How schools are getting kids to eat healthier foods

How schools are getting kids to eat healthier foods 
In an effort to encourage kids to eat more of nature's cleansing and nourishing foods, fruits and vegetables, schools are participating in growing programs, and finding that kids are more apt to try foods that they grow and prepare themselves.

"In a new study released in the March/April 2013 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, researchers found that growing and then cooking the foods that kids grew increased their willingness to try new foods."

The result of this study is worth considering making some food changes at home.

Of course, if you, as a parent do not eat right, don't expect that your children will, but if you do, what a great project to try at home.

With continued uncertainty in what is really in our foods, and with companies exploiting the "organic" loophole by allowing heavy metals, now more than ever people should consider growing foods at home.

And if this is what it would take to get children to eat more healthy foods, which can very well prevent the very diseases that unhealthy foods are creating, i.e. diabetes, cancers, etc., then turn off Blues Clues and gets some soil and some seeds and start a "growing" project at home.

Naturally, there is a learning curve for many people to achieve this. However, books can be purchased, or specialists can be brought in for hands-on demonstrations.

The schools brought in a garden specialist for 45 minutes of garden class. Cooking specialists were brought in for 90 minutes per week.

Running a free Kijiji ad can likely find someone locally to hire. Not worth it? What is the value of a child's health? A lot more than the weekly costs to hire experts I'm sure. Most people would be happy to work for $20-$40 per hour in this economy, some for even less.

Granted, in addition to salads, the study had the children preparing pastries, bread, pasta, and desserts, because everyone has a different opinion of what "healthy" food is. Perhaps green smoothies, green juices, and inventive salads can be the focus in the home.

A Healthy Balanced Diet For Kids

A Healthy Balanced Diet For Kids

Panel on Healthy Kids Says It's More Than Just Diet and Exercise

A balanced diet is important for everyone with regards to your personal health, but it can be doubly important in youngsters. What your child is eating now's laying the foundation for later, and your behavior and attitude about food is making an impact on them every time you sit down in the dinner table.

 

Just like adults, kids need nutritious foods to ensure that they're healthy and strong. Because they're still growing and developing, however, children will have some special nutritional requirements. It's not easy to prepare a balanced diet for kids, especially if you are dealing with picky eaters, but being familiar with suggested components and nutritional information can help.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is required for healthy teeth, skin, and produces the pigment within the retina of the eye - so it helps your child to see. It is also an antioxidant (like Vitamin C). Present in eggs, meat, milk, cheese, cod, carrots, and lots of dark green vegetables.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is required so that the body can absorb Calcium. Without it, bones are not able to fully form and Rickets can happen (this disorder is on the increase because of teenagers not wanting to eat dairy products fearing weight gain). The good news would be that the most significant supply of Vitamin D originates from the sunlight - it does not have to be bright sunlight either - so although we are able to also find Vitamin D in oily fish (i.e. salmon and sardines), eggs plus some breakfast cereals, making sure your child spends break of the house everyday should make sure the correct quota.

Iron

Iron is required for the formation of blood cells. Haemoglobin (the red pigment in blood) is exactly what transports the oxygen around your child’s body - without them, he/she can’t run! So if your child is definitely tired, iron may be lacking. Iron can be found in meat, fish, dark green vegetables (again), dried apricots, pumpkin seeds, wholegrain (brown bread), pulses, beans and lentils. Many foods will also be fortified with iron check labels.

Folate

Folate is extremely important for the production of new cells. It can make DNA, the building blocks of cells, and it is especially important for the rapidly growing infant and youngster. Folate can be found in dark green vegetables and spinach is a superb source. Lots of foods are fortified with folate, check labels if your child is not a fan of spinach.

Calcium

It is predominant in the formation of bones and teeth. It may only be obtained through the diet. Calcium regulates muscle contraction (such as the heartbeat) and helps blood to clot normally. Without vitamin D, calcium won’t absorb, therefore the two go hand in hand. Found in dark green leafy vegetables (again!), seeds, nuts, almonds, wholemeal bread, cows milk, dairy products in the primary, it’s even in water (hard water that is). Here are some healthy diet plan that contain your healthy life.

Fibre

Fibre is essential for any healthy bowel movement. Many children in the united kingdom suffer with constipation. The best way to prevent constipation would be to increase fibre in the diet. Good sources are fruit, vegetables, wholegrain rice and pasta, nuts, seeds, and cereals.

Water

Water is the greatest fluid intake a child could possibly get. They should drink plenty of it to prevent dehydration, and constipation, 6 to 8 glasses per day is about right. Tap water is completely fine.

Bad Diets for Kids--and the Drugs That Enable Them

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on large-size soft drinks has focused much needed attention on childhood obesity and related health problems. Over one-third of US kids are overweight, and 17 percent are obese--which, for a four-foot-ten-inch child would be a weight of 143 pounds. Obesity predisposes people to diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal disorders. It prevents children from playing and group recreation with their peers and sets them up for a lifetime of bullying and low self-esteem. Obesity is also linked to a shorter life and to cancer. Clearly, Mayor Bloomberg has the right idea.


We are giving our kids WHAT? by Martha Rosenberg

Like adults, children are suffering from "middle-age spread"--too many calories and not enough exercise. And like adults, they are taking pills to accommodate the conditions instead of making lifestyle changes. For example, five million children under the age of 19 are estimated to be on antihypertensive drugs (used to treat high blood pressure) according to the Wall Street Journal and the statin Lipitor (the top selling drug in the world) was approved for US children in 2008. Statins are even approved in a chewable form in Europe!

Statins are a popular drug that lowers cholesterol levels by inhibiting a liver enzyme involved in the production of cholesterol. They can reduce cardiovascular risks in those who need them, but are overprescribed, expensive, and less desirable, according to clinicians, than lifestyle changes to lower cholesterol. Adults on statins are six times more likely to develop liver dysfunction, acute kidney failure, cataracts and muscle damage than those not taking the drugs says a 2010 article in the British Medical Journal.

Still, the temptation to pop a pill rather than unplug the TV and put down the sugary and fattening snacks is always there, especially when so many TV and drug ads tell you to do exactly that.   It's also easier to give a pill to a child than deny him or her a favorite food.


"Plenty of adults down statins regularly and shine off healthy eating because they know a cheeseburger and steak can't fool a statin," writes Michael J. Breus, PhD, on the Huffington Post. "Imagine a 10-year-old who loves his fast food and who knows he can get away with it if he pops his pills."

The use of prescription drugs is rising four times faster among children than in the overall population and they are often prescribed for "adult diseases" not previously seen in children. Twenty-five percent of children and 30 percent of adolescents now take at least one prescription for a chronic condition, says Medco, the nation's largest pharmacy benefit manager. Medications for treating high blood pressure have risen by 17 percent among kids, respiratory medications have risen 42 percent, heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) medications have risen 147 percent and diabetes medications have risen an astounding150 percent, according to Medco. Fifty percent of pediatricians also say they prescribe insomnia drugs to kids. And of course five million kids take stimulants in accordance with the very controversial diagnosis of ADHD.

Children, of course, are easier pill "customers" than adults because they are given the drugs by parents, teachers and doctors and can't really refuse. But both adults and children need to tune out the ubiquitous ads for unhealthful food and drugs they see on TV. These ads do more for the health of Big Food and Big Pharma than for the health of the nation.

