Its Not About Nutrition

When Food is More Than Food

2013-05-21T12:24:20Z

Emotional eating can begin by age 2.

Yet...

The discussion about obesity centers around what people eat, not why they eat. And,
The discussion about when to teach eating habits centers around school-aged children.

Don't you think that's an example of too little, too late?

As I finish up my book (due out in January!!), here's an old post on how good parents sometimes teach bad habits.

========================================

If you are good you can have a cookie!

Who hasn’t resorted to a little behavioral bribe? Food—or more specifically the lovely cookie—has the power to produce miraculous results: kids who wait patiently through phone calls, lines at the bank and even grocery shopping trips that take forever.

“You can have an ice cream if you play quietly by yourself for another 15 minutes.”

Don’t do it. It might just affect your children’s lifelong eating habits.

A 2003 Yale University study found that adults who remember their parents using food to control their behavior have higher rates of binge eating. They are also more likely to be excessively concerned about their weight, suffer from weight fluctuations, and other problems such as chronic dieting. Yikes.

Food works to reinforce behavior in the short term, but it also communicates mixed messages to children about the role that food should play in their lives.

So much parental energy goes into encouraging healthy eating, but then we reward our kids for behaving well by giving them…brownies!

These peas are good for you. These cookies are just plain good.

It makes sense that when parents reward children with dessert, these same children grow into adults who reward themselves with dessert. But it’s not just dessert consumption that is affected. A 2001 study found people whose families used food as a reward for success and good behavior were more likely to be bulimic than people whose families did not use these tactics.

1) The key to teaching kids to eat right is to keep your eyes on the long term prize.

Nutrition puts enormous pressure on parents to get the right foods into kids. And that pressure makes parents do crazy things. If you’ve ever found yourself wrestling under the table to get one more slurp of applesauce into your little superstar then you know what I mean.

One study of college students founds that 72% of the students who had been forced to eat food as a child said they still wouldn’t eat that food today.

And a substantial body of research shows that pressuring kids to eat more makes them eat less. Give up your membership in the Clean Your Plate Club. Instead, pay attention to the long-term lessons your kids are learning.

2) Carefully use rewards to encourage healthy eating, but avoid using food to encourage behaving.

In an earlier post I talked about the power of rewards so I wouldn’t blame you if right about now you were thinking that I am the contradiction queen. I don't think I am.

Giving stars as a reward for eating behavior—trying new foods, for instance, or eating vegetables before the rest of the meal—is completely different than using food as a reward for desirable behavior. Read Star Power.

I'm not going to dispute that rewarding your kids with foods they really like will get their attention, but pulling out the big guns (and let’s be honest, nobody bribes good behavior with broccoli) overpowers kids. Really big rewards produce really big results because of the amount of pressure they apply. What's a poor kid to do?

But while using food coercively works, it won't position your kids to develop a positive relationship with food. Research confirms this.

3) Look for non-food rewards that work.

Here are a few ideas to get you started. Allow your kids to:

Plan a special outing.
Pick games for family game night.
Choose a movie for the family to watch.
Select a sport for everyone to play together.
Stay up a few minutes past bedtime.
Allow a sleepover.
Have a few friends over for a special “party.”
Choose a small toy from a special toychest.
Play an extra computer game.

I’ve often said that you shouldn’t sacrifice your kids’ long term eating habits for the sake of the immediate meal.

Here I’m saying, don’t sacrifice your kids’ long term eating habits to stave off the immediate meltdown. Instead, arm yourself with an arsenal of non-food rewards and set your kids up for a life time of healthy eating.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

======================================================

Sources:

Batsell, R. W., Jr., A. S. Brown, M. Ansfield, E., and G. Y. Paschall. 2002. “"You Will Eat All of That!": a Retrospective Analysis of Forced Consumption Episodes.” Appetite 38: 211-19.

Puhl, R. M. and M. B. Schwartz. 2003. “If You Are Good You Can Have a Cookie: How Memories of Childhood Food Rules Link to Adult Eating Behaviors.” Eating Behaviors 4: 283-93.

"Inoculate Kids Against Big Food's Advertising" with The Lunch Tray Movie

2013-05-15T14:33:00Z

One day when my daughter was little she pointed to some fruit strip product in the grocery store.

