May is Pregnancy Awareness Month — a month of events and media that celebrate this special time in a woman’s life. The activities this year are being kicked off with the 6th Annual Signature Pregnancy Awareness Month™ Event on Sunday May 5th from noon to 4 p.m. in Santa Monica. Dr. Greene is on their board of advisors and will, once again, speak at the kick-off event. 

In honor of this important month, we are re-publishing five posts by founder Anna Getty. Originally posted May 2009.

Nutrition and Wellness focus on eating organic foods for mother and child. Yes, of course I want everyone to pick up my book, Anna Getty’s Easy Green Organic, it is a great guide to help you learn about cooking and eating organic food as well making your home kitchen a healthier environment. But above all, my book aside, I want women to make the healthiest choices during pregnancy and as far as food is concerned it is pesticide, GMO, hormone and antibiotic free food.

We now know that babies are born with over 300 chemicals in their blood stream, I bring this up a lot because I think people just don’t believe it, (I hardly can, still) but you can read the study called 10 Americans conducted by The Environmental Working Group (watch the video here http://www.ewg.org/node/27201) and see how significant it is to eat foods that are as chemical free as possible. I will also mention that DDT a chemical banned in this country for decades is still found in breast milk.

So please, do whatever you can to eat organic food even if you are on a tight budget, make it a priority over purchasing the latest trendy stroller. Whether you go to the farmer’s market, coop’s, major super stores or grow your own help create a strong foundation of health for your child. If you want a complete list of farmer’s markets nationwide go to http://www.localharvest.org. They have a list over 21,000 strong.

If you have to prioritize based on your budget stick to organic meat, dairy and eggs and avoid the Dirty Dozen. The NRDC has a list of simple steps to help stay within a tight budget. Check it out. I assure you, that when you eat organically during your pregnancy, you are making the best choice for you and your baby.

If you want to pick up a copy of my book Anna Getty’s Easy Green Organic, I promise there are plenty of simple recipes to satisfy many of your cravings…organically.

Any thoughts on organic food?

How much does your family spend on groceries? Could you live on $3 a person each day?

For many Americans, that’s what you might spend on a coffee. But, for the nearly 50 million Americans on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, $3 a day is all they have for food. Yes, in the wealthiest country in the world, this is the reality.

According to the Participant Media’s compelling new documentary, “A Place at the Table,” the picture in America is grim:

One in five families with children is food insecure (which means they expect to run out of food before they get more money or food stamps). One out of every two children will be on food assistance at some point in their life.

The U.S. ranks worst on food security among advanced economy countries. And, it’s not that there’s insufficient food. It’s poverty and politics. A combination leading to outrageous injustice and health effects in our most precious resource: our children. And, it’s not just that our children are needlessly hungry, it’s a driving cause of our obesity epidemic.

How does hunger lead to obesity? I agree it appears a paradox. But, due to our twisted Farm Bill, more tax subsidies are going to agribusiness for basic ingredients for processed foods (wheat, soy, corn) than to farmers who grow whole, healthy foods like apples and carrots. Less than one percent of our Farm Bill investment goes to vegetables and fruits combined. This irrational corporate welfare has lead to fruit and vegetable prices increasing 40% since 1980 and processed foods decreasing 40%. Chips are cheaper than fruit.

So, if you have $3 a day for meals, you’re likely buying fast food, soda, chips, and other (subsidized) empty calories. Empty calories that lead to malnutrition and obesity. These kids are overfed, undernourished, and hungry. And today 2/3 of of middle school and high school students in the US already have middle age health problems — related to what they eat.

We can do so much better.

We almost eliminated hunger in the 1970’s. We can do it again.

I’m proud to be the pediatric advisor for Plum Organics. Together we created a Super Smoothie specifically designed to be donated to food insecure babies and toddlers in the U.S. The Super Smoothie tastes great and is packed with accessible super foods including spinach, carrots, apples, white beans, and whole grain oats, providing a nutritionally dense, produce-based alternative to the white flour, sugar, sodium, and fat filled foods most commonly found in a food insecure diet. Plum has committed to donate at least 500,000 of these smoothies in 2013.

