If it seems like nowadays there’s someone in every school classrooms with a food allergy, that’s because almost 1 in 12 kids today have food allergies – and 1 in 32 have serious food allergies, serious enough to have already caused the child to have symptoms like trouble breathing, a drop in blood pressure, or shock, according to a 2011 study of almost 40,000 US households.

Peanuts, milk, and shellfish were the top three foods kids were allergic to at any age. Milk was number one from birth to age 2, peanuts from 3 to 13 years old, and shellfish beyond the 14th birthday. Rounding out the top nine allergic foods throughout childhood, in order, were tree nuts, eggs, fish, strawberries, wheat, and soy.

More than half of those who were allergic to peanuts or tree nuts had experienced a severe reaction. Severe reactions were also found in more than 40% of those allergic to shellfish, soy, or fish. Among the top allergy foods, strawberries were the least likely to have triggered a severe reaction – but it still happened in 1 in 5 strawberry-allergic kids.

Other new findings: peanuts and fish both caused allergies in more kids than previously reported. And among kids allergic to any food, more than 30% had multiple food allergies. As one might guess, those with multiple food allergies were even more likely to have had a severe reaction (makes sense, but not demonstrated before).

Allergies can come and go. Food allergies were common in children of every age, but most common from age 3 to 5. Severe food allergies, on the other hand, got more common with age and were more than twice as likely in kids 14 and over than in those 2 and under.

Gupta RS, Springston EE, Warrier MR, Smith B, Kumar R, Pongracic J, and Holl JL. “The Prevalence, Severity, and Distribution of Childhood Food Allergy in the United States.” Pediatrics. Jul 2011; 128(1):e9-17.

Some of our children’s food choices are made at home – but as they grow, many are made in childcare or at school. We need our schools and daycare centers to be working with us, not against us in teaching children to enjoy healthy amounts of good food, cultivating Nutritional Intelligence.

About half of all middle schools and high schools in the US permit advertising of candy, fast-food restaurants, and/or sodas at school! This practice is most common in Ohio (nearly 70 percent of schools) and least common in New York (24 percent).

Does advertising affect our kids’ food choices? Of course it does! And in more ways that you might think. The Institute of Medicine has found that advertising to children affects their preferences, purchases, and consumption – changing their habits for different food and beverage categories, in addition to specific product brands.

Some estimate that each year, nationwide, for every dollar spent on promoting junk food to our children only about 1/10 of a penny is spent promoting healthy food. Schools are one place where the opposite should be true. At least.

CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Children’s Food Environment State Indicator Report, 2011.

IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2005. Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “Fast Food FACTS: Evaluating Fast Food Nutrition and Marketing to Youth.” November, 2010

The only special treatment my young children get when we walk into a restaurant are the crayons and kiddie menu to doodle on. Why in the world would we punish them with chicken nuggets, hot dog, a reheated pizza, or whatnot, when they can be enjoying the fine Italian/Thai/French/Vietnamese/Californian cuisine that the adults are having?

Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t.

There’s this belief that children can’t eat grown-up food. They won’t like it. They don’t eat veggies. They can’t handle complex tastes, yadda yadda…

Same thing happens when grocery shopping at the supermarket. Entire aisles, product lines, and companies are devoted to that beloved niche market – our kids. Granted, there are some products for babies that make sense – a jar of Gerber to keep in a diaper bag for those cases when baby’s hungry and you’re not near the kitchen. But have you had a look at your pantry and fridge to count up all the things you bought because they’re for kids?

Whether it’s Danimals, a sugary cereal, or glow in the dark Mac ‘n Cheese – think about the real reason you bought these items. Is it because your children really need them? Or because of the clever packaging that has led you to believe these are better choice for your little ones?

What you’ll discover in many cases is that you’ve gotten something with more sugar and in some cases artificial colorings. Blue is a fun color to paint with. Not to eat.

