Carbohydrates.  To eat or not to eat, that is the question!

What Is A Carbohydrate

In the simplest terms, a carbohydrate is a molecule made entirely of sugars that are linked together like a pieces of chain. The longer the chain the more complex the carbohydrate, the shorter the chain, the simpler the carbohydrate.

The difference between "simple" and "complex" carbohydrates is the number of different sugars that form the carbohydrate chain.

Simple carbohydrates, those with just a few different sugars linked together, are quickly broken down into glucose and sent directly into your blood causing a sharp and immediate rise in blood sugar.

Complex carbohydrates take longer to break down because their sugar chain is longer and needs more digesting – but your body eventually breaks the sugars down and as they are broken down they are converted into glucose and dumped into your blood causing a steady and prolonged rise in blood sugar.

From a blood sugar standpoint, the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates is complex carbs enter the blood stream slower and effect blood sugar longer than the simple ones.

Simple Carbohydrates

Simple carbohydrates include things like sugar, candy, soft drinks, cakes, pies, cookies, all refined flour products including white bread, bagels and crackers, rice, snack foods, pop corn, and so on.

Complex Carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates include things like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and milk. Essentially, if the food is not meat, chicken, fish, cheese, or bacon, then it’s a carbohydrate.

The National Research Council has never established an RDA for carbohydrates because your body can operate just fine on a virtually carbohydrate free diet.

No one has ever been diagnosed with a carbohydrate deficiency.

Although carbohydrates are a potential source of energy, carbohydrates serve no vital purpose in your body, not structure and not function.  Carbohydrates constitute less than 1% of the total body mass for an average 150 pound person.

Except for your brain, every organ and muscle in your body runs best on ketones, which are byproducts of fat metabolism. The brain needs glucose; however, your body can instantly make glucose for the brain directly from both fat and protein proving again that carbohydrates are not essential.

Some Carbohydrate Foods Are Excellent

I am not suggesting you eliminate carbohydrates completely from your diet – that would be foolish. Many of the healthiest, most nutritious foods on the planet, foods you should enjoy every day, like fruits and vegetables, consist almost entirely of carbohydrates and fiber.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals plus a variety of micro-nutrients that provide you with a number of important health-enhancing benefits.

The Problem With Eating A Lot Of Carbs

The problem with carbohydrates is not that they exist. The problem is highly processed and refined carbohydrate foods  cause a rapid rise in blood sugar and initiate an insulin response that leads to weight gain, food cravings and always feeling of near constant hunger. 

Nature loves balance and anything high in carbohydrates upset that balance, spike your blood sugar, activate powerful hormones to counteract the blood sugar spike and, over time, those hormones can seriously damage your health. 

The only rational approach to carbohydrates is to enjoy the ones that do not spike your blood sugar so natural, healthy balance is maintained and that means get your carbohydrate calories primarily if not exclusively from fresh green vegetables, fresh seasonal fruit, and other foods high in fiber and low on the glycemic index.

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding the value of eating a diet high in carbohydrates. Weight loss gurus have advocated  low fat, high carb diets for over 20 years and during each of those years obesity, heart disease, and diabetes have have become more common and widespread.

Trying to lose weight following a low fat, and subsequently, a high carbohydrate diet is like trying to put out a forest fire by dowsing it with gasoline.  It won’t work.

To lose it and keep it off, you have to reset your metabolism and shift it out of the fat-making, fat-storing mode and into the burn-stored-fat-for-energy mode.   Only then will you be on your way to tank-top arms and film star abs.

Re-setting your metabolism in favor of burning stored body fat is a specific and knowable process and one of the most important steps in that process is to understand how carbohydrates affect your body

I advise all my weight loss clients to get their carbs from fresh green and brightly colored vegetables and fresh seasonal fruit and leave the rest alone.  And typically, their results are excellent.

Besides being healthy and delicious, carrots have a rather amazing history.

I recently came across a Web site you will truly enjoy if you love carrots and if you love trivia.

Here’s a small sample of the interesting Carrot Trivia I found on the site… but do yourself a favor, visit this site and see it for yourself… you will be amazed!  A link to the site is at the end of this article.  Enjoy!