END

Does your child always throw tantrums at the dinning table?

Does your child always throw tantrums at the dinning table?

 Does he always demand unhealthy foods? As a parent it must be tempting to give in to these tantrums once in a while, but what do you do if your child's fixation with junk food begins to take a toll on his health? With childhood obesity on the rise in India, it is cause for concern. Today. Dr. Shilpa Mittal - Nutritionist, Diet Consultant and Founder of Nutrilife Health Management, comes to your rescue and shares some healthy nutritious tips to keep your child healthy and fit…


Getting your child to eat healthy also depends on what you are offering your kids. If you expose them to junk foods often, they will want to eat those foods more, so be very careful about convenient unhealthy fall-back foods like cookies, chips or instant noodles.

The Importance Of Iron In Your Child’s Diet & How To Make Sure They’re Getting Enough

 The Importance Of Iron In Your Child’s Diet & How To Make Sure They’re Getting Enough



Don’t you just hate it when you take your kid to a well-child checkup at the doctor’s office and something is off… like their iron level?

I do. It makes me think that the doctor thinks I feed my kid junk all the time or that I don’t give him his gummy vitamins, when in reality… he’s just dang picky, and all he wants to eat is PB&J sandwiches… cut like a puzzle piece of course!

So if you, like me, want to know more about iron and how to boost your toddlers iron level, then stick around because I’ll be talking about today.

Here are some things I’ll be covering in this post:

What iron is
Why it’s an important mineral your child’s body needs
What happens when your child doesn’t get enough iron
Complications of too much iron
Dietary sources of iron
Iron supplements
Are you ready?

What Exactly Is Iron?

Iron is a mineral found in the earth. It’s the 26th element on the periodic table, and it’s symbol is Fe. It’s the most common element that makes up the planet Earth, and is fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust.

Oh yeah… and we need it in our bodies to be healthy.

Iron Is Important… Here’s Why

Iron is found in the body’s red blood cells… in the hemoglobin to be exact, and it’s what makes the blood red. It helps the red blood cells to carry oxygen molecules around the body. Essentially… it keeps you and your little one alive. It’s very important to our health, and that’s why it’s called an essential element or mineral. [1],[2] It’s also needed to produce myoglobin, which carries oxygen to our muscles, and it affects energy levels, protects against illness and disease, and promotes healthy skin.

When babies are born, they have 4-6 months worth of iron stores that they received from mama during pregnancy. [3] You see, during pregnancy, mama and baby share blood. When baby is born and the placenta detaches from mama, baby still has mama’s blood – although now it’s technically baby’s blood – as well as mama’s vitamins, minerals, and immunity from her blood. After a while, the iron stores in baby’s blood are depleted and baby then needs to get it from food sources or supplements. An infant is estimated to recycle 70% of the iron found in her red blood cells when old cells are broke down, but she needs to get the remaining 30% from other sources. This percentage is less for adults. It’s about 95%/5%. [4]

About Iron Deficiency

So what happens if your little one doesn’t have enough iron? They’re then coined as “iron deficient” or “anemic”.

Anemia is the most common nutritional deficiency in the US among children, but it’s numbers are slowly declining thanks to iron fortified foods.

It’s diagnosed a couple different ways. It can be when your child has fewer red blood cells than he should which is determined by testing the hematocrit or volume of red blood cells in the blood, or it could be when your child’s hemoglobin levels are low and therefore his red blood cells can’t carry enough oxygen. [5]

Normal hemoglobin levels for 1-10 year old’s should be in the 10-11 range, and normal hematocrit levels for 1-10 year old’s should be in the 33-35% range. [6] Iron deficiency is a slow process. If your child’s levels fall below the recommended ranges for their age, they may be “depleted”, but if it’s not corrected, they will start showing signs of anemia which include:

weakness
fatigue
pale skin
cold hands or feet
rapid heart beat
newly developed heart murmur
decreased appetite
irritability
dizziness
pica – cravings to eat substances such as chalk, paint chips or dirt (rare) [7]
The most common cause of anemia is related to diet. You need to make sure your kid is eating foods that contain iron. If they’re picky or they’re a baby and not eating a lot of iron containing foods, you may want to supplement in some way.

Some other lesser known causes of anemia can be a lack of Vitamin C and increased levels of lead. Vitamin C is needed to absorb iron. If your little one is low on it, she may be low on iron as well. [8] Studies have also shown links to increased levels of lead in the blood correlating to decreased levels of iron. Most kids these days aren’t at risk for lead exposure, but it is something that can cause serious health problems so keep an eye on it moms! [9]

If your child does end up being diagnosed as anemic, the doctor will most likely suggest a supplement of iron for one month. Then your child’s blood will be retested. If the levels are rising, that’s a good sign that your child is responding to the supplement. You may need to continue on with it until your child’s blood levels are in the normal range, but once you reach that point you should be able to nix the supplement and instead stay on top of their iron issue through their diet.

Iron Overdose?

Iron is an essential mineral. You need it to live, but too much of it can also kill you… and your kid.

Iron overdose is the leading cause of death by poisoning in children under 6 years old, and the most common cause is from children getting into chewable vitamins and eating them like candy. Children have been know to die after ingesting as little as 200mg of iron – that’s equal to 11 Flintstones vitamins… although I know you’re not giving your precious child those! ;P [10]

Symptoms of iron overdoes include:

Severe vomiting
Diarrhea
Abdominal pain
Dehydration and lethargy if not treated adequately
Iron toxicity will depending upon the age and size of the child, but overdose symptoms will start showing when a child has more than 10mg/kg of body weight per day in him. The therapeutic dose for iron deficiency anemia is 3-6 mg/kg/day. Toxic effects begin to occur at doses above 10-20 mg/kg of elemental iron. Ingestions of more than 50 mg/kg of elemental iron are associated with severe toxicity. [11]

If you ever find that your child has eaten vitamins or pills with iron, if there is time, do whatever you need to in order to get some activated charcoal AND bentonite clay in their mouths and down their throat and head for the emergency room immediately… even if they’re not showing symptoms. The charcoal will act as an absorbent sponge and help to absorb any excess toxins in the stomach. It doesn’t absorb metals so it won’t help the iron issue, but it can help with other things found in the pills. [12] Bentonite clay has been shown to absorb heavy metals although iron isn’t one of them. [13] Either way… it doesn’t hurt and it’s better than nothing in my opinion. Also, be sure to bring the bottle of pills with you because the doctor will want to see the iron amounts in the pills.

As far as treatment goes, if your child starts showing symptoms and is thought to have a toxic level of iron in their body, is as follows. [14]

gastric lavage – stomach pumped – only if it’s been less than 1 hour since eating the pills
colon cleanse via strong laxatives
24 hours of IV chelation - a series of IVs containing deferoxamine mesylate (Desferal), a chemical that binds to iron in a cell and is then excreted in urine.
As you can see… none of this looks appealing, so how about just keeping those kiddie vitamins up and out of their reach… yours too.

