Are you a preschool teacher?

Early elementary school teacher?

Do you home-school?

Are you a children’s librarian?

You’ll want to check back for Healthy Bites Lesson Plans and Activities for The Forest Feast storybook.

COMING SOON:

1. Read Aloud Story Helps and Questions

2. Teacher 3-day Plan (Focusing on the Food Pyramid

3. Food on a Plate

4. Healthy Food or Junk Food?

5. A is for Apple…V is for Veggie

6. Guess the Food in My Picnic Basket

7. The Creation of Whole Foods (for Religious Schools)

8. Fruit and Veggie Prints

9. Pizza Box Flannel Board for The Forest Feast

CLICK Here for “Fun with Whole Foods.

Looking for a speaker for your teachers’ conference? CLICK HERE

Keep informed sign up for the FREE weekly Baby Bites Ezine: CLICK HERE

What’s wrong with people food? For the most part it doesn’t support health. The sad truth is that most of America’s children don’t eat as well as their pets. That’s saying a lot, because most pet food is highly processed. At least pet food has measured amounts of nutrients for animals.

Only two percent of children meet the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid’s recommendations for a healthy diet. One quarter of children ages 5 to 10 years old have early warning signs for heart disease, such as elevated blood cholesterol or high blood pressure. Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult onset diabetes.

Angel loves fruit!

“Adult onset” has been dropped from type 2 diabetes label, because up to 45 percent of children with newly diagnosed diabetes do NOT have type one, but type 2. Type 2 diabetes is directly connected to the processed sugary foods kids eat and is avoidable. Today, people eat one hundred and fifty pounds of sugar in a year. Yikes, that’s two-and-a-half pounds of sugar each week! Kids consume more sugar than their parents.

We have picky kids because we fill our pantries with highly processed food items and we regularly take toddlers to fast food places. We purchase snack items, lacking nutrients, because we don’t think of snacks as food. Chips, cookies, crackers, and candy take the place of healthful fruit and veggies.

I’ve heard moms say that fruit is too expensive, yet they find the money to purchase junk foods. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average cost of a serving of fruit or vegetable is 25 cents per serving. I stopped in Safeway today to compare the price of organic fruit (fruit is a cheaper if you don’t purchase organic) to junk foods. Veggies, like carrots, celery and snap peas, would be less expensive than fruit. I didn’t see any savings when purchasing junky snack items.

This is what I found:
One organic banana is about 35 cents.
Two ounces of organic raisins is about 40 cents.
One organic apple from a 3 pound bag is about 55 cents.

A candy bar costs about 80 cents.
A single-serving bag of chips is about 70 cents.
One oatmeal cookie from a box containing a dozen is about 25 cents.
One vanilla ice cream bar from a box of 6 is about 45 cents.

Last year, I researched purchasing whole foods on a food stamp budget. I found that it’s possible on a very limited income to eat whole foods, including fruit and veggies. Obviously, costly processed snacks (chips, cookies, candy) were not included in my budget. Whole foods, like fresh produce, whole grains, and dairy, satisfy hunger and pack a lot of nutrition into a few bites. Each calorie is nutrient-dense with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and essential amino and fatty acids. Whole foods take longer to digest, warding off food cravings between meals.

Your children, even picky eaters, will eat healthy snacks, when all you have in your kitchen are whole foods. Instead of processed snack foods, purchase fruit and veggies. Make hot-air popcorn and smoothie or fruit juice Popsicles. YUMMY! Healthy snack ideas are limitless: Pumpkin or sunflower seeds, edamame, plain yogurt mixed with a mashed banana and topped with granola, apple slices dipped in peanut or almond butter. I could go on, but you get the idea.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

Listen to today’s podcast, Click Here.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.

Kid food looks and tastes like food; offering little or absolutely no nutrition whatsoever. Real food is a substance eaten for nourishment. You can be assured of a picky eater, by regularly purchasing kid foods, training little taste buds to prefer fake foods.

If you want to know what kid food is, just ask for a child’s menu at any restaurant. Without a doubt you’ll see hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, fried chicken, pizza, spaghetti, and macaroni and cheese on the menu. You can add chips, children’s cereal, soda, and cookies and other treats to the list.

