Dangerous Soup

Soup for dinner last night. It’s that time of year. I’m a single parent this week and there were several places I needed to be at once, so last night it was soup from a box. The box irritates me because I can’t recycle it, but I suppose the trade off is avoiding the BPA lined cans. Over lunch I read an article in Time magazine about BPA and I’m going to steal shamelessly from that article for this post, since it was the inspiration.

We all know about the BPA (bisphenol-A) in plastic water bottles. That’s why we’re paying through the nose for the metal bottles these days. I’m also paying in terms of the number of times my kids have spilled the metal bottles because they don’t have those nice plastic flip tops the plastic ones have. Lately I’ve been buying metal bottles that come with a plastic spout, but wondering – does the spout have BPA?

Which leads to my next question? Just how bad is BPA? The science is not completely clear on that question. In Europe, the use of BPA in baby bottles has been in place for some time and in the US, companies (with any brains) are voluntarily removing it from their products. So someone knows something. Researchers have claimed that there is a compound in BPA that can interfere with hormones. It’s been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity and most alarmingly (for those people bottle-feeding), problems in the development of young children.

There are also plenty of studies that claim that BPA is harmless. Unlike other dangerous chemicals, BPA doesn’t remain in your system very long. In fact, the Time article sites a recent study that asked participants to either eat canned soup or homemade soup for five days. The participants who ate canned soup had their BPA levels increase by 1200%, while the homemade soup eaters had normal levels of BPA (whatever that might be).

Apparently 93% of Americans have detectable amounts of BPA in their system right now. How is this possible, you ask? I don’t even like soup. Because BPA can be found just about everywhere – lining of aluminum cans (not just soup), cashier receipt paper (try avoiding that), plastic water bottles, pizza boxes, soda cans, toilet paper, dental sealants (What? Someone needs to do the pro/con on this one), and some wine bottles (much to my chagrin). So it’s pretty much everywhere.

How do you avoid it? And should you? You know I’m going to say stay away from it. Although even I am at a loss for avoiding the BPA in toilet paper. But there are some things that are easy - 

1. Give up your bottled water habit and buy a reusable BPA-free re-usable bottle. Not only will you avoid BPA, you’ll save lots of money and be doing a kindness for the environment.
2. Make your own soup. If you’ve never done it before – consider giving it a try. Truly, nothing is easier to create than homemade soup. Just about anything works if you can make a broth. Broth is simple and free to make. The next time you cook a chicken or beef that has bones, save the carcass/bones (and the giblets – I don’t know what they are but they’re usually in a little bag stuffed inside your chicken) and put them in a big pot on the stove. Fill the pot with water and simmer it for as long as you want (probably at least 30 minutes). Done. Instant broth. I cool the broth and then freeze it in large yogurt containers which is about how much we need for a soup base. You can get fancy with your broth and add vegetables, spices, and salt or you can keep it plain and get fancy later. Truly, you can make broth. It is also possible to can broth in glass jars, but you need to use a pressure canner for this and I am still too frightened of my pressure canner to attempt it.
3. Avoid cans of all types. Buy frozen vegetables (or better yet, freeze them yourself in the summer in plastic bags or can them with your pressure canner, you brave soul you).
4. Make food that normally comes in cans yourself – cranberry sauce is super simple. I wrote about it last year. Ditto applesauce. There is no need to buy canned pumpkin either – if you cook up one pumpkin, you’ll have enough pumpkin puree to last you six months. I don’t know how much to worry about the BPA in pizza boxes, but this is something else you can easily make yourself.
5. Just say no to soda. You don’t need it. Your kids don’t need it. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about a can of soda. Nothing. I could go on, but I’m sure you’d rather I didn’t.

I don’t know if BPA is harmless. I’m inclined to think that it isn’t on the basis that the products it is found in have become more and more plentiful in the last 50 years, as have the health threats that are linked to BPA. The parallel is too neatly drawn. Erring on the side of caution is smart, but making more of your own food fresh is good for reasons that go way beyond the potential danger of BPA. 

Get Off Your Butt - Your Life Depends On It!

I don’t know where you live, but where I live we are trapped in the house by yet another lovely snow storm. Only this one is worse because it’s layering a shimmery dressing of ice on everything. It’s quite the adventure just slipping to the end of the drive for the newspaper (glad the cameras weren’t rolling for that one - yak trax are no match for black ice). Even the kids are becoming sedentary. The snow is so deep and so heavy, that after the requisite snowman, there’s not much to do but begin a snowball fight that inevitably ends with someone violating the “no head” rule, the other someone in tears with a bruised face or ego, and me being forced to put on my own boots to retrieve the offending someone. Notice I’m naming no names.