• Carrots have the highest content of beta carotene (vitamin A) of all vegetables.
• The Longest Carrot recorded in 1996 was 5.14 metres (16 feet 10 ½ inches)
• The Heaviest Carrot recorded in the World 18.985 lb 1998 (single root mass) John V. R. Evans, USA
• Carrots were first grown as a medicine not a food.
• The classic Bugs Bunny carrot is the "Danvers" type.
• Carrots are not always orange and can also be found in purple, white, red or yellow.
• Carrots were the first vegetable to be canned commercially.
• The carrot is a member of the parsley family including species such as celery, parsnip, fennel, dill and coriander.
• Holtville, California dubs itself "The Carrot Capital of the World." with an Annual Festival, now in its 60th year.
• The Anglo-Saxons included carrots as an ingredient in a medicinal drink against the devil and insanity.
• Researchers at the USDA found that study participants who consumed 2 carrots a day were able to lower their cholesterol levels about 20 percent due to a soluble fibre called calcium pectate.
• You get 10 mg of Vitamin A from 20 average carrots.
• There is as much calcium in 9 carrots as there is in a glass (250ml) of whole milk.
• China produces 274,900,000 tons of carrots per year.
• Wild rabbits do not eat carrots – you have been watching too much Bugs Bunny !
• Three Carrots give you enough energy to walk three miles.
• One pound of carrots will make approximately six to eight ounces of carrot juice.
• A teaspoon holds almost 2000 carrot seeds.
• On an average day, the year-round operation  at Grimmway Farms in California processes 2-1/2 miles of trucks loaded with 10 million pounds of carrots.
• Carrot is a symbolic of fecundity (look it up).
• The Flaming Carrot was a mysterious and demented comic book superhero.
• The British developed high-carotene carrots during World War II in order to enhance the night vision of their pilots (via massive consumption).
• Amazon bookstore includes over 200 books with the title "carrot" in them.
• The last meal on the Titanic included creamed carrots in the fifth course.
• In the 1960s, Viola Schlicting, from Texas, created the first carrot cake from her German carrot-nut bread recipe.

I harvested these fun facts from this Web site: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/index.html 

If you go for this sort of thing you’ll LOVE this Web site…

Enjoy, eat healthy, please sign up for my free newsletter, and if you’re ready to lose weight and keep it off be sure and check out  the 5 Steps To Optimal Health Program.

“Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food”.  Hippocrates

Fresh fruit and vegetables are LOADED with nutrition, naturally high in fiber, promote healthy blood pressure, protect against illness and disease and are good for you in every way imaginable.  

Bell Pepper: One of the most nutrient-dense foods, high in fiber and one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C.  The high vitamin C content along with high beta-carotene content makes bell peppers naturally protective against cataracts.

• Bell peppers also contain substances, including capsaicin, flavonoids and vitamin C, which have been shown to prevent blood clot formation, reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke and naturally lower cholesterol.

Broccoli: Low in calories  and one of the most nutrient-dense foods on earth and especially rich in vitamin C.  Broccoli is an excellent source of Vitamins K, A, B6, E, folic acid, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, various phyto-nutrients and fiber. 

• Broccoli contains Sulforaphane, which according research out of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “dramatically reduced the frequency, size and number of tumors” in test animals.  New anti-cancer drugs targeting breast and prostrate cancer, are being developed based on what you get naturally in broccoli.

To get the protective effect researchers suggest eating about two pounds of broccoli per week OR about an ounce of mature broccoli sprouts per week.  Broccoli is also rich in carotenoids and helps protect against macular degeneration.

Carrots: Two carrots provide over 4 times the RDA of vitamin A.  Carrots are also an excellent source of vitamin K, K, B6, thiamine, potassium and fiber.

• Carrots are nutritional store-houses of anti-oxidants and have been shown in medical studies to lower the risk of heart attack, postmenopausal breast cancer and bladder cervix, prostrate, colon, larynx and esophagus cancer.
• Studies suggest as little as one carrot a day may cut the rate of lung cancer by 50%.

Celery: An excellent source of vitamin C , B6, B1, B2, potassium, sodium, and fiber. 

• Celery naturally lowers blood pressure in a matter of minutes and, consumed daily, lowers blood pressure 12-14% and lowers cholesterol by 7%.  Celery also contains natural substances effective in reducing joint pain and muscle aches.

Blueberries: An excellent source of antioxidants, vitamin C, fiber, vitamin E, manganese and riboflavin.  

• Blueberries contain compounds proven protective to the eyes, help protect against macular degeneration, associated with greater learning ability, improves night vision and promotes intestinal and urinary health.