Dietary Sources Of Iron

For me and my little’s, I like to start out finding good solutions to our health issues in the form of nutrition. It’s so easy to take a pill or drink some liquid when we need a boost, and I’m all for that… but only if I’m doing my part nutrition-wise and that’s not cutting it. Below are some examples of iron containing foods that you can give your kid to make sure they’re getting enough iron in their diets. [15]

Excellent Sources

organ meats
clams/oysters
fortified cereal
oatmeal
soybeans/tofu
lentils
chickpeas
Good Sources

beef
shrimp
sardines
pasta
kidney, navy, pinto beans
baked potato with skin
cooked spinach
Fair Sources

pork, beef, ham, chicken, turkey, lamb
crab, salmon, tuna
eggs
split peas
dried fruit - raisins, figs, dates
almonds, cashews, mixed nuts
Iron Supplements For Kids

The supplemented amount of iron for your child should be based on body weight. 2 mg/kg of body weight per day is what’s recommended. Do the math and see how much your little one needs. [16] Iron is best if taken with some form of Vitamin C to help with it’s absorption, and it’s also recommended to take it on an empty stomach since it can sometimes lead to nausea and vomiting. You also may want to limit dairy if your child has problems with low iron levels… specifically cow’s milk. It can interfere with absorption.

If it were me, I’d buy Herbal Iron from Mountain Meadow Herbs (LOVE this company – especially Gentle Birth for all natural labor!!) and figure out how much I needed to give my kid. I’d do that for a month along with diet changes and then see if it was working to raise my kid’s iron levels. If not, I’d try something else, but my guess is that this would work.

This worked for me when I was pregnant with my first except I took Herb Pharm’s Yellowdock tincture everyday since it’s high in iron too. NASTAAAAYY! Not Herb Pharm because they’re a great company, but yellowdock is rough. BITTER! WHEW! I can still taste that stuff, but you know what? It worked! For every pregnancy after that, I’ve went with a natural form of iron from a natural food store (not the kind from a pharmacy). It’s easier on my stomach and doesn’t lead to constipation which can also happen from iron. Maybe next time I’ll try MMH’s Herbal Iron!

Finally

So to sum all this up. Iron is essential for your child’s health. They need to get the required amount, but please be cautious and keep all pills and medications out of reach. If your child’s iron level is low, look at their diet first, and then move on to natural iron supplements before opting for the harsher ones.

Have you experienced low iron with your child? What did you do to help? Share your stories, questions, and comments below! I love hearing from you!

Teach kids to choose from variety of healthy foods for a balanced diet

Teach kids to choose from variety of healthy foods for a balanced diet


Cara Rosenbloom, who advises on healthy eating with her nutrition communications company Words to Eat By, has two young children, so she knows firsthand what parents and caregivers have to deal with on a daily basis.

She has come to value, in her work life and at home, information from Ellyn Satter, a dietitian, social worker and psychotherapist in Madison, Wis.

"Her advice is so straightforward and it works really well: As the parent you're responsible for providing a variety of healthy food choices and the child's responsibility is deciding which foods they want to eat from among those healthy choices and how much they want to eat," Rosenbloom explains.

"And if parents can remember that really simple division of responsibility it makes mealtime a lot more calm and easy and relaxed and it helps children not develop really picky or finicky eating habits."

Rosenbloom, 39, finds many parents initially pooh-pooh the idea, saying their children will eat just one thing or will eat too much but counters by saying "children have an amazing innate ability to know when they're hungry or when they're full."

And don't make children clear their plates. "If you force-feed kids, make them eat certain foods or make them eat a certain amount of food, that will override their natural ability to know when they're hungry and full, and when they lose that ability, that's when they overeat and that's when they gain weight. So it's really important to trust a child's appetite."

Provide items from Canada's Food Guide — grains (especially whole grains), vegetables and fruit, milk and alternatives like cheese or yogurt, and lean meat, beans or fish — at mealtime and your kids will choose a balanced meal.

Rosenbloom lets her children — Kasey, 5, and Aubrey, 1 — see what's on the table and choose what they want to eat.

"They're encouraged to try everything. If they don't like something they don't have to finish it, and if they do like it, that's fantastic and they can have more and I don't limit how much they're allowed to have of healthy foods," she says. "If they're hungry they eat more, and if they're full they stop eating."

It's OK for kids to have additional helpings if they want it.

"Kids grow at very different rates. One day they can have a big appetite because they're having a growth spurt and eat three or four helpings and the next day they might not be that hungry at all. That's totally normal," Rosenbloom says.

"Listen to your child's appetite. Of course not with things like chocolate cookies and chips.... But if they want some more broccoli and some more pasta and another piece of chicken, then let them eat."

It may take a few weeks for the kids to get used to eating this way.

"But when you stop bothering your kids about making sure that they eat certain portion sizes of different foods, the kids are relieved and when that stress is gone, that control is gone and they just enjoy eating as a family."

For children who don't have big appetites or eat a small variety of foods, it's important that what they do consume packs a nutritional punch in every bite.

Whole-grain bread has more fibre than white or whole-wheat bread.

If kids have a sweet tooth, supply foods that are naturally sweet but also have nutritional value, such as fruit.

Chocolate milk has some added sugar but still has the 16 nutrients found in plain milk, such as calcium, vitamin D and riboflavin.

"Sure, they're getting a couple of teaspoons of sugar, but look what else they're getting," Rosenbloom points out.

Yogurt with fruit has calcium and other vitamins and nutrients.

Dietitians find that children's diets are often deficient in DHA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid vital for normal development of the brain, eyes and nerves. It's important for children, especially those under age two, as well as for pregnant women.

One reason is the No. 1 source of DHA is fish, and a lot of kids don't love fish. Make it more kid-friendly — try salmon cakes, incorporate cooked fish in sushi rolls and make salmon sandwiches.

Other sources are eggs enriched with omega-3, and milk and yogurt that have been enriched with naturally occurring DHA. The hens and cows have been given feeds that are richer in omega-3 fats, resulting in eggs and milk that are naturally richer in DHA. Not all brands contain it — check labels. Two to try are Dairy Oh! milk and L'Il Ones yogurt.

Teach children the difference between a snack and a treat.

A snack is a mini meal — cheese and crackers, cereal and milk, yogurt, fresh fruit, vegetables and dip. Kids need snacks for energy to carry them through the day.

"A treat for us is something that has lots of added sugar, lots of fat, things like cookies, chips, candy and ice cream," she adds.