So what else is there to do but grab a book or fire up the computer? We’re all guilty, but if we don’t get up off our butts it’ll kill us. I’m not kidding. New research by the American Cancer Society says that women who spend six hours a day sitting on their butts are 40% more likely to die sooner than women who only spend three hours sitting. Doesn’t even matter if those long-sitters are marathon runners or spend all their other hours teaching aerobics.

How can this be? Sitting for prolonged periods suppresses the immune system. Your blood stops circulating normally and can create the perfect scenario for blood clots and heart disease, not to mention raising your resting blood pressure and increasing your cholesterol. Long hours spent sitting may cause large muscle groups to shut down which can lead to damaging metabolic changes. Yipes!

Throwing in my own two cents here - the other obvious factor could be the junk food consumed by people sitting for long periods of time in front of screens. Given the opportunity, my children will mindlessly eat in front of any kind of screen. As long as the food is within arm’s reach, I think they would eat without ceasing. We keep the feed room in the barn shut tight because I know if my horses were to get loose and find their feed, they would eat themselves to death. They don’t know better. Do we?

I’m not so sure, so I only allow my children apples, celery, or carrots while they are watching TV (except for “movie night” when only popcorn will do). This way if they are stuffing themselves with something, at least it’s something that’s good for them.

Still, from what I’m reading it’s the sitting that will kill them faster than the potato chips. Luckily, our screen rules and my children’s energy levels prevent them from sitting still for more than an hour. But my hubby’s a different story. His job requires him to stay motionless (except his mouth, and hopefully his brain) for long hours. And sometimes when I get on a good writing jag, I can sit here for hours too.

So what’s to be done? It’s pretty simple. We need to get off our butts! It’s not too difficult to add some movement in to your day. Walk to someone’s office and talk in person rather than sending that e-mail. Instead of sitting at the counter screaming for my child to stop doing whatever he’s doing that’s making all that noise, I’ll get off my duff and go find the source of the noise. Just breaking up the periods of sitting should do it. Move around enough to get the blood flowing. Walk up the stairs and back down. Laundry helps with this. I’ve started using the annoying end buzzer on my dryer so that I have to get up and take out the clothes or risk hearing that awful sound every 4 minutes. Instead of sitting down to sort the mail or write a quick note, I stand at the counter. And when talking on the phone instead of lounging on the couch, I’m using that time to patrol the house for dirty laundry, discarded edible contraband (i.e. something out of the kitchen other than carrots, celery, or apples), and lights left on. Sometimes I even clean while I’m talking. (Crazy, I know.) When I’m stuck waiting for a kid, a car, an appointment, whatever, I’ve taken to finding a comfortable wall to lean on and playing with my iphone instead of sitting down to read some mindless tabloid in the waiting room. I’m looking for any excuse to get off my butt.

If your kids are the ones sitting still for hours, you need a plan. Asking for their help, sending them on an errand, and if worse comes to worse, pulling the plug (or flipping the circuit breaker) can help you get them moving. One article I read suggested wearing a pedometer and setting a goal each day, but that could get old (or not, depending on your personality). I think it’s just a matter of deciding that living a long, healthy life is more important than watching another episode, playing one more game, or wasting another minute on the internet.

These may be “new” findings, but even Plato knew the consequences of whiling away the hours motionless, “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.” Smart guy that Plato.

MSG By Any Other Name Is Still MSG

I am a label reader. Nothing goes in my cart until I’ve examined its label. I try to be sure I recognize all the ingredients. This seems like good practice. Turns out some ingredients can sound completely innocuous but in reality be something downright scary. Take MSG. Even if you aren’t in to healthy eating, organics, or very particular about what you put in your body, you know MSG is bad. Everybody knows that. The problem with MSG is that it never says “MSG” on the label. That would be like saying, “We use cow poop to make this food,” which may be true, but you never want to say it so obviously. Same for MSG. It’s in there, but no marketing department in its right mind would actually tell you that. Doesn’t mean it isn’t in there.

What about all those labels that say “Contains no MSG”? That’s because they don’t always call it MSG. There are lots of other names for MSG. I’ll get to that in a moment. First, I want to figure out what’s so bad about MSG. The FDA says that MSG is “generally recognized as safe,” which is the most ridiculous statement ever created. Riding in a car is generally recognized as safe, but I would clarify that statement by saying Riding in a car is generally safe, unless the driver is drunk, teenaged, or texting. Vacuuming is generally recognized as safe too, but that didn’t stop me from nearly bashing my head in recently when I tried to vacuum the stairs. Generally recognized as safe is simply a term the government is using to cover their posterior. I just want to be clear on that. So the FDA site told me nothing about the safety or danger of MSG.

