5 New Food Categories Linked to ADHD

Does the typical Western Diet diet increase the risk of ADHD? According to a new study from Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research it does. Food additives have long been a known link, but the culprits have broadened to include:

1. Fast Food
2. Processed Meats
3. Red Meat
4. High Fat Dairy Products
5. Sweets

Wendy Oddy, Associate Professor at the institute explains, "a Western dietary pattern may indicate the adolescent has a less optimal fatty acid profile, whereas a diet higher in omega-3 fatty acids is thought to hold benefits for mental health and optimal brain function. It also may be that the Western dietary pattern doesn’t provide enough essential micronutrients that are needed for brain function, particularly attention and concentration, or that a Western diet might contain more colours, flavours and additives that have been linked to an increase in ADHD symptoms. It may also be that impulsivity, which is a characteristic of ADHD, leads to poor dietary choices such as quick snacks when hungry."

Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-foods-linked-to-adhd.html?page=2

Vaccine-Nation

Are you a parent who has questions or concerns about vaccines? You are not alone. The number of mandatory vaccinations is on the rise. I think there are very valid points on both sides of the issue. Parents needs to educate themselves on what has been going on in the world of vaccinations. I think it is far better to make this crucial decision armed with information. Check out the video below for new insights on vaccinations:




http://www.vaccinenation.net/

Healthy Lunch Ideas

Here are some great ideas for your child's lunch box for nut-free schools.

Main Entree			Sides of Fruit & Veggies		Other Sides
Bagel – Whole Grain, with Sun Butter or Cream Cheese Beans – Black, Chickpeas, Kidney, Lima, Pinto… Black Bean & Corn Salad in Lettuce Wrap Cheese Sticks or Slices (Dairy, Rice, or Soy) Chicken, Meat, or Tofu Bites Chicken Salad with Celery, Lettuce & Tomatoes Cold Fish Cool Quinoa Salad (with Beans and/or Veggies) Cool Rice Salad (with Beans and/or Veggies) Egg, hard boiled (shelled) Left-Overs (can make great lunches) Lettuce Burritos/Wraps (Filled with Dates, Julienned Veggies or Fruit like Mango or Carrots) Meat or Veggie Loaf, Slice (Warm or Cold) Oatmeal with Sesame Seeds in Thermos Pasta & Sauce Warmed and in a Thermos Pasta Salad – with Whole Grain Pasta, Rice Pasta, or Quinoa with Veggies and/or Beans Pizza – melt cheese on pita or tortilla with some small chopped veggies of choice, cut to triangles, pack chilled. Quesadillas – Wheat, Rice, or Corn tortilla w/ cheese, chilled Rice & Beans – Warmed in a Thermos Rice Cakes with Sun Butter Salads – as creative as you want to be (just be nut-free)! Sandwiches – Make them on Whole Grain Bread, Rice Bread, Sprouted Bread, Pita Pockets, Tortillas, or in Lettuce Wraps Avocado & Cheese or Sprouts Avocado & Tomato Cheese/Rice Cheese Cheese & Lettuce Deli Meat/Tofu, Lettuce, Cheese Deli ‘Meat’, Lettuce, Tomatoes & Sprouts Egg (omelet-style), cheese Hummus and Bell Pepper Hummus and Veggies Hummus, Sprouts, Bell Peppers Left-Over Meat, Tofu, or Veggies Sun Butter, Sun Butter & Banana, Sun Butter and Jelly/Jam Sun Butter & Agave or Honey Stir-Fry – Left-Over, Cold or Warmed in Thermos Slice of Quiche with Veggies (optional, in tortilla triangles) Soups or Stews in Soup Thermos Spaghetti Squash & Marinara Sauce - warmed in thermos Tofu – cubes, strips, wedges Tortilla Spiral Sandwiches (Wheat, Corn or Rice Tortillas) Vegetable Salad with their Favorites Sliced Up Yogurt in a Cup			Apple Sauce Apples Slices Apricots Asparagus Spears Avocados (Halves, Sliced, Diced) Bananas (Fresh or Dried Chips) Beets – steamed, raw Bell Pepper Slices – Any Color! Berries of All Kinds (Blueberries, Blackberries, Raspberries, Strawberries…) Broccoli Florets, Spears Cantaloupe – Sliced Carrot Sticks Cauliflower Florets Celery Sticks Cherries Cherry Tomatoes Corn (on Cob or Kernels) Cucumber Rounds or Sticks Dates (Pitted) Dried Fruit Dried Fruit Slices Fruit Cups (Fresh Is Best) Green Beans Kale (try wrapped around a date, really!) Kiwi Jicama Slices Mangoes Melons – of all kinds, sliced or cubed Olives Oranges Papayas Peaches Peas Pineapple Pumpkin (slices, steamed) Raisins Snap Peas/Sugar Peas Soy Beans / Edamame Spinach Sprouts Squashes (steamed or raw, rounds, sticks) Sweet Potatoes (Cooked, Cubed) Watermelon – Sliced Yellow Squash – Rounds or Sticks Zucchini – Rounds or Sticks		Arrowroot Cookies (Mel Del) Banana Bread Buckwheat Cereal/Crackers Carrot Muffins Crackers (Whole Grain, Rice, Etc.) Dried Apricots Dried Apple Chips Dried Banana Chips Dried Root Veggie Chips Freeze-Dried Fruits & Veggies Glutino Pretzels (Gluten Free) Granola (Nut-Free) Guacamole Dip Hummus Dip Manna Bread (Nut-Free) Muffins Pirate Booty Pita Bites Rice Cakes Rice Crackers Rice Tortillas, sliced in triangles Seeds, Sunflower or Pumpkin Sun Butter Dip Sun Butter/Agave/Salt Dip Trail Mix (Nut-Free) Veggie Booty Veggie Chips Whole Grain Breads (Nut-Free) Whole Grain Cereals Whole Grain Crackers Zucchini Bread

