Treats and Fun for Kids, More Damage than Good

The last couple weeks have been eye-opening for me in regards to children's nutrition.  Two distinct and independent events occurred opening my eyes to the severity of the presence of sugar, fat, and salt in our children's diets.  The first event came along during my son’s first soccer game of the season. He is not new to soccer, he has been playing since was three; he will celebrate his fifth birthday in a month or so. The second event was at my son's school for their end of the year party.

 

Let's start with the soccer, last summer the children would play soccer and at the end of the game they got a snack and drink. The snacks were usually sugary junk food like little Debbies cakes, Rice Krispy treats, gummy fruits stuff paired with even more sugar in a Capri Sun juice.  I did not care for that practice but I was expecting it. The new snack policy for soccer this year completely blew me out of the water. Now let me explain how soccer games for these little kids’ works, half of the team plays while the other half sits.  They play in 10 minute shifts and the game is 40 minutes long; most of the time the kids don't even break a sweat.  Even though the game is 40 minutes long, in reality each child only plays for 10 minutes at a time for a total of 20 minutes. Now this year they switched up the snack policy, halfway through the game the children get a snack for example a piece of orange or watermelon and some water or a juice box.  Then once they finish the second half of the game they are given a second snack usually an unhealthy one like a fruit rollup, cookie, or Rice Krispy treat with yet another box of juice.  Now let's be reasonable here little kids jogging around the soccer field for 20 minutes might burn 200 calories if they're lucky. Between the fruit, juice, and treat these children are given over 400 calories of food. Is that really necessary, is the US experiencing an epidemic of malnutrition or obesity?

The second horrific experience was at my son’s and of the year party. The teacher provided the goodie bags and she asked the parents to bring snacks for the children for the party. I took a cantaloupe expecting there to be lots of sweets but when I walked into the classroom that morning I was completely astonished. There were nine different cakes for only 12 students! On top of that, the goodie bags were full of Twix’s, Kit Kats, M&M’s, Cheeto’s and many other candies.  Wasn't the cake enough? Nobody brought a fruit or a vegetable except for me, why? And that was only one class, how about the bus driver, the gym teacher, and anyone else who visited the class on their final week? Every where they turned they were being showered with candy.

I understand that children like candy, I'm not a kid and I like candy too. Isn’t all that overdoing it? Is there no limit anymore? Why do we always have to tie happiness and celebration with food, especially sweets? If the children made their own kites, decorated them, then went outside and flew them, wouldn't that be a fun celebration for the end of the year? Or if their teacher gave them a free period to play outside or play board games in the classroom, isn't that fun too? Why must we shower them with sweets?

Not only are we turning our children into materialistic creatures feeling they must receive something in order to be happy or celebrate but we're teaching them detrimental habits. We are branding it in their brains that in order to celebrate or be happy food and candy must be available. Without sweets, fat, and sugar there is no happiness. Is this the message we want to send our children?

Are you addicted to fat?

Every mother would be appalled at the idea of addicting her own child to drugs.  But in reality something very close may be happening.  According a study published in one of the most prestigious scientific journals, Nature, obese rats show the same changes in their brain receptors as humans addicted to heroin and cocaine.  These same obese rats participated in compulsive food seeking actions compared to their non obese counterparts. 

 

Scientists fed the rats three different diets, the first group ate regular laboratory chow, the second had limited access to high-fat cafeteria foods and the third group had unlimited access to the high-fat cafeteria foods; all three groups had 24 hour access to laboratory chow.  The cafeteria diet was of human grade, tasty and high in fat.  After 40 days the unlimited access rats became obese while the other two groups did not.  Additionally, after 40 days the unlimited access group was willing to withstand pain in order eat the cafeteria food while the other two groups were not.   Finally, from CT scans performed the rats’ brains; researchers found that changes in the brain chemistry of the rats with unlimited access to the high fat foods resembled the chemistry changes of drug addicts. New studies are finding similar changes in studies on humans.