We’re asking all of you to get involved by using your personal social platforms to raise awareness about the food insecurity issue in an effort to galvanize industry leaders, policy makers, and society into action. Starting April 10th, you can get involved by visiting PlumOrganics.com/TheFullEffect to receive locally-specific messages for use on Twitter and Facebook powered by Participant’s social action platform, Take Your Place. And watch or read A Place at the Table. You’ll be glad you did. And Plum will donate a smoothie for every movie download or book purchased.

Please help us make a place at the table for every American.

A 2012 analysis estimates that today’s children age 0-5 in the US have lost more than 16 million IQ points from exposure to organophosphate pesticides. They’re exposed to these pesticides almost entirely from our food.

Organic foods are grown without the use of toxic synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, artificial hormones, or genetic engineering. They depend on cultivating healthy soil to grow healthy plants to produce healthy animals.

But not long ago, headlines blared that a new study had found that organic food isn’t any healthier. Let’s look behind the headlines, causing many parents to wonder whether organic was really worth it.

The study in question wasn’t new science, but a compilation and analysis of some of the existing studies comparing organic to conventional food. What did this paper find?

1) Pesticides

Conventional produce is more than five times more likely than organic to come with any pesticide residues. (38% of samples versus 7%).  The study didn’t go a step further and consider that when pesticides are found on conventional produce, the pesticides are often more toxic, present at higher levels, and come as mixtures of different chemicals.

The study also didn’t include the large body of literature about the toxic effects of some of these pesticides.

The authors concluded that this five-fold difference in pesticides couldn’t matter because the total amounts are so small. I strongly disagree. Pharmaceutical drugs are powerful, refined chemicals designed to improve health. They can have desired health effects on our brain function, sexual function, and fertility at concentrations in our bodies of only parts per billion. Synthetic pesticides are also powerful, refined chemicals, but designed to destroy or inhibit life. Why couldn’t they have undesirable health effects on our brain function, sexual function, and fertility when present in our bodies at similar concentrations?

If everyone in the country smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, it would be very difficult to tell that cigarettes caused lung cancer in a small, but significant, percentage of those who smoke. Today, almost all of us carry synthetic pesticides in our blood – pesticides that get there from our food. This is true even in babies at the moment of birth. I participated in a study with the Environmental Working Group where we analyzed umbilical cord blood and found pesticides in every baby tested. We found 21 different synthetic pesticides in babies’ blood.

One group of pesticides, the organophosphates, were originally produced as nerve agents during World War II. We still have much to learn about their health effects, but higher levels of exposure (in real world conditions) have been linked to lower IQ, memory problems, developmental problems, and ADHD.

The 16 million IQ points lost in young children from organophosphates carries a price tag of more than $169 billion in lost productivity when they grow up. And we take out a new debt of $28-30 billion every year – about the same amount as the total amount of money spent on organic food each year in the US.

Choosing organic food can drop a child’s organophosphate pesticide exposure almost overnight. In another study, suburban Seattle children had their urine tested multiple times for evidence of organophosphate pesticides and it was present in all samples, suggesting exposure above what the EPA set as a safe level. Then the children were switched to mostly organic food. The pesticides disappeared. They were virtually undetectable in morning and evening urine samples for five days. Then the children were switched back to their typical suburban diet and the levels found in their urine shot back up.

We can decrease pesticide exposure on the very next shopping trip.

The EPA says, “Protecting children from the potential effects of pesticides is one of EPA’s most important responsibilities. Pesticides have widespread uses and may affect children’s health in a variety of settings. We recognize that children are at greater risk from pesticide exposure.”

Choosing organic is a choice for decreasing toxic pesticides in our air, water, and farmers – as well as on our plates and in our children.

2) Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

When you buy conventional food you are three times more likely to bring multidrug resistant bacteria into your home than when buying organic. (48.4% of samples versus 15.9%).

The authors found this difference, but concluded it was unimportant because they thought bacterial resistance is fueled primarily by human antibiotic use.

Resistant bacteria are emerging as a major health threat.

According to the FDA, “Today, almost all important bacterial infections in the United States and throughout the world are becoming resistant to antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance has been called one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. The smart use of antibiotics is the key to controlling the spread of resistance.”

We know what causes resistance. When bacteria are exposed to antibiotics they develop ways to survive, making them more resistant to antibiotics.

