Tag Archives: healthy eating

Best Books on Food for Kids

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As a nutritionist and a mom, I have always been interested in good food-related books for my kids. Anytime I came across a book that teaches about food, healthy eating, or healthy body image, I bought it (even before I was a parent).

Here are just a few of my favorites (for young children):

“Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z” by Lois Ehlert is good for babies on up. Great pictures give exposure to all kinds of fruits and vegetables. As children get older and verbal they can pick out something at the market after seeing it in the book.

“Blueberries for Sal” by Robert McCloskey is a classic that was read to me when I was a child. It’s about a mother and child who go blueberry picking on the same hill as a bear and her cub.

“Bread and Jam for Frances” by Russell Hoban. Poor Frances only wants to eat the same thing meal after meal until she gets bored and learns that variety is a good thing.

“Berenstein Bears and Too much Junk Food” Besides the use of the word “chubby” that I don’t like, this book has great lessons about food and exercise.

“Cat in the Hat: Oh the Things you can do that are good for you” Great book with rhymes and information about healthy eating, exercise and other healthy habits.

“Shapesville” by Andy Mills and Becky Osborn. This book is all about loving the body you have and celebrating that we are all different shapes and sizes.

 

3 Tips to Transform your Health in 2015

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There are many ways to improve your diet. But I think I have narrowed it down to the most important.

1. Decrease your sugar (to as low as possible)

Sugar isn’t just empty calories (tons of calories without any healthful nutrients), it’s down right dangerous.

  • Sugar is half fructose, half glucose. Fructose goes to your liver and glucose goes to your blood stream.
  • Too much fructose, and your liver gets overloaded and packs it into fat and sends it straight to your belly.
  • Heavy loads of glucose causes an insulin spike to be released and if there is more glucose than your body can use at that time, it also goes into your fat cells, and then you’re hungry again. Too much of that and you can not only gain weight, but become insulin resistant.
  • Sugar also doesn’t lead to satiety. So you can get a lot of calories and not feel full (leading to more eating and more calories)
  • And it is addictive. Ever heard of sugar cravings?
  • Sugar feeds the unhealthful bacteria and yeast in your gut
  • (Any one of these topics is big enough for it’s own post, forgive my brevity)

Decreasing your sugar, any amount you can, will improve your health and weight. Period.

2. Decrease your consumption of processed food.

A lot like number 1, processed food gives you a lot of bad and not a lot of good.

  • Processed food has a lot of sugar (see above). They add it in so you will like and buy the product.
  • Processed food has a lot of unhealthful fats.
  • Processed food has unhealthy levels of salt.
  • The trifecta of salt, fat and sugar is very intentional, to get you to love and overeat and re-buy the product.
  • Processed food is missing important nutrients.

3. Eat tons of fruits and vegetables.

Besides being whole real food, loaded with vitamins and minerals, they are the only thing that the research shows unequivocally is GOOD for you.

Here’s to a healthy 2015! Thanks for reading.

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net