Hinsdale Adventist Academy Students Fuel Up to Play 60

Did you have breakfast this morning?

If you did, you were probably in the minority. The International Food Information Council reports that only 49 percent of Americans eat breakfast daily. Some polls suggest the number of Americans who routinely skip breakfast may be as high as 70 percent.

Monday, 100 percent of students at Hinsdale Adventist Academy ate a healthy breakfast to help kick-off the school’s new partnership with the National Football League's (NFL) Fuel Up to Play 60 program. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next four weeks, academy students and faculty will be treated to a healthy “brown-bag” breakfast when they arrive at school.

“Skipping breakfast is not a good idea because you’re robbing yourself of great nutrients,” Hinsdale nutritionist Silvia Klinger told students at an assembly following breakfast.

Skipping breakfast to lose weight?

“Studies have shown that breakfast skippers actually tend to weigh more,” Klinger said. “Even kids and teen-agers will weigh more.”

Don’t have time for breakfast?

Klinger suggested stashing breakfast items in places like your purse or your car. These could be oranges or bananas or cereal bars or just about anything.

“We nutritionists approve of anything you can eat in the morning,” she said. “Even cold cheese pizza is good.”

Milk: It’s what’s for breakfast

Of course, some choices are better than others. Cereal and milk with strawberries or bananas is a better option than that six-pack of mini chocolate doughnuts from the convenience store.

“A glass of milk has great nutrients,” Klinger said.

Milk producers are partnering with the NFL in the Fuel Up to Play 60 program, offering it free to schools. So far, about 70,000 schools across the country are taking part, according to Lorna Riggs of the Midwest Dairy Council.

“It’s really a big commitment on the part of our dairy farmers,” Riggs said. “It’s been a great partnership.”

Riggs said the National Dairy Council is working with the NFL “to encourage kids to eat healthy and eat more of the foods they don’t get enough of.”

She noted that “schools can also apply for funding from the dairy council.”

Earlier this month, the Midwest Dairy Council announced it had awarded $128,295 to 67 schools in 10 Midwest states, including middle schools in Bolingbrook and Romeoville, to support their Fuel Up to Play 60 efforts.

Past and present NFL players aid effort

Mark Inkrott, a former tight end for the New York Giants who now coordinates the relationship between the NFL and dairy producers, told Hinsdale Adventist Academy students they need to get in the habit of eating breakfast routinely.

“Fuel Up to Play 60 is a lot about making change,” he said.

To stress the importance of eating right, Inkrott told the youngsters the first person he met with when he began his NFL career with the Carolina Panthers was not a player or coach, but the team’s nutritionist.

Inkrott’s NFL career was brief and he didn’t play a major role for either the Giants or Panthers. He admitted that probably none of the students knew who he was before Monday’s assembly. But a current NFL player with a name many students did recognize also played a part in the day’s activities. Representatives of the Midwest Dairy Council presented school principal Robert Jackson with a football autographed by Chicago Bears guard Roberto Garza.

Garza appeared to students in a video presentation offered by another of the Fuel Up to Play 60 partners, HOPSports, a producer of interactive programs that promote fitness.

“I’m honored to share with you some of what I’ve learned about the importance of fueling up with nutrient-rich foods,” Garza told the students.

He also encouraged them to “remain active by playing for at least 60 minutes every day.”

Toward that end, representatives of HOPSports led students in a series of physical activities with the encouragement of on-screen characters like Sportacus, from the “Lazy Town” children’s TV show.

Cherie Jackson, who coordinated the event at Hinsdale Adventist Academy, said the Fuel Up to Play 60 program aligns well with Adventist philosophy.

“We believe that a balanced, healthy lifestyle will give students an excellent foundation for academic success,” she said.

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