We also know that the routine use of antibiotics in our conventional livestock to fatten them up dwarfs the amount of antibiotics used to treat all human diseases. The FDA recognizes the problem and has asked for drug companies to voluntarily remove agricultural production from their antibiotic product labels, but widespread antibiotic use continues in conventional agriculture. Four fifths of all antibiotics used in the US are used in our agricultural animals.

The most highly resistant bacteria discovered so far were found not in hospitals or clinics, but in the soil.

Organic food, which doesn’t allow the use of antibiotics, is part of the solution to resistant bacteria – in our environment and in our own homes.

Behind the Headlines

The headlines trumpeted that organic isn’t worth extra money. The study in question found a five-fold difference in pesticides and a three-fold difference in multidrug resistant bacteria (plus significantly higher healthy omega-3 fats in organic). It didn’t even look at differences related to the use of artificial hormones or genetic engineering – or of artificial colorings, preservatives, and sweeteners in processed foods.

Every bite of food is an investment in our bodies or a debt of some kind we are taking out that we will have to pay back. Good food, organic food, is a delicious investment.

One of my biggest “before and after” shifts as a new parent has been in my perception of what family mealtime should look like. Before I actually had  children, I held a Rockwell-esque fantasy in mind: our smiling, well-dressed clan, gathered sweetly around a wooden table; our children filling their growing bodies with freshly cooked gourmet foods, and then thanking their gracious chef/mother with all their hearts… Fast forward to reality, as I wipe sweet potatoes off my shirt, beg my 3 year-old to return to the table, yell for my husband to get off the computer, and dump out the contents of my salad spinner with one hand while the other holds a baby on my hip. PARENTHOOD!

Somewhere in between Rockwell and the mile-long drive-thru line for In-N-Out, there’s my family meal goal: eat together at home, as often as possible, as healthy as possible. And just keep trying! It’s that simple. If I don’t stop trying, I cant fail! Fortunately for you, I’ve had a lot of near fails we can both learn from. And here are some kernels of wisdom I’ve gleaned along the way:

1. Your “good” food is always competing with “bad” food. Obesity researchers talk a lot about the home food environment, because children don’t usually buy much of their own food, so the health of their diet is closely tied to the foods they have access to. A home filled with produce and made-from-scratch foods will likely turn out healthy eaters, so shopping well is a huge step toward family health. But it’s also important to keep in mind that it’s impossible to live in a bubble, or keep your children in one. They will know about cupcakes, fast food, and soda someday, if they don’t already. So try to make it a more fair fight. Focus on taste! So many people throw the baby out with the bath water when trying to shift to a healthier diet and only offer low-fat, low-salt recipes that just can’t compete taste-wise with the highly sweetened, high-fat salty processed foods of the industry. You don’t have to be an uber-healthy cook to improve your family’s health, you just have to be a real cook. Meaning you don’t just open packages and heat things. You use basic ingredients and create dishes. Buy quality, fresh (ideally organic) ingredients, and cook like a real chef would. Use butter and salt (if you don’t have a health condition that recommends abstention). Make it look nice (if you have time). Just remember that you want everyone to WANT to eat your cooking, not just accept it grumpily and count the days until you break down and hit the drive-thru.
2. Someone in your family will eventually adopt a special diet (if they haven’t already), so learn to accommodate with minimal effort. If no one in your family is vegan, paleo, low-carb, or gluten-free, you might be in the minority. Trying new ways of eating is often a positive step toward optimal health, so I don’t discourage new diets, but I do think there’s something important about a family sharing the same meal. The “short order cook” phenomenon, where parents prepare a separate meal for different family members, has had negative impacts on many, enabling “picky eaters” and disrupting the usual communion of meal time. (For a great article on this by Bettina Siegel, see blogforfamilydinner.org) So the goal is to easily accommodate different eating habits and tastes while still encouraging children to try new things. I recommend going for meals with many different dishes (just make them simple ones so you’re not in the kitchen all night) and let people pick and combine as they wish. Encourage tasting of new things by modeling it yourself, and letting kids know they don’t have to have a whole serving, they can just take a bite (or a lick, as my son likes to do). People are often more flexible than you’d think. When prepared with taste in mind, many meat-eaters will go crazy over tofu, many wheat-eaters will devour spaghetti squash in place of pasta, and everyone will enjoy a good sweet potato. Despite my earlier advice to cook like a real chef, don’t be afraid to make mismatched meals, which leads me into my next kernel…
3. Be open minded, dinner is dinner. This is a fairly recent epiphany of mine. As someone raised without a lot of family meals at home, my early days as a home cook were marked by a lot of rigidity. A Mexican-spiced entree could only be accompanied by chips, beans, or rice. Spaghetti was served with salad and garlic bread every.single.time. I’ve finally begun to realize that dinner doesn’t have to be quite that well planned all the time; sometimes it’s really fun to have a mixed up meal! So serve that leftover lasagna with some fajita veggies and a piece of cornbread. You might be surprised at how much everyone enjoys the variety.
4. Don’t overreact when things don’t go as planned. You will get to try again VERY soon! Much like a haircut, the need for another meal will arise before you know it. So don’t let an imperfect dinner make you throw in the towel. Your kids might complain. Your meal might not turn out right. The scene at your table may look nothing like you imagined it. But you are fighting the good fight. And every healthy meal you serve will leave your family stronger to fight some more.

