Give me an F! Give me an I! Give me a B!...

Okay, you know where this is going. Fiber isn’t just important for you, it’s key for every member of your family, including children.  Fiber is essential for healthy digestion, is known to lower cholesterol, and it helps with maintaining healthy weight, and it keeps us feeling full. Perhaps the best thing about fiber is that if you fill up with the good stuff, you’ll literally run out of space for the bad stuff, which makes one a lot less likely to eat it.

Fall foods are packed with fiber. Take an apple, for example. One medium apple (about 5 ounces), with its peel, has over 3 grams of fiber, over 10% of the Recommended Daily Allowance. The peel of many fruits and vegetable have great nutrients and fiber, but take that same apple, peeled, and you still have 2.7 grams of fiber, which is good news for parents of “peel-please” eaters.

Let's look at fiber more closely. An apple has two types of fiber. The first, insoluble fiber, works like bran, pushing bad cholesterol out of the body through digestion. Apple’s other fiber, soluble fiber, works to reduce bad cholesterol production in the liver. That sounds like two great reasons to head to the local apple orchard and start picking.

They say an apple a day keeps the doctor a way, and perhaps we have an apple's fiber to thank for that claim. But that's just a start. Experts recommend between 5 and 12 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Luckily, apples aren’t the only fall fiber all-star. Spinach, Carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and chestnuts are all rich in fiber.

I see a stew coming on….

Food Network recently sprouted our first Good Food Garden, our joint effort with Share Our Strength and Teich Garden Systems to provide kids with nutritious food where they live, learn and play. We showcased our model garden at Slow Food Nation in the heart of San Francisco. In a city ripe with exceptional food and sustainble food stalls, our garden seemed right at home. But just across the Bay Bridge, on Treasure Island, lies a virtual food desert – a community full of families, but not a single grocery store let alone a farm stand. And that’s where the Good Food Garden will make its home – at the Boys and Girls Club of Treasure Island with hope and faith that more projects like it will follow until access to healthy food is universal in San Francisco.

But first, we shared the magic of the garden with the thousands of families who visited Slow Food Nation over Labor Day weekend. It’s that magic that draws kids, one and all, pulling their parents by the arm inside to discover the secrets of the garden. The magic that makes broccoli growing in the ground suddenly more intersting than any toy. The magic of nature.

Inside a structure of indigenous cedar from Northern California, the Good Food Garden’s lush baby vegetables and dwarf orange trees drew curious touches, tastes and questions. At one point, there was a chorus of little voices saying “can I taste?” followed by brave little hands reaching for pea, broccoli and collard green sprouts. Even the pickiest of eaters found something to taste, like one little girl who told me she was a fairy that only ate flowers. When I offered her a handful of edible marigold petals, her eyes widened with delight.

Our garden sprouted much life over the weekend, and became a gathering place in which children and parents shared stories of their own school, community and backyard gardens. We were encouraged to hear about the programs that aim to provide healthy food to kids all across America, but there are still many communities and children in need. So while our garden gets relocated to its final home – the Treasure Island Boys and Girls Club – we’re heading back east to start plans for another garden in our own backyard in New York City.

Meanwhile, in my own garden the tomatoes are slowly changing from green to red, beans are in full production and I’m ready to plant fall greens like collards and kale that don’t mind the cooler weather. There are still a couple of months left for you to start your own garden, and bring Good Food to your table!

I’m not a parent, but I’ve spent a good deal of time with kids around a lunch table. And perhaps more importantly, I remember very well what school lunch was like. There's so much to think about---who to sit by, what to trade and what games to play at recess-- which leaves very little time left to think about things like vitamins and minerals. So while it’s great to give your little ones options at lunchtime, it helps to do some of the thinking ahead of time so they can you rest assured knowing they’ll have the nutrients they need for a happier, healthier school day.

Here are a few tips to keep your little lunchers coming back for more of the good stuff:  

Play Favorites: Show your little scholar you love them by paying attention to what they love to eat, and including it in their lunchbox. And finding one favorite may encourage them to explore the rest of your lunch lineup!

Count Up: Ask your child to make a list of 15 foods they will eat at lunch. Then work together to narrow it down to 10 foods you both feel are good, healthy choices. That gives you lots of variety for the week, and room to throw in your own surprises as well.

Get In Shape: Cut sandwiches into artful shapes with cookie cutters, and try packing good-for-you goodies like veggies in shapes and sizes that are fun to eat.  

Be Willing to Budge: If both parent and child have one no-budge lunchtime policy, (you insist on milk, they insist on dessert) find ways to fit both, healthfully, into the equation. Otherwise, consider being reasonable which may help send the message that you’d rather have your child choose good food than force it upon them.

Safety First: Lunchtime may not be the best time to introduce too many new foods. Pack “safe” foods that your child trusts, and try new foods on them at home, where their friends aren’t there to make judgments and influence their interest.

 Get Colorful: Encourage your child to make artwork out of their lunchbox by packing a lunch full of natural, vibrant colors--colors translate to vitamins and minerals in their bodies so encourage them to eat the rainbow every day!

Trade Up: If you know your child is trading goodies at the table, get together with other parents and agree to pack healthy and tradable items. It may seem awkward at first, but they may thank you for it.

Speak Up: We’re social eaters, and so are our kids, so talk openly with other kids and their parents about good food. Eating healthy as a group is much more effective, long lasting and rewarding than eating healthy alone.