"What's that Mommy?"
"That's candy that food manufacturers want you to think is fruit," I replied.

In my opinion, giving my daughter that kind of information was the only way to arm her against the food industry's marketing power.

Now, Bettina Siegel from The Lunch Tray -- You do know about this terrific blog, don't you?-- has produced this amazing video.

Bettina says:

I continue to believe that one of our most promising strategies is showing kids how they’re quite deliberately manipulated by the food industry — to the tune of almost $2 billion in children’s advertising dollars spent each year — into choosing highly processed food and fast food over more healthful options.

Here's the video:

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Pacifiers and Allergies

2013-05-07T13:16:28Z

Despite the fact that the New York City health department recently started a subway ad campaign warning parents NOT to suck their baby's pacifier clean, new research shows that spreading germs to your baby may be beneficial.

According to the New York Times, a new study shows that:

[I]nfants whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to clean them developed fewer allergies than children whose parents typically rinsed or boiled them.

Read the complete New York Times article here.

Depriving kids of germs might backfire.

Some exposure to germs at an early age is good for kids. It helps the immune system develop a tolerance to trivial threats.

As a result, babies whose parents sucked on their pacifiers had blood tests that showed lower levels of a type of immune cell associated with allergies.

This sounds a lot like the new advice regarding food allergies.

Early exposure is better than delayed exposure. Read Peanuts, Eggs and Shellfish Before One and Don't Wait to Introduce Fish For Dinner.

To me, both these findings suggest that focusing too narrowly on germs or allergens produces unintended consequences the same way focusing too narrowly on nutrients produces unintended consequences.

You have to look at the big picture — always.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

PediaSure SideKicks: The Sure Way to Ruin Your Kids' Eating Habits

2013-05-03T13:46:36Z

PediaSure would like you to think that SideKicks will help you balance out your picky eater’s uneven diet.

What SideKicks will really help you do is train your kids' tiny tastebuds away from healthy foods and towards junk. In other words, they'll help ruin your kids' eating habits.

The SideKicks website says:

Each shake is a source of 7g protein, 3g fiber, and 25 essential vitamins and minerals for kids who are growing fine but missing nutrients.

PediaSure SideKicks is a fancy form of sugar water.

OK. It is a fancy form of sugar water with added protein. And added vitamins.

Big deal. Kids don't eat nutrients; they eat flavors. And flavors shape habits.

Each bottle of PediaSure SideKicks has 17 grams—more than 4 teaspoons— of sugar.

One Kellogg’s Pop-Tart Frosted Blueberry has 17g of sugar.
Three Oreo Cookies (34g) have only 14 grams of sugar.

In fact, sugar is the second ingredient, after water. Check out the ingredients.

If you have trouble getting your kids to eat vegetables, look at how many sweet foods you feed them.

Ask yourself how PediaSure SideKids will help your kids like vegetables.
Then, read Training Tiny Taste Buds (I've reprinted it below) and see how many foods have less sugar than juice (and PediaSure).

=======================================

If you give your kids juice for the nutrients, you would be better off giving them Froot Loops.

Froot Loops has more vitamins than juice. It also has less sugar – 12g per serving instead of 20-23g in the typical 6.75-ounce juice box.

Of course, giving your kids Froot Loops every day would teach them the wrong habits, and it would get their taste buds used to too much sugar, but that’s the point.

Most 100% apple, grape, punch and other “kid-friendly” blends have around 3g of sugar per ounce. For a point of reference, Coke has 3.3g of sugar per ounce.

True, Juicy Juice is made from juice concentrate – a natural sugar -- but your kids’ taste buds can’t tell the difference.

According to the USDA, juice concentrate is a euphemism for added sugar. In other words, sugar is sugar.

100% juice may give your children 100% of their Vitamin C needs, but that’s only because the Vitamin C has been added. In other words, it’s fortified sugar.

To drive the point home, here are 10 other delicacies that have less sugar than juice.

Some of these treats have vitamins, and others have less desirable tidbits such as fat and calories, but here is how the sugar stacks up.