"And those we don't have every day. Those are not things we bring to school to give you energy. Those are things we have at birthday parties, on the weekend, after dinner as dessert once in a while."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck defends Goop depriving her kids of carbs: ‘do what you want’

Elisabeth Hasselbeck defends Goop depriving her kids of carbs: ‘do what you want’

On Wednesday Kaiser covered the story that Gwyneth Paltrow wasn’t letting her kids eat carbohydrates like bread, pasta or rice. It wasn’t just an issue of putting her kids on a gluten free diet, Goop doesn’t give them gluten-free alternatives like other flour-based products. Gwyneth writes in her upcoming cookbook that “Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.” It’s possible Gwyneth lets her family eat things like brown rice, but the way she phrases it suggests an avoidance of all carbs other than fruit possibly, although I would bet she limits that too. She also writes about that they’re all sensitive to gluten, dairy and eggs so that rules out whole wheat and a couple of other food groups. It doesn’t sound like some kind of elimination diet, it sounds like she’s forcing her food issues on them, it’s making them hungry, she knows about it and considers it a character-building experience.
Well Elisabeth Hasselbeck had some words of support for Goop – sort of. Hasselbeck has celiac disease, she’s written a book on it, and she said that many people are sensitive to gluten. Then she explains that there are plenty of gluten-free alternatives like rice, quinoa and barley that people can try. In that respect she’s much more practical than Goop and she’s not deliberately depriving her kids:
Gwyneth Paltrow’s low-carb, gluten-free family diet made headlines on March 13, making it perfect fodder for the women of The View. As co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd weighed in that same day, the recently ousted Elisabeth Hasselbeck came out in defense of the 40-year-old Oscar winner.
“I do believe that there is a growing number of people with gluten intolerance, not just celiac disease, like myself,” said Hasslebeck, who’s authored two bestselling gluten-free cookbooks. “I do think it causes inflammation in the body, whether you are celiac or gluten intolerant or not.” (People with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found most often in wheat, rye and barley.)
The mother of three, 35, didn’t want to debate Paltrow’s dietary decisions, as she wanted to focus on the real issue at hand. “She could do whatever the heck she wants,” Hasselbeck said of Apple and Moses’ mom, who is married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. “She’s a mom, those are her kids, do what you want.” (In Paltrow’s new cookbook, It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great, the star writes, “Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.”)
Hasselbeck continued, “I do believe that there are quality carbs that can replace gluten, like a quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, rice, corn, all those things . . . They’re alternative grains that provide a great amount of nutrition. You need quality carbs. Kids need quality carbohydrates to run.”
Since being forced to modify her diet, Hasselbeck said she’s noticed a significant improvement in her overall health. “I’ve been on the diet for 10 years,” she explained. “I’ve never felt better.”
[From US Weekly]
My son is very sensitive to what he eats, and we put him on an elimination diet a while ago. It was temporary and in no way did I not let him eat carbs. I try to feed him healthy, whole foods overall, and he ate carbs like rice and oatmeal until we figured out that high fructose corn syrup and corn products did not sit right with him. Now he eats gluten again. I also understand going gluten free when you’re just sensitive to it or suspect you are. My mom went gluten free and she ended up losing weight without even trying. Her doctor suggested it, she did it and feels great now.
All of that, and what Elisabeth suggests – using gluten-free substitutes, is much different than what Goop is doing to her kids. She eliminated entire food groups, not just gluten. I mean they can’t go out for an occasional ice cream treat, (just give them Lactaid if you’re worried about it for God’s sake) and they can’t eat the cake at a friend’s birthday party. This goes beyond feeding your children in a healthy balanced way and trying to help them avoid junk, which is perfectly understandable. This is a woman who values thinness above all else pushing her extreme issues around food and eating onto her children. As Kaiser wrote, it’s not fair. It’s one thing for Paltrow to try and market her restrictive diet to grown adults with free will, it’s another for her to make her growing kids eat like that until they’re “left with that specific hunger.” She doesn’t care if they’re hungry, you know? I couldn’t do that to my kid. Then again this woman named her kid “Apple.”

Gwyneth and her kids, Apple and Moses, are shown out in 2011 (sundress) and in October 2012 (white shirts). Elisabeth Hasselbeck is shown on 4-14-13. Credit: Fame, WENN and PacificCoastNews

Elisabeth Hasselbeck defends Goop depriving her kids of carbs: ‘do what you want’

On Wednesday Kaiser covered the story that Gwyneth Paltrow wasn’t letting her kids eat carbohydrates like bread, pasta or rice. It wasn’t just an issue of putting her kids on a gluten free diet, Goop doesn’t give them gluten-free alternatives like other flour-based products. Gwyneth writes in her upcoming cookbook that “Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.” It’s possible Gwyneth lets her family eat things like brown rice, but the way she phrases it suggests an avoidance of all carbs other than fruit possibly, although I would bet she limits that too. She also writes about that they’re all sensitive to gluten, dairy and eggs so that rules out whole wheat and a couple of other food groups. It doesn’t sound like some kind of elimination diet, it sounds like she’s forcing her food issues on them, it’s making them hungry, she knows about it and considers it a character-building experience.
Well Elisabeth Hasselbeck had some words of support for Goop – sort of. Hasselbeck has celiac disease, she’s written a book on it, and she said that many people are sensitive to gluten. Then she explains that there are plenty of gluten-free alternatives like rice, quinoa and barley that people can try. In that respect she’s much more practical than Goop and she’s not deliberately depriving her kids:
Gwyneth Paltrow’s low-carb, gluten-free family diet made headlines on March 13, making it perfect fodder for the women of The View. As co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd weighed in that same day, the recently ousted Elisabeth Hasselbeck came out in defense of the 40-year-old Oscar winner.
“I do believe that there is a growing number of people with gluten intolerance, not just celiac disease, like myself,” said Hasslebeck, who’s authored two bestselling gluten-free cookbooks. “I do think it causes inflammation in the body, whether you are celiac or gluten intolerant or not.” (People with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found most often in wheat, rye and barley.)
The mother of three, 35, didn’t want to debate Paltrow’s dietary decisions, as she wanted to focus on the real issue at hand. “She could do whatever the heck she wants,” Hasselbeck said of Apple and Moses’ mom, who is married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. “She’s a mom, those are her kids, do what you want.” (In Paltrow’s new cookbook, It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great, the star writes, “Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.”)
Hasselbeck continued, “I do believe that there are quality carbs that can replace gluten, like a quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, rice, corn, all those things . . . They’re alternative grains that provide a great amount of nutrition. You need quality carbs. Kids need quality carbohydrates to run.”
Since being forced to modify her diet, Hasselbeck said she’s noticed a significant improvement in her overall health. “I’ve been on the diet for 10 years,” she explained. “I’ve never felt better.”
[From US Weekly]
My son is very sensitive to what he eats, and we put him on an elimination diet a while ago. It was temporary and in no way did I not let him eat carbs. I try to feed him healthy, whole foods overall, and he ate carbs like rice and oatmeal until we figured out that high fructose corn syrup and corn products did not sit right with him. Now he eats gluten again. I also understand going gluten free when you’re just sensitive to it or suspect you are. My mom went gluten free and she ended up losing weight without even trying. Her doctor suggested it, she did it and feels great now.
All of that, and what Elisabeth suggests – using gluten-free substitutes, is much different than what Goop is doing to her kids. She eliminated entire food groups, not just gluten. I mean they can’t go out for an occasional ice cream treat, (just give them Lactaid if you’re worried about it for God’s sake) and they can’t eat the cake at a friend’s birthday party. This goes beyond feeding your children in a healthy balanced way and trying to help them avoid junk, which is perfectly understandable. This is a woman who values thinness above all else pushing her extreme issues around food and eating onto her children. As Kaiser wrote, it’s not fair. It’s one thing for Paltrow to try and market her restrictive diet to grown adults with free will, it’s another for her to make her growing kids eat like that until they’re “left with that specific hunger.” She doesn’t care if they’re hungry, you know? I couldn’t do that to my kid. Then again this woman named her kid “Apple.”