This change in brain chemistry may explain why obese individuals feel helpless in front of food and are unable to control their compulsive eating even though they know it is detrimental to their health.  If the same changes that occurred in the rats’ brains occurs in human’s who eat a high-fat, high- calorie diet, then these individuals many literally be addicted to unhealthy foods.  This is very important to keep in mind when feeding children.  If they are constantly fed high calorie, high fat foods, these poor children are slowly becoming addicted to unhealthy junk food.  No wonder children are struggling with obesity at such young ages!  And no wonder children and adults are having such a hard time losing weight.  Not only do these individuals have the struggle of weight loss, but they may also be dealing with an addiction.

Let’s help our children stay healthy.  Try these small changes to encourage healthy eating and weight management:

1.       Provide children with healthy snacks like cheese sticks, apple pieces, grapes, or baby carrots and broccoli with ranch dressing. 

2.       Try to cook at home as much as possible even if it is something fast and easy like a stir fry.

3.       Give children a protein rich breakfast to get them through the morning.  Toast and Greek yogurt with olives, Cheerios and milk, and eggs with oven baked hash browns are all good choices. 

4.       Pack your child’s lunch for school and encourage the school system to provide healthy low fat meals and snacks to the students.

Every little step counts.  Stop our children from getting addicted to these harmful foods and teach them how to eat healthy.  This important lesson will last a lifetime and enable them to enjoy a healthy life.

Reference:

Johnson, P.M. and P.J. Kenny, Dopamine D2 receptors in addiction-like reward dysfunction and compulsive eating in obese rats. Nat Neurosci, 2010. advance online publication.

 

What is Clean Eating

When grocery shopping, the perimeter of the store is my comfort zone. I go down only a few isles: the frozen section for frozen veggies and ice cream (yes I do eat ice cream), the pasta isle, and the Mediterranean isle. But as I talk to more people and they learn I am a nutritionist, people have been asking me about numerous different products. So I decided to take a journey down the treacherous isles of the super market.

No goal in mind, I wondered around with my cart picking up different products and reading the ingredient; most of them looking like the chemical gibberish from my chemistry books. I kept asking myself why people intentionally ingest chemistry experiments. I am not alone with this thought. Many health conscious individuals share the same feeling. They do not want to eat chemicals, preservatives, food coloring and numerous other things added by manufacturers to the foods.

Clean eating is eating food that does not contain foreign substances. Ingredients for the products would be recognizable food names like olive oil, whole wheat flour, sugar and other whole foods. Food is prepared using only food grown by nature; this includes red meats, chicken, fish, shrimp and many other unprocessed meats.  Baloney, pepperoni and fish sticks are not on the menu at clean eating households. People eat foods with no artificial anything. This entails cooking from scratch sometimes but that does not mean it has to be a lengthy practice. You can find numerous clean eating recipes on the Healthy Plate 5 blog that take about 30 minutes to prepare.

 

Processed foods contain high quantities of hidden sugar, salt, high fructose sugar, saturated fats and other unhealthy substances.  Clean eating limits the amount of these unhealthy ingredients because you know what is in your food and you know how much of it you put in your meals. This aids in weight loss, diabetes, hypertension, renal disease, gluten free diets and numerous food intolerances people suffer from because the cook controls exactly what and how much goes into the meal.

Just like most other diet choices, clean eating does not have to be an all-or-nothing regime.  You can try to eat clean as much as possible but when you are traveling, sick, busy or just do not feel like cooking there are other options.  Making the change to eliminate as many chemicals possible is a healthy step that can benefit both you and your family.

 

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

My kids eat around the clock.  Providing them with healthy, tasty optionscan be difficult at times but every once in awhile I have an amazing idea.  Yesterday I was thinking about making bananabread and my son wanted oatmeal cookies so I had this great idea to make bananaoatmeal cookies.  I looked around forrecipes and this is what I came up with. I added a healthier twist and some more fruits.

Preparation time:15 minutes and 12 minutes baking each batch.

Ingredients:

4 Ripe Bananas (about 2 cups)

Juice of 2 tangerines (optional)

1 cup white flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups oatmeal

1 cup butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup shredded coconut (optional)

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel andmash the bananas then add tangerine juice and mix.

