.

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The food that you eat is made up of fat, protein, fiber and carbohydrates. These nutrients give you energy and calories in your diet.

People did not have refrigerators until the 1920’s. Before that they kept food cold by storing it on windowsills, blocks of ice, or even burying it in the garden to keep

Vitamin E helps keep your blood and skin healthy. Foods that have a lot of Vitamin E in them are nuts, beans, and lots of green vegetables.

The body gets its water from three sources: from drinks, from the water in foods (especially fruits and vegetables), and as a result of reactions

Food should always be enjoyable. But, if food is not handled correctly harmful bacteria can grow and cause food poisoning. Wash your hands thoroughly

it cool. within the body. It is recommended to drink 6-8 glasses of water per day.

before you touch food, after going to the bathroom, and after touching pets.

Vitamin C helps your teeth, gums and bones. It also helps to heal your cuts and bruises. You can find lots of Vitamin C in oranges, tomatoes, broccoli, and melons.

Some people have allergic reactions to food. Almost 75% of these reactions are caused by either eggs, peanuts, or milk.

Caffeine can make you very awake, but too much is not good for you. A 60 pound child who drinks 2 soft drinks in a day is getting the same amount of caffeine as a 175 pound adult who drinks 8 cups of coffee!

The yeast that is used as an ingredient in the baking of breads is actually a single celled fungus.

The world record for watermelon seed spitting is held by Jack Dietz of Chicago, who spit a seed a distance of 66 feet and 11 inches!

In order for a product to be called “chocolate” it must contain chocolate liquor, which is what gives it the bitter flavor and dark color. So there is no such thing as “white chocolate” even though it comes from the cocoa plant because it does not have the liquor added to it.

Folate is a nutrient very important for growth and kids often do not get enough of it. You could eat fortified breakfast cereal in the morning, breads, or green leafy vegetables throughout the day to make sure you get enough of this important nutrient.

Uglifruit is a fruit that comes from Jamaica. It is a cross between a grapefruit and a mandarin orange. It is about the size of a small grapefruit and has an ugly appearance.

Texas has 2 official state peppers: the jalapeno and the chiltepin. Both of which are used in the official state dish of Texas – Chili.

It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to get the message that your body is getting food and is full. So, slow down when your eating to give your brain a chance to get the word your full!

Lentils are a member of the pea family. They are grown for there seeds, which are dried and used in soups and stews. They are rich in protein and carbohydrates and are also a good source of calcium, phosphorous, iron and the B vitamins.

Fat is found in plants and in meat. The fat from plants is called oil. Many healthy oils come from olives, and seeds like sesame seeds. Your body needs some fat but most people eat way too much so be careful!

Iron is a mineral that helps you keep your blood healthy. Good sources of iron to eat every day include red meat, eggs, fortified breakfast cereals, and beans.

Vitamin A is good for your teeth and skin and gives you energy. You can find Vitamin A in spinach, fruit, and milk.

The official state plant of Texas is the prickly pear cactus which you can actually eat. It tastes similar to a tart green bean, asparagus, or pepper.