Balanced nutrition education must start in the home.  Don't feel equipped?  I've got great news!  I love to share great resources for families that help make nutrition education fun.  This series of 5 blog entries, starting with this one, will feature some of my favorite "finds" when it comes to fun nutrition education for children.

One of the resources I recently found is a website simply called, "DooF."  What is DooF?  Well, it's food spelled backwards.  But even more so, DooF is a food education initiative created by Mike Axinn in 2005 after seeing his daughter's interest in adult cooking shows.  Mike has quite the professional resume in the film industry, having worked on well known films such as Star Wars, Titanic, Moulin Rouge and Fantastic Four.  But this project of Mike's was something different.  Combining his love for food, education and a desire to work with like-minded individuals with these passions, Mike moved forward with the concept of DooF.  DooF features "Doofians" - Cookbot, Y, Pollo and Trippe, all from Planet DooF. The Doofians challenge Earth kids to discover the What, Why, When, Where and Fun of food through visits with food experts and regular Earthlings at markets, farms, and home kitchens.  The characters discuss their food discoveries on their logs entitled, "DSS of Gastronomy."  If you or your child would prefer to watch instead of read, have them tune into Channel DooF's School of Broc and they will find fun videos about food.  DooF also has a database of healthy recipes that you can search by food type.

We all know the imbalance our children are exposed to when it comes to food advertising.  DooF is one of those initiatives that allows children to see healthy food in a positive way.  The goal of DooF is simple: they want to become the place kids come for good food fun, and to create a healthy alternative to the barrage of unhealthy advertising that indundates our culture.  DooF recently aligned with a media company and together, they plan to do a traveling tour thoroughout the San Francisco Bay area and possibly even the entire West Coast.  DooF will also continue to develop their television show.  Over the next year, they will be rolling out a calendar of live events, new videos and Web-based activities so keep checking their website for new information.  Right now, they are gearing up for DooF-a-Palooza 2011, a major hands-on food event featuring purveyors, fun food activities for children and well-known food celebrities.  I was happy to learn that they hope to take DooF-a-Palooza to cities all over the country in the future.  But they need our support - sponsors, ideas, information on how they can spread their message.  They welcome the involvement of people who share their mission to get kids excited about healthy food.  Anyone interested should contact them at info@foodbackwards.com.  Stay in-the-know with DooF by following their blog, The DooF Glob.

My children have already spent some time on DooF and they absolutely loved it.  We plan on checking in with them regularly as they continue to expand their love for creating fun ways for children to learn about healthy foods.  I am so happy to have this resource for my children, and I hope that you join me in helping efforts like DooF keep doing what they do best.  Stay tuned for more great finds.  More features coming!