Compared to the 20-23g of sugar in the typical Juicy Juice box…

1) Juice Drinks: Capri Sun Original fruit drinks have only 16g of sugar per 6.75-ounce pouch. Even 8 ounces of Sunny D has only 20g.

2) Sweetened Cereals: A bowl of Fruity Pebbles has 11g of sugar. Even Count Chocula has only 12g per bowl.

3) Fruit Leather: One pouch of Stretch Island Fruit Leather, Autumn Apple flavor, has 9g of sugar.

4) Fruit Flavored Candy: One pouch of Kellogg’s Barbie Fruit Flavored Snack has 13g of sugar.

5) Popsicles: One Dreyer’s Fruit Bar Grape has 20g of sugar.

6) Pop-Tarts: One Kellogg’s Pop-Tart Frosted Blueberry has 17g of sugar.

7) Cereal Bars: Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Mixed Berry Bar has 12g of sugar.

8) Donuts: One Dunkin’ Donuts Strawberry Frosted Donut has 14g of sugar.

9) Flavored Water: One pouch of Capri Sun Roarin’ Waters has only 7g of sugar.(Isn't that a lot for water?)

Guess what? Even some chocolate beats juice in the sugar department.

10) Chocolate: 8 Caramel-Filled Hershey’s Kisses have 21g of sugar. One Reese’s Peanut Butter Big Cup has19g of sugar.

Kids come out of the shoot ready for sweet, but you don’t need to encourage it.

If your kids have a limited palate, especially when it comes to veggies, I recommend you look to juice as a hidden culprit.

In fact, juice is one of the easiest places to clean up your kids' eating act.

Read Juice: Apple, Grape, Punch; Coke Beats Juice.

Juices aren’t all created equal - orange juice has something to offer - but the juices and juice drinks that most kids consume are some combination of apple, pear and/or grape juice.

Even Capri Sun Juice Drink Sunrise Orange Wake Up.

Ingredients: Water, Sugar, Apple and Orange Juice Concentrates, Calcium Lactate, Citric Acid, Water Extracted Orange Juice Concentrate, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Natural Flavor.

Most parents keep their eye on their children's sugar consumption, but look in the wrong places.

Even though my family loves juice, I have to say: if you wouldn’t serve your kids Froot Loops on a daily basis, remember that juice is worse. Not only does it generally replace water, but it gives your kids the wrong idea about what is healthy.

Most of all, juice trains (and trains again) your kids' taste buds to enjoy the flavor they already love – sweet.

So teach your kids to use juice like the candy it is (sparingly and as a treat) and you'll be teaching them the habits they need for a lifetime of healthy eating. In the short run, weaning your kids off sugar might just help them open up to broccoli too. Read Ways to Wean Your Juice-Fiend.

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

============================================

All websites accessed 5/28/2010

Not ALL Children LOVE Sugary, Salty, Fatty Foods

2013-04-25T14:25:46Z

Think ALL children are predisposed to preferring foods with sugar, salt and fat? Think again.

New Research shows:

German and Spanish kids are twice as likely to prefer high fat foods than kids in Cyprus and Belgium.
Hungarian, Spanish and Estonian children have a preference for fat, salt and umami (savory), espcially when compared to Swedish, Belgium and Italian children.
German children are less likely to prefer sweet juice than Swedish, Italian and Hungarian children.

Want to know something else?

Country was the strongest predictor of taste preference.

That means, culture impacts taste preferences more than:

Breastfeeding vs formula
Age at which fruit is introduced
Television viewing
Whether or not parents use food as a reward
Taste sensitivity

Want to know something else?

There are kids who aren't familiar with apple juice.

The researchers couldn't test the sweet preferences of the children in Cyprus because these kids were unfamiliar with apple juice (and the researchers wanted to use a standard sweet medium across the study).

How'd they do it?

Researchers maniuplated the level of sugar in apple juice, and the level of salt, fat and umami in crackers. Then, 1705 six to nine year old children were given paired tastings and asked to indicate which of the pair they liked best.

The study was conducted in Italy, Estonia, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Hungary and Spain.

You don’t need to move across the world to solve a picky-eating problem. You just have to establish a foreign culture at home.