Now it’s true that chicken, beef, tomato sauce, and cheese have nutritional value…if you cook them at home using whole foods. When your child eats out, most of the time the nutrition is sadly lacking.

Joshy’s mouth and tongue are red after eating a piece of birthday cake. Icing is made with sugar, trans fat, and artificial food coloring.

Today, we’ll talk about just three common ingredients found in “kid food,” saving food artificial colorings, nitrates, and other additives for another day.

First, there’s white flour, which came from the staff of life or the foundation of good nutrition, but now offers little in the way of nourishment. Whole grain flour is transformed into empty calories, when the bran is removed to make white flour. Whole grains include all three parts of the grain kernel: the bran, which is the outer layer or the fiber, the endosperm containing the complex carbohydrates, and the germ containing B and E vitamins.

White flour has been stripped of its nutrients, then, adding insult to injury, most times it’s bleached. (White flour is in most hamburger and hot dog buns, white bread, white pasta, white pizza crust, and of course most bakery products, including cookies, donuts, and cake.)

Fake foods offer fullness, without providing any nutrients. Fat gives us a full feeling. Altered fats are a regular addition to processed foods, because they’re cheap and add shelf life to products. Trans fat can’t be metabolized in the human body. In fact, trans fat has a half life of 51 days. Trans fat may be the worst, but it’s not alone. We have a new altered fat, interesterifed fats are like trans fats. They raise the blood levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol, at the same time, they lower the “good” HDL cholesterol levels. According to the January 2007 journal Nutrition & Metabolism, interesterified fats not only negatively affect the cholesterol levels, but also negatively affect blood sugar levels! (Altered fats can be found in most bakery items: cookies, crackers, cakes, donuts, pies, pizza crust, and chips.)

Fake foods tease your taste buds with sweetness, but rob you of the enjoyment of other flavors. Today, we ingest nearly 150 pounds of sugar a year, that’s 2½ lbs a week! Sugar is seductive as it may take years before it makes you overweight, ruins your pancreas, your adrenal glands, and throws your endocrine system out of whack. Although, it will suppress your immune system up to five hours after eating something with sugar in it. Sugar is almost always included in processed foods. (Sugar is in everything from soup to nuts! It’s in cereals, ketchup, lunch-meat, soda pop, kids’ drinks, all bakery products and desserts. If it’s processed it most likely has added sugars.)

Click Here for more on Fake Foods.
For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.
For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.

Moms frequently ask if their children should take a multivitamin

Whole foods should be your first resource for your family’s health. A diet with lots of fresh vegetables and fruit is optimal. A picky eater’s diet is limited and because we rely on processed foods, which are not as healthful as fresh foods, it’s a good idea to add a high-quality multivitamin-mineral supplement to your child’s diet.

The problem is that many vitamins on the market designed for children contain artificial ingredients.

Angel eats a healthy diet and takes vitamins.

A good resource for purchasing children’s vitamins is a whole foods store where there are qualified personnel to answer questions about ingredients. Read the nutrition label carefully. Search for multi-vitamins derived from whole foods, not synthetic vitamins. If an artificial color or flavor is listed you know it’s not made from whole foods, look for another brand. Some times the ingredient “natural flavor” is code for MSG. Always ask.

In addition to a daily multivitamin, there are a couple of other supplements which make a lot of sense for children today. Probiotics is the first. Processed foods interfere with the good bacteria. Also, antibiotics kill both the “bad” and “good” bacteria in our guts. Probiotics stimulate the immune system and are necessary for a healthy GI tract. When children have a proper balance of beneficial organisms in their GI tracts, it supports health as well as brain function. Look for a probiotic brand made just for children.

The second is a cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is an anti-inflammatory high in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins A and D. It is available in lemon flavor which has a pleasant taste. I recommend finding a brand which is made from fish caught in the Pacific Ocean. Fish caught in the Atlantic have been found to have a higher mercury count. Carlson’s Fish Oil is a superior brand. 

Find out more about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

Listen to today’s podcast, Click Here.

For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here. 