About Nut Free Schools

If your school is NUT-FREE, it means that you cannot bring any food items that contain peanuts or tree nuts (including: almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, filberts/hazel nuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts/pignolias, pistachios, and walnuts). Please be sure to read your product labels very carefully as this also includes food products that have been processed in a facility that processes nuts. Please also be aware that ingredients can change from time to time in a product, so be safe and read it before bringing it. Some of the items to look for are:

baked goods candy cereals chocolate

crackers cookies energy bars granola bars trail mixes

desserts marinades sauces sweets

Food Alternatives

An excellent alternative to the easy and healthy peanut butter is Sun Butter. Click "Sun Butter"* to learn more or to buy online. In Colorado, I've found it at King Soopers, Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocers, Sprouts, and Whole Foods. In addition, if there are Milk or Soy allergies, there are some great rice milks and cheese out there. Our favorite for cheese sandwiches, or even to melt for mac n' cheese is Galaxy Nutritional Foods' Rice American Flavor cheese.

*If your child isn't fond of the flavor of Sun Butter, you can pep it up by mixing in some Agave (or honey) and celtic sea salt. Mix to your child's liking! We do this straight in the jar!

www.sunbutter.com
Nut-Free Sunflower Seed Butter

Helping Kids Eat Healthy

This is probably one of the most important and valuable gift you can give your child -- the power to eat healthy, including lots of veggies. Without health, all our other life dreams are more challenging to attain. The rewards of teaching this skill are well worth the effort. Below is a list of ideas that may help you in your quest to a healthier family. I am thankful to Dr. William Sears and many brilliant moms for many of these suggestions.

1. Discuss why it’s important. No child will ever embrace the idea of an apple instead of potato chips for a snack unless you start to educate them as to why they need to make that choice.

Fruits, vegetables and grains are “grow foods,” as Dr. Sears points out. Grow foods build healthy bodies. Factory foods don’t grow.

2. Motivate them. Ask them questions that would motivate them to eat healthier. For example, ask them how much more they think they’ll grow (for example, how much taller?). Then ask them what would be the best building materials to help them grow into the body they imagine. Do they want to fill their growing bodies with junk food, or do they want to fill it with nutrient-dense “grow” foods like broccoli, carrots, and apples?

3. Surround kids with healthy food. Keep only the foods that you want your family to eat in the house. Why tempt anyone with unhealthy foods? The first point of power is shopping right.

Healthy foods are primarily organic, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain foods, legumes, nuts and seeds. If including meats and dairy, organic and free-range are best.

4. Have healthy snacks easily available. Since healthy food isn’t always as easy to grab as a bag or box of junk food, take a little time to prepare for the quick and healthy snack for later.

1. Wash and cut up fruits and veggies and keep them in an accessible place in the refrigerator.
2. Have containers with trail mix, nuts, dried fruit, etc. that either you or your child can get to easily.
3. Leave a ‘nibble tray’ on the table with healthy snacks for your child (and you) to snack on. See handout on healthy snacks.

5. Be a role model. Kids learn much more by what you do than by what you say. Be a good role-model and eat healthy foods yourself. You can’t expect your child to eat healthy when you are eating (whether openly or discreet) junk food.

6. Time it right. Serve vegetables & salads first at dinner time, when kids are hungriest. Offer the least nutritious (filler) foods last, when they are more full.

7. Give your child power & involve them. Let them make some decisions. Ask your kids to tell you which foods they want in the house for healthy snacks. While shopping or meal planning, give them a choice between healthy food “A” & healthy food” B”. (Do you want broccoli or carrots tonight?) Let them help you prepare & plan healthy meals, as they’ll be more likely to eat it if they’ve invested time into the food.

8. Make healthy foods visually appealing. When presenting snacks or meals, make them fun and appealing. Make veggie art by placing the produce in funny faces, pictures, or shapes. Give them fun names. Be creative!

9. Tailor the taste! Once they decide to try the healthy food, help them enjoy it! Give them dips for veggies that they’ll love. Put something they are still acquiring a taste for mixed in with a bunch of other healthy foods they do like. Sometimes, you can sweeten the healthy choice with cinnamon, agave, raisins, or honey.