If your children are still very young and not subject to too much outside influence other than parents and close family, it should be very easy to refrain from kid branded products. Problems usually arise when a child starts preschool or learns from older friends in the surrounding social circle.

Viewing TV commercials is a contributing factor, too. It would be great if manufacturers would refrain from using kid pop icons on their packaging. But the deal is just too sweet for both Hollywood and the brand manufacturers. Unfortunately, the industry self regulation is very lax, and the government does not and cannot effectively intervene.

So it’s up to parents to figure out a game plan that works for their family. There’s no one right solution.

Whatever you decide, try not to be too extreme. The 80 / 20 rule seems to be effective with many of our readers – if your children eat 80% of their food as healthful as you can muster, but the other 20% more leniently (including junk food and post-modern snacks), then you’re off to a good start. If you deny your children any of the treats that they see their friends consuming, you’ll be in for quite the rebellion once they hit the teenage years.

What food strategies are you implementing with your children?

Any parent who has ever seen the reaction of a 3-year-old to the idea of heading to McDonald’s for lunch won’t be surprised by the results of a recent study reported in the journal of Psychology and Marketing. Researchers discovered that children as young as 3 could not only recognize brands but also associated strong judgments with them.

According to the study, preschoolers (ages 3-5) perceived fast food as “fun, exciting and tasty,” and they recognized cola brands as fun and knew that “lots of people like them.” According to the researchers, “the present findings suggest that children aged 3 to 5 years have an emerging capacity to understand the symbols of brands for which they form part of the target segment. Preschoolers can and do judge others on the basis of brand use. This finding has clear public policy implications in relation to at least two issues: materialism and the formation of eating habits.”

While many may find this news disheartening, I see a beautiful opportunity instead. Since we know that our littlest children are so tuned in to the world around them that they develop brand recognition, we can use this information to  “brand” and reinforce nutritious food! This is the idea behind my latest book, Feeding Baby Green. The secret is to introduce children even before they’re born to the food that will keep them healthy and happy. That’s the branding that will truly make a difference in our children’s lives.

McAlister, A. R., and Cornwell, T. B. “Children’s Brand Symbolism Understanding: Links to Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning” Psychology and Marketing. 2010;27(3):203-228

The more servings of French fries that women had eaten way back when they were preschoolers, the more likely they were to develop breast cancer as adults, according to a Harvard study in the August 10, 2005 online International Journal of Cancer.

We know that diet and cancer are often linked, and that changes in pre-pubertal breasts could lead to later cancer. This study was based on data spanning over forty years from the Nurses’ Health Study, which follows thousands of nurses over time. The mothers of the nurses were asked to describe their preschool. Out of 30 foods analyzed, French fries were the only food linked to higher breast cancer rates (whole milk during the preschool years was linked to a slightly lower than average rate). For every weekly serving of fries the adult risk of breast cancer rose 27 percent! Even though high fat diets have been associated with increased breast cancer risk, in this study the French fry effect is not just the fat. Other high fat foods such as hot dogs and ice cream were not associated with the increased risk.

While this one study is not enough to prove that fries cause cancer, it is consistent with cancer concerns arising from the acrylamide in fries. A survey of the American diet found that for today’s toddlers, French fries are the number one ‘vegetable’ consumed. Fries are the most common side item in kids’ meals. And they are even a top seller in school cafeterias. Breast cancer strikes more than 200,000 women in the U.S. each year.

More than 10 percent of American kids between the ages of 2 and 5 are already overweight or obese, according to the January 2005 annual statistics report of the American Heart Association. This number comes from an analysis of children measured in 2002, and is the latest data available. It’s almost half-again as many as were overweight in 1994, when 7 percent of American preschoolers were already in weight trouble.

Given that most American children are hooked on junk food before age 2, these numbers do not surprise me. But they do alarm me. It’s more than a million overweight kids before they start elementary school. And the number swells to 4 million during the elementary school years. Our kids deserve to be taught to truly enjoy eating healthy amounts of healthful foods, and to enjoy, to revel in, active play – preferably before the bad habits even start. That’s one of the reasons I wrote From First Kicks to First Steps. These healthy habits are easiest for parents to teach before the toddler years, and can even be started before the baby is born!

