Simple Guide to Kid’s Nutrition

Body builders calculate their nutrient needs, but how many parents know what their children require to grow healthy bodies? Your kids may enjoy counting up their nutritional score to see if they reach health goals, and this may help them make informed choices for the rest of their lives.

Every process in the body requires protein that has been broken down into amino acids and even tinier particles called peptides. Protein sources include meat, chicken, fish, eggs, dairy products like cheese and milk, nuts and seeds. Some beans and legumes have protein, but these are not adequate for humans on their own, and they must be twinned up with other proteins to be complete enough. So, beans and rice make a more complete protein.

Soy is not recommended for kids because soy has compounds that cause estrogen-like effects. This may cause early puberty and too much estrogen for male characteristics. Puberty, or the onset of menstruation and development from children’s bodies to adult bodies, used to occur from age 16-18 in Victorian times. Now kids as young as 8 are experiencing puberty and our modern lifestyle and foods are causing this shift. Fluoride is another cause of early puberty because of its effect on the pineal gland, which monitors the onset of puberty. So, consider this when you buy toothpaste for your kids. I raised my kids on non-fluoride toothpaste, but gave them specific nutrients for healthy teeth, and they had zero cavities growing up. Tooth health is built from the inside, because teeth are alive.

For a graph of how much protein your child needs at every age see here. http://www.canadianliving.com/health/nutrition/your_childs_protein_needs.php

Kids also need healthy fats from butter, unrefined oils like coconut and olive, nuts and whole dairy products. I always suggest buying organic dairy and don’t buy low fat or skim products because they are more processed. You can make a healthy treat by mixing organic butter, peanut or almond butter, and raw coconut oil together. Use equal parts of each and mash together to form a thick oily paste. Add some sea salt and stevia, xylitol or raw honey to taste. Put in a small bowl or press into a small pan and let set in refrigerator until firm. Cut off small pieces and enjoy for a healthy sweet treat that offers the right fats for anyone to enjoy. Good fats can reduce sugar cravings and this is a treat you can offer anytime, even at bedtime.

Introduce vegetables young and fix them a variety of ways so your child can learn about the different tastes and textures. Make healthy dips to serve with raw veggies.  Help your kids to “eat their carbs green” to avoid the trap of grain-based snacks that offer lots of calories and little nutrition, as well as being addicting. Let your child cook with you and let them get creative.

I think that minerals are not rated highly enough as a vital nutrient for kids. We all talk about vitamins, which are necessary for various body functions. But minerals are vital as the actual building blocks of the cells. Mineral deficiency is also a cancer risk. Potassium, zinc, magnesium, and calcium, as well as trace minerals like copper, iodine, iron, chromium and selenium are vital. Manganese helps ligaments (which act as bands to connect bones) so if your child plays sports, manganese can help them avoid injury. For more on minerals see www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/vitamins-minerals/treace-minerals-what-they-are-and-their-importance.html#b

Really talk to your kids about nutrients and help them to understand the liabilities of junk foods and sugar and the importance of nutrition to help their bodies grow and function. I find that kids are fascinated by books on the body with lots of pictures to help them see what is inside. There are some movies that can help. For older kids I like this one from National Geographic http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/101-videos/human-body-sci

I found that some of the movies that try to teach kids start out with too many big words without explaining them, which is one of the great challenges concerning the body. The inside parts were named in Latin for research purposes, and is a barrier to understanding how it all works. It also means that most doctors can’t talk to patients because the doctors only know how to speak “Latin medical” and that is missing from everyone else’s standard education.

Osmosis Jones films are another fun choice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1yrB92QTW0 

“Kidding Around the Kitchen” offers weekly demos at the Hollywood/Atwater Farmers’ Market on Sundays, and will do birthday parties and cooking classes with different themes. If you have a budding chef, you might even be able to delegate some family meals!

On a site called Red Tricycle  tri.com/los-angeles/kid-friendly-farms-around-los-angeles/#  there is a list of farms that welcome kids. Helping kids understand that food does not come packaged from the market will help them become more informed consumers. There are big issues with genetically modified foods and poisonous pesticides that are already impacting kids’ health. Seeing where food comes from may enhance their understanding of the need for real, whole foods.

