The 'canaries in the goldmine'- our children have become the signal that something is very wrong with our microbiome, our brain, our immune systems and toxification of our environment
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Last week I did a talk on children's nutrition at my kids school. It was great to see so many dedicated and health-conscious parents wanting to do their best for their kids health, growth and development. We discussed a lot of different areas, however one topic came up as a big one for all parents: what to put in the kids lunchboxes. Parents are always on the lookout for healthy lunch box options and foods that WILL get eaten.
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Tis the season for juice fasts, weight loss shakes and all matter of detox programs. Don't we know it! We do it every January... A question that I get asked very often is: 'Is it better for me to juice my fruit and veg or to blend it?' and of course like with most things in life and nutrition, there is no black and white answer.
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Breakfast is controversial. I've come to realise this via the reactions of the men and women who attend my workshops to my statements about breakfast. It usually goes something like this: I inform my workshop attendees that all commercial cereals- all the ones sold in supermarkets with claims like 'plenty of fibre', 'goodness in every bite', 'gives your kids all day energy', etc etc are actually completely devoid of nutrition. Not only do they possess very few nutrients, many of them are actually harmful to our health.
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Just about every parent I know thinks their child is a fussy eater. The degree of 'fussiness' varies widely of course. When my daughter refuses to eat her sauerkraut or bone broth I think she's being fussy! I usually ignore and try again the next day, when she will usually gladly eat these nutrient dense foods because she is USED TO eating them, knows they are very HEALTHY and the whole FAMILY eats them on a regular basis. I do appreciate though that for most parents, the battle is usually focused on regular foods like chicken or fish, the dreaded vegetables - of course:) and for many also fruit. However, no matter what your child is fussy about, I do hope the below strategies prove useful. I
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How often do you hear any of the following: 'Mum, I really really want a cookie!' 'Dad, when can we get some chips, I REALLY feel like some chips!" Or even the pre-verbal toddler just pointing at lollies in the supermarket and then stomping feet just to make sure you got the message "lollies now!" Children's cravings are real, just as adults cravings are. They start early on and are very strong urges. However, they are not always cravings for sugary junk food or fatty chips- a lot of the time kids have particular cravings that seem quite healthy and harmless. My son always craves cheese- whenever I ask him what he would like for breakfast/snack/lunch/dinner the answer usually includes cheese. I've started doing some research on this as many traditional
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We all know that dairy (full fat, raw and grass fed is the best) contains large quantities of calcium. The dairy industry has ensured over the last few decades that dairy is pretty much perceived as the ONLY source of calcium, which is far from the truth. It's also firmly drummed in the message that calcium is the most important mineral for bone health It is not. Many other factors are vital to ensure bone health is optimal in both children and adults: -adequate magnesium intake (richest sources are vegetables, fruit, nuts & seeds) -adequate vitamin D and K levels Without vitamin D, calcium doesn't properly mineralise bones. We also want our calcium to actually go to our bones and teeth, not soft tissues like breasts (calcification), kidneys (stones) and muscles (pain!).
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It’s common today to read headlines in newspapers such as ‘Australia is the world’s food allergy capital’, ‘Studies show 10% of Australian children have a known food allergy’, ‘Rates of asthma – highest ever’, ‘Autism and ADHD on the rise’, etc, etc. At the recent Mindd Forum (www.mindd.org) in Sydney, the below chart on Autism statistics was presented. When it was on the screen, there was an audible collective gasp in the audience. It is clear that Autism is on the rise in our society, together with asthma, allergies and digestive disorders. Source: Mindd Forum 2013 What do all these conditions have in common? According to many doctors and researchers, they stem from similar causes: our food and our environment. The environment is tricky business and often we have little
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Last week I took my camera to the supermarket for research purposes... My aim: Take some pics of kids snack foods and their ingredients to see what the snack ‘products’ are like these days as it’s been a while since I’ve shopped for them. Yes, that’s right. Supermarket (and many health food shop) snacks are products - food products manufactured in a factory from ingredients that many companies do not put on their websites for a reason (hence the photo taking). They seem to fall into 3 categories: dairy snacks (yogurt packs mostly) chips of various kinds grain based things: biscuits, crackers and puffed rice/corn cakes. The sad part: Is that we are told these are healthy snacks for our children: the yogurts are low fat, the chips have ‘25% less fat/salt/whatever’
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