On to the Mayo Clinic site which was uncharacteristically vague also. They said “MSG can trigger headache and other symptoms in some people”. No specifics on the other symptoms or the some people. So I had no choice but to head to the deep dark recesses of the internet where all the paranoid crazy people hang out. Here is only a partial list of the symptoms of “MSG Complex” garnered from various sites that seemed generally recognized as safe:

Headache
Flushing
Sweating
Facial pressure or tightness
Numbness, tingling, burning in face, neck and other areas
Itchy rash
Rapid, fluttering heartbeats
Chest pain
Nausea
Weakness
Dizziness
Violent diarrhea
Anaphylactic shock
Sleep Disturbances
Vivid Dreams
Restless Sleep

With the exception of anaphylactic shock (and perhaps violent diarrhea) lots of people have these symptoms occasionally for lots of reasons. MSG complex looks suspiciously like a catchall.

So what is MSG? Monosodium Glutamate is a white, salt-like substance made from amino acids. It has little flavor of its own, but is used as a flavor enhancer to accentuate “meatiness”. Glutamic acid is a nonessential amino acid that occurs in meat broths and fermented products (think soy sauce). It’s what makes broth feel so satisfying and rich. Glutamate is the glutamic acid created by cooking broths and fermenting foods. It occurs naturally and is not toxic. In fact, it’s wonderful. That’s why your grandmother’s soup makes you feel so much better. The science behind it is that glutamate is a excitatory neurotransmitter that increases the rate at which neurons fire.

Where the glutamic acid in MSG goes so wrong is when it is unnaturally created. A process discovered in the 60’s allowed manufacturers to create monosodium glutamate artificially by breaking down and changing naturally occurring glutamate in to various free forms that are not found in nature. These modified glutamates enter the bloodstream 8-10 times faster than natural glutamate. This heightens the taste experience (and maybe your heart rate?). Many researchers believe this can also create an addictive quality to MSG which can cause people to eat much more than they should.


Some dieticians have promoted MSG enhanced foods for people who struggle to maintain their weight or eat what’s best for them (like people on diabetic or low salt diets). Their logical argument is that if it makes the food taste better and will get people to eat correctly, what’s the harm? What is the harm? The research is officially inconclusive. Perhaps there is some truth to the marketing campaign “You can’t eat just one.” Maybe the MSG in junk food makes it addictive. John Erb, in his book The Slow Poisoning of America, will tell you that MSG is a direct cause of obesity, diabetes, autism, and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. He can’t necessarily prove this, but researchers can’t prove him wrong either.


So how do you avoid MSG? Unless you eat a completely raw, homegrown diet you can’t. But there’s no reason to avoid naturally occurring MSG in cooked broths and fermented substances. Skeptics of MSG complex are quick to point out that Asian culture has been consuming MSG for centuries and they are some of the healthiest, longest lived populations in the world. True. But the MSG they consume occurs naturally in their cooking methods.


The MSG most of the rest of us consume can be found in the processed foods we eat. In most cases this is not naturally occurring glutamate, but manufactured monosodium glutamate. I wanted to give you a complete list of the most likely places you will find MSG in foods you buy at the grocery store, but this post is already too long and MSG is found in nearly everything you buy. Even in my “organic” cupboard, I found products containing MSG. As I alluded to at the start, MSG goes by many, many names, the least used being “MSG”.

MSG is found in most processed and prepared foods like chips and soups. But I also found it in chocolate sauce, wheat crackers, ice cream, salad dressing, and spaghetti sauce. Nearly every fast food chain uses plenty of MSG in all their foods.

According to http://www.truthinlabeling.org/:


These ingredients always contain MSG: hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed plant protein, plant protein extract, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, yeast extract, textured protein, autolyzed yeast and hydrolyzed oat flour.

These ingredients frequently contain MSG: malt extract, malt flavoring, bouillon, broth stock, flavoring, natural flavoring, natural beef or chicken flavoring, seasoning and spices.

These ingredients may contain MSG: carrageenan, enzymes, soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate and whey protein isolate.

The one that really gets me is “natural flavoring”. I don’t understand how the government gets away with that. Especially when it doesn’t define “natural” or have any kind of testing or requirements for foods that claim to be “natural”. It really should just say, “and anything else we felt like putting in” instead of “natural flavoring”.

So what is the average consumer to do? I’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t avoid MSG. Our food system makes that impossible (again unless you can move to a desert island somewhere and eat only raw foods). MSG is like so many other things that aren’t good for you but aren’t necessarily going to kill you by themselves. The problem is when you have too many of those things like MSG, transfats, sugar, caffeine, etc. All of them together can weaken your system and make you more susceptible to all manner of bad things.