The last chapter of this story starts with one 15-year-old girl named Sarah Kavanagh, a vegetarian who had gotten into the habit of reading foods labels to be sure there weren’t any hidden animal products.  In Gatorade, one of her favorite drinks, she came across an ingredient she didn’t recognize – brominated vegetable oil, or B.V.O.

She was curious enough to do a Google search and learn this is a registered flame retardant. It had already been banned in many nations where Gatorade is sold, including Japan and the European Union. Sarah reasoned that means, #1 B.V.O’s not necessary to make Gatorade, and #2 there is enough information out there that entire countries have banned this chemical product. She’s right. There are reasons to be concerned and viable alternatives available.

But brominated vegetable oil was still present in about 10 percent of drinks sold in the United States., even though advocates had been working on getting it banned in the US for years.

Sarah took action. She started a simple petition at change.org/gatorade. Word spread. Many people — over 200,000 — signed the petition. This caught the attention of the New York Times, which ran a story, and of Dr. Oz, who invited Sarah to appear on his show.

I met Sarah on the Dr. Oz set, just before her 16th birthday. We were filming a show about unwanted chemicals in our food.  Two of my heroes were also on the show – Heather White, executive director at the Environmental Working Group, and Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who had been working on this issue for decades.

Sarah said that when she tried to contact Gatorade, she had gotten no response other than a form letter. When Dr. Oz contacted them, though, their parent company PepsiCo sent an official statement. Sarah’s concern “has been heard.”

Heard indeed! In the week between when the show was taped and when it aired last Wednesday, PepsiCo announced that it would remove B.V.O from all Gatorade within the next few months.

What’s the budget recipe for changing a multi-billion dollar brand?

1. Start with one passionate person, curious enough to question the current state of affairs, and bold enough to call for specific change.
2. Be sure there’s no good reason to continue the current practice and a viable alternative is available. If enough people care, “being cheaper” or “a pleasing neon color” isn’t a good reason to continue the practice.
3. Build on the years of work by others.
4. Choose a story people will want to tell others about.
5. Give people for a simple way to get involved.
6. Capitalize on grassroots movement — large numbers of people catch the attention of highly influential advocates.
7. Combine above ingredients and it becomes “in companies’ best interest” to change.

PepsiCo is pulling B.V.O from Gatorade – but leaving it in Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew, both of which are billion-dollar products.

Next step? Sarah told us it’s time to move beyond just going product by product and take the B.V.O issue to the F.D.A. Public opinion, public conversation, and buying choices can turn up the heat both on beverage companies and on the F.D.A.

Serving global cuisines at the family table is more than just having fun with food. Beyond it being an opportunity to expand your children’s palate, serving global foods is an opportunity for them to build an understanding of the larger world around them. An openness to global cuisines creates a range of experiences from a willingness to try new flavor combination to a curiosity about other peoples and cultures.