The heavier kids are during the toddler, preschool, and school years, the greatest the chance they have of developing cancer as young adults, according to a study published in the November 1, 2004 International Journal of Cancer. Researchers in the Boyd Orr Study of Diet and Health in Pre-War Britain measured the heights and weights of more than 2,000 children between the ages of 2 and 14 during 1937-1939. These children were then followed for 50 years, into their 50.s and 60.s – the longest follow-up we have for study like this.

A total of 380 of the people developed cancer (188 men and 192 women). Those who developed cancer were more likely to have been obese as children. Body mass index (BMI), calculated from the heights and weights, is the best measure of obesity. For every standard deviation increase in BMI in the children, there was a 9 percent increase in cancer risk, after accounting for other factors. For smoking related cancers, the risk increased 30 percent for every standard deviation increase in BMI.

Right now, we are raising the most obese, the most sedentary generation in history. Unless cancer risks change dramatically, we are heading for an unprecedented cancer epidemic in the years ahead. Taking action to prevent or reverse obesity in your children is one of the greatest gifts you can give as a parent.

Could it be that fruit eaten in childhood has a lifelong protective effect? Of course, this would take a long time to find out. Thousands of families in England and Scotland were studied in 1937 and 1939 – and the children were followed for more than sixty years! The results were published in the March 2003 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Those children in the top 25 percent of fruit eaters in the study were 38 percent less likely to develop cancer throughout their lives, even after taking other risks such as tobacco into account. As little as 88.4 grams of fruit a day (the size of a small apple) had a significant protective effect.

Does the benefit of childhood- fruit-eating come from establishing good habits? (We do know that adult-fruit-eating protects against cancers.) Or is there a special benefit during childhood of getting the wonderful vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, isoflavones, coumarins, or glucosinolates found in fruits? (We do know that some exposures that occur only in developing children will influence them for a lifetime.)

I suspect that both are true. Either way, each bite of fresh fruit, especially organic fruit, protects against the DNA damage that can lead to cancer. Try berries on cereal or pancakes. Try bananas on oatmeal when the weather is cold. Try blended fruit in freezer-pops when it’s hot out. Dip apple slices in organic yogurt or serve them with organic cheese. Or plop fruit, ice, and yogurt in the blender for a healthy treat. Delicious and health-building at the same time – how fun is that!

Let’s get practical. The five greatest motivators for preschool children to eat healthy foods are:

1) Imitation. If the foods in the house are healthy, kids will pick their favorites from among healthy choices.

2) Tasty choices. Often kids’ fruit alternatives are restricted to apples and bananas, and maybe grapes or oranges. Many kids love peaches, tangerines, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, plums, pears, watermelon, and pineapple. Try Spoon-Sized Shredded Wheat, corn bran, or oatmeal with fresh berries. Try bran crispbread as a snack instead of crackers or toast made from white flour. Whole-grain pancakes can be a hit. The younger you start, the quicker they will develop their tastes in these directions. During the preschool years, make butter a treat for vegetables. Butter on green beans makes them a lot tastier. Because of the “crunch,” many kids like raw carrot sticks all by themselves.

3) Fun presentation. When feeding your kids, you are competing against multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns. Children’s TV has many commercials for sweetened breakfast cereals (“part of this nutritious breakfast”–which would be far more nutritious without the sweetened breakfast cereal!). Where are the commercials for fresh veggies? They’ll have to come from us. Preschool children often love food that is shaped like something interesting–a face, a clown, a dinosaur, a favorite hero, etc. Processed macaroni is manufactured this way because it sells. In this environment we need to make healthy food as appealing as the empty or harmful alternatives. Try a whole-grain pancake with a strawberry for a nose, kiwi slices for eyes, and banana for the mouth. Brush its teeth with the fork before eating (since after eating it won’t have any teeth left!). Try corn on the cob served standing up (it’s a rocket ship), or lying down with a toothpick stuck in the side (it’s a submarine–the toothpick is the periscope).

