Consider that Our Old Patterns/Habits are in the Way of Optimum Health

Love is often given to our loved ones using unhealthy food such as an old-fashioned cookie, ice cream, soda, or candy. It is considered a treat or a reward. It means we are being good, we deserve it, or perhaps it is an act of love for no reason. If done too regularly this old way of thinking is hurting our bodies and creating patterns in our youth that is unnecessary and harmful.

Many in our society today are obsessed with and confused about food and our children are suffering because of it. *Between 8% - 45% of newly diagnosed cases of childhood diabetes are type II, associated with obesity, whereas 4% of childhood diabetes was type II in 1990. That number has risen to approximately 20%. Depending on the age group (Type II most frequent 10-19 group) and the racial/ethnic mix of group stated and of children diagnosed with Type II diabetes, 85% are obese.

We use food as a reward, as a means of numbing our pain, and to get our kids to behave. One of my biggest concerns is when I see children with sugar dripping from their mouths because mom wants them to behave while shopping, driving in the car, or even getting their haircut. It’s an easier out to treat your child with unhealthy sugar. This ultimately has the opposite effect on children’s behavior than what you want. I say there are other ways of rewarding, like an acknowledgement, a sticker, an apple or carrot, or better yet a hug or a high five. It’s easier to start good habits with a very young child before he knows what candy, McDonald’s, or other junk food is. If they are already exposed to “the sugars” and fast foods, it’s certainly worth your child’s health and well-being to teach them about how nutrient-dense foods make them healthier and strong and how processed foods can make them sick if they have too much.

I am often surprised at how I get treated for making sure my three-year-old son eats healthy and balanced meals minimizing the sugar and junk in his diet. I get called a mean mom, a sugar-Nazi, and a health freak while these parents are loading their children with chemicals and sugar that they were taught to believe was giving their child a treat. Love is caring about your children’s well being even if it causes you to take an unpopular stand for better long-term health. A big part of this comes from educating ourselves as parents about nutrition. We can’t pick up a newspaper or a magazine today that doesn’t emphasize the importance of good, healthy, whole-food meals with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Balance and variety are the key. Food is yummy and there are lots of ways to incorporate good tasting foods into your diet and enjoy life. I think it is completely fine to have cake at a birthday party… as long as there isn’t one every weekend. Most importantly there are plenty of pure foods that taste just like the ones filled with the unhealthy ingredients.

Consider that the younger we can train our children’s taste buds the better the chances they have to grow up with fruits and vegetables in their vocabulary and their tummies. As parents we must educate ourselves so we can offer our children the best and healthiest lives possible. All the statistics show that healthy, whole food eating effects our mind, body, and spirit in such a positive way. Bottom line…the next time your child is throwing a fit in the grocery store, think of another way to calm him rather than to pop a sucker into their mouths.


*References: National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and My.WebMD.com website
Consider that Our Old Patterns/Habits are in the Way of Optimum Health

ATTENTION all Parents… do you really know what is in those lunchables?

I ran a summer camp this past year at a large school and I was SHOCKED at what the kids were bringing to lunch everyday. LUNCHABLES!!!!! I realized at that moment how powerful marketing really is.

So parents a little health education for you. When you read the ingredients in a label, the fewer there are the better. Also the more ingredients you recognize even greater. I challenge you to read a lunchable the next time you go to put one in your cart. You have to be a scientist in a lab that makes them to be able to recognize any of those ingredients. Worse than that you need glasses to read them because the print is so small to fit all the ingredients in and you might as well sit down because it will take you a while to read the box. In a CNN health article, Dr. Clarence Grim stated, “The packages should carry a warning label.” There, that should give you a clue how horrible these fun, cute, easy to do lunches are that we are giving our beautiful, nutrient deficient kids.

Marketing and advertising wins kids over all the time. They see how cool they look, and all their friends have them so now they have to too. What they don’t tell you is really hurting our children. So when your kid wines and cries and throws a temper tantrum because they have to have one of these cool lunches think twice about what is more important… your child’s health or how cool they think the lunchables are?

My suggestion is take them to the grocery store with you and teach them about label reading. The more organic the better and remember to look at the ingredients on a label first. Fat, calories, and sugar content is second to ingredients. When something says low fat in big letters on the front of it, it is the marketing ploy to get you to buy it. What they are not telling you is that they have replaced the fat with chemicals that will be stored in the body as fat because they won’t be digested.

Food truly can be fun, easy, affordable, tasty and healthy. It is just a matter of the proper education and your attitude. Try making your own lunchable by buying a reusable lunch box with compartments just like the lunchables and add things like organic chicken nuggets, carrots and celery with organic peanut butter, vitamin water that tastes great, and two organic small cookies. Real ingredients. Real good.