How to Serve Up New Foods If your child has grown up in the United States and has never global foods, chances are that new, ethnic foods will seem strange at first. That’s okay! We can respect our children’s preferences (after all, we helped form them) and also challenge them to try new dishes and ingredients. Research shows that it can take upwards of 12 attempts to get a young child to try a new food. If we’re consistent and steadfast while also showing our kids how much we love trying new foods, they will come around—even the picky eaters!

Think about parenting your way through the introduction of new foods the same way you’d parent your way through any new change at home. You’d be patient, clear, excited and supportive, but also consistent and disciplined. Some kids respond quickly, others slowly, but when we’re serious and in charge, they all eventually come around.

Here are some of my favorite tips for starting to bring new, international foods into your home:

• Experiment with the time of day when you introduce a new food. Some young children are cranky and tired by dinner and may be more receptive at lunch. Older children may have a harder time trying new foods at school where their peers have more familiar foods.
• Start slowly. Add one or two foreign elements to your child’s favorite food as opposed to serving up a wholly unfamiliar dish out of the blue. If your child loves spaghetti, try making it with udon or soba noodles. Add freshly grated ginger or lemongrass to chicken soup for a Southeast Asian twist.
• Engage your child in cooking. This makes the new dish a complete sensory exploration and gives your child an opportunity to process the new sights, smells and flavors. Talk about what the ingredients look like, how they smell and how they taste when tried alone (versus in a finished dish). Pride in the finished product can also go a long way to getting a child to try a new dish.
• Consider a “try it once” rule. While this doesn’t work for everyone, many parents have success with this approach, but it requires a great deal of patience over a long time. What we love most about this rule isn’t so much that we think it will change your child’s mind, but rather that it sends a clear message that we don’t judge food before tasting it. Many kids will say that they don’t like the food even if the one bite is surprisingly good, and that’s okay. Either way, it will have made an important impression.
• Never assume that your child won’t like something. This attitude, which usually stems from a parent’s own dislikes, sets your child up for failure. You are the most powerful influence on your child. If you act like something is unlikable, your child will think it’s unlikable. Open yourself up to the surprises that come with feeding kids new foods.
• Start young! When kids are young, every meal is a new adventure and an opportunity to influence their palate. As children get older, their preferences settle in. That, combined with naturally occurring picky phases (every child goes through them to some degree or another), can make it hard to change a child’s eating habits.
• Don’t give up, especially if you didn’t start when your children were young. “Hard”does not mean “impossible.” Yes, it’s a challenge to transform a picky eater from someone who eats only macaroni and cheese to someone who will ask for Green Beans in Sesame Dressing. However, the research is clear: food preferences are not hardwired and can be changed! It just takes time, love, patience and consistency. Maybe it also takes a willingness to say, “This is what’s for dinner tonight. If you don’t like it, you can be excused from the table.” That helps, too.

 
I hope that this inspires your cooking, or at least inspires you to try something new. Feel free to start slowly: this Quick Indian Style Spinach with Chickpeas is a super simple and quick meal. For you meat eaters, it goes great with these Indian Spiced Meatballs, one of my favorite One Hungry Mama recipes of 2012. My Jamaican Curry (pictured) is another great option that allows you to experiment without too high a time investment.

Fluoride is a huge topic of debate around the country in regards to city water supplies.  There really should be no debate on this, because the extensive body of scientific research on the subject shows very clearly that fluoride is a neurotoxin and a carcinogen.  Dr. Paul Connett’s book The Case Against Fluoride offers a compelling argument against the use of fluoride in humans and contains hundreds of scientific references.

Most fluoride used in water supplies is derived from mineral mining waste and is in an extremely toxic form.  Fluoride has no natural role in the human body and the evidence shows it actually causes diseased teeth (dental fluorosis) rather than protecting them from decay when taken internally.  Topical fluoride is helpful in reducing decay, but there is a risk of swallowing it.  Fluoride can cause neurological toxicity, and there are thousands of calls to poison control centers every year due to children eating toothpaste.  It says right on the tube it should not be swallowed – so why include it in a product to be put in your child’s mouth?   Use a fluoride-free product.

Another important source of fluoride is mass-produced beverages made using city water.  Non-organic juices such as grape and others have extremely high amounts because sodium fluoride is used as a pesticide on the fruit (fluoride kills things you see).  Tea also contains high levels of fluoride, with black tea having far more than green or white tea.  It is very important to drink only organic teas and other beverages to avoid fluoride.