10. It’s ok to play. Parents many times tell kids not to play with their food. However, sometimes “playing” with food is the best way to get it in their bellies. Make stories at the table with the food as the characters. Say “don’t eat me!”, and they’ll be very tempted to do just that! And when they do, continue the dialogue all the way to the belly (“It’s dark in here! What is that gooey thing next to me? I’m lonely!”). Or maybe the peas are little airplanes coming in for a landing. Ok. These games to depend on your child’s age. Mine is 4.

11. Have regular family meals. Family meals are a comforting ritual for both parents and kids. It allows for predictability, family time, and nourishment. Try to serve nutritious food at a time that everyone can be there, even if this means a later dinner. Kids who take part in regular family meals also tend to eat more fruits and vegetables, are less likely to snack on unhealthy foods. Let this environment be peaceful and calm, this is not a time for lectures.

12. Avoid battles over food. If you need to lecture your kids about something, save it until after meal or snack time. Let healthy foods be digested peacefully.

13. Expose kids to where their food comes from. Sometimes all it takes is a little education for children to see the value of nutritious whole foods. If they see the difference between food growing organically out of the ground vs. chemicals being mixed together and put in a bag, I think we’d know what they would choose. Especially when we refer back to “why” is healthy food important.

a. Grow your own fruits and veggies. This gives them not only an excellent education as how food grows, but they are more likely to eat foods that they’ve grown and cared for.

b. Go to local farms or farmer’s markets. This is a fun and informative way to show your children where foods come from and the people who grow them.

c. Read the ingredients. Reading the ingredients on food products can expose children to what they are really eating… chemicals or food?

14. Try something new. Try new fruits and vegetables – don’t assume your kids won’t like them. Sometimes a child needs to be exposed to a new food 14 times before they’ll eat it. Be creative on how you introduce it. Someone once said, play a game and blind fold your child and see if they can describe, as detailed as possible, what it is they are eating. They can even make up their own name for it.

15. Allow the occasional junk food. Occasionally allow your child to choose a “moderate junk food” for snack. Chronic deprivation will often backfire. Of course, make sure they aren’t going overboard on the type of junk food they choose. Avoid super sugary foods and trans-fat.

16. Be sneaky. If other attempts to incorporate healthy food and veggies fail, you can resort to being sneaky! Hide fruits, veggies and other healthy foods in other foods. Put fruit and even small amounts of veggies in fruit smoothies. Put finely shredded veggies (carrots, zucchini, bell peppers, etc.) in marinara sauces, casseroles, pastas, burritos, etc. Put veggies in soups and puree.

17. Be Patient. Avoid creating any disharmony about the new and improved menu items. You may hear some complaints. When kids know the plan, and it is a fair plan, they usually come around. Keep your goal in focus: to have your kids embrace these healthier food choices and smarter ways of eating, for a lifetime. You may want to make rapid changes, but children many times need their change in baby steps.

18. Supplement with whole food concentrates. Kid’s eating habits can be erratic. They can be picky. And let’s face it, they don’t always eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables, even with our best efforts. That’s why it’s good to know you can bridge the gap between what your kids should eat and what they do eat by giving them a high quality, well researched, whole food supplement containing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

Thank you for your passion in helping shape children’s lives. I hope this information has been empowering to you. Please feel free to contact me with any comments or questions. I would love to hear from you!

Great Spiritual Experiments for Kids (Part 2)

Here's Part 2 of Shannon's Spiritual Experiements with kids.

This one covers the

1. Power of Habits
   
2. Power of Intention and Focus
   
3. Power of Perspective & Awareness
   

I would even recommend taking the Habit Experiment further.

Negative Habits: If you are dealing with breaking a negative habit (and don't have the power to break the think string (or rope as we sometimes have), demonstrate with the kids that they can unravel it bit by bit until there are only a bunch of small strings that can easily be broken). This demonstrates that we can break a large negative habits by taking consistent small small steps until the the habit is completely unraveled.

Postive Habits: Likewise, if we want to build positive and healthy habits, show kids how to make a rope by taking a bunch of thin strings (weak habits) and braiding them together (to make a strong rope/habit over time). Keep increasing it until it is so strong they it won't break. This demonstrates the power of a healthy habit that has had a lot of focus, attention, and time on to build.

Great Spiritual Experiments for Kids (Part 1)

Thanks Shannon for making these videos of Spiritual Experiments for kids! These experiments cover the concepts of

1. Universal Life Essence, Life & Death
2. Negative vs. positive thinking, unhealthy food clogging minds,
3. What we choose to lean on people, leaning on God/Spirit
4. Opening our minds to God/Spirit to let the best of ourselves come out
   

As my own daughter has been curious about the concept of death, I think your ice-cube experiment is excellent. In fact, I'm hoping to make a video to elaborate on it further. Beginning with a large bowl of water that represents all life (God, Universe, Earth, All People, All Animals, Everything...). Then have the child take some of the water out of the large bowl and put it in an ice-cube tray. Once they are formed, we could call that birth of our bodies or our form here. (But we are still made up of the the same life essence, and still connected). Then, as you show in your experiment, we are put back into the bowl and melt back into all life essence, and experience "death" of form. But we are still all together, as we always were. :)