So the only conclusion I can draw from all this rambling research is that here is one more reason to eat more vegetables, fruit, grass-fed dairy and meat products. It’s one more reason to make your own food and buy food from people you know. MSG can easily be found in organic foods, so if you want to avoid MSG don’t think you can do that by sticking to organics. Many organic foods contain MSG under the guise of another name, like the ketchup in the picture above of foods I found in my cupboard that most likely contained MSG. Read labels and know what you are eating. The foods most likely to contain MSG are junk food, fast food, processed food, and cheap food. Limit the junk you eat and you’ll limit the MSG you ingest. Oh, and it might make you healthier, too. Just saying.

Flaxseed Everywhere

What's all this fuss about flaxseed? Well, just in case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t noticed the six million new products “with added flaxseed!” on the label, let me tell you. Flaxseed is one of the healthiest things you can add to your diet. And you don’t need to buy any of the fancy new (processed) food to get it. Before I tell you all the sneaky ways to dose your family with plenty of flaxseed, let me share with you why you should eat it in the first place.

I read about flaxseed over a year ago when my hubby’s cholesterol was reaching levels that were kind of scary. The doctor was on the brink of putting him on drugs for cholesterol and implored him to change his lifestyle. Now, let me tell you about my husband’s lifestyle – he’s thin (he prefers the term “lean”), doesn’t exercise enough but splits wood and rides his bike on occasion, doesn’t like sweet food, and eats most of his meals here at our house where his crazy wife won’t buy processed foods and is always coming up with another new “healthy” recipe. Since I can’t convince him to give up his coffee or beer, there wasn’t much we could do about his lifestyle. So I began adding flaxseed to everything I could – pizza crust, bread, cookies, and just about anything baked. I couldn’t get away with putting it in anything where it’s pasty texture would be noticed, but if it went in the oven, it had flaxseed in it. Guess what happened? At his appointment, approximately six months after I began the flaxseed assault – his cholesterol was just fine. The numbers that were supposed to be low, were low and the numbers that were supposed to be high, were high. So there. That’s enough proof for me to spout off about the benefits of flaxseed for you!

But just in case you don’t trust my personal case study, here’s what the experts say:
Mayo Clinic Nutritionist, Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D., says: "Flaxseed is high in fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and phytochemicals called lignans. Flaxseed is commonly used as a laxative (to improve digestive health or relieve constipation). Both flaxseed and flaxseed oil have been used to help reduce total blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol levels and, as a result, may help reduce the risk of heart disease." The docs at WebMD added that flaxseed can help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. It can also reduce inflammation and hot flashes. It can be good for arthritis, depression, constipation, and Chrohn’s disease.

Flaxseed comes from the flaxplant and has been around for centuries. In fact, King Charlemagne, back in the 8th century ordered all his subjects to eat it because he believed in its health benefits. Somehow, we lost the King’s memo, but mark my words, you’ll be seeing a lot more fields of flax in the near future. Fields of flax will be beautiful too – the flower is a pretty blue color with delicate little petals on long stems.

Flaxseed contains three ingredients that make it such a phenom:

1) omega-3 essential fatty acids - I know you’ve heard about these and their heart-healthy effects. Each tablespoon of ground flaxseed has about 1.8 grams!

2) Lignans – these are antioxidants and flaxseed contains 75-800 times more lignans than other plant foods

3) Fiber – both soluble and insoluble

The experts say the optimal dose is 1-2 tablespoons a day. I have to warn you that eating it straight could be tough. You can buy flaxseed oil, but it doesn’t have all the benefits of the straight seed. It’s best eaten in a ground form (flaxseed meal) and even then can make some foods feel pasty in the mouth. That’s why I find it easiest to bake it in to everything. In each loaf of bread I add ¼ cup of flaxseed meal. You’ll have to experiment and figure out how much is too much for your family. Flaxseed does make things moister, which is wonderful for cookies and dough. Store it in the freezer so it stays fresh, especially if you buy it ground.

Ever since I decided to post on flaxseed, I’ve been seeing information about it everywhere. Kind of like when you buy a new car you think is uniquely you, you start seeing the exact same car everywhere, even the same color. No one drove a Pilot until I got one, truly. One tip I read suggested putting flaxseeds in to a spice grinder (like you use for pepper or salt) and grind some in to whatever you are cooking. The idea being that if it’s handy, you’ll be more likely to use it. Clever. I might have to try this. At the feed store yesterday they were selling big bags of flaxseed to feed your chickens so their eggs will be higher in Omega 3’s. Made me wonder if chicken flaxseed is the same grade as flaxseed for humans (it was a bit cheaper, but I decided not to test out the idea). Then I came upon a recipe in Body and Soul Magazine that sounds awesome and mega healthy. I’m all out of quinoa, so I didn’t get a chance to try it first, but I’m taking their word for it and putting it in this post:

Spiced Nuts and Seeds
(Body & Soul Magazine)
Mix 3 ups whole nuts with ¼ cup each flaxseeds, quinoa, and sunflower seeds. In separate bowl, whisk 2 egg whites with 2 tablespoons honey, 1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt, and ¼ teaspoon each cayenne, cumin, and cinnamon. Toss with nut mix. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet; bake at 325 until dry, stirring occasionally (about 30 minutes). Scrape from pan while cooling, to avoid sticking.