Fluoride is used in laboratory experiments to turn normal human cells into cancer cells, and a study out of Harvard showed that higher fluoride consumption caused a seven-fold increased risk of bone cancers in boys (Bassin, 2001).  Fluoride accumulates in the pineal gland and may affect melatonin production and sleep regulation.  Fluoride accumulates in bones to a great extent and can increase fracture risk.

Taking iodine supplements may help displace and clear fluoride, but this is not proven.  Perfluorinated compounds, or “PFC’s”, are used on non-stick pans and cookware.  These fluoride-containing chemicals leach into your foods and can cause thyroid problems and other hormonal disruption.  The only effective way to remove PFC’s is to use the prescription gastrointestinal resin “cholestyramine” in between meals, which binds the PFC’s excreted in bile and carries them out in the stool.

The popular flame-retardants called PCB’s (polychlorinated biphenyls) were banned in the 1970’s because of all the health problems they were found to cause for humans and wildlife.  They were replaced by PBDE’s (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), which were never studied for human safety.  Now that we have used PBDE’s for several decades we realize they are extremely toxic as well.  PBDE’s appear to cause problems with thyroid function and other hormonal effects.  Certain PBDE’s appear to cause serious neurotoxicity in young children (Costa, L – Neurotoxicology – Jan, 2011).

Flame retardant chemicals (PBDE’s mostly) are found in very high levels in children’s mattresses, in the pajamas and other clothing.  Cover mattresses with vinyl covers and thick sheets.  You can opt for tight-fitting pajamas for children that don’t have flame retardant; and washing clothing with fabric softeners removes some of the PBDE’s each time.  Furniture and carpets also contain these chemicals, and house dust therefore contains large amounts.  Don’t let your kids eat on the furniture or carpet.  Dusting should be done with a damp cloth, so as to pick up the chemicals without spreading them into the air again.

Parents are often torn between the perceived health benefits of eating an “organic” diet and the increased cost of organically grown or raised foods.  It is important to discuss the potential health effects of pesticides and herbicides, also fungicides, on our children.  This may make it seem more worthwhile to avoid these chemicals.  I will also discuss sources of exposure and options for avoidance.

Basically, pesticides are chemicals designed to kill insects; herbicides are chemicals designed to kill parasitic plants the impair crop yields; and fungicides are chemicals designed to kill parasitic fungi.  Does anyone think that chemicals designed to kill living things could be harmful to humans in some way?

Chlorinated pesticides and organophosphate pesticides are two very common varieties of these chemicals.  They are sprayed on food crops to keep insects from eating the plants and decreasing yield.  Pesticide content of fruits and vegetables varies greatly by variety, and lists can be found online mentioning which types of produce have the highest levels, and which have the lowest.

Early-life exposure to pesticides has been linked to ADHD, pervasive developmental disorder (i.e. mild autism) and poorer mental development in general.  Parental exposures have been linked to problems in the child including neurodevelopmental effects, cancer, physical birth defects, and even fetal death.  This means it is extremely important to avoid these toxins.  A recent published review article on this topic is “Pesticide exposure in children” by Roberts, et al. in Pediatrics; Dec. 2012; vol 130, issue 6.

A very common herbicide in foods, one used on numerous major crops in large amounts, is atrazine; another common herbicide is metolachlor.  A recent study of childhood cancers in association with herbicides found that atrazine itself increased the risk by 10%, metolachlor increased risk by 54%; and a combination of three common herbicides together was found to increase cancer risk in children by more than 750% (Thorpe, 2005).  This demonstrates a tremendous synergistic effect.

Fungicides like vinclozolin and others block testosterone receptors and cause hormone deficiency symptoms in males.  Exposure during fetal development and infancy could conceivably alter male sexual development.  Many pesticides and herbicides have hormonal effects as well.  These chemicals can therefore have diverse and potentially devastating physiological effects on children and into adulthood.

So, the obvious means of avoiding these chemicals is to eat only organic or wild foods.  Hopefully that sounds like a good idea and worthwhile expense at this point.  Organic food may be more expensive, but the health of our children is a top priority; and, if everyone bought only organic food they would stop producing nonorganic food.

