Healthy eating campaign features popular children's book

A classic children’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, will be featured in a new campaign designed to help families learn about healthy eating habits at home.

The Eating Healthy. Growing Strong. campaign is a joint venture of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and We Give Books. This spring, more than 17,500 pediatrician offices throughout the United States will receive free, specially created copies of the book along with growth charts and handouts that encourage parents and health care professionals to discuss healthy eating habits for children.

The handouts provide tips on nutritious eating and suggestions for how to integrate discussions of a healthy active lifestyle into family reading time.

Founded by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation works to combat childhood obesity and help children make healthy lifestyle choices. The new campaign is intended to start “a dialogue between parents and doctors that will go beyond the waiting room and into the home, enabling 21 million children to make more nutritious choices and lead healthier lives," said President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Additional free resources are available at www.healthiergeneration.org/veryhungrycaterpillar and www.healthychildren.org/veryhungrycaterpillar.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar featured in new Eating Healthy. Growing Strong. Campaign from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and the American Academy of Pediatrics [press release]. March 8, 2011. www.pearsonfoundation.org/pr/20110308-very-hungry-caterpillar-eating-healthy-growing-strong.html. Accessed March 16, 2011.