Here’s a few ideas of foods you can add flaxseed meal to:
Cookies, breads, bagels, pancakes, waffles, pizza crust, muffins, chili, meatloaf, meatballs, soup, oatmeal and casseroles. If you’ve got some other great ideas or recipes, please pass them along. I’ve posted my cookie recipe in the post “To Pack or Not To Pack” March 2009, which includes flaxseed meal.

Hope you’re convinced and already on your way out to buy some flaxseed. Here’s to your health!

But What Happens When You Turn Them Loose?

I was reading the latest survey of US Families Organic Attitudes and Beliefs conducted by the Organic Trade Association for 2009. It is encouraging that 73% of all families buy organic products at least occasionally. It further stated that families that buy organic choose organic for health reasons. We are concerned about our children’s health. But what about our own health? We seem to get serious about two things after we have children – health and religion, OK and maybe finances. I won’t touch the topic of religion for a multitude of reasons and discussing finances makes my mind glaze over, but I am curious why it takes the miracle of childbirth for most of us to turn our attention to matters of health.

I’d be the first to admit I didn’t take very good care of my own health prior to having children. I exercised some, but only to have fun or lose weight. My diet was dictated by what I could afford more than anything else. I ate a lot of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, drank diet sodas like water and loved good, greasy “bar food”. I never thought about the connection between what I ate and my mood, health, or energy level. It took having children, and having a sick child at that, before I really began to take care with my own health.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t wish I’d wised up much earlier. I worry about the long term damage done to my body. But, being a person who tries not to dwell on things I can’t change, I focus on now. Now I eat whole, clean, unprocessed food, exercise my body and mind daily, and avoid caffeine, chemicals, and mean people. I relish my sleep time and guard it carefully. I’m pretty healthy and as far as I can force them to be, my kids are too. But why did it take having a sick child to get me to this place?

Why is it we don’t see our bodies as the temples they are until we have children depending on us? I’d like to think that is changing, but I don’t know too many health-conscious 20-year-olds, (besides my niece – you go Mary!). How do we change this trend? I’m sure lowering the cost of organics might be a first step, but since that is largely out of our control, I’ve been trying to come up with other ideas.

How can I teach my own children the importance of taking care of their health? I worry that the moment they are free of my restrictions they will spend their days glued to a screen of some kind, stuffing their faces with cheese curls, tastekakes, artificially sweetened pancake syrup, and Coke. These are the things they feel deprived of on a daily basis. I’m terrified my oldest will drink strong coffee, stay up all night, and live on cheezits, my daughter will maintain a constant high brought on from a diet of straight sugar, and my youngest will enter the first hot dog eating contest he encounters (and win!). I’ve told you before that I am a “mean” mom. I comfort myself by envisioning them as parents some day when they will come to me and say, “Wow, Mom, how did you do it?” But what if they don’t?

My own parents were pretty strict about food, refusing to buy sugared cereals and withholding dessert unless you ate your dinner. I remember my mom making yogurt and growing sprouts. I distinctly remember not appreciating those endeavors. So how do I break the cycle? How do I help my kids do what I didn’t – care about their own health? Maybe it’s not possible, maybe it’s part of the evolutionary process. Perhaps no matter what I do my kids are destined to rebel against my ways. I’m holding out hope that’s not the case. Just in case my children (and yours) aren’t as hard-headed as I was in my youth (no comments please), here are a few ideas I have to help all of us raise healthier humans from start to finish:

1) Help children see the connection between what they eat and how they feel. If my son comes home from a party with a tummy ache, we talk about what he ate at the party. We connect the dots between 3 hot dogs, 2 pieces of cake, half a bag of Doritos and the pain he is in now. He might do it again, but he’ll realize as he does it that there will be consequences. When my daughter came in from sledding yesterday and grabbed a jar of almonds to munch, my husband said, “All that sledding wore you out. Your body is craving the protein and good stuff in almonds.” (I could have kissed him! It’s wonderful not to always be the parent they roll their eyes at.)