For eating out, here is a site that has healthy options to fast food dining in LA. www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/15/best-healthy-fast-food-al_n_783824.html

I see many older people in their 80’s and 90’s who are in good shape because they grew up on healthy, complete foods. My concern for kids today is that those whole foods are disappearing from the American diet and there will be long-term health consequences. My own kids considered me a food-Nazi when they were growing up, but they are healthy today and voluntarily take lots of supplements now that they have seen for themselves how they feel when they don’t eat well.

Kids are fascinated by muscle testing and I have given demonstrations at several schools to help kids see how their bodies respond to whole foods vs. sugar and junk. Let me know if you have any questions about kids and health.

Back To School Special for Your Kids

All the stores are promoting supplies and clothes to get kids ready for school.  But the most important part of being a student is happening on the inside. Like adults, kids live emotional and mindful lives. Unlike adults they can’t always tell us about their stresses and body issues, which they may not fully understand.

Very few people of any age are eating a perfect diet. Kids may be picky about what they like and miss out on important nutrients. This can affect their performance in school as well as their emotional stability and physical development. http://www.extension.org/pages/68774/3-ways-nutrition-influences-student-learning-potential-and-school-performance#.VcFO_2RViko

Even if your family is eating well, the nutrient content of food has declined, and is a concern to nutritional scientists. When you eat out you have no idea if you are getting any quality nutrition, with so many shortcuts to food preparation hat even good restaurants are taking to cut costs so they can serve giant portions of food. chttp://news.utexas.edu/2004/12/01/nr_chemistry

Helping kids to get the nutrition they need in a form they will agree to take may be tricky. But it can be done, especially if they are willing to drink a protein shake or smoothie. I taught my kids to take supplements at an early age by telling them to imagine that the supplements were surfers who had to “ride the wave”. If kids can swallow a bit of burger or a French fry they can get down a pill.

If your kids have any body problems natural medicine can provide answers. Just boosting their immune system can prevent school absences and the difficulty of trying to make up missed work.

Concentration problems are often adrenal related. Kids can have a high amount of stress in their lives and that may affect their adrenals.  Irregular menstrual periods are not “normal” and getting on the birth control pill is not the answer. It is far better to balance hormones so that a girl starts her adult life with a normal cycle. Did you know that menstruation should coincide with the moon and tides because the moon “draws” water. Women whose menstrual cycle follows the lunar cycle have less fertility problems later in life. http://www.athenainstitute.com/lunarmpl.html  Women who are on the birth control pill for years are more likely to have fertility problems later on.

Acne may be related to toxins or to hormone imbalances. Drugs and hormones are not the safest answer. Getting to the root cause of the acne not only creates clear, beautiful skin, but prevents scarring and demonstrates the very real relationship between our hormones, our toxicity level, and our health.

Even if you, and many others in your family, had some of these issues, that does not mean they are genetic and fixed.

To help your kids be their healthiest, bring them in for an analysis. Kids’ first consultations are $75, half the adult price. Through 20 September get 10% off protein and nutritional shake powders for kids. You can help them start their day right with a delicious protein shake.

Don’t let your kids go vegan or vegetarian. Protein is vital for their development and mental stability. If they have questions about what they should eat, I am happy to answer them. How we farm and raise animals is often stupid and inhumane and we need to change those practices for the sake of all. But depriving your body of vital nutrients won’t change our farming system and could have long-term health consequences.

Looking forward to meeting your great kids and helping them stay healthy!

Are Your Cells Hungry?

Our grandparents and great-grandparents did not all die young. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams lived into their 80's and 90's! Infant deaths skewed the data, giving us a low AVERAGE life expectancy. People died of infections such as tuberculosis, malnutrition, and accidents. But there was virtually no heart disease, cancer, diabetes or obesity or other diseases we associate with age. http://www.weedemandreap.com/ancestors-live-bacon-lard-milk/

What can we learn from our long-lived ancestors? 

Eat food as Nature provides it and develop clever ways to preserve it in a natural state.