2.      In a large mixing bowl mix together white flour,whole wheat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder. Once mixed together,add oatmeal and coconut and stir again.  Inanother bowl beat eggs, sugar and soft butter.

3.      Mix contents of all three bowls together.  Spoon dollops of cookie batter on to cookietray and bake for 12 minutes. Makes 48 cookies.

NutritionInformation:

Each cookie provides 140 calories and 2 grams of fiber (whichis pretty good for just one cookie), 18.5 grams of sodium (this is extremelylow), 3.2 grams of protein (considering it is only one cookie also good), 11.8grams of sugar (a little bit on the high side, you can reduce that by onlyusing 1 cup of sugar) and 6 grams of fat 2.3 of which are healthy fats.  These cookies also provide some vitamins andminerals although they are not high they are still there: vitamins A, B-12,B-6, C, D, E, pantothenic acid and minerals calcium, copper, folate, iron,magnesium, manganese, niacin, phosphorus, riboflavin, selenium, thiamin andzinc.

Healthy Snacks for Kids

Every mom experiences the question of, what do I feed my kids? We all look for the perfect snack, fast easy, healthy and most important of all: the kids will eat it without complaining.  Ideally, a well-rounded snack will contain three main nutrients: protein, whole grains and fiber.  What options are available? How do we get our kids to try it? Here are some of our favorites:

1.       My kids favorite snack is avocado with whole grain tortilla chips with a cup of milk.  The avocado is rich in vitamins, healthy fats, and fiber.  The whole grain tortilla chips obviously have whole grains and fiber while the milk provides the protein.

2.       Greek yogurt spread on a whole grain tortilla or pita with an apple.  If your kids are old enough do not peel the apple as the skin is the rich in fiber and nutrients.  You can try pears, grapes, peaches or any fruit your child likes.

3.       Veggies with hummus and whole grain crackers, the kids can dunk their veggies in the hummus which is healthier than ranch dressing or they can spread it on the crackers.

4.       Edamame pasta salad made with whole grain pasta.  Choose vegetables your kids like and if they are not fond of edemame try another kind of bean like kidney beans, black beans or garbanzo beans.  This is a versatile salad, try different combinations until you find the best match for your family.

5.       Another favorite in our house is a grilled cheese sandwich with a fruit side.  Of course if they eat the whole sandwich it can be a meal or you and the kids can split the sandwich for a yummy snack.

6.       Talking about meals that can be snacks, scrambled eggs on half a whole grain English muffin with a tangerine.

7.       If your children can eat nuts, they provide protein, healthy fats and numerous other nutrients.  A homemade oatmeal cookie containing walnuts, raisins and half the amount of sugar the recipe calls for coupled with a cup of milk makes a snack most children love.

Tuna Salad with no mayo paired with whole grain crackers.

 

These snacks are all great for home but what about when you are on the run or in the car.  What can you give your kids that is healthy, easy and does not make a mess?

1.       Low fat string cheese: if you have a cooler this makes a great snack for the park or the car. 

2.       Granola bars: I love these for the car.  I always have a box hidden in my van somewhere.  Yes, they are high in sugar but most are made with whole grains and nuts or peanut butter (beware if your kids are allergic to nuts, make sure to read the ingredients carefully).  Some of them even have dried fruit.

3.       Fresh fruits: tangerines, grapes, strawberries and blue berries go with us one most of our trips.  Just wash them in advance and stick them in a small cooler.  These fruits keep well, do not change color (like sliced apples), do not need much preparation in advance and kids love them. 

4.       Fresh veggies: carrots and cucumbers with a hummus dip work well with us.  As I give a vegetable stick to my kids I dunk it in some hummus, so they do not make a mess in the car.  Downside is someone else has to be driving.

Send us your kids favorite snacks.  We are always looking for fun, healthy ideas.