Forget about feeding the American way, and start seriously rethinking what, when and why you offer the foods that you do. Read Food Culture and What It Means to be "Child-Friendly."

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Source: Lanfer, A., K. Bammann, K. Knof, K. Buchecker, P. Russo, T. Veidebaum, Y. Kourides, S. de Henauw, D. Molnar, S. Bel-Serrat, L. Lissner, and W. Ahrens. 2013. “Predictors and Correlates of Taste Preferences in European Children: the IDEFICS Study.” Food Quality and Preference 27: 128-36.

Don't Wait to Introduce Fish for Dinner

2013-04-17T18:32:53Z

Food and allergy advice: the times, they are a changin'.

Old Advice: Wait before introducing potentially allergenic foods because it will help reduce your child's chances of developing an allergy.
New Advice: Delaying may increase your child's chances of developing an allergy.

In other words, once you start weaning feel free to feed your kids peanuts, eggs, shellfish and other potentially allergenic foods. Read more: Peanuts, eggs, and Shellfish Before One.

Now, more evidence about the benefits of introducing fish...early on. It may prevent allergies from forming.

The New York Times reports on a couple of studies:

Children who were introduced to fish between 6 and 12 months had a lower prevalence of asthmalike symptoms than children who were given fish after this window.
Children who were given fish twice a month from the age of 1 were 75% less likely to have allergy symptoms—rhinitis and exzema—at the age of 12.

Many parents I know are reluctant to introduce fish to young children.

I'm not sure whether that is because these parents are worried about allergies, or because they're worried their children won't like fish.

Here's an old post on how to interpret your weaning infant's reaction to new foods; it's something for you to "chew on" while I finish the book!

==================================================

Most parents think introducing their infants to solid foods is difficult because their child may not like the taste, may not like the texture, and may not even know how to navigate the mushy messes down their throats.

Weaning is tough work because there is so much change to your child's feeding and eating routine - his (so far) lifelong habits.

Here are 10 things your infant might say about weaning if he could:

1) My food used to always be the same – same taste, same texture, same smell. Now it changes from meal-to-meal. I never know what to expect.

2) I used to snuggle with Mommy while I ate but now I don’t.

3) I used to eat while lying down. Now I have to sit up.

4) I used to decide how quickly or slowly to eat. Now someone else picks the speed at which food is put into my mouth.

5) I used to take big sips or small sips of milk. Now someone else decides how much food is in each bite.

6) I used to have a soft nipple in my mouth. Now there’s a hard spoon in there.

7) I used to eat whenever I was hungry. Now Mommy often makes me wait for meal- or snack-time.

8) Mommy used to be the only one to feed me. Now lots of different people take turns.

9) I used to decide how long meals lasted. Now whoever feeds me decides.

10) I never could see what was going on in the room before. Now I can check out all the action.

There’s a lot going on here as your child adjusts and develops new habits -- it's not just about the food.

What you can do.

If your child is having trouble transitioning to solids, look beyond the food to identify the cause (or causes).

Try reducing some of the change. For instance, there’s no law against snuggling while feeding, even if it is solids.

Recognize that weaning is a process, both for you and for your child. How well you cope matters too.

Remember, weaning will change from day-to-day because it is an interaction that is always in flux as you and your infant adjust your behavior in reaction to each other.

Don't get hung up on how much your child eats. Sustenance from solids isn't the name-of-the-game right now. Exposure to lots of different foods is.

Also, don't get hung up on how much your child eats because, it turns out, parents aren't very good judges of that anyway. Click for more on this topic.

Hang in there. Over time, change settles down and feeding improves. Studies show a vast improvement in feeding within 6 weeks, but that before this time, anything goes.

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

==================================================

Source:

van Dijk M, Hunnius S, & van Geert P (2009). Variability in eating behavior throughout the weaning period.Appetite, 52 (3), 766-70 PMID: 19501778

Do You Have a Dinner Backup?

2013-04-11T21:57:58Z

A backup can save the day.

Parents often ask me what they ought to do when their child refuses to eat the meal that's been prepared. A backup is almost always my answer.

I don't need a backup anymore because I'm not parenting a defiant eater anymore. But boy, did cottage cheese save my life.