4) When all else fails, sneak it in. Make zucchini bread, carrot muffins. Add shaved vegetables or pieces of fruit to virtually any baked good. Dried cranberries can be a hit (while dried fruit is high in sugar, it is also high in fiber). A great way to hide fruit and vegetables is in whole-food smoothies and juices. High-speed blenders, such as the models manufactured by Vita-Mix (not juice extractors that take the pulp and fiber–and many nutrients–out) can turn fresh oranges, carrots, and yogurt into a delicious treat. Two recently published cookbooks, The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious, offer more ideas on how to hide the healthy stuff!

5) Give a daily multivitamin as a safety net in this processed-food world. Vitamins are, by definition, compounds necessary in trace amounts for the normal functioning of the human body.

We need vitamins in order to see the world around us, to grow, to make bones and connective tissue, to fight infections and cancer, to heal wounds, to stop from bleeding to death, and to keep our teeth from falling out.

We are not self-sufficient. We depend on a steady supply from outside sources for these vital compounds. Vitamins cannot be manufactured in sufficient amounts by the body and must be taken in from the environment. They occur naturally in many foods and vitamin D is manufactured by the body in response to sunlight exposure. Vitamins are also available as commercial nutritional supplements.

While I have great respect for the results of modern nutritional analysis, I have greater respect for the longstanding relationship between humans and their natural foods. By eating whole foods (fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, whole grains, etc.), your child can get the necessary vitamins in the healthiest way. Vitamins occur in foods in forms that are the easiest for the body to use and are accompanied by important related compounds.

Toddlers and preschoolers are often picky eaters. As children grow, their tastes change, and over time they should begin to eat a more well-rounded diet. A vitamin “safety net” takes the pressure off feeding issues during the early years. Without pressure or worry, you can be free to be creative about increasing whole foods in your child’s diet, knowing that vitamins are present to help your child grow strong and healthy.

This isn’t to suggest that the battle is an easy one. Recently on Dateline NBC (an American television show), host Jane Pauley casually mentioned not liking vegetables as a child. While this phenomenon is as current as today’s news, it is also as perennial as our oldest nutritional records. I’ve heard it said that the ancient Greeks defined children as short humans who don’t like vegetables. :^) Now that we have mass advertising, children’s fun meals, and peer pressure, the battle is all the harder. But the battle is worthwhile, and it can certainly be fun. The battle should never be with your kids. Never push. Entice them, persuade them, teach them. Battle bad nutrition.

More Information on Healthy Eating:
Healthy Eating, Part I – How important is good nutrition?
Healthy Eating, Part II – What foods do children need? What foods should be avoided?
Healthy Eating, Part III – The five greatest motivators for preschool children to eat healthy foods.
Healthy Eating, Part IV – Motivators for school age children and adolescents.
Healthy Eating, Part V – Good news for vegetable haters everywhere!

When my son Kevin was about 3 years old, he spied a green pea. He picked it up between his fingers and rolled it over. It looked good! He then pushed the pea up his nose. Interesting. Vegetables are fun! He used another pea to push the first one up higher. Then another. Yet another pea followed the first three into Kevin’s nose–and it was not the last! Kev was not satisfied until he had enjoyed five peas–in his nose! Later, in the emergency room, after they’d removed the peas, Kev’s older brother Garrett, with a sweet twinkle in his eye, called Kevin a pea-brain!!! When I say that kids need vegetables, I mean they need to eat vegetables — by mouth.

It’s hard to compete against fast-food kids’ meals–salty, fatty food, served quickly, in a bright, exciting place–and they come with toys! It’s no wonder trips to fast-food restaurants have become the pinnacle of gastronomic delight for most preschool children in the United States. But here, in these fast-food restaurants, children miss out on important nutrients and fill their tummies (and arteries) with things they don’t need. We need to be very clear about what they need and what they don’t in order to avoid being knocked over by the junk food current.

