Now Available "Squishy-Licious" Smash Your Food Educational Game Serves Up A Huge Helping of Fun Mobile Learning for Families on iPad

BELLEVUE, WA, March 22, 2012 (Press-News.org) Today Bellevue, Washington-based Food N' Me announces the release of its award-winning, Smash Your Food educational game, now available for iPad at $2.99 on the Apple App Store. This fun and exciting mobile game encourages families to smash real foods—burgers, cola, French Fries and entire meals—to learn about nutrition, inspiring healthier food choices while providing parents with personalized emails filled with nutrition advice.

"Smash Your Food, an engaging, empowering tool, provides parents and educators a fun positive way for children to learn about the nutritional aspects of foods that contribute to excessive calories consumption allowing them to make better food choices at home and on-the-go," said Frederic De Wulf, CEO and Co-Founder, Food N' Me.

"Childhood obesity is a nationwide problem and our mission is to mobilize families to eat well," said De Wulf, whose vision for the game included smashing actual food in HD with vivid sound effects, and inspired a 10-foot, real-life robot called ''MASTER SMASH".

Recently lauded by the White House as a winner in First Lady Michelle Obama's "Apps For Healthy Kids" National Contest, Smash Your Food was selected from hundreds of submitted games by industry leaders, including Mark Pincus, CEO Zynga (Farmville), and Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple Computer. Developers were challenged to "develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially tweens (ages 9-12) - directly or through their parents -- to eat better and be more physically active". Statistics show childhood obesity is out of control. Today, nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese. In total, we are now eating 31 percent more calories than we were forty years ago - including 56 percent more fats and oils and 14 percent more sugars and sweeteners. (Source: Michelle Obama's "Lets Move!" Campaign.)

Smash Your Food is a great way for kids to learn about what they're putting into their bodies. When they smash common foods, they see and hear for themselves about the startling amounts of sugar, salt and oil in those foods. Kids say things like, 'Whoa, I had no idea that there are 25 cubes of sugar in a medium milkshake!' and 'Eeeeew! Look at all that oil, I'm not eating that again!' Best yet, 'I'll have fruit instead of fries with my sandwich.' It's that exciting moment of positive education that encourages kids to change their eating behavior on their own.

"Many kids don't realize the amount of these ingredients in commonly eaten foods, nor is it something they want to spend their free time learning about or that many adults are comfortable teaching them," De Wulf said. "In fact, many adults, themselves, don't necessarily know the contents of the food their families consume. The good news is that by making just a few lifestyle changes, we can help our children lead healthier lives - and Smash Your Food is an effective tool to help us achieve that goal."

"Smash Your Food is a dynamic new way to teach kids - and parents - about fat, sugar and salt," said Adam Drewnowski, PhD, Director, University of Washington Center for Obesity Research. "As kids squeeze and squish their way into understanding Dietary Guidelines, they learn about healthy eating at home in a whole new way that challenges their thinking and puts them on a positive, life-changing course to change their behavior."

With inventive graphics and a unique real-life "smashing" process, Smash Your Food helps children make smart choices by:

• inviting kids to guess the amount of sugar, salt and oil in some of their favorite foods, and then "smash" them into a mushy pile to learn the actual totals;
• watching HD video - Yes, we did do this to real food!
• featuring 40 foods on 5 levels - burgers, doughnuts, milkshakes and entire meals -that kids can smash into smithereens;
• revealing eye-popping, educational facts, such as there are 25 cubes of sugar in a medium-size milkshake and 16 teaspoons of oil in a serving of chili cheese fries;
• providing parents with personalized emails delivering nutrition-rich information instructing them on how to integrate healthy habits into their family's lifestyle.

"Childhood obesity is a great concern to all of us at Food N' Me," said Co-Founder and Nutritionist Marta De Wulf. "Families are bombarded with mixed messages and many are not getting the personalized information they need to make healthy choices. Nutritionists and dieticians agree that the best solution is to address the problem through education. Smart food choices begin at home with the family. With our positive, personalized advice, families become educated and empowered. Smash Your Food was created by a nutritionist mom and dietitians for families."

ABOUT SMASH YOUR FOOD AND FOOD N' ME
Now available for the iPad for $2.99 on the Apple App store. Smash Your Food is a fun and engaging mobile game challenging children and their parents to smash many popular foods teaching them about their nutritional qualities, inspiring healthier food choices. Smash Your Food was named a top winner in the "Apps for Healthy Kids" contest sponsored by First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign targeting childhood obesity, nutrition, and healthy lifestyles. Smash Your Food is currently being featured in two museum exhibits - Yale Peabody in New Haven, and starting April 4, the "Eat It Up!" exhibit at the Toledo's Imagination Station Science Museum, which will feature the 10' version of the distinctive Smash Your Food machine. The parent company, Food N' Me, has partnered with WedMD, to offer Smash Your Food on fit.webmd.com.

It all began in the De Wulf's hometown of Bellevue, Wash. when Marta, who after 20 years of experience as a nutritionist, designed and taught a children's nutrition program to over 3,000 students ages 5-12, and discovered how little children knew about nutrition. Frederic, whose extensive 30-year career in multimedia has included producing documentaries with Bill Moyers, Jacques Cousteau and National Geographic, also had a digital media career at Microsoft and Turner Broadcasting. The two visionaries - and parents -- joined forces to create Food N' Me to fulfill their mission to mobilize families to eat well. See http://www.SmashYourFood.com and http://www.FoodNMe.com.