Canning is over 300 years old. The tin can was invented in Britain in the early 1800’s. Before that, meat was preserved by salting it.  Seamen died by the droves for lack of vital nutrients on long sea voyages. A diet of biscuits and salted meat did not sustain life and scurvy could be a death sentence, perhaps killing more than half of those who served during the Seven Years’ War in the 1750’s.

Food was also heated and in glass bottles, and then placed in boiling water by Nicholas Appert. Sterilization was not yet known, so Monsieur Appert was ahead of his time. This method preserved fruits and vegetables and vinegars. But the tin can was important because it could preserve meat without spoiling.

The oldest surviving tin can is in the London Science Museum. It weighs seven pounds and is filled with venal, and was taken by Sir William Parry when he explored the Northwest Passage. Sir Parry was searching for a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. He held the record for reaching the highest northern latitude of any European explorer for five decades. Apparently he favored fish on his sea voyage, since the tinned meat made it back intact.

Tinned foods remained a military staple until they were shown to the civilian public at the Grand Exhibition of 1851.

There were several scandals involving food canning, ranging from putrid meat to reports of lead poisoning from poor soldering. People were skeptical about the quality and dissatisfied with the taste of canned meats and vegetables.

The first canned food to gain popularity was condensed milk.  Urban farming was affected by the trend towards canned milk and improvements in transportation made global market penetration a possibility.

The American Civil War increased canned food production six-fold. In 1896,  technological advances improved speed and sealing techniques.  English foods could be exported around the Globe, since the sun never set on the far-flung British empire.

All this while, since the invention of the tin can, there was no easy  means of opening the cans developed. Bayonets and knives were used by soldiers and sailors. But the housewives and household cooks did not have a double wheel, serrated, can opener until 1925.

During the New Deal President Franklin Roosevelt’s program delivered 692 million pounds of food to hungry American people, much of it canned beef. Canned fish because affordable to people living hundreds of miles inland, and tropical fruits could be shipped to cold climates.

Don’t forget that the American invention of soda pop is served up in cans, not to mention the favorite of many-beer. The first beer in a can appeared in 1935, and sodas followed.  Cans were made either of aluminum (75% of world production) or tin. An interior liner was developed, from plastic or a waxy substance, to protect against a chemical reaction with the metal that might affect the flavor of the soda. “Church Key” latches were invented, which cut a triangular hole in the top of the can to pour out the liquid. The pop tab was invented in 1959 by an Ermal Fraze. The pull tab, although convenient, posed problems with safety, including stuck fingers and swallowing. The tabs were also created litter when people disposed of them on the ground.

Next came the push tab in the mid 70’s, which left a sharp edge that could cut fingers but solved the litter problem. The non-removing Stay Tab was further refined in the 70’s and is still in use today.

It would be interesting to discover if canned foods actually contributed to global population growth, since more preserved food because available. And I hope that it saved the lives of many soldiers and seaman, rather than making war more convenient for those who chose to wage it.

For modern soldiers, campers and hikers pouches and cartons are easy and convenient for preserving foods, weighing far less. However, tin cans are still better at preserving the flavor and the original state of the foods. And tin cans are better for stockpiling in the eventuality of a natural or man-made disaster.

Today we take refrigeration for granted, and it has granted us a means to enjoy fresh foods during every season on a scale our ancestors would have found astonishing.

So many of the foods we eat today don’t need to be preserved, by refrigeration or by canning. Only real food needs preserving. So, the majority of the foods that you see in bags and boxes on the grocery store shelves are shadows of food, punched up with chemicals in the form of flavors and colors. They won’t sustain life. Imagine an army marching on Skittles and Doritos. Or Twinkies, the all-time favorite junk food to bash.

Or imagine a child being raised on the same. Every new cell would be made out of red dye and chemical flavor enhancers.

So, what are your cells being made of? All body conditions must have a component of nutrition influence. Good conditions have a nutritional component and that is the good news. It is actually good news that pain, acne, obesity, diabetes and cancer also have a nutritional component. Because that means you can do something about it.

You can stock your refrigerator with healthy food, but you have to find the time (and inclination) to prepare it. I suggest that you try nutritious shakes and smoothies to start your day and/or fill the gap for those times when you arrive home too tired to cook.