Gwyneth and her kids, Apple and Moses, are shown out in 2011 (sundress) and in October 2012 (white shirts). Elisabeth Hasselbeck is shown on 4-14-13. Credit: Fame, WENN and PacificCoastNews

Elisabeth Hasselbeck defends Goop depriving her kids of carbs: ‘do what you want’

On Wednesday Kaiser covered the story that Gwyneth Paltrow wasn’t letting her kids eat carbohydrates like bread, pasta or rice. It wasn’t just an issue of putting her kids on a gluten free diet, Goop doesn’t give them gluten-free alternatives like other flour-based products. Gwyneth writes in her upcoming cookbook that “Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.” It’s possible Gwyneth lets her family eat things like brown rice, but the way she phrases it suggests an avoidance of all carbs other than fruit possibly, although I would bet she limits that too. She also writes about that they’re all sensitive to gluten, dairy and eggs so that rules out whole wheat and a couple of other food groups. It doesn’t sound like some kind of elimination diet, it sounds like she’s forcing her food issues on them, it’s making them hungry, she knows about it and considers it a character-building experience.
Well Elisabeth Hasselbeck had some words of support for Goop – sort of. Hasselbeck has celiac disease, she’s written a book on it, and she said that many people are sensitive to gluten. Then she explains that there are plenty of gluten-free alternatives like rice, quinoa and barley that people can try. In that respect she’s much more practical than Goop and she’s not deliberately depriving her kids:

Gwyneth Paltrow’s low-carb, gluten-free family diet made headlines on March 13, making it perfect fodder for the women of The View. As co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd weighed in that same day, the recently ousted Elisabeth Hasselbeck came out in defense of the 40-year-old Oscar winner.
“I do believe that there is a growing number of people with gluten intolerance, not just celiac disease, like myself,” said Hasslebeck, who’s authored two bestselling gluten-free cookbooks. “I do think it causes inflammation in the body, whether you are celiac or gluten intolerant or not.” (People with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found most often in wheat, rye and barley.)
The mother of three, 35, didn’t want to debate Paltrow’s dietary decisions, as she wanted to focus on the real issue at hand. “She could do whatever the heck she wants,” Hasselbeck said of Apple and Moses’ mom, who is married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. “She’s a mom, those are her kids, do what you want.” (In Paltrow’s new cookbook, It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great, the star writes, “Sometimes when my family is not eating pasta, bread or processed grains like white rice, we’re left with that specific hunger that comes with avoiding carbs.”)
Hasselbeck continued, “I do believe that there are quality carbs that can replace gluten, like a quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, rice, corn, all those things . . . They’re alternative grains that provide a great amount of nutrition. You need quality carbs. Kids need quality carbohydrates to run.”
Since being forced to modify her diet, Hasselbeck said she’s noticed a significant improvement in her overall health. “I’ve been on the diet for 10 years,” she explained. “I’ve never felt better.”

[From US Weekly]
My son is very sensitive to what he eats, and we put him on an elimination diet a while ago. It was temporary and in no way did I not let him eat carbs. I try to feed him healthy, whole foods overall, and he ate carbs like rice and oatmeal until we figured out that high fructose corn syrup and corn products did not sit right with him. Now he eats gluten again. I also understand going gluten free when you’re just sensitive to it or suspect you are. My mom went gluten free and she ended up losing weight without even trying. Her doctor suggested it, she did it and feels great now.
All of that, and what Elisabeth suggests – using gluten-free substitutes, is much different than what Goop is doing to her kids. She eliminated entire food groups, not just gluten. I mean they can’t go out for an occasional ice cream treat, (just give them Lactaid if you’re worried about it for God’s sake) and they can’t eat the cake at a friend’s birthday party. This goes beyond feeding your children in a healthy balanced way and trying to help them avoid junk, which is perfectly understandable. This is a woman who values thinness above all else pushing her extreme issues around food and eating onto her children. As Kaiser wrote, it’s not fair. It’s one thing for Paltrow to try and market her restrictive diet to grown adults with free will, it’s another for her to make her growing kids eat like that until they’re “left with that specific hunger.” She doesn’t care if they’re hungry, you know? I couldn’t do that to my kid. Then again this woman named her kid “Apple.”

Gwyneth and her kids, Apple and Moses, are shown out in 2011 (sundress) and in October 2012 (white shirts). Elisabeth Hasselbeck is shown on 4-14-13. Credit: Fame, WENN and PacificCoastNews

High Protein Diet for Children, is it Healthy?

The high protein diet for overweight children

Unfortunately the childhood overweight and obesity continue to increase. This is a very complicated situation, in that it puts at risk the health of these children into adulthood. For this reason, sometimes desperate solutions are being sought for children to lose weight, such as the high protein diets; but are these really healthy for them?

The high protein diets can help you lose weight quickly, but can also put at risk the health of both adults and children. For this reason, I think it is important that, you should know if really the high protein diets are healthy during childhood.

One of the major adverse effects that high protein diets have on adults is, its effect on the kidney. Unfortunately the children performing a hyperproteic diet with the desire to control the overweight, may also suffer kidney damage.

The kidneys are important organs with many functions in the body, which is responsible for purifying the blood and eliminating toxins from the body. When this organ has a protein overload, begins to malfunction and produce a series of harmful consequences such as:

#a. Acid-base imbalance.
#b. Increased urine protein removal.
#c. Increased chances of developing kidney stones, which is reflected in a hypercalciuria, hypocitraturia and an acid urine pH.

If these effects are maintained over time, you can produce a chronic renal failure and different degrees of renal impairment.

All these organic processes not only occur in adults who conducts a high protein diet, but also in children. Even under normal conditions, the children are already exposed to a high consumption of proteins. In accordance with certain statistical data of a medical study, the 9.0% of children between 1 to 3 years of age consumed more than double the recommendations of proteins for that age range. This situation increases, the chances of developing obesity in the future.

As a conclusion it is possible to say that, a hyperproteic diet in childhood is not healthy for different reasons. On the one hand, it can cause a excess weight in future in children with normal weight and on the other hand, once you have developed the obesity this diet does not help to lose weight, not only for being an unbalanced diet, but by the kidney damage that could cause.

If you have a small child make sure you have a balanced diet, and if your child is overweight, you should consult a doctor for the proper design of diet appropriate to their age, in which includes all of the nutrients that is needed for a kids life at this stage.

It is important to look after the health of children, as this will depend and decide their health when they are older.

intervention group children consumed fewer grams of noncorE

Searchers found that unadjusted analyses revealed that, compared with controls, and were less likely to consume any noncore drinks (odds ratio: 0.48) at mid-intervention (average age: 9 months). At the conclusion of intervention (average age: 19.8 months), the intervention group children consumed fewer grams of sweet snacks (average difference: –3.69) and viewed fewer daily minutes of television (average difference: –15.97). The investigators found little statistical evidence of differences in fruit, vegetable, savory snack, or water consumption or in BMI z-scores or physical activity.

The authors concluded that this intervention resulted in reductions in sweet snack consumption and television viewing in 20-month-old children.

Take home message:
It should be a no-brainer that parents should offer their infants a healthy diet; however, this study found that many first-time parents did not necessarily following appropriate guidelines. Thus, many parents are in need of guidance in this area from their healthcare professionals. This advice must be carefully offered in a non-threatening manner to avoid responses such as: “I am a good parent, don’t tell me how to raise my kids.” Sadly, with the current obesity epidemic, many parents are overweight or obese and engage in an unhealthy diet and other poor lifestyle choices.

