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Strollerderby
Your kids don't care what you eat.
Set a good example, serve nutritious meals, offer healthy snacks and your kids will grow into healthy eaters with a taste for fresh fruit over fruit-flavored candy. Such is the conventional wisdom for raising healthy kids.
Ahhh, but a new study finds that is, more and more, wishful thinking. After looking at a whole bunch of studies published between 1980 and 2006 on how parents influence what their kids eat, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers found that parents’ influence is diminishing around the world and that American parents have the least influence of all on their kids eating habits.
That certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Bacon=Healthy Eating?
I’m a nice Jewish girl, but I love bacon. And now it turns out that eating bacon while pregnant might have boosted my daughters’ developing brains.
New research from the University of North Carolina suggests that bacon might be healthy for developing fetuses. How is that possible? Apparently, like many meat products, bacon has high levels of a molecule called choline (usually classified as one of the B vitamins). Continue reading »
Cause of Childhood Obesity?
Want a toy with those fries? You’re out of luck if you’re dining in San Francisco.
On Tuesday, the city’s Board of Supervisors passed a law which prohibits free toys with unhealthy kids meals, according to Reuters.
The new law, which will take effect on December 1, is similar to an ordinance passed in April in nearby Santa Clara County, which mandates that restaurant kids’ meals can’t give away toys unless they meet certain nutritional guidelines. Continue reading »
Healthy body image?
Do you think you’re fat? If you’re female, chances are good that you do.
According to a recent Glamour magazine survey, 40 percent of women are unhappy with their body. But it sounds as if even more women have a negative body image.
While only 46 percent of the women surveyed were actually overweight, 71 percent of them said they felt fat, according to CBS News’ “The Early Show.”
What makes me sad about this survey is that I know that many of these women are mothers and it’s likely they are griping about their bodies in front of their daughters. Continue reading »
1 in 4 chance that these will expose your kids to pesticides.
Over a quarter of the fruits and vegetable consumed by a small survey of American kids were found to contain chemical contamination and pesticides, according to a report released yesterday by the Environmental Health News. Researchers monitored the levels of 14 different varieties of pesticides in the foods which were tested — fruits, vegetable and juices. Continue reading »
Oh, Salt. You’re just like fat: delicious, nutritious, and deadly if taken in excess.
This Phillipine news item highlights the dangers of a salty diet: hypertension, high blood pressure, heart disease. Serious business.
Salt is an essential human nutrient in moderation. Too little of it will kill you as surely as too much. But the average American (or Phillipine) diet errs on the side of too much. Our salty cravings cause our blood to flow too fast and our bodies to retain too much fluid. This can lead to major health complications.
We get it. Cut back on the salt. Check.
There’s just one little problem. As my editor said when I started on this article: WHAT CAN WE EAT?
I don’t force my kids to eat anything they don’t like. I figure it’s my job to expose them to new foods and it’s up to them to decide what to eat. Still, I can’t help but be pleased that they will happily devour berries and snack on edamame. I’m even more pleased now that I’ve read Parenting Magazine’s 10 Nutrition Powerhouses for Kids, which features blueberries and soy such as edamame.
Parenting.com asked dietician Rachel Beller, mom of four and an expert in eating for disease prevention, for her “power food” recommendations. Here are her top ten: Continue reading »
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 
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