The breakfast rut is made with simple carbohydrates: white flour pancakes and waffles topped with sugary syrup, most processed cereals, coffee cakes, donuts, bagels, and white bread toast.

When breaking fast, the morning meal should be filled with whole grains and protein. This will help bring your kid’s brain power up to full-speed. Children, who’ve eaten a healthy breakfast concentrate better, solve problems more easily, and have better muscle coordination. Kids are less likely to be overweight, if they eat a healthful breakfast. Because, children, who eat a nourishing breakfast, are less likely to snack on junky foods.

Casey is proud that he can help with breakfast!
Casey’s mom is a professional photographer.
You can see her work ay Mary Beth Graff Photography:
http://www.mbgpics.com/

You can climb out of the breakfast rut in just three steps. Once you’re on the path to whole foods, you’ll find it’s just as easy for kids to make a nutritious breakfast as pouring processed cereal from a box.

1) The first step out of the breakfast rut begins in your pantry and refrigerator. Clear your pantry of sugary cereals, pastries, toaster items, and any thing instant. This will eliminate the temptation to use processed breakfast items, which offer little in the way of real nutrition. A kitchen stocked with whole foods, leads to healthy breakfasts.

When a toaster pop tart isn’t available, you’ll reach for wholesome whole grain bread. If your pantry doesn’t hold processed instant cereals, then you’re more likely to eat nourishing old fashioned rolled oats and cream of wheat. If you don’t have any instant breakfast packets, then you’ll make a healthful breakfast fruit smoothie.

Have tasty nutritious foods on hand for easy breakfasts: Cottage cheese mixed with fruit, a breakfast salad tossed with radishes, celery, cucumbers, top whole-grain waffles and pancakes with applesauce, on really rushed mornings, eat fruit, cheese, juice, and a PB&J sandwich in the car.

2) Then, keep breakfast foods in easy reach for younger children. Place them on the lower shelves in your refrigerator. Have 100 percent fruit juice mixed and ready. If your dishes are stored in upper cabinets, take down what they’ll need for breakfast out and set them on the table for breakfast. Keep fruit within easy reach on the table.

3) The last step out of the breakfast rut is to apply the Boy Scout motto “Be prepared.” On the weekends or your days off, prepare more breakfast than your family can eat. Then place individual servings of pancakes, waffles, French toast, and turkey bacon in baggies and freeze.

Boiled eggs are another healthful breakfast food. They make a fast, but nourishing breakfast that kids can grab on the run. You’ll want to mark hardboiled eggs with a felt-tipped pen, so your kids can easily identify the cooked from raw eggs. With a marker you can draw a smiley face or heart, to make their morning a little cheerier.

You’re out of the breakfast rut and standing on solid nutrition when you teach your kids how to make their own healthy breakfasts. Kids love to do it themselves! Take advantage of summer with a more relaxed morning time schedule. Not only will you be able to set a pattern for busy fall mornings, when your kids at home for the summer break, you’ll be able to involve your them in the entire process.

Kids can easily retrieve the homemade breakfast items you previously prepared or froze and reheat them. Having a toaster oven or a microwave can make the job of reheating nutritious foods easy enough for grade school kids.

You can prepare breakfast items ahead for your children and all they have to do is help themselves in the morning. Premix the ingredients for a fruit smoothie and store in a jar the refrigerator. All they do is shake and pour. Homemade whole-grain oatmeal cookies and a glass of milk are more nutritious than sugary processed cereals. Kids can reheat bowls of brown rice in a toaster oven and top with slices of fruit. Premix egg salad for sandwiches. In the morning, grade school children can spread it on whole-grain bread. Another idea is to prepare a tray of veggies and dipping yogurt sauce. Even leftovers warmed up from dinner make it an interesting and healthy start for your kid’s day.

Click Here for the blog, “Most Important Meal of the Day”

Listen to today’s podcast, Click Here.

For a synopsis of the Baby Bites book, Click Here.

Joshy knows he’s eating corn, do you?

Michael Pollan came up with the very same conclusion in his book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, without utilizing carbon testing. His journey began with the question, “What am I eating?” Turns out it doesn’t matter what we’re eating, it all begins with industrialized corn. He says unless you’re eating free-range pastured animals, you’re eating corn.