American children are becoming less healthy

American children are becoming less healthy; it is a sad fact that 17% of all children in the U.S. are obese. That amount is three times higher than it was a generation ago. Instead of playing sports and exercising, children are spending more time in sedentary activities such as watching TV or playing video games. In addition, the dietary habits of many children are far from healthy.
Most would agree that poor parenting can increase the risk of infant obesity; however, some may not and many may simply not engage in parenting skills that can prevent the problem. To address the effects of parent-focused intervention on infant obesity, researchers in Australia and the United Kingdom conducted a study to assess the benefits of such an intervention. They published their findings online on March 4 in the journal Pediatrics.
The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of a parent-focused intervention on infants’ obesity-risk behaviors and body mass index (BMI). The researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial comprised of 542 parents and their infants (average age: 3.8 months at baseline). The subjects were derived from 62 first-time parent groups. The parents were offered six two-hour dietitian-delivered sessions over a 15 month period that focused on parental knowledge, skills, and social support regarding infant feeding, diet, physical activity, and television viewing. The control group parents received six newsletters on nonobesity-focused themes. All parents in both groups received standard healthcare from child health nurses. The primary outcomes of interest were: child diet (3 × 24-hour diet recalls); child physical activity (accelerometry); and child TV viewing (parent report). Secondary outcomes included BMI z-scores (measured). Data were collected when the children were 4, 9, and 20 months of age.

HOW PESTICIDES HARM CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND BRAINS

HOW PESTICIDES HARM CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND BRAINS



All produced by our local farmer without pesticides. Which, it turns out, is a very good thing for our children’s health.

Two reports out in the past few weeks confirm that parents should indeed be concerned about how pesticides can affect our kids’ health.

Docs weigh in on organic

In Organic Foods: Health and Environmental Advantages and Disadvantages, the pediatricians at the American Academy of Pediatrics point to science linking pesticide exposure with a range of childhood health harms, from reduced birth weight to ADHD to impaired mental development.

They also make it clear that food is the main source of pesticide exposure for most kids, and that “an organic diet reduces children’s exposure to pesticides.” In one of the studies they describe, when kids switched to an organic diet for five days, levels of pesticides in their bodies dropped to almost undetectable levels.

The Academy expressed concern that the higher price of organics may lead parents to put fewer fruits and vegetables on the table – definitely not a good thing. So they direct pediatricians to help concerned parents be selective, pointing them to tools like whatsonmyfood.org that show how much of which pesticide is on what, what type of harm it may cause – and when it makes most sense to choose organic.

Undermining a generation

The second report, A Generation in Jeopardy: How pesticides are undermining our children’s health & intelligence, is from our team here at Pesticide Action Network. Our scientists reviewed more than 200 recent studies exploring how pesticides are linked to a range of childhood health harms. We also took a careful look at government data tracking the trends in these diseases and disorders.

We found that today’s children are less healthy than they were a generation ago, and science shows that pesticides are contributing to the trend. As a mom, I find this deeply disturbing. As public health experts are raising the alarm about a “silent pandemic” of learning disabilities and disorders, the science linking neurotoxic pesticides to harm of the developing brain grows stronger and stronger.

A few other key findings:

400,000 to 600,000 of the 4 million U.S. children born each year are affected by some kind of developmental disability — a 17% rise in the past 15 years. Many studies link exposure to pesticides — even at very low levels — with increased risk of ADHD, autism and falling IQs.
Incidence of leukemia and childhood brain tumors, now the two most common types of childhood cancer, have risen 40% and 50%, respectively since 1975. Studies suggest that pesticides are contributing to this trend.
Today, more than 7 million U.S. children are affected by asthma, up from 2 million in 1980. Emerging science points to pesticides as a possible contributing factor.
Pesticides are certainly not the only driver of these health harms. Scientists agree there are many factors at play, and that there is often a combination of genetics and environmental contaminants involved. But pesticide exposure is a piece of the puzzle that we can do something about.

Beyond household choices

The food we eat, how we control bugs in our backyard garden, what we do about that line of ants — these are important choices that really do make a difference.

But household choices alone cannot solve this problem. It’s just too big.

As one of the report’s co-authors, I’m hoping A Generation in Jeopardy will jumpstart a long overdue national conversation about how we can do better. We need policies at the local, state and national level that will better support schools, cities and farmers that want to reduce use of pesticides.

Put simply, our children’s health must be a national priority. It’s time.

Epigenetics Warning: Are You Wrecking Your Kids’ Health?

You are what you eat.

You and I have both heard it thousands of times!
But what does it really means? Is it even true?
Turn out that it’s more than just true – it’s a massive understatement.
Your Children and Grandchildren are also what you eat.
That’s right – what you eat for dinner tonight may be affecting your unborn children and their children!
This article will explain how that’s the case and what you should do about it.

Your Genes Are NOT Static!

When you think about your genes, you probably think that they’re bits of DNA that define what color your eyes are, what color your hair is, and how likely you are to get cancer, high blood pressure, or diabetes. That’s how DNA was thought about for a very long time.

But there’s a bit more to it than that: your environment can completely alter how your DNA is “expressed.” (More on what gene “expression” is below.)
That means that you could actually change how you look and how your body works! I thought this was crazy when I first heard about it – like something out of the TV show, Fringe.
But this actually does not involve GMOs or any crazy experiments…this is simply how genetics (and epigenetics) works.

What is Epigenetics?

I’ve heard the term “epigenetics” thrown around for over a year now (it’s a popular topic at a lot of the Paleo/Primal conferences), but I don’t think I truly got it until I read Mark Sisson’s new book, The Primal Connection.
Epigenetics (which literally means “above” or “on top of” genetics) is the study of how a gene can be “expressed” differently without any changes to the actual DNA.
Broadly, this means that a gene might do different things depending on various environmental factors like diet and stress. (As you can see, epigenetics is not just about what you eat, but food is the particular environmental factor that I want to talk about in this article.)
Below is a great video that explains the basics of eipgenetics pretty well. They use a helpful analogy to differentiate DNA from epigenetics: if your DNA sequence is the sequence of words in a paragraph, then epigenetics is the punctuation in that paragraph. That paragraph can take on entirely different meanings depending on where you place the commas, periods, exclamation marks, etc.

What is Gene Expression?

Your genes are like light switches – they can be switched on or off, and when a gene is switched on, then it’s being “expressed.”
In the Primal Connection, Mark provides an overview of the gene that controls how stressed you remain after being in a stressful situation.
So how does this gene actually work? First, this gene has a pretty long name – it’s called the glucocorticoid receptor gene (even scientists shorten it to the “GR” gene, so that’s what I’ll call it). When switched on, this GR gene helps to reduce cortisol levels in your body, which causes you to relax and de-stress.
What is cortisol? When you get into a stressful situation, you produce the hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol can be good in certain stressful situations (e.g., if you’re being chased by a man-eating wolf), because it makes you stressed so that you’ll go into fight or flight mode. This is a good thing, because calmly walking away is probably going to get you eaten.
However, we are now in the modern world where we’re stressed out for hours every single day. Sitting in traffic. Emails telling you the ten thousands things you have to do today before you’ve even gotten to work. Waiting in lines for just about everything. In fact, there’s barely anything that isn’t stressful!