2) Set an example. None of us is perfect when it comes to a healthy lifestyle, and you don't need to be either, in fact your kids will probably learn more if you're not. When I’m tired and grumpy, I apologize to my kids and I explain that I didn’t get enough sleep or I ate too much sugar. It’s not the kids fault I’m so grumpy, it’s my own. And it can be prevented. I try to serve and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables at every meal. I almost always have a salad bigger than the rest of my meal at dinner. And I get up every morning to run. They may not say anything but they notice (especially when I’m not back in time to cook their oatmeal). Will it make a difference down the line? I don’t know, but I’m a firm believer in the adage, “Children do what you do, not what you say.”

3) Allow them to have the forbidden stuff once in a while. I still buy that nasty syrup they love on special occasions. You can usually find a box of cheezits in my pantry, but it’s rationed for packing lunches. This time of year, Cadbury Crème Eggs are my favorite splurge. Hopefully, I’m teaching them that it’s OK to have this stuff occasionally but not a good idea to make it a part of your daily diet.

4) Make it easy for your kids to get exercise. Invite them for a hike, ask them to walk the dog, sign them up for organized sports (don’t worry if they aren’t the most valuable player – it’s exercise you’re after, not trophies). Believe me I know about all the driving (and waiting) and hassle and late dinners involved in organized sports, but think of it as an investment in their health, not your sanity. Plan a vacation that involves exercise. Install a basketball hoop. Build a soccer goal. Organize a kickball tournament. A lot of kids won’t move off the couch voluntarily. Move them!

5) Buy a variety of healthy foods so kids are well-versed in what is good for them. Don’t just keep apples in the fridge, you’d get bored of them too. Try cherries, raspberries, clementines, mango, kumquats (my favorite), and pineapple. Same goes for veggies. Every kid eats baby carrots, but sweet red peppers are even better. Take your kid to the grocery store and explore the produce aisle. Find something neither of you has tasted. I buy lots of different nuts for my kids to snack on – pistachios, almonds, cashews, peanuts, and walnuts. We love it at Christmas time when we can get the big nut assortment and go to town with the nut crackers. Offer lots of new things, but don’t ever force your child to eat anything. Yes, I know fresh fruits/veggie/nuts are expensive, especially if they’re organic, but try skipping the fast food or the processed food and you’ll be amazed what you can afford.

6) Complement your kids when they do good things. If your kids make a good choice when it comes to eating or bedtime or exercise, let them know it. This might be the most important thing you do. Positive reinforcement – we all respond to it.

Will this work? I’ll get back to you in 15 years. It’s very hard to say. But that’s part of the process of parenting. It’s really a lot of seed planting. The germination time is painfully slow and you won’t know if any of those seeds took until much later. Plus it’s unlikely that anyone will acknowledge your efforts for a very long time. Come to think of it, I probably need to thank my own mom for the seeds she planted with that soupy yogurt and those smelly sprouts 30 years ago. Thanks Mom!

Running makes me smarter!

Running keeps me sane. It makes me a better mother. It makes me a reasonable wife. It keeps me from going nuts and gives me time to let my mind loose. It makes it possible for me to eat chocolate on a regular basis without becoming the size of a small ocean liner. Mostly, it makes me happy. But today I learned running does a whole lot of other things for me.

Did you know that exercise not only reduces your risk of cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, but it can actually create new brain cells? Me neither. I’m all for adding brain cells. Charles Hillman, director of the Neurocognitive Kinesiology Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says, “Aerobic exercise increases the supply of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which protects brain neurons and promotes the growth of new nerve cells and synapses that are related to learning and memory.” Which in English means exercise makes your brain work better. And this was true for all the studies – regardless of age. The protein BDNF is active in the area of the brain related to relational memory – the ability to make logical connections among pieces of information.

The Illinois researchers also found that aerobic exercise improves executive function (the ability to plan and make decisions, correct mistakes and react to new situations). All I know is after a long run, I can think clearly. I thought it was just me, but turns out exercise makes everyone’s brain think better.

All of this is well and good for those of us who appreciate improved executive function and relational memory, but what about our kids? The best way to teach kids to do anything is to model it for them because we all know our children are much more likely to do what we do, than what we say (no matter how many times we say it). If you aren’t already a regular at the gym, then it’s time to get off the couch. If not for you, and your improved brain function, than for your kids.

I read all of this useful information in a promotional booklet from Nutrition Action Newsletter (published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest) which arrived in the mail today. My new subscription is a gift from my mother-in-law (Thanks Margot!).