Here's an old post about backups for you to read while I finish my book! And do read this post on Cook. Play. Explore. which describes the author's experience using this technique.

==============================

Cottage cheese gets a bad rap. It has the misfortune of being thought of as a diet food (and a pretty awful one at that). But let me tell you how it changed my life.

My daughter likes cottage cheese. She doesn’t LOVE it, would never choose it over something preferable – something like sushi, steak or even mac ‘n cheese – but when I serve up meatloaf, a spicy chili or a new dish that doesn’t quite make it, cottage cheese is her “go-to” meal.

I learned a long time ago that giving my daughter the option of eating cottage cheese whenever she didn’t want my dinner enabled me to cook whatever I desired. And that opened up the culinary world to my husband and me – and, as it turned out, to my daughter as well.

Cottage cheese is our backup. And, sometimes, having a backup is all you need to turn a tense meal around.

Kids have all sorts of reasons to decline your meal: they don’t like it, they don’t feel like eating it today, they’re cruising for some control. Having a backup eliminates the sting of your kids’ snubs.

Having a backup means you don’t have to beg, bribe or cajole your kids into eating, you don’t have to cook an alternate meal (or multiple alternates if you have a couple of kids) and you don’t have to worry about starvation. You can simply say, “There’s always cottage cheese.”

A backup gives your children the safety net they need.

The backup gives your kids control over what they eat because they know exactly what the options are: they eat either the meal you’ve prepared or the backup.

The backup gives your children the freedom to try new foods because they know there’s always an out: the backup.

The backup eliminates the power play.

Your children don’t have to like cottage cheese.

Don’t panic if your kids don't like cottage cheese. There are lots of other foods you can use as a backup: tofu, hummus, plain yogurt, beans (or anything else out of a can that can be consumed without cooking).

Whatever backup food you choose, make sure it meets the following criteria:

1) The backup must always be the same food item. Pick ONE food and only ONE food to use as a backup. It will undermine your efforts if your give your children choices for the backup of if the backup changes from time to time.

2) The backup must always be available. Use a food that isn’t highly perishable and which you usually stock. Cottage cheese works because it comes in small snack sizes that stay fresh for weeks at a time.

3) The backup must be nutritious. That way you won’t worry when your children choose it.

4) The backup must be a NO COOK item. The point is to make your life easier, not harder.

5) The backup must NOT be a preferred food. Don’t choose cereal, sandwiches, flavored yogurt, or anything else your children would rather eat. You don’t want to give them an incentive to choose the backup. Instead, select something your kids like, not LOVE, and which they find kind of boring.

The backup works by changing the dynamic at the dinner table. When you set the overarching parameters, and your children make the choices, you alter your interactions so there's no more fighting about food. And your kids end up eating more of what you serve. Now that's a habit to cultivate!

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

The Magic of (Plain) Yogurt

2013-04-04T20:21:33Z

Stonyfield has increased the sugar in its yogurt!

Apparently, it's not sweet enough. A reader on Marion Nestle's blog Food Politics writes:

The French Vanilla (6 oz cup) used to have 17g of sugar, now it has 27g!
The Peach (also 6 oz cup) used to have 20g, now it has 26g.

For a point of reference: an 8 ounce bottle of Coke has 27g of sugar. (I know, and none of the calcium, or protein...) Read Yogurt vs Coke.

You know my opinion:

The sugar drives our kids' habits. No matter what form the sugar takes, it's the taste that counts.
The more our kids get used to eating sweet foods, the harder it is to get them to eat "real" foods...like broccoli or apples.

Stonyfield’s Vice President for Communications and Social Media, Alice Markowitz explains (also on Marion Nestle's blog):

In 2011, we replaced some of the sugar in our Smooth and Creamy style nonfat yogurts with organic stevia. Our fans didn’t like the switch, so we went back to using just organic sugar with our new Blends.

Organic sugar...it's supposed to make you feel better.

Ms. Markowitz goes on to say:

In fact, the slight increase is due primarily to an increase in milk in the product, resulting in more protein, more milk sugar. As with many of our products, Blends has a mix of naturally-occurring sugars from milk and fruit and some added sugars.

This just goes to show that yogurt with fruit is sweet already. Why add more?