So what happens when you’re constantly facing stressful situations? Your levels of cortisol stay continuously high, and this can cause serious long term problems, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.
However, if you have the GR gene switched on, then your cortisol levels will decrease quickly after you encounter a stressful situation. This means you get calmer much faster, which in today’s world will save your sanity and your health!
So how do you get this GR gene to be switched on?
It turns out that if your mother nurtured you a lot while you were a baby, then this GR gene can be switched on for life (see also this article for more information on the studies)! So, if you’re a calm person, then you should thank you mother.

How Can Diet Affect How Your Genes Are Expressed?

Diet plays a hugely important role starting from the diet your mother ate when she was pregnant with you!
Diet during Your Mother’s Pregnancy:
Studies have shown that pregnant mice fed diets deficient in folate (also known as vitamin B9, which is found in liver, sunflower seeds, dark leafy green vegetables) or choline (found in egg yolk, chicken, grass fed beef, cauliflower, collard greens) produced babies that were obese and had yellow (as opposed to the usual brown) fur with a high risk of cancer and diabetes.

Conversely, when pregnant mice were fed the same diet but supplemented with folate and choline, their offspring were healthy, thin, and had a low risk of disease. And they had brown fur.
[A quick addition here - a variety of studies have shown that supplementing with folic acid or foods fortified with folic acid can actually be more harmful than good.  Instead, you should eat foods with folate and choline in it (egg yolks, liver, green leafy veggies).  Read the Perfect Health Diet Book (chapter 35 on "Choline and Folic Acid") for more information.]
Did you hear that? They had different color fur!
And in case you think it’s because they have different DNAs, you’re wrong. Both sets of offspring had identical DNA!
Your Father’s Role in Defining You:
And what your father did at age 11 may matter too! A 2006 study found that the sons (and not daughters) of men who started smoking before age 11 had higher BMIs than other boys by the time they reached 9 years of age, which means that they may well be at a higher risk for various diseases like diabetes.

And these changes can last for generations. A study performed on fruit flies exposed to a certain drug produced offspring with certain growths on their eyes that lasted 13 generations. And there were no DNA changes!

What About Darwinian Evolution?

No one is challenging Darwinain evolution here. The theory of evolution put forth by Darwin argues for changes in DNA over long periods of time, but these epigenetic changes occur much faster and with no changes to the DNA. However, our epigenetics probably still evolved over long periods of time just as a faster way of dealing with changes in our environment that occurred during certain periods of time (e.g., famine and strife).
In fact, it makes complete sense that pregnant mice who were fed poor diets would produce obese babies. After all, the reason for her poor diet was probably due to a lack of food in general. So, it’s actually good that her children should be obese so that they retain more fat to help them stay alive without much food.
Similarly, if the mother wasn’t able to spend much time nurturing her babies, then it’s likely that she had to go out and find food constantly or else fight off predators all the time. That probably means those babies were born in a dangerous place, so having higher cortisol levels would be an advantage to help them survive.
Unfortunately for us, our modern world has messed up our innate biological systems. While obesity and high cortisol levels may have been beneficial in the paleolithic world, they are now a dangerous by-product of our modern society.

What Should You Be Eating?

You don’t need a nutrition degree to know the answer to this question - eating foods that are full of nutrients and low in toxins is clearly the way to go and restricting calories is clearly not healthy. Who knows if by starving yourself you might inadvertently curse your child to a life of obesity?
I don’t have kids yet, but I know that many people, like me, wish we could give our kids the best start to life possible. We want them to have the things we didn’t even have. To achieve this, many of us work hard to earn more money so that our children can live a better life, but I think it’s becoming clearer that the best gift we could give our children is to live a healthy life ourselves!

Marketing Unhealthy Foods to Kids Should Be Illegal

Marketing Unhealthy Foods to Kids Should Be Illegal


It’s in the best interest of kids (who eventually become media-consuming adults) to limit this kind of damaging marketing.

IN:Healthy Eating, Healthy Kids, Nutrition, Obesity Epidemic, childhood nutrition, food marketing to children, Healthy Kids, kids and food, marketing to children
By Kristi
Last week, my daughter helped her preschool teacher pronounce the word “quinoa.” She has no clue what Lucky Charms taste like.

Photo courtesy of Paxton Holley
She doesn’t beg me to buy her gummy snacks or potato chips when we go shopping because they are not a part of her world.
But when she starts first grade in another year, her school cafeteria will offer her chocolate and strawberry milk. In another handful of years, she’ll have her own allowance money, and she’ll be confronted with vending machines loaded with unhealthy snacks, strategically located in kid-friendly places. And of course, a vast array of junk food and sugar-laden cereals are located at her eye-level in the grocery store.
Marketing unhealthy food to children is wrong. The federal government seemed to agree. They’ve authored new guidelines for food companies and marketing groups, asking them to “only market foods to children ages 2 through 17 if they are low in fats, sugars and sodium and contain specified healthy ingredients.” The standards would apply to all marketing mediums (print and online).
Kids would no longer see ads like this one during Saturday morning cartoons.
The problem?
Compliance is voluntary.
The idea that Big Food can easily undermine my best efforts as a parent to raise my children with a diet of nutritious and real food quite literally nauseates me.
Yes, parents possess all the buying power when children are young. No one forces mom or dad to pony up for frosted cookies or candy bars, and when the pestering mounts, parents should begin a conversation about food marketing and what it means.
But as I mentioned to a friend recently, with all the “teachable moments” parents must have with their kids, why should they have to add another about insidious food marketing techniques? These companies are making parenthood (already a challenging job!) even more difficult.
Yes, it’s not just Big Food marketing to kids. But unlike the products or experiences pushed by toymakers or theme park companies, Big Food’s products can actually have dangerous consequences for kids’ health.
In addition, what happens when young children turn into tweens with allowances and a lot more freedom to buy their own food?
Unless they’re savvy enough to know what’s actually in the blue sports drink or the brightly colored bag of cheese puffs with the cartoon character on the outside, and have the fortitude to resist the temptation to purchase what their friends are eating, guess what they’re going to buy?
And it’s not only children who are tricked by deceptive food marketing.
Nutella, whose primary ingredient is sugar (a whopping 20 grams per serving-the equivalent of 5 teaspoons), is heavily marketed to moms as a “healthy breakfast choice for kids.” Unless they’re ingredient-savvy (and let’s face it, many are so busy, they don’t have time to be), they will probably believe it.
And of course, “functional foods” abound on grocery store shelves. Featuring labels that promise better digestion, disease prevention, and a whole host of other miraculous properties, these foods are being gobbled up to the tune of  $37.3 billion dollars in 2009 by people who think they’re buying products that will improve their health when in reality, the claims are hugely exaggerated.
Childhood obesity and diabetes rates are soaring, and we will all pay the price for these long-term health problems. Parents need to read labels and ingredient lists and act accordingly when choosing foods for their kids.
But they need a little help too, and food manufacturers and marketers need to act responsibly instead of actively working to negate parents’ best efforts to feed their children healthy meals and snacks.
Do you think food manufacturers and marketers should be banned from marketing unhealthy products to children? Or do you think it’s solely a parent’s responsibility to manage their kids’ health and diet?

Epigenetics Warning: Are You Wrecking Your Kids’ Health?

Your Genes Are NOT Static!

