No need to be overwhelmed with packing the kid’s lunches. Packing a healthy lunch doesn’t require one to be a dietitian or a nutritionist it just takes label reading and a little planning. You will save money and build your young one’s health.

One of the challenges of the mid-day meal is that if it is too heavy it interferes with mental work. After all, nodding off in the classroom will lead to other problems. Have the children start off with a healthy breakfast of a whole grain cereal, such as steel cut oats. It’s good for mom and dad too. The oats have plenty of fiber and b-vitamins which are excellent for the nervous system, the brain and emotional stability. Add a protein shake for extra nutrition. Eating a nutritious breakfast cuts down on cravings and will enable you to make it to lunch time with out feeling famished.

Less Healthy Lunch Options
For lunch avoid processed meats, the salt, the sugar, the additives, the source of the meat itself all lend it to be not a great choice. Avoid white bread and sugary snacks. Avoid items with artificial colors. Repeatedly these substances, although labeled by the FDA as “generally recognized as safe” , have been implicated in aggravating hyperactivity and mood disorders. One last thing to avoid are sugary drinks. Young people are developing diabetes at an astounding rate and even fruit juice has been implicated as a factor. Consider diluting fruit juice with mineral water for a tasty lunch beverage.

Healthier Lunch Options
Prepare sandwiches made with whole grain bread. Use a tasty home made spread. It is cheaper and you have better control over the quality of the ingredients. And of course nothing can substitute for the love you put into it. Slice veggies like carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower with a dip. Use delicious nut butters for sandwich spreads. Bean burgers are very easy to make and are tasty alternatives to meat as are grain burgers. Adding a few nuts and seeds or a home made trail mix to the lunch box is tasty and nutritious too.

All food is not the same. Of course nutritional content varies, the quality of the soil the food is grown in, the growing methods, harvesting method. The love and intention of the farmer to grow nourishing crops also contributes to the quality of the food. Part of learning how to detox is learning what to put in the body and what is best avoided.

There has been a subtle shift from food truly being nourishing and life sustaining vs. food looking good. Consumer studies show that shoppers do not like fruits and vegetables with blemishes so into the lab we go, to create food (?) that is blemish free. It may look good, however it doesn’t decay and it is tasteless.

And so we get sucked in, to externals. Form with no content. It looks good but it doesn’t support you living a vibrant life. It may help you to save (?) a few dollars…but how many more dollars are lost if you develop a chronic disease? National health care coverage should begin on the farm. National health care coverage has begin with healers. National health care coverage has to begin with Mom and Dad…and real, healthy, nutritious food.

In your quest for healthier living avoid:

• Irradiated food
• Genetically modified food
• the microwave
• hormones
• pesticides
• refined foods
• refined flours and grains
• the meat of factory farmed animals.

Make a start today, to reclaiming your most, vibrant health and well being. Small steps will provide large rewards.

Young children who regularly eat homegrown fruits and veggies eat more than twice as much of those healthy foods than kids who seldom get fresh-from-the-garden produce on their plates, U.S. researchers report. Over 1,600 families were interviewed. The children who were raised eating from the family vegetable plot developed a preference for the taste of fruits and vegetables over other foods.

The gardens encouraged variety and family closeness. Healthy eating shouldn’t be a struggle and it doesn’t have to be. If you don’t have a green thumb, see if there is a coop in your area, they may have a farm with fresh produce that you can buy and volunteer with the children for a great activity.

article abstract here

There seems to be a good reason for this. The latest research, published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, shows that having a bedroom television not only leads to more TV viewing, but also results in less time spent with the family, less time exercising, lower fruit and vegetable intake, more sweetened beverage consumption, and in lower grades.

“The big take-home message from our study is that TVs should be removed from kids’ bedrooms, and it could have a positive effect on kids’ health,” said the study’s lead author, Daheia Barr-Anderson, a postdoctoral fellow at the Adolescent Health Protection Research Training Program at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.

Health professionals have been warning for years about too much television watching among young people, and especially about making the TV set so easily accessible. But past research suggests that many parents aren’t heeding that advice. About 68 percent of American youngsters have televisions in their bedrooms, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

One large study found that children between ages 8 and 18 spend more than three hours every day watching television. Numerous studies have been done to assess TV’s effect on young children, but research on bedroom TVs and older adolescents is scarce, according to the current study.

Barr-Anderson and her colleagues gathered information on the presence of a bedroom TV and socio-demographic, behavioral and personal characteristics through a questionnaire mailed to 781 teens who were an average age of 17.2 years.

The results mirrored past studies. Almost two-thirds of this group had a TV in their bedroom. Having a personal TV doubled the risk that a teen would regularly watch more than five hours of TV daily, compared to teens without a television in the bedroom.

Teenage girls who had a bedroom TV watched an average of 20.7 hours each week, about 5 hours more than female teens without a bedroom TV (15.2 hours). For boys with TVs, 22.2 hours were spent in front of the tube, compared to 18.2 hours for boys without personal TVs.

Both girls and boys with bedroom TVs attended fewer family dinners — about one less per week — than kids without their own sets. Girls with TVs ate slightly fewer vegetables each day, while boys with TVs consumed less fruit.

Girls with TVs in their bedrooms participated in less physical activity, and boys with bedroom TVs had lower grade point averages.

“For most kids, a TV in the bedroom is not a healthy thing,” said Anita Gurian, clinical assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the New York University Child Study Center in New York City. “It’s not bad for all kids; there are those who use it constructively, and there is a lot of good stuff on TV, but it definitely has its downside,” she said.

“Parents should know that research has shown TV’s deleterious effects on grades, eating habits, in attraction to violence, and most importantly, in social relationships,” added Gurian. “If teens are in their bedrooms, watching TV for three hours a day, they don’t have time to develop relationships or to do homework,” she said.

Barr-Anderson said she suspects it’s not always an intentional plan to give the child a TV. Instead, it’s usually because the family has upgraded to a larger TV, and now has a spare set. She recommended that parents resist the pressure they’ll likely feel to put the extra TV in their teen’s bedroom. “You may experience a backlash, but parents have to do what’s best for their child,” said Barr-Anderson.
HealthDay

Is this mere child’s play? It is not just on indictment on the children but a reflection of our larger society.
Everyone wants to blame parents, however, let us look beneath the surface. What kind of world are we choosing to create? Who is really in charge of the decisions you make and your hopes, wishes and desires? Children need discipline and so do adults. The story is here.