Here’s another interesting tidbit I read – Sitting can kill you. Peter Katzmarzyk, an epidemiologist at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisana, says, “People who sit for the majority of their day have much higher mortality rates than people who don’t, even if they’re physically active during another part of the day.” Ouch. The article goes on to site several studies illustrating his point, including a representative sample of 17,000 Canadian adults who were followed over a 12 year period. 20% of those who said they sat “almost all the time” died. Bad luck? Probably not. Compare those numbers to the people who said they sat “approximately half the time” – only 12 % of them died in the same period. And of the people who said they sat, “almost none of the time”, only 6% died. I’m sure this is a toughie for people who are paid to sit at a desk. The article had a few suggestions like getting up and standing as you work, taking frequent breaks to stretch and walk, and even mentioned “treadmill desks” which sound like modern torture devices. But I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

If growing new brain cells and not dying aren’t enough motivation for you, here’s some more:

Active people are 15-25% less likely to be diagnosed with depression than inactive people. In people with depression, moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise improves symptoms.

Forty minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise three to five times a week lowers systolic blood pressure by 2 to 5 points. That may not sound like much, but it would save an estimated 11,800 to 27,600 lives a year.

If you have arthritis, moderate intensity, low-impact exercise for 30-60 minutes three to five times a week can reduce pain and disability. Both aerobic and muscle strengthening help.

Older adults who are physically active have about a 30% lower risk of falls.

Weight-bearing aerobic and strength-training exercise three to five days a week can increase – or slow the decrease in- the density of spine and hip bones. In one study, women who walked at least four hours a week were 40% less likely to break a hip than those who walked less than an hour a week.

Aerobic exercise lowers the risk of stroke.

Aerobic exercise cuts the risk of heart attack by 20-35% in most studies.

Moderately active people have a 30-40% lower risk of type 2 diabetes than inactive people.

Exercise can curb your risk of cancer. It can directly lower your risk by keeping off excess weight, or it can work directly on cancer risk (particularly colon and breast cancers).

(taken from the article, “Seven Facts You May Not Know About Exercise” by David Schardt)

This is where the sneaker rubber needs to hit the road (or the treadmill or the gym). It’s not really optional – you need to exercise. And your kids need to exercise. This is not something to put off until you have more free time. Find a way now. This is so much cheaper than medical bills and so much less painful than heart attacks, cancer, and premature death. If you don’t teach your kids the importance of exercise, they may never know. This is a total win-win. When you exercise, you feel better mentally and physically and you model a behavior that could save your child’s life. Plus it makes you smarter – and who doesn’t need a few more brain cells?

Here’s a few ideas to get your kids moving:
• Enter a 5K. I know for a fact that even very young kids can run (or walk) a 5K. I get beaten in races by runners half my height on a regular basis. Pick a cause you care about. Bring along the family dog. If running the entire time is too daunting, make a plan. You can run at the start and finish and walk in between (everyone will think you ran the whole way!) or choose a pattern like running a minute and then walking a minute. I have a running watch that times intervals. On days when I just don’t have the energy, it helps me by sounding an alarm that reminds me to walk (one minute) and then run (4 minutes). I’ve discovered that this doesn’t really even mess up my time and when I run intervals I can run much farther.

• Go for a hike. Invite some friends. Make it a scavenger hunt. Give your kids a list of things to find. Or make it a family goal to hike all the parks in your area. Or all the parks in the country. Geocaching is another great way to get your family moving (check out www.geocaching.com for information on this fun treasure hunting hobby).

• Walk the dog. Don’t have one? This is a great excuse to get one. They need walking several times a day. Having a dog forces you to get out and exercise.

• Join a team – swim team, soccer, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, anything that requires you move. I aim for allowing my kids two extracurricular activities each season – one that gets their body moving and one that gets their mind moving.

• Ride bikes. Ride skateboards or scooters. Jump rope. Rollerblade.

• Take a spin in a skating rink. I remember as a kid, this was a regular event in my social life. These days they are a little harder to find, but they’re out there.

• Play games – capture the flag, kick the can, hide & seek, kickball, wiffleball, ultimate frisbee. Play with your kids – you’ll surprise them and you’ll laugh yourself silly.

• Do an exercise video together.

• Create a weightlifting center in your basement. You don’t need anything fancy, just a clear space and a few weights to start. A bench and a mat help too. Take a personal training session together with your kids and learn how to do exercises safely.

• Set a goal – a number of miles, a number of hours, whatever and focus on it. Plan a celebration when you’re finished.

• Try something new – martial arts, gymnastics, dance, fencing. Isn’t there some sport you’ve always wished you could do? Who’s stopping you? Ask your kids to join you.

• If you’ve got the cash, buy a treadmill, stationery bike, elliptical, or some other such device. When it’s too cold, wet, or early, I run on my treadmill. I’ve got a TV set up in front of it hooked up to a DVD player. I keep a steady stock of netflix DVD’s of TV shows - mindless brain-candy that keeps me distracted from the fact the basement is a mess, the kids are about to get up, and the cat box needs to be changed. Most shows are 40 minutes long – perfect to get in 4 miles.