Healthy yogurt is plain yogurt.

Healthy in terms of nutrition.
Healthy in terms of habits.

Here's a post I wrote a few years ago on the Magic of (Plain) Yogurt.

===============================================

Want a magic pill to get your kids to try new foods?

Here it is… YOGURT! Yes, you can teach your children to eat new foods using only yogurt.

I’ve written about yogurt before, about how great plain yogurt is (and how bad sweetened yogurt is) for teaching kids to eat right -- Read Yogurt vs. Coke, But Plain Yogurt is Gross, Yogurt on the Brain.

Even still, I never realized before how many things you can do with plain yogurt, and as a result, what a boon it is for parents: you can use the same old food your children already love and eat to expand their repertoire, just by switching things up.

Cindy at Fix Me a Snack is on a mission to develop 101 recipes for yogurt. She’s up to 80 and all I can say is you’ve got to check this out! Read the list.

Last night I made a version of the Rhubarb Mango Yogurt (#51), only I used frozen blueberries instead of the mango. Everyone loved it.

But the recipe I can't wait to try is the Banana Coconut Pie Yogurt (#65).

Look at it. Doesn't it look yummy? It's made with mashed banana, coconut extract, shredded coconut and plain yogurt. Brilliant!

The imagination, the creativity and the variety on this list are amazing. Reading through the recipes, it hit me: You could teach your kids to eat new foods using only yogurt.

Here's how it would work:

1) Start with the recipe that you’re sure will be a winner.

Look over the list with your child and pick the recipe that looks the best. Not the healthiest. Not the most creative. The best.

Consider the Banana Toffee Yogurt (#61). Or the Smore Yogurt (#79) pictured here. It's made with graham crackers, chocolate sauce, marshmallows and plain yogurt.

2) Next, move onto a yogurt that might be a little more challenging, but stay in the Love Domain.

Consider the Cinnamon Toast Yogurt (#73), the Jamtacular Yogurt (#77) or the Banana Nut Butter Honey Yogurt (#12).

By now, your child will probably be thinking that this new food thing is alright!

3) Then, as people of my generation used to say, “Keep on Truckin'."

Nutty Yogurt (#69)

Yogurt Salad (#46), made with cucumbers. (Pictured here.)

Garbanzo Bean Yogurt (#49)

Avocado Yogurt with Fresh Mango (#39)

One day you might even find yourself trying out #50! (If you do, let me know how it goes.)

Why this strategy will work:

1) It will get two ideas into your child’s head. The first is that plain yogurt is a good food. The second is that new foods aren’t always bad, boring and healthy. Training the brain is just as important as training the taste buds. Read Mind Over Matter.

2) The familiarity of keeping one dimension of the dish constant – the yogurt – helps reluctant children feel comfortable trying new foods because it helps them know what to expect. Read Look Into My Crystal Ball.

3) Alternating what goes into the yogurt doesn’t just alter the taste, it alters the texture, the aroma, the appearance and even the temperature. Mixing up these sensual properties is a huge part of learning to eat new foods. Read For Extreme Fruit and Vegetable Avoiders....

Half the battle of getting kids to eat new foods is teaching them that "new" can be fun, exciting, and, yes, tasty.

I’ve contributed some recipes to the list, but that’s not why I’m so enthusiastic about Cindy’s project. I love it because it offers 101 ways to accomplish one of the most important components of learning to eat right... trying new foods.

But you don't have to stick with just the yogurt. Here's another way to introduce new: try some of Cindy's interesting presentation methods: The fish bowl (#30), the parfait glass (#61), and the bear bowl (#68). ReadMake "New" Work for You.

Get your kids in the new groove and before you know it, they'll start complaining when you go back to the old standards. Now that's a problem to behold.

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

The Miracle of Yogurt-Covered Cereal

2013-03-28T13:12:22Z

Yogurt is the modern version of the old fashioned "miracle cure" medication.

You know, those miracle medications that were peddled at circuses and carnivals in the Wild West? They had the ability to cure any disease, even prolong life?

These days, if you put yogurt on anything, especially Greek yogurt, you can make it healthy.

Abracadabra. Hocus Pocus. Presto Chango. Shazam.