Children do need whole grains. They do need fresh fruits and fresh vegetables. They do need a source of calcium for their growing bones. They do need healthy sources of proteins, either from fish, poultry, eggs, and meat, or from plant sources. These foods give them the vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients they need to build high-quality bodies.

Children do not need to eat large amounts of sugar. In the 1800s, the average American consumed 12 pounds of sugar per year. By 1975, however, after the overwhelming success of the refined-food industry, the 12 pounds had jumped to a world-leading 118 pounds per year, and jumped again to 154 pounds per capita (for every man, woman, and child) by 1997. This amounts to 53 teaspoonfuls of added sugar per person per day. This is in contrast to the recommended 6-18 teaspoonfuls per day, depending on total calories in an individual’s diet, recommended by the USDA (Food Consumption, Prices and Expenditures, United States Department of Agriculture, 1999).

The effect of sugar intake on children’s behavior is a hotly debated topic in pediatrics. Parents and educators often contend that sugar and other carbohydrate ingestion can dramatically impact children’s behavior, particularly their activity levels. Physicians, on the other hand, have looked at controlled studies of sugar intake and have not found hypoglycemia or other blood sugar abnormalities in children who are consuming large amounts of sugar.

An interesting article appears in the February 1995 edition of the Journal of Pediatrics. In contrast with other research teams, William Tamborlane, MD, et al of Yale University, leaders in child nutrition, reported a more pronounced response to a glucose load in children than in adults.

It is commonly acknowledged that as blood glucose levels fall, a compensatory release of adrenaline occurs. When the blood glucose level falls below normal, the resulting situation is called hypoglycemia. Signs and symptoms that accompany this include shakiness, sweating, and altered thinking and behavior.

Tamborlane and his colleagues demonstrated that this adrenaline release occurs at higher glucose levels in children than it does in adults. In children, it occurs at a blood sugar level that would not be considered hypoglycemic. The peak of this adrenaline surge comes about 4 hours after eating. The authors reason that the problem is not sugar, per se, but highly refined sugars and carbohydrates, which enter the bloodstream quickly and produce more rapid fluctuations in blood glucose levels.

Giving your child a breakfast that contains fiber (such as oatmeal, shredded wheat, berries, bananas, or whole-grain pancakes) should keep adrenaline levels more constant and make the school day a more wondrous experience. Packing her or his lunch box with delicious, fiber-containing treats (such as whole-grain breads, peaches, grapes, or a myriad of other fresh fruits) may turn afternoons at home into a delight.

Refined sugars also affect insulin control, which decides how much fat they will store for the rest of their lives. As a child, I had HoHos, Twinkies, and Ding Dongs as regular parts of my meals because my mother, like so many of that era, wanted to give her children a nice treat. We both shudder now to think of it.

Sugar is not just found in sweets or junk cereal. It’s in almost everything. When you look at labels, you find sugar, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, sorbitol, or corn syrup on almost every label. The more simple meals from whole foods contain much less sugar.

Fruit juices contain lots of simple sugar without much fiber. Many people think of juices as health foods. This simply isn’t true. In small quantities they are fine, but they are mainly a way to get many of the calories and some of the nutrients from a substance, without getting as full and without getting the needed fiber. One study has shown that children who drink more than 12 ounces of fruit juice per day are shorter and fatter than those who don’t.

Fruits contain lots of sugar, but it’s in a form that’s intended for the body to use. Instead of sugar-coated breakfast cereal, try cereal with berries. Most kids like this. They enjoy the treat, and it stays healthy.