When you think about your genes, you probably think that they’re bits of DNA that define what color your eyes are, what color your hair is, and how likely you are to get cancer, high blood pressure, or diabetes. That’s how DNA was thought about for a very long time.

But there’s a bit more to it than that: your environment can completely alter how your DNA is “expressed.” (More on what gene “expression” is below.)
That means that you could actually change how you look and how your body works! I thought this was crazy when I first heard about it – like something out of the TV show, Fringe.
But this actually does not involve GMOs or any crazy experiments…this is simply how genetics (and epigenetics) works.
What is Epigenetics?

I’ve heard the term “epigenetics” thrown around for over a year now (it’s a popular topic at a lot of the Paleo/Primal conferences), but I don’t think I truly got it until I read Mark Sisson’s new book, The Primal Connection.
Epigenetics (which literally means “above” or “on top of” genetics) is the study of how a gene can be “expressed” differently without any changes to the actual DNA.
Broadly, this means that a gene might do different things depending on various environmental factors like diet and stress. (As you can see, epigenetics is not just about what you eat, but food is the particular environmental factor that I want to talk about in this article.)
Below is a great video that explains the basics of eipgenetics pretty well. They use a helpful analogy to differentiate DNA from epigenetics: if your DNA sequence is the sequence of words in a paragraph, then epigenetics is the punctuation in that paragraph. That paragraph can take on entirely different meanings depending on where you place the commas, periods, exclamation marks, etc.

What is Gene Expression?

Your genes are like light switches – they can be switched on or off, and when a gene is switched on, then it’s being “expressed.”

In the Primal Connection, Mark provides an overview of the gene that controls how stressed you remain after being in a stressful situation.

So how does this gene actually work? First, this gene has a pretty long name – it’s called the glucocorticoid receptor gene (even scientists shorten it to the “GR” gene, so that’s what I’ll call it). When switched on, this GR gene helps to reduce cortisol levels in your body, which causes you to relax and de-stress.

What is cortisol? When you get into a stressful situation, you produce the hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol can be good in certain stressful situations (e.g., if you’re being chased by a man-eating wolf), because it makes you stressed so that you’ll go into fight or flight mode. This is a good thing, because calmly walking away is probably going to get you eaten.

However, we are now in the modern world where we’re stressed out for hours every single day. Sitting in traffic. Emails telling you the ten thousands things you have to do today before you’ve even gotten to work. Waiting in lines for just about everything. In fact, there’s barely anything that isn’t stressful!

So what happens when you’re constantly facing stressful situations? Your levels of cortisol stay continuously high, and this can cause serious long term problems, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.
However, if you have the GR gene switched on, then your cortisol levels will decrease quickly after you encounter a stressful situation. This means you get calmer much faster, which in today’s world will save your sanity and your health!
So how do you get this GR gene to be switched on?
It turns out that if your mother nurtured you a lot while you were a baby, then this GR gene can be switched on for life (see also this article for more information on the studies)! So, if you’re a calm person, then you should thank you mother.
How Can Diet Affect How Your Genes Are Expressed?

Diet plays a hugely important role starting from the diet your mother ate when she was pregnant with you!
Diet during Your Mother’s Pregnancy:
Studies have shown that pregnant mice fed diets deficient in folate (also known as vitamin B9, which is found in liver, sunflower seeds, dark leafy green vegetables) or choline (found in egg yolk, chicken, grass fed beef, cauliflower, collard greens) produced babies that were obese and had yellow (as opposed to the usual brown) fur with a high risk of cancer and diabetes.

Conversely, when pregnant mice were fed the same diet but supplemented with folate and choline, their offspring were healthy, thin, and had a low risk of disease. And they had brown fur.
[A quick addition here - a variety of studies have shown that supplementing with folic acid or foods fortified with folic acid can actually be more harmful than good.  Instead, you should eat foods with folate and choline in it (egg yolks, liver, green leafy veggies).  Read the Perfect Health Diet Book (chapter 35 on "Choline and Folic Acid") for more information.]
Did you hear that? They had different color fur!
And in case you think it’s because they have different DNAs, you’re wrong. Both sets of offspring had identical DNA!
Your Father’s Role in Defining You:
And what your father did at age 11 may matter too! A 2006 study found that the sons (and not daughters) of men who started smoking before age 11 had higher BMIs than other boys by the time they reached 9 years of age, which means that they may well be at a higher risk for various diseases like diabetes.

And these changes can last for generations. A study performed on fruit flies exposed to a certain drug produced offspring with certain growths on their eyes that lasted 13 generations. And there were no DNA changes!
What About Darwinian Evolution?

No one is challenging Darwinain evolution here. The theory of evolution put forth by Darwin argues for changes in DNA over long periods of time, but these epigenetic changes occur much faster and with no changes to the DNA. However, our epigenetics probably still evolved over long periods of time just as a faster way of dealing with changes in our environment that occurred during certain periods of time (e.g., famine and strife).
In fact, it makes complete sense that pregnant mice who were fed poor diets would produce obese babies. After all, the reason for her poor diet was probably due to a lack of food in general. So, it’s actually good that her children should be obese so that they retain more fat to help them stay alive without much food.
Similarly, if the mother wasn’t able to spend much time nurturing her babies, then it’s likely that she had to go out and find food constantly or else fight off predators all the time. That probably means those babies were born in a dangerous place, so having higher cortisol levels would be an advantage to help them survive.
Unfortunately for us, our modern world has messed up our innate biological systems. While obesity and high cortisol levels may have been beneficial in the paleolithic world, they are now a dangerous by-product of our modern society.
What Should You Be Eating?

You don’t need a nutrition degree to know the answer to this question - eating foods that are full of nutrients and low in toxins is clearly the way to go and restricting calories is clearly not healthy. Who knows if by starving yourself you might inadvertently curse your child to a life of obesity?
I don’t have kids yet, but I know that many people, like me, wish we could give our kids the best start to life possible. We want them to have the things we didn’t even have. To achieve this, many of us work hard to earn more money so that our children can live a better life, but I think it’s becoming clearer that the best gift we could give our children is to live a healthy life ourselves!

Prevent Constipation in Your Kids

Prevent Constipation in Your Kids

constipation expert at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, shares some tips to prevent constipation in children:

1. Include fiber

How much fiber is good enough? To figure out how many grams of fiber your child should consume each day, add five to their age. For instance, a four-year-old needs 5+4, or at least 9 grams of fiber each day. Adults, on the other hand, need a maximum of 35 grams per day. To add fiber, offer prunes, apricots, plums, raisins, peas, beans, and broccoli to your child.

2. Don’t eliminate milk

Excessive dairy intake may be a problem, but cutting milk entirely from a child’s diet will not clear up constipation — and it will deprive your child of much-needed calcium.

3. Drink water

Make sure your child not only eats a balanced diet, but also drinks plenty of water. Sometimes, kids resist drinking water but if you can make it fun with a special cup and straw or by flavoring the water with lemon or even a cucumber slice, this can help.

4. Limit bananas, rice and cheese

Keep an eye on your child’s intake of constipating foods. Bananas, rice and cheese are the big offenders because in large quantities, they contribute to constipation.

5. Encourage exercise

Movement is good for kids for so many reasons. It not only creates good habits, releases pent up energy and prevents obesity, but it also helps kids’ bowels function.

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