So what’s the problem? It seems when animals eat what they were designed to eat, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 (which is an anti-inflammatory) and other essential fatty acids have a proper balance. Grass-feed beef has a two-to-one ratio of omega-6 to -3, compared to more than 10-to-one in corn-fed beef.

Pollen says, “If units of omega-3s and beta-carotene and vitamin E are what an egg shopper is rally after, then $2.10 (now it’s $2.50 or $3) a dozen eggs from pastured chickens actually represent a much better deal than the 79 cents a dozen industrial eggs at the supermarket.”

The bottom line is: You can get more nutrition from meat and dairy which has been raised on pasture. Since, vitamins are expensive, it makes sense to purchase products from pastured animals when you can. This makes even more sense, if you have a picky eater, who may consume limited amounts of food. (And yes, picky eaters can learn to love veggies, CLICK HERE.)
For more information about Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, CLICK HERE. 

“For example, he says, even a need as basic as nutrition is compromised when money is poorly allocated or spent. The average American slurps 53 gallons of soft drinks every year, and now spends more in restaurants than in grocery stores. “Even wild monkeys have healthier diets than most Americans,” says anthropologist Katharine Milton, “partly because in our fast-paced world, the emphasis is on snack-ability, convenience, and shelf life rather than the human life.”

Americans also rank near the bottom among industrial nations in health per unit of food, spending the least for food, but the most for health care. In spite of the expenditures, we’ve fallen to 42nd place in the world for longevity. We’re also 42nd in infant mortality, but number 1 in obesity.”

Click Here for today’s Podcast.
For a synopsis of the Baby Bites book, Click Here.

This European Union-funded project found vast differences between organic and conventionally grown foods. Researchers grew fruit and vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent sites. Their primary site was a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University.

They found levels of antioxidants in milk from organic herds were up to 90 percent higher, than in milk from conventional herds. They also found up to 40 percent more antioxidants in organic vegetables.

Pictured Left: Ethan agrees, organic is better!

The coordinator of the project said the government was wrong, about there being no difference between organic and conventional produce. “There is enough evidence now, he said, that the level of good things is higher in organics.”

Ezekiel Bread contains all that’s needed to sustain life. Ezekiel Bread is made from sprouted wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. When these whole grains are sprouted and combined, a complete protein is created.

Unfortunately today, most children eat bread with the nutritional value of a birthday cake. Carefully read the nutrition label on bread packaging to identify the brands containing whole grains. Some loaves are labeled “wheat bread” or “enriched wheat flour,” but on closer examination of the ingredients, there’s not much of the wheat grain in the bread at all.

Whole-wheat has hundreds of phytochemicals, although they’re concentrated in the bran and germ. “Enriched” listed on the package label indicates the nutrients have been removed from the flour; then the remaining flour has been artificially enriched.

Count to three to identify the most healthful loaf of bread:

1) For a good loaf, use the squeeze test. Your squeeze test is eliminating the soft and spongy breads, because these will contain mostly refined white flour and chemicals. If the loaf is soft, put it back on the shelf. You want to avoid the fluffy brands and purchase a more dense loaf of bread. Of course the squeeze test won’t work for hard-crusted breads, such as French or Italian. For these breads, move immediately to the next step.

2) For a better loaf of bread, turn a firm loaf to its side to locate the fiber content on the nutrition label. It should have at leastthree grams of fiber per serving. This’ll be a more healthful loaf of bread.

3) The best bread will contain at lease three grams of fiber, plus, “whole-grain” will appear before the first listed ingredient on the nutrition label. When wheat is listed, it should read “whole-wheat flour.” The most healthful loaf will have just a few ingredients, such as whole-wheat (or other whole-grain), water, yeast, and salt. Bite for bite, your family will receive more nourishment in this loaf of bread! This bread is the staff (force) of life.

You’ll find the most nutritious loves of bread in a refrigerated case in your whole foods store.

There’s more information on healthful foods in my book, Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater. Buy the Book at the Baby Bites Store Now! Click Here