Cantaloupe: Extremely nutrient-dense, naturally low in calories; excellent source of carotenes, potassium and many other nutrients.

• Cantaloupes are high in the compound adenosine, which naturally thins the blood and is currently used in drugs related to heart health.

Apples: Excellent source of vitamin C, potassium, fiber and best eaten with the skin on and raw.

• More than 85 medical studies show regular apple consumption is consistently associated with reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, asthma, and type 2 diabetes.  One study followed 5000 men and women more than 20 years and found a 20% lower risk of heart disease compared to the non apple-eating group.
• Besides being heart-healthy; apples promote bowel regularity and relieve both constipation and diarrhea.

Bananas: Extremely rich in potassium, which regulates heart function and fluid balance and plays a big role in maintaining healthy blood pressure.

Virtually ALL brightly colored fruits and vegetables contain a wide spectrum of vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients and other highly health-beneficial compounds so effective, they are being tested in controlled medical studies and researched by major pharmaceutical companies to pattern drugs after.
 
OTHER FOODS THAT HEAL

Seeds And Nuts: (Almonds, pistachios, pecans, etc.) Naturally high in fiber; extremely mineral-rich; high in naturally occurring, heart-healthy fats associated with lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure.  An EXCELLENT snack choice!  Low in carbohydrate, and rich in protein and heart-healthy fats.  And  a little bit goes a long way to satisfy your appetite.

Any food naturally high in the omega 3 essential fatty acids; because the omega 3’s have a natural, powerful anti-inflammatory affect, are important to blood pressure, heart and brain  health and support good health throughout your body. 
 
Wild-caught salmon; sardines form COLD water areas; any cold water fish; walnuts; and all fresh, dark-green leafy vegetables are naturally high in healthy omega 3 essential fatty acids.

Small servings of lean meat, chicken or cold water fish; because these foods contain all the essential amino acids and are LOADED with highly bio-available vitamins and minerals, which means smaller servings still give you optimal nutrition. 

BOTTOM LINE

You determine your level of health and vitality with your food choices.  Why not accept the wonderful, health-building, nutritional gifts nature offers so abundantly?

Fall in love with delicious green and brightly colored vegetables, fresh seasonal fruit, raw seeds and nuts, cold water fish and small servings of lean meats.  Do this and, in less time than you imagine, you’ll become noticalbly healthier and more energetic.

Food Choices And Weight Loss

The key to losing weight and keeping it off is to understand how food affects your hormones, your body weight and your health and to have a step-by-step program to put that knowledge to work in your life.  For more information on this visit: http://www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com

Replacing food that harm your health with foods that strengthen, heal and fortify your body will improve your health and make you stronger and more energetic.  

Having excellent health is a choice you can make… so go buy yourself some broccoli… and share this article with your friends.

“Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food”.  – Hippocrates

Your physical body from head to toe, inside and out is the product of what you eat and drink, in combination with sunlight, oxygen and sleep.

The purpose of food is to provide the RAW MATERIAL, (protein, carbohydrate, fat), and the ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS, (vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential fatty acids), you need to function properly.

An essential nutrient is a nutrient your body does not make and that you can’t be healthy without, which means essential nutrients come exclusively from food or supplementation.

Essential nutrients in your body are like essential fluid in a car. 

Without oil, transmission fluid, gas or brake fluid the car won’t run and without each of the essential nutrients, you won’t run very well either.

• Without enough magnesium you become a nervous wreck and are plagued with muscle cramps.
• Without enough vitamin B you become exhausted and your organs become less efficient.
• Without enough protein you’ll eventually grow so weak you can’t walk up a flight of stairs. 
• Without enough healthy essential fatty acids you’ll be plagued with high blood pressure, potential thyroid problems and constant aches and pains caused by inflammation.

Terrible health problems can develop over time as a result of eating nutritionally bankrupt foods that stress your system and give you no health benefit.

The key to having great health is simple;

1. Avoid things that harm your health, and;
2. Do things that improve your health.

Avoid Foods That Harm

Anything high in sugar or carbohydrates; because the sugar and carbs stimulate insulin and elevated insulin leads to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and more.

Any food containing chemicals and preservatives; because the chemicals stress your liver, burn up essential nutrients and cause your body to make fat.   Read the label.  If a food contains something you can’t pronounce, don’t eat it.

Any nutritionally empty food; because hunger is your body’s cry for nutrition.  If you answer the cry for nutrients with high-calorie, nutritionally empty food, you’ll gain weight and eventually wreck your health.

