In every culture, people have included fermented foods in their diets. These are foods which have been cultured, supplying probiotics and health-building enzymes. Despite the hype over probiotic drinks, yogurts, and bars, live and active probiotics are difficult to find today. All cultured products begin with live, active cultures. That means the microorganisms are alive [...]

Probiotics means ‘for life’ You have hundreds of trillions of bacteria in your digestive tract. They are a major part of your immune system. A healthy lower intestine should have about 85 percent of “good or friendly bacteria” or flora to prevent the over colonization of disease causing micro-organisms like E. coli and salmonella. Today, [...]

Good eaters naturally use all their senses. Have you ever observed a toddler who’s been defined as a “good eater”? Nicole just turned two and mealtimes are always an adventure for her. She regularly bypasses the spoon and picks up food in her hands, feeling its texture before taking a bite. Without any prompting or [...]

You Can Outsmart Your Picky Eater Ten-year-old Clay refuses to eat any vegetables, other than green beans. He doesn’t like Italian or Mexican foods either. This is problematic since his family lives in El Paso and his mom loves to cook Tex-Mex. Clay explains, “I always get what I want for dinner. It doesn’t matter [...]

Unless your cupboard is bare, you have food storage. Most families in America can eat from the food stored in their pantries and freezers for three days to a week (depending on when the last trip to the store was made), some even more. Because food is readily available, most of us don’t think about food [...]

“Nonna, can I pleeeease wash the dishes?” pleaded Ally, my then eight-year-old granddaughter. Ally is like most kids, she loves to help in the kitchen. Although she’s eager to wash dishes , I’ll guarantee, that in four or five years the sight of dirty dishes won’t be so exciting. Today, helping to wash dishes is [...]

Yikes! My computer has been out of commission for almost a week. I’ll take this opportunity to post safety information that I have saved. This is different than my usual blogs about family health and nutrition. It’s not about picky eaters, either. It’s about safety (which of course is ultimately your health). Years ago, I attended a seminar on [...]