Children do not need large amounts of refined white flour. Again, in this century, white flour has become a major part of our diets. This simple carbohydrate acts in our bodies much like white sugar–empty calories that disrupt energy levels and insulin levels and increase body fat. The risk for diabetes increases with consumption of white bread, white rice, mashed potatoes, and French-fried potatoes (Journal of the American Medical Association, February 12, 1997). White flour can easily be replaced with whole-grain flours. Whole-grain cereals can replace breakfast cereals made from white flour. Which are whole-grain cereals? Special K? Product 19? Corn Flakes? Cream of Wheat? No. No. No. But the following are: Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Total, Wheaties, Spoon-Size Shredded Wheat, Grape Nuts, and oatmeal. When selecting among whole-grain cereals, try to minimize sugar and chemical additives.

Children do need fiber. They need at least 19 grams per day; adults need 21-38 grams per day depending on age and gender (Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005). Dietary fiber is essential for optimum health (Pediatrics, 1995 supplement). Most children in the United States get far less than they need. White-flour snacks, breads, and cereals are major culprits . Fiber is found in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

Don’t let the names of products fool you. Names like Pepperidge Farm Light Style Seven Grain, and Arnold Bran’ola Nutty Grains Bread sound like they would be made mostly from whole-grain flour. Nope. Arnold Country Wheat and Pepperidge Farm Natural Whole Grain Nine Grain breads are, however. Nabisco Reduced Fat Triscuits and Wheat Thins are primarily whole wheat. Wheatsworth crackers are not!

Check the first ingredient on the ingredients lists of breads and crackers. It should say “whole wheat” or some other whole grain, such as oats. “Wheat flour” or “enriched wheat flour” are not what you are looking for–they are essentially plain white flour.

If the front label says, “Made with whole wheat” or “Made with whole grain,” get suspicious! Usually the product is mostly refined white flour with a touch of whole grain thrown in to fool you! Front labels can easily deceive. These breads are made with mostly refined flours:

• Cracked wheat
• Multi-grain
• Oat bran
• Oatmeal
• Pumpernickel
• Rye
• Seven bran (or twelve bran)
• Seven grain (or nine grain)
• Stoned wheat
• Wheat
• Wheatberry
• Whole bran (bran is just the outer part of the grain kernel)

(Source: Nutrition Action Healthletter, The Center for Science in the Public Interest, March 1997) Some of these names are enough to make you think that the manufacturers are trying to fool us into thinking that their products are healthy when they are not.

Children do not need large amounts of fat–although fat by itself isn’t quite the culprit that most people think. Fat in combination with simple carbohydrates (such as sugar, white flour, white rice, or potatoes) is far more dangerous than fat alone because the fat is handled by the body so differently. French fries, potato chips, cheeseburgers on white-flour buns, donuts, candy bars, and the like are particularly bad. Butter on vegetables is much better for us than butter on white toast. Children do not need partially hydrogenated anything. These artificial fats, so commonly found in items on grocery store shelves, are not found anywhere in nature. It pays to take an honest look at what your children are eating. Here’s a great tip for getting a handle on what they actually consume: Lifeform, by FitnessSoft, is a powerful, easy-to-use computer program for analyzing the diet. And you can try it for free! It has a database of more than 13,000 of the most common foods. As you begin to type in what your child ate at a meal, a menu appears for you to select the food with the click of a mouse. The database contains brand names (such as Big Mac or Jell-O Pudding). Enter everything your child eats for a few days. At the touch of a button, the program will perform a nutritional analysis and quickly identify what nutrients are lacking (and what is in overabundance). You can download the program for a free 30-day trial at getphysicalsoftware.com. Now that we have our sights set on what foods to choose, tomorrow we will continue this five-part series with how to make these choices enticing.

More Information on Healthy Eating:
Healthy Eating, Part I – How important is good nutrition?
Healthy Eating, Part II – What foods do children need? What foods should be avoided?
Healthy Eating, Part III – The five greatest motivators for preschool children to eat healthy foods.
Healthy Eating, Part IV – Motivators for school age children and adolescents.
Healthy Eating, Part V – Good news for vegetable haters everywhere!