Guest Blogger
Jeannette and Tracee
Jeannette Lee Bessinger, owner of Balance for Life, LLC and co-founder ofwww.realfoodmoms.com, is a board certified health counselor and mother of two teens. An award-winning lifestyle and nutrition educator, Bessinger helped design a citywide obesity prevention/intervention plan for families with a grant from the RI Department of Health. Designer and lead facilitator of a successful hospital-based lifestyle change program, she acts as a consultant and speaker to public and private groups and coalitions working to improve the health of schools and cities in the U.S. Her simple, practical approach has helped hundreds of women successfully meet the challenges of imbalanced health and nutrition with hope and grace.
She also co-author and recipe designer of Healthiest Meals on Earth
Tracee Yablon-Brenner is a registered dietitian, board-certified holistic health counselor, owner of Nutrition is Healing counseling practice in Englewood, NJ, co-founder of www.realfoodmoms.com, and mother of two girls. She completed her internship in dietetics at New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, and is American Dietetic Association trained in childhood and adolescent weight management. Yablon-Brenner is a member of the American Dietetic Association, Integrative and Functional Medicine and Pediatric and Diabetic Practice Groups, the American Botanical Society, Action for Healthy Kids, the Community Health Improvement Partnership of Bergen County, and part of the Kids Eat Right campaign through the American Dietetic Association.
Together, Bessinger and Brenner are the Real Food Moms, dedicated to educating parents about family nutrition and whole foods cooking. They have co-authored two comprehensive and practical guides for family nutrition, Great Expectations: Best Food for Your Baby & Toddler
Overfed but Undernourished
One of the biggest pitfalls with kids and healthy eating right now is that they’re keeping their blood sugar levels slightly elevated all day long with regular doses of poor quality, refined foods and drinks (high calorie/low nutrient density) such as sweetened sodas, juice (often from a fruit, but too high in sugar), and “snack [...]
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Practical Strategies to get Kids to eat more Veggies
Parents should eat more fruits and veggies too! Try preparing them in new and fun ways. Involve your children in every stage, from growing (if possible), to selecting, to preparing and serving.
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Key Component in a Healthy Diet
Next tip for raising healthy eaters: Be very patient when you are trying to introduce new foods. It can take up to 15 offerings before a child will taste a new food! And then it may take several tastes before it becomes familiar and accepted. Don’t give up too quickly! Spread the offerings out over [...]
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Cultivating Healthy Eating Habits
What we’ve learned from ongoing nationwide efforts to reduce childhood obesity (and all the other health issues that come along for the ride), is that early prevention is easier than intervention once the unhealthy habits are in place. Parents can begin cultivating healthy eating habits in their children right from the cradle. Establishing a few [...]
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Healthy Eaters from the Cradle
As nearly everyone has heard by now, America is in the midst of an epidemic of childhood obesity that has created a growing health crisis for our kids. According to the Nestle Nutrition Institute’s benchmark Feeding Infant and Toddler Study (FITS), many of our children are eating a poor quality diet too high in calories [...]
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