Astonishing Asparagus

Spring is here; and along with it comes the warm weather, beautiful flowers and sunny afternoon walks.  But more importantly, the fresh produce starts coming in soon.  Finally, after a long winter of frozen vegetables people can start buying fresh from the farmers market and enjoy the true flavor of “fresh.”  One of the vegetables native to March is asparagus.  These tasty stalks are from the lily family, which also arrive in April. 

In addition to bursting with flavor and texture, asparagus is packed full of nutrients and stripped clean of calories.  Four asparagus shoots are only 13 calories with 12% of the Daily Value of vitamin A, 38% vitamin K and 22% folate.  This wealth in folate is important because many scientists believe folate deficiency to be one of the most common deficiencies in the USA [1].  Folate deficiency increase ones risk for heart disease and causes megaloblastic anemia which could result in depression, irritability, forgetfulness and disturbed sleep [1].  Additionally, the fetuses of pregnant women who do not consume enough folate are at risk for neural tube defects [1].  Getting enough folate before pregnancy can prevent such mishaps.  Fotunately, asparagus is high in folate and other vitamins while it is low in calories and easy to prepare.

The good stuff does not stop there; asparagus is also called a prebiotic food.  Everyone has heard of probiotics, the beneficial bacteria found in yogurt that promotes digestive health, but what about prebiotics.  Prebiotics nourish the beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract.  Prebiotics not only nourish the good bacteria which reduce pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella and clostridia while beneficial microbiota also decrease carcinogen activity in the gut [2].  So on top of being packed with healthy goodies, asparagus also promotes good digestive health.

With all these benefits, eating asparagus is a no brainer but preparing it properly may be tricky.  Asparagus, like many other vegetables lose a significant amount of vitamins during preparation because they dissolve in the cooking water.  In order to preserve the greatest amount of vitamins steam, bake or grill your veggies.  My favorite way to prepare asparagus is to cut off the woody bottoms, rinse them with water thoroughly, then place them in a baking pan.  Drizzle with a tiny amount of olive oil, sprinkle on some salt and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Bon Appetite!

References:

1.            Insel, P., E. Turner, and D. Ross, Nutrition. 2 ed. 2004, Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

2.            Mahan, K. and S. Escott-Stump, Krause's Food, Nutrition, & Diet Therapy. 11 ed. 2004, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Saubers.

 

Tabbouli Syrian Style

Tabbouli or tabouleh is a salad that originates from the Middle Eastern Mediterranean area fomr countries like Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.  In the USA I have seen many variations to this healthy salad but this is an authentic Syrian recipe used by most Syrian cooks.

Tabbouli is rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, iron, fiber, monounsaturated fats and numerous other beneficial nutrients.  This salad can be eaten as a main course or a side.  At my house we eat is as a main course with a side of cheese or spinach pies.  But jazz it up however you like, you cannot go wrong with tabbouli.

Preparation time: 30 min

Ingredients:

2 bunches of parsley

¼ cup of very fine bulgur

1 large tomato diced

½  medium onion,minced

2 squeezed lemons

1 tsp dried mint

¼ tsp pepper

Salt to taste

3 tblsp olive oil

Directions:

To prepare parsley, cut parsley leaves into a food processorwith scissors including about 1 inch or 2 cm of the stem attached to the leafthen process using the pulse button until parsley is the preferred texture.Repeat until all the parsley is minced. You should be able to process one bunch of parsley at a time.  Do not process for too long or the parsleywill get mushy, we a looking for minced not mushed.  After cutting the parsley, soak it is icecold water to clean and remove dirt. Change water every 10 minutes until the water is clean.

While soaking the parsley, put bulgur, tomatoes, onion,lemon, mint, salt and pepper into a small bowl. Mix together and allow it to sit so bulgur can soak up the lemon andtomato juices (we do not cook the bulgur). After the parsley is cleaned and drained, mix parsley with the bulgurmixture and add olive oil. Serve immediately and decorate with lettuce leavesif you wish. Saha wa hana!  i.e. Withgood health and pleasure in Arabic.

Nutrition Information:

 

How do you Kale?