A regular diet of nutritionally empty foods will make you fat and destroy your health as sure as pouring sand in the gas tank would destroy a car’s engine.   If you value your health, avoid foods that harm and enjoy foods that heal.

Enjoy Foods That Heal

Any food naturally high in healthy omega 3 essential fatty acids; because omega 3’s have a powerful anti-inflammatory affect, and they promote heart health, brain health and good health throughout your entire body. 

Foods naturally high in omega 3 essential fatty acids include; cold-water fish, fresh nuts, especially walnuts, flax seed oil, olive oil green leafy vegetables and more.

Fresh green vegetables and fresh seasonal fruit; because these foods are LOADED with nutrition, naturally high in fiber, promote healthy blood pressure and are good for you in every way imaginable.  

• The phyto-nutrients, (plant nutrients) in fruits and vegetables are proven cancer fighters. 
• The natural source vitamin C is better than anything sold in a bottle.
• The essential nutrients in fruits and vegetables are highly bio-available, which means they get in your system and do you some good.

Healing fruits and vegetables include;

• celery and cucumber, that naturally lower blood pressure within 10 minutes;
• fresh spinach and green leafy vegetables, which are richer in absorbable calcium than milk and excellent for maintaining healthy blood pressure;
• apples, which are bite-for-bite one of the most nutrient rich foods on earth;
• blueberries and blackberries which are so high in phyto-nutrients pharmaceutical are trying to make drugs that mimic their natural potency, and;
• almonds, pistachios, seeds and nuts because of the healthy fats, fiber and natural vitamin and mineral rich composition. 
• And MANY More…

Small servings of lean meat or chicken and, cold water fish; because these foods are LOADED with essential amino acids and vitamins and minerals that are highly biologically available, which means smal servings give you a tremendous nutritional boost.  

BOTTOM LINE

"Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food."

REPLACE FOODS THAT HARM, like fast food, junk food, fried food, and anything high in sugar and carbohydrates WITH FOODS THAT HEAL, like fruit, vegetables, nuts, and so on,  and your health will improve. 

Give your body the nutrients it must have for optimal functioning and your health can’t not improve.   You will become healthier, stronger and more capable of enjoying life.

Losing weight and keeping it off is simple with good diet and nutrition.

Developing and maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and tryglyceride levels is simple with good diet and good essential  nutrition.

Replacing FOODS THAT HARM with FOODS THAT HEAL and you may be delighted with how good you feel.   The choice is yours… so choose wisely.

For information on a diet and nutrition based weight loss and health program visit; http://www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com

A healthy diet with good nutrition helps protect your child from obesity and diabetes, helps your child learn better and be healthier, happier & well behaved!

If your child is overweight you may literally save their life by making a few simple diet, nutrition and lifestyle changes to help him or her reach a healthy body weight and develop an active, junk-food-free lifestyle.

One of the most important steps to accomplish this is to get your child off junk food and get them enjoying healthy,nutritous food.

Children need good nutrition and the BEST source of good nutrition is a healthy, nutritious, (and hopefully delicious), breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Food not only affects your child’s health, food affects your childs ability to sit still, stay focused and learn.

Study repeatedly show that both behavior and grades improve significantly when sugar, refined carbohydrates and nutritionally empty foods are eliminated from school cafeterias and children’s lunch boxes and are not available at home.

A Healthy Diet Means . . .

• Enjoying foods that nourish your body and keep your blood sugar and body chemistry in a healthy balance, and;.
• Avoiding foods containing ingredients that throw your blood sugar and body chemistry out of healthy balance or that put a toxic load on your body.

A Healthy Food. . .

1. Causes NO sharp rise in blood sugar, which means it must be low in sugar and carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates.
2. Is naturally high in nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, etc.
3. Is minimally processed and contains NO added sugar, NO corn syrup, NO hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, and few, (if any), chemical preservatives.

Read Food Labels; If you can’t pronounce the name of an ingredient or additive, it is probably a chemical and should be avoided!  If you can’t pronounce it don’t eat it… and don’t feed it to your kids.

• A breakfast high in sugar or refined carbohydrates, such as sweetened cereal, causes a sharp rise in your child’s blood sugar and will have him or her, "bouncing off the walls", in no time.

Get a child hyped-up on sugar first thing in the morning and it will be practically impossible for little Johnny or Jill to sit still in class, pay attention and learn.

