The Health Blog: Free Health & Nutrition Information

For a few years, my kids had almost the same breakfast every morning – cheerios in soy milk, occasionally with a piece of fruit on the side. We didn’t do dairy and I didn’t want them to have sugar, so this seemed the best option to me at the time. They loved this breakfast.

Awhile back, I was looking for a healthier option to this breakfast. I was reading some things about soy that concerned me, especially since my kids were having it every single day – and I was also looking for ways to increase their fruit and veggie intake.

So here are 2 ideas I eventually came up with and now they’re staples that my kids beg for in the morning! They haven’t asked for either cheerios or soy milk in quite awhile.

Idea 1:
Fruit smoothie – blend a few ripe bananas with water, add another fruit – strawberry, mango, date… the possibility is endless. A plain banana based smoothie is actually more delicious than one would think. You don’t *have* to add yogurt or soy or dairy or protein powders in there! It’s good all by itself. (I would argue, that it’s BETTER all by itself). :)

Idea 2:
Banana milk and fruit cereal bowl. Blend 2-3 bananas with enough water to make a milk-like consistency, pour into a bowl of diced fruit pieces and little berries. You can add a few nuts too if you want, but fruit alone digests better in your stomach. It looks VERY attractive because the banana milk is light yellow and the fruit pieces are very colorful! My kids’ favorite fruits to go in their cereal are the berries – blueberries, raspberries, blackberries.

Today I thought I’d share something I’ve been making my 5 yr olds to get them interested in eating lots of leafy greens. Greens are the food highest in mineral (per calorie), and I want to make sure my kids are getting plenty of minerals, but some kids have a hard time with greens. My kids don’t mind eating them but I was trying to get them to eat bigger portions of tender leafy greens.

So here’s what I did.

They’re really into pirates right now and one day I decided to make a “Treasure Salad.” I took a big pie plate for each kid and covered the entire bottom area with some fun salad fixin’s that they like. Fresh orange slices, almonds, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, baby carrots, mango pieces, pineapple. Then, I shredded a bunch of lettuce and piled it all on top of the plate to make a mountain, covering all the fixin’s I had on the bottom. I squeezed fresh orange juice over the lettuce mountain.

When the kids first saw it, they were like, “What??? We’re having just plain lettuce?” and I said, “It’s a treasure salad! Eat all your lettuce to get to the bottom and you may find some treasure!”

Lets just say, it worked like a charm. I’ve never seen them eat lettuce more enthusiastically. They ate and ate and ate, and were so excited when they got to the bottom and there was all this “treasure”! :) They savored each bite of the juicy fruit, veggies and nuts I had “hid” on the bottom.

Now, they ask me for a Treasure Salad several times a week. I hope this will be a family tradition/meal that they will take with them when they grow up!

I’d love to hear any creative ideas you all have had to help your children make healthy choices. I will be sharing a couple more ideas this week that has worked with my kids.

As I often do, I’m reviewing expenses with my wife, and we’re considering cancelling our gym membership.

We got it because we not only wanted a good gym to exercise at, but we also wanted affordable child care. (Since we both exercise at the same time, we put our two children in the “Kid’s Club.”)

But there’s a problem. While my wife and I are exercising, our daughter is vegging out in front of a TV for 90 minutes!

The Kid’s Club has videos playing constantly. My son is immune at this point. He just plays on the slide. But my daughter can’t resist watching cartoons. So she gets a whopping 90 minutes of viewing time two or three times a week.

That’s a lot of TV.

This right now is a big factor in our decision. Because while the gym is healthy for us, it’s not healthy for my daughter. Something to think about…

Eeek! You may all want to look in your pantries for jars of Peter Pan or Great Value brand peanut butter. If any of your jars of either of these brands have the number 2111 on them, please take the product lids back to the store for a full refund.

You’ll never guess what they found in them… salmonella. Who would have thought it! Salmonella in peanut butter. It has made around 288 people sick all over the country. The largest cases have been in New York, Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Missouri. Thankfully, there have been no deaths to date.

It just makes me sick to think of all the little children who eat tons of peanut butter every day.

The symptoms of salmonella: diarrhea, vomitting, abdominal pain, fever and dehydration.

So hurry and be sure to check your peanut butters! Thankfully we don’t eat peanut butter much anyway, and we’ve never bought either of those brands because of the transfats in them. (Another post for another day). :)

Full article here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/15/salmonella.outbreak.ap/

The people you spend the most time with profoundly impact your life. If they make more money than you, chances are your income will rise. If they make less than you, chances are your income will fall.

It seems to me the same principle holds true with physique. If the people you spend the most time with are health conscious and fit, then you will likely become more fit. But if they are lazy and overweight, then you will likely become lazy and overweight, too.

One exception to this rule: If you are already healthy and fit, you will probably be unaffected by spending a little bit of time with a friend who is the polar opposite of you. In fact, by the power of contrast, it may motivate you to be different.

I’ve found this to be true in my own life. After spending time with someone who is well on their way to achieving an overfed, middle-aged suburban physique, I feel motivated to act and behave differently so I don’t wind up in the same place.

Ask yourself: Am I spending too much time building wrong relationships? Am I spending too little time nurturing right relationships? (Of course, when you consider these questions, it’s important to weigh many different factors, not just health habits.)