Post Honey Bunches of Oats Greek Honey Crunch is the newest miracle.

It's a bit of magical thinking to call the yogurt that's in this cereal yogurt. It's a pinch of yogurt powder mixed in here and there with whole-grain wheat, oats, sugar, rice, corn meal and oil. Yum.

Check out the ingredients.

Maybe that's why the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Nutrition Action Health Letter calls this Honey Bunches of BS.

According to the CSPI April Health Letter:

The yogurt powder is heat treated, which kills the active yogurt cultures. And,
The protein, which is only 1 gram more than the regular Honey Roasted Honey Bunches of Oats, comes from milk protein isolate, whey, and non-fat dry milk solids...not from yogurt.

If that's not enough...when I looked at the ingredient list I saw that sugar shows up 11 times. Eleven Times!

Give your kids this cereal if they like it—as an occasional treat.

But don't teach them this stuff is actually yogurt.

Read Is "Yogurt-Covered" Really Yogurt? for more on yogurt miracles.

And if you want your kids to reap the benefits of yogurt, give them the real stuff.

Preferably in plain. Read The Magic of Yogurt.

"I feel healthy" the woman in the ad says. Proof the magic is working!

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Peanuts, Eggs and Shellfish Before Age One

2013-03-13T20:05:01Z

I gave my daughter eggs before she turned one.

I also gave her peanut butter, shellfish and other foods on the list before she was supposed to eat them. I wasn't being brazen. Quite frankly, I was ignorant. (I really was.)

Now, though, it seems like I did the right thing. (Beginner's luck!)

"Insufficient evidence exists for delaying introduction of solid foods, including potentially allergenic foods, beyond 4 to 6 months of age, even in infants at risk."

That's according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

In other words: Don’t delay giving your kids peanuts, eggs or any other potentially allergenic food. Once you start weaning, you should feel free to feed away.

What a reversal.

Old advice: Wait before introducing potentially allergenic foods because it will help reduce your child's chances of developing an allergy.
New advice: Delaying may increase your child's chances of developing an allergy.

One explanation is that when you finally get around to giving peanuts to a baby whose introduction to peanuts has been delayed, her immune system treats them as a foreign substance. The attack that ensues is an allergy.

Ditto for the process that happens with eggs, shellfish, milk, tree nuts, fish and other recommended "stay-aways."

The peanut allergy rate in the U.S. pretty low: 0.6%.

In Israel, where infants are often given a peanut-based snack, the peanut allergy rate is 0.06%

“The body has to be trained in the first year of life.”

That's the explanation Katie Allen, a professor and allergist at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at Royal Children’s Hospital in Australia gave to the Wall Street Journal.

You know my reaction: Your baby's taste buds have to be trained in the first year of life too.

I'm glad to see some medical advice that doesn't undermine habits.

Early flavor experiences shape your baby's flavor preferences later in life. Delay the range of flavors your child gets exposed to and you may be increasing the odds she’ll be a picky eater.

Remember Early Vegetable Variety: The French Advantage? Compared to German mothers (and American mothers) the French provide an astonishing amount of variety during weaning. They're more concerned about taste development than allergies. And you know the punch line: their kids eat vegetables, and ours...? Not so much.

Most infants go through a phase where they are open to a wide range of new foods.

This stage starts when they are new eaters and ends around nineteen months – two years. Some kids get a mild case of resistance; other kids get a severe case.

If your kids are still in the “I’ll eat anything phase of life,” take advantage of it. Both mother’s feeding practices (i.e. your habits) and your infant’s willingness to accept a variety of foods track from the first years of life. That means, what you do in the beginning is likely to last a lifetime.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

Sources:

NIAID-Sponsored Expert Panel. 2010. “Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States: Report of the NIAID-Sponsored Expert Panel.” The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Volume 126, Issue 6, Supplement, Pages S1-S58, December.

Reddy, Sumathi. “Food Allergy Advice for Kids: Don’t Delay Peanuts, Eggs.” The Wall Street Journal 4 March, 2013. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324662404578334423524696016.html, accessed 3/13/13.

Nicklaus, S. 2009. “Development of Food Variety in Children.” Appetite 52: 253-55.