Most of what I read in the nutrition realm these days is about kale.  All I hear is kale provides loads of antioxidants, vitamin A, C, K and B6.  It provides all the amino acids your body needs to make protein. It also supplies a notable amount of iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, copper and manganese.  Scientists cannot seem to say enough about this leafy green vegetable.  Kale belongs to the Brassica family, the same family as broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts.  Kale specifically and the Brassica family generally are both known for their cancer fighting and cholesterol lowering powers.  Not only that, but kale contains lutein and zeaxanthin compounds which play a significant role in promoting eye-health.  You thought carrots were good for your eyes, try kale instead.

To be honest, I had never tasted kale. Nor did I know what it looked like before today.  So I bought a bunch of kale and decided to try it.  I was missing out on this nutritional power house; I could not stand it any longer.  After internet research and social networking with friends, I decided to try the kale 3 different ways: kale chips, sautéed kale, and raw. This is what I found:

1.       Raw Kale: it has too much texture, especially for salads.  I saw some baby kale packaged for use in salads.  Baby kale may not be as tough, I will try it next time I see it.

2.       Sauteed Kale: Definitely not for me.  I tried a recipe off of recipes.com.  The reviewers gave it 4.5 stars but it had a bitter after taste I did not care for.

3.       Kale Chips: Ah, I am in love. Light and crunchy but with almost no calories; they are addictive.  I had 4 different people at my house today.  All of them loved the kale chips.  They did not taste at all like potato chips but it was a pleasant surprise for my palate.  I will do it again soon.  The recipe is simple.

Crunchy Kale Chips

 

Kale Chips:

Serving:  4

Ingredients:

½ a bunch of fresh kale

1 tablespoon olive oil

A touch of salt

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  It is very important to heat the oven beforehand so the kale does not get soggy.  Wash the kale, dry it and remove the soft leafy part from the stems.  This is not hard; you can just tear it off the stems. Then tear them to about the size of potato chips.  Put the kale leaves in a large bowl then slowly drizzle the olive oil over the leaves while mixing them with your hands.  Once you have drizzled all the oil and added a dab of salt, continue to mix the leaves making sure the olive oil covers all the kale with a very thin layer.  Arrange the kale in a thin cookie sheet over parchment or wax paper.  Put in the heated oven for ten minutes.  Once the ten minutes are up; remove promptly, kale chips can easily burn.  Put them in a plate and enjoy nutrition with a crunch.

Edamame

Looking for a healthy, easy, delicious snack? I got justwhat you want.  This snack bursts withnutrients providing a hefty amount of iron, and protein.  No, it is not chicken nuggets, who saidnuggets are healthy anyways.  They alsosupply 9 grams of fiber in every serving. They are great for picnics, road trips and last minutes snacks.  Best of all, my kids love popping the littlebeans out of the pods.  Yes, you guessedit.  They are the king of all legumes,edamame!  Eda-what? Edamame. It is afancy name for an otherwise boring name, boiled soy beans. 

Over the years we have heard about the wonders of soy comeand go.  Sometimes it is supposed toreduce hot flashes, others it cure heart disease, sometimes it helps reduce theside effects of diabetes.  Unfortunately,research has shown these claims to be inconclusive because the studies weredone on a small number of people for a short period of time.  In order for these theories to be proven,much more research needs to be conducted, but that does not mean we shouldthrow the soy out the window.  Edamame isstill full of beneficial nutrients and we should take advantage of them.  Half a cup of shelled edamame or one and oneeight cup of edamame in the pods provides only 120 calories, 9 grams of fiber,2 grams of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats (the healthy fats), 11grams of protein, iron, vitamin C, vitamin A, and calcium. Although they maynot be the super food scientists thought they might be, with all those benefitsthey are still a super food in my book.

Now we are all pumped up about the benefits of edamame, buthow can we eat them?  My favorite way issteamed straight from the pods.  You canalso add the shelled beans to casseroles, stirfries, rice pilafs, soups, andsalads just to name a few.  You can findthem in the frozen or produce section of your grocery store.  Now go and get some!

 

Reference:

The Secret ofEdamame