What most don’t realize is that animal foods are the most important foods to buy organic.  Meat, eggs, butter, milk, ice cream, cheese have much higher pesticide content than fruits and vegetables.  This is because animals eating nonorganic feed for their entire lives will bio-accumulate these toxins to much higher levels.  It is extremely important to eat only wild fish and seafood as well, because the farmed varieties have extremely toxic levels of PCB’s in addition to other chemicals.

They holidays are synonymous with celebrations and parties filled with extra treats and sweets.  We can enjoy these festivities with fervor and flavor without all the added sugar that contributing to illnesses including diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome.  In fact one-third of our children are battling obesity, and it is projected that 1 in 4 children born in 2000 will develop diabetes.  This really hits home for me because my oldest daughter was born in 2000.  This means that unless people embrace the necessity to reduce refined sugars in their diets and make other lifestyle changes now, some of her closest friends are likely to develop diabetes.

Try out these tips on reducing the overall amount of sugar in your holiday treats and share recipes like this one — Decadent Vegan Truffles — with friends and family to serve holiday treats that are naturally sweet enough without added sugars for all to enjoy.

Avoid added sugars by choosing recipes that do not contain them.  Instead choose recipes that contain dried fruit like dates, bananas or applesauce that are naturally sweet.  Here’s a killer cookie recipe with no added sugar from my blog that is a crowd pleaser — Chocolate Almond Oatmeal Bites

Reduce added sugars – you can safely reduce the cane or other added sugar in most dessert recipes by 25% without affecting taste or texture.

Replace up to 1/4th of the refined sugars called for in your recipes with stevia or luo han guo. Stevia is a plant leaf you can grow in your garden or in a pot on your patio or balcony.  You can also buy it dried and ground into a powder that is 30 times sweeter than table sugar.  Some people perceive it to have a slightly bitter aftertaste which can be masked by the sugar remaining in the recipe.  Luo han go is a sweet fruit from China that is dried and used as a sugar substitute and medicinal herb.  Both plants are zero calorie sweeteners with low glycemic index which means they do not significantly produce a rise in blood sugar levels when eaten.

School is out for the holidays and your kids are looking for something fun to do while you are making all the holiday preparations. (Or you maybe you are trying to pull teenagers away from their cell phones and video games.)  Usher those little elves into the kitchen to help you prepare and serve your holiday meals.  They will have great fun hanging out with you in the kitchen preparing some of their holiday favorites.  Research shows that when kids help out with shopping and meal prep, they are much more likely to eat what is served because they helped prepare it!  Here are five tips on getting your children interested and engaged in cooking.

5 Tips for Family Fun in the Kitchen for the Holidays and Beyond

1. Include your kids in menu planning.  Have your kids help you build a menu of their holiday favorites surrounded by whole foods, rich in color and nutrients.  Remember to give them my “Four Color Challenge” to build meals including at least four different colors from whole plant foods to provide their bodies with a variety of micronutrients.
2. Gift each of your kids an apron, mixing spoon and cutting board.  Ownership of these basic kitchen tools welcomes a child into the kitchen and makes them feel more comfortable tackling the tasks you assign them.  Kids love to stir, blend, chop and decorate. Teach them kitchen safety, and age appropriate knife skills and let them help you chop vegetables and nuts, stir soups and sauces, and mix batters.
3. Give them ownership of one of the holiday menu items.  Younger kids can help arrange the veggie platter, while older kids can tackle making an appetizer, side dish or dessert. They will feel very accomplished sharing their creations with friends and family at the holiday table. Let them help serve up their creations and make sure everyone at the table know who made the dish.
4. Ask kids to be food critics – When cooking together, ask their opinions on how they think the foods tastes.  Does it need more salt, pepper, cinnamon, or cayenne pepper?  Kids like to have their opinions matter.
5. Encourage experimentation and reward creativity.  As kids spend more time in the kitchen, they will want to experiment with different cooking techniques and flavorings.  Give them recipes with choices to do so.

Click here for a recipe kids love to make and are surprised at how much they like the taste!  It is a simple appetizer that they can take ownership of serving to guests upon arrival before a holiday meal.