babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Studies have found that children in families who regularly eat together are less likely to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders and consider suicide. They do better in school and are more likely to put off having sex. As such, many families make a point to dine together as often as possible.
But if your busy schedule means those dinners often consist of frozen pizzas and takeout meals, perhaps you should consider a cooking co-op. Designed to help busy people eat better, cooking co-ops let friends and neighbors share the labor involved in preparing delicious, home-cooked meals. Continue reading »
I have no doubt that Michelle Obama started her Let’s Move initiative because wants nothing but the best for our nation’s children. But Harriet Brown, author of Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia, brings up some poignant and critical points about the anti-obesity campaign in her latest column on The Huffington Post. Her overall concern: trying to make kids thinner actually makes them fat.
Brown says she’s “conflicted about the report released in mid-May by Michelle Obama’s task force on childhood obesity,” because the “ideas are all presented in the service of a single goal: to make kids thinner.” She feels it’s dangerous to suggest “that thin is synonymous with healthy, and that we can (and should) make kids thinner.” This opinion is based, of course, on her daughter’s struggle with anorexia. But take one look at where her daughter’s illness started – in her middle school “wellness” class – and you can see that her concerns are not entirely misplaced. Continue reading »
Earlier we explored the question of whether or not restaurant kids’ menus mark the death of civilization. Most of us would like our kids to be adventurous rather than picky eaters. How early can we start challenging those tiny taste buds?
In the womb. New Scientist reports on research that suggests your fetus can taste your food.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I read a memorable humorous essay on how to take a baby to a restaurant. The advice was simple and compelling: Don’t.
It’s advice I’ve happily (and sometimes unhappily) ignored for six years, as I’ve dragged my kids through restaurants ranging from high-end downtown places with star chefs to our local pizza joint. Few of these places have kids’ menus.
Which means we could probably enjoy a family meal at I Trulli in New York. The owner, Nicola Marzovilla, explains to the New York Times this week why he believes children’s menus are the death of civilization.
Is it possible to produce a healthy Pop Tart?
Kellogg’s is going to try to do just that.
A low calorie “healthier” version of some of your favorite junk foods could be available in the next few years.
As part of her “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity, First Lady Michelle Obama announced yesterday that food and beverage manufacturers have agreed to cut 1.5 trillion calories from food and drink products by 2015. They’re aiming to cut the first 1 trillion by 2012, according to the Associated Press. Continue reading »
Do you complain about how you need to lose weight while your kids are within earshot? If so, you might consider holding your tongue after hearing what Babble Executive Editor Lori Leibovich and Dr. David Katz had to say about fostering healthy eating habits in kids yesterday on “ABC News Now.”
Parents need to be aware of the language they use when speaking about food. “We tend to forget that our kids are around when we’re complaining about the way we look,” Leibovich told ABC News. “All of those messages get filtered down to our kids. Even if we don’t think they’re listening, they hear it.”
In a recent poll of 500 moms, Babble found that 79% percent of them haven’t yet talked to their kids about body image.
“It made us aware of the fact that there need to be more conversations about this. Parents are afraid of putting too much emphasis on food for fear of getting their children to focus on it too much,” Leibovich said. ”But they’re also afraid to not talk about it because everyone knows about the dramatic increase in childhood obesity.”
A stunning 10% of girls are “vulnerable” to eating disorders, according to Dr. Katz, who acknowledged that the real number is probably much higher than surveys indicate.
The problem is that parents get conflicting messages about how to approach their kids’ eating. Michelle Obama’s recently-launched “anti-obesity” campaign urges parents to monitor their children’s diets. Meanwhile, eating disorder experts warn that controlling kids’ food intake can create an array of issues.
What to do? There are no easy answers, but for a start, you can check out Babble’s tips on how to encourage healthy attitudes about food.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adwriter/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/talk-kids-dieting-10621126&tab=9482930§ion=4806329&playlist=4871226&page=1
Think your kid has a food allergy? Think again, says a new report commissioned by the federal government. Food allergies are much less common than most of us believe.
While only about 8 percent of kids and 5 percent of adults genuinely suffer from food allergies, 30 percent of us think we do. Why are we so confused?
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
0