The bottom line is you have to make a conscious decision to exercise. It won’t ever be convenient. Or easy. Some days it really is hard to do. But you need to do it every day. I mean that. A couple times a week is not enough. Our bodies were designed for real physical exercise every day and now that we aren’t out slaving in the fields or hunting down our supper, we have to find new ways to move them. Pick what works for you, but pick something. Your life just might depend on it. Not to mention your IQ.

Here Comes the Sun..... (and Vitamin D!)

It’s sunny today and I spent some time outside working on my latest project – a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred gelding named True who is 4 years old and “unbroken”. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve “broken” a horse. Broken is a horrible term, I’ve always hated it. Hopefully, I won’t be breaking True, I’ll be making him, but we shall see, huh? Anyway, 30 minutes spent teaching him the finer points of paying attention to me and respecting my personal space accomplishes two things. One, True is a tiny bit closer to allowing me to put a saddle on his back and two, I got my Vitamin D for the day.

Vitamin D has been all over the news lately. “New” scientific breakthroughs have revealed that there is much more at stake in our daily intake of Vitamin D. Are we getting enough? What happens if you are deficient? How do you get enough? What happens if you get too much?

Here’s the quick and dirty – Americans (probably most first-world nations) are spending more and more time inside. We are no longer farmers, but computer watchers. Most people’s work doesn’t allow them a whole lot of time outside their cubicle or classroom or factory. And when we are home we tend to spend a good part of our free time in front of computers, TV’s, and video games. Our yards are smaller and in some cases, not safe. When we do go outside, we are covered up with technically advanced clothing that blocks UVB rays and slathered in sunscreen (which prohibits our body from absorbing the sunshine necessary to make Vitamin D). Consequently, we aren’t getting our Vitamin D on a daily basis. And this includes kids. Huge numbers of people are Vitamin D deficient.

Let me back up, first of all what do we know about Vitamin D. You probably remember that milk is fortified with Vitamin D and it’s necessary to build strong bones. This process was developed years ago to prevent kids from getting rickets. A deficiency in Vitamin D can cause rickets in children and osteoporosis in adults. Vitamin D isn’t technically a vitamin because it’s produced in the human body. And it’s not found in any natural source except fish and egg yolks, and even then it requires the body to make it in to vitamin D. The body can also use sunshine to create vitamin D. It then stores the extra Vitamin D in the fat cells to use for, literally, a rainy day.

But how much do we need? The first government recommended allowances said 200IU of Vitamin D daily. In 1997, it was up to 400 for kids and 600 for adults. New research is indicating that we need even more, perhaps 800 or 1000. This research is also showing that Vitamin D is more essential than at first thought. Scientists believe that Vitamin D is critical to the brain, prostate, breast, colon, heart, lung, muscles and our immune cells. Much of this research has been around, but is only getting attention of late. The auto-immune “community” has been touting its benefits for years. Many people who suffer from Alopecia Areata (the autoimmune condition my youngest son has) buy “happy lights” to get more UVB light. Vitamin D is powerful, helping normal cells grow, but also helping abnormal ones (cancer cells come to mind) die. It has been proven to destroy infectious agents, such as TB.
People with low levels of Vitamin D are at a 30-50% increased risk of developing Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as prostate, ovarian, and breast cancer. They are at a higher risk for diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, schizophrenia, depression, and muscle weakness.

Does this news make you want to grab your beach towel? It should. Being a person of incredibly fair skin, I am also aware of the dangers of too much sun. I have the freckles to prove it. I’m fairly sure that Vitamin D is not one of my deficiencies. Actually, all you need to get your vitamin D is 5-10 minutes of direct sunlight between the hours of 10am and 3pm. So maybe your plan could be to put the sunscreen on after you’ve set up your chair and had your snack.

Here’s an interesting tidbit I found in my research this morning. If you live above 37 degrees north of the equator (draw a line from Philadelphia to San Francisco) or 37 degrees south of the equator, it’s not quite as easy to get your Vitamin D from the sunshine during the winter. The research didn’t say if you just need more time or if there isn’t enough sunshine altogether. That said, you can get Vitamin D from supplements and fortified products like milk and orange juice. Some doctors, who worry about skin cancers, recommend you do that, but be aware that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. While you can’t overdose on Vitamin D from the sun, you can from supplements resulting in grogginess, constipation, and even death. But you’d have to really work to get that much vitamin D in to you. Experts at Harvard say up to 2000IU a day is safe.

Vitamin D aside, I know that sunshine is a real pick-me-up for me and for my kids. Sometimes it’s tempting to stay inside, especially when it’s really hot, but 10 minutes won’t kill anyone, and it just might save your life.