Dr. Royal Lee, the developer of the first multi-vitamin in 1929, said, “One of the biggest tragedies of human civilization is the precedence of chemical therapy over nutrition. It’s a substitution of artificial therapy over nature, of poisons over food, in which we are feeding people poisons trying to correct the reactions of starvation.” He made this statement in 1951 after studying nutritional therapies for twenty-five years.

Food chemistry was really developed after WWII, and was a new field. Imagine how far the field has come today. Scientists know exactly what their research rats need to eat to be healthy, and they know that if they remove any vital nutrient the rats will get sick.  We can apply this same principle to humans, but the food companies don’t have to worry about your health, only your marketing buttons. You could go your whole life and hardly ever eat any real nutrient. But you won’t be well. Your body may actually be starving, even if you are carrying 10-100 pounds of extra weight. There is no substitution for what is in real food.

Live as long as Jefferson, Adams, or my great-grandmother who died at 96, but live healthy and strong.

For more about the history of canning see www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21689069

Stay Strong in Summer Heat

If you have been to see me for a consultation recently, I may have used some new test kits to check you. The first thing that comes up for most people is “hydration”.  The remedy for that is not just water, and many people comment that they are already drinking “so much water”.

But hydration is far more. Most people are also deficient in minerals. The cells of the body don’t want water alone. They want water as a carrier for the building blocks of the cells, and that means minerals. Electrolytes, salt and potassium, are part of that picture. But that does not mean drink Gatorade! That does mean getting more sea salt in your diet, and summer fruits are a source of potassium.

Foods grown in depleted, over-farmed soil, have few minerals, and you are losing minerals in sweat with the heat. So, think minerals to help your body weather the heat better.

One of my favorite summer mineral supplements is Cal Amo. It is a life-saver in humid weather and has the added benefit of helping the lymph system.

The liver is burdened by hot weather, and since most of us have over-worked livers from all the environmental toxins, this can cause summer fatigue. Think liver cleanse, or extra liver support with Milk Thistle herbs and Choline and AF Betafood to help the gall bladder decongest.

Adrenals are stressed by extreme temperatures, as well as summer travel, so extra adrenal support is helpful. Avoiding sugar and going moderate with caffeine will help.

Air conditioning dries out skin, mucous membranes and lungs. And the change from hot outside air to cold inside air is worse. A dab of Egyptian Magic cream (available from Health food stores and online) can be used around the nose at night to give some moisture to your nasal cavities. Prescription medication and inhalers for allergies will further dry out membranes. There are natural allergy medicines such as Allerplex, Euphrasia and homeopathic Sabidil that can help you manage allergies naturally. Doing a good cleanse can give long-lasting relief, as well as getting tested for food allergies. Cleanse does not mean "fast" and you can eat well while you cleanse. Ask us about our 21 day Detox program.

You can never go wrong, in any season, by eating organic foods and avoiding genetically modified foods. The main reason for GMO foods is so the plants will be able to resist pests, and was supposed to reduce the use of pesticides. However, that has not proven to be the case, because Mother Nature has her own way of coping with stress in her environment and it is proving very difficult to fight her. Since we now have stronger, tougher weeds that resist the chemicals, maybe that is part of the reason that allergies seem to be worse than ever. http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe70s/pests_08.html

Remember the recipe for a homemade sports drink/lemonade. Juice some fresh organic lemons into spring water, and add a pinch of sea salt, and stevia or honey to taste. For pink lemonade, add a splash of raspberry puree.

And I want to share a recipe for gluten-free pancakes that are high protein and don’t even need syrup. Mash a small banana and add 2 eggs. Whip together to form a “batter”. Pour on an oiled or buttered griddle or pan heated to low-medium heat. Cook until golden and flip. Two eggs make 2 large pancakes or 4-6 smaller ones.  I like them slathered with butter and fresh sliced strawberries. This is a great change from other egg breakfasts and can be used for a snack or other meal. You can roll them up and take them to eat in the car on the way to work. (watch the butter!)

This recipe is courtesy of Zonnie Bauer, Pilates and Dance instructor. Enjoy!!