Tag Archive for: children’s health

The Bottom Line on School Lunches

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Healthier meals in schools were proposed and opposed—what happened next? True to form, the federal government gave in to the food industry. They didn’t reverse the Kids Act, but they left it to the school districts to decide whether a switch to whole grains caused any hardship. They also suspended the target for lower sodium levels until there’s more research. Pathetic.

Here’s what I think as a health educator: there was no training for staff or students on what constitutes healthy nutrition. In most school districts, food is made in one central kitchen and shipped to . . .

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Kids Act Opposition

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Yesterday, I told you about the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 with the objective of improving the choices of the food offerings in school lunches. But great ideas that were started two years ago may die before they really get going. School districts, food industry advocates, and a national school-lunch association (funded in part by the food industry) are seeking to change the Kids Act. They say that the new guidelines cost too much, there’s too much waste, and school lunch purchases have declined. They want the guidelines waived if a school loses money on their . . .

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Healthy Hunger-Free Kids

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There’s no easy way to say this so I’m just going to blurt it out: we’re raising a generation of overweight and obese children. They eat too much saturated fat, too much sodium, not enough vegetables, not enough fruit, and they’re way too sedentary. When Paula and I go out to eat, I can always predict what nearby children are going to order or what they’ll be eating: chicken nuggets or mac and cheese. I’m always right, but I wish I weren’t. I understand that it’s tough to be a parent who . . .

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Feeding Kids to Support Their Immune System

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You can probably guess what kids should eat every day to keep their immune systems healthy: foods high in antioxidants, and that’s mainly fruits and vegetables. The research on the benefits to children’s immune system is beyond contestation (one of my favorite words).

Apples, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, and on and on and on. How you present them is up to you. I would avoid fruits juices even if you juice foods at home; you want every vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient antioxidant you can give them, and the fiber helps feed the good bacteria that are important to the . . .

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Boost Your Kid’s Immune System

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Kids have been back in school over a week now and exposed to a whole host of viruses and bacteria they didn’t see this summer; I hope yours haven’t been sick already. It’s time to talk about how to keep kids healthy this school year.

The first thing on my list is probiotics, the good bacteria. Many studies have looked at probiotics as a treatment for allergies, dermatitis, and digestive issues in infants and children. That’s the way the healthcare research is done: you’re broken, how can we fix you? Our goal is different—we . . .

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Sleep Restores a Kid’s Immune System

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Continuing with the theme of keeping kids healthy, the second thing to do is to make sure children get plenty of sleep. Based on information from the Centers for Disease Control, getting enough sleep is directly related to how well their immune system functions; sleep deprivation lowers immune function.

Getting enough sleep can be a challenge. Kids involved with sports sometimes have to be at school at 6 a.m. for pre-school practice. They have homework that can take a few hours to complete. When you add in after school activities that range from music lessons to martial arts . . .

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Equipment, Examples, and Hibiscus

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Wherever I am, I observe people. Here are a few recent observations about kids, fitness, and tattoos. Tattoos? It doesn’t go where you think it might.
Kids and Exercise Equipment
As I was working out on the treadmill in the fitness room of the hotel I stayed at in Fort Worth, the door opened and a mom and her son walked in. I would say he was about seven or eight years old, and he wanted to try out the elliptical trainer. No luck—he wasn’t big enough to get any type of movement. Then he tried the . . .

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