Much of what is diagnosed as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is simply the highly predictable result of an abdominally POOR DIET.  Change the diet and the hyper active behavior often goes away.

A breakfast high in sugar and carbs guarantees hyperactivity because the kids blood sugar zooms sky high and it’s all but impossible to keep still and focus on school work.  But an hour later when blood sugar crashes, your little darling, who starts every day demanding Captian Diabetes Sugared Cereal, will be sound asleep with their darling little head resting on the desk… as math lesson marches on.

Cutting sugar and carbohydrates often has a porfound positive affect on a childs health, behavior, grades and more. 

DON’T LET THE TAIL WAG THE DOG – You decide what your kid is going to eat.  Stick to your decision and eventually they catch on!

A healthy breakfast sets the stage for learning!

GOOD BREAKFAST: A healthy breakfast for children, (and adults), may include eggs of any variety, high fiber, whole wheat toast, (easy on the jam and jelly – it’s almost pure sugar), fresh seasonal fruit, (apples, oranges, peaches, pears, melon, and strawberries are healthy choices).  Real oat meal with some fresh fruit or berries mixed in and topped off with a little cream, (yumm!) is also a healthy breakfast.

ABOUT FRUIT JUICE: Fruit juice, including orange, apple and grapefruit juice is extremely high in natural sugar.   Just 6 ounces of orange juice has the equivalent of 4 teaspoons of sugar, and that’s too much!

Enjoy fruit the way nature provided it!  When you eat the whole fruit the natural fibers bind up the sugars and the effect on blood sugar is minimal, plus, you get FAR MORE NUTRITION from eating the whole fruit.

Real yogurt with fresh berries or sliced fruit makes for a very nice breakfast, but avoid all the flavored yogurts with fruit mixed in – they are little more than candy. Purchase PLAIN yogurt and add your own fruit – this is MUCH better nutritionally.  For a special treat, mix some walnuts in with the yogurt!

One of my granddaughters favorites is to add bee pollen to yogurt or low fat cottage cheese.  The bee pollen is tasty, crunchy and loaded with B vitamins; overall this is a GREAT snack and a healthy addition to any lunch!

BAD BREAKFAST: Pancakes, waffles (with or without syrup), cereal and milk, all products made with white flour, including white bread, doughnuts, sweet rolls, pop-tarts, fake-fruit juice, FAST FOOD with bread, hash browns and juice; and so on are PROFOUNDLY BAD CHOICES.  Just say no!

PLEASE never give these high-sugar, health-disaster foods to your children!  These gooey, high-sugar creations are really bad.  They make your kids overweight, sluggish and turn them into slow learners.

Sweetened cereals are loaded with carbohydrates and food-processing chemicals and are low in any real nutritional value.

• The carbohydrates turn into sugar, the sugar turns to fat, and your child gains weight.  A regular diet of cereal and milk for breakfast almost always leads to high blood sugar, hyperactivity and overweight.

Helping your child develop healthy eating habits while they are young sets the stage for your child to grow into being a lean, healthy, high energy adult. 

What a wonderful gift!

WE EAT TO NOURISH THE BODY.  Keep this in mind and it’s easier to make healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner choices.

ABOUT LUNCH – Avoid chips, cookies, candy; stay away from potatoes, bread, rolls, juice;

If hot lunch is available, go for the protein, salad, vegetables – leave the bread, rice, pasta and potatoes alone.  Avoid chips, cookies, candy, and obvious junk food.

BRING LUNCH FROM HOME: hard boiled eggs, tuna in Tupperware, protein from dinner; cheese sticks; fresh fruit slices; almonds; all-natural peanut butter and celery or peanut butter on whole wheat low carb-high fiber bread; WATER (with lime)

One improtant key to help your child stay healthy is to make sure your child gets wholesome, nutritious food and avoids or minimize foods high in sugar, salt and fat, or foods  that contain hydrogenated oils and trans-fatty acids.  Help you child develop a taste for healthy, nutritious food.

Here’s a sample weeks worth of healthy school lunches.

Day 1

Tuna salad – made with solid white albacore, real Mayo and tangy mustard. (Hard-boiled eggs are optional) Add a dash of garlic powder and dill weed if desired. baby carrots OR celery sticks A peeled orange OR apple slices Almonds, OR other unsalted nuts Water

• Nutritional observations: The tuna has protein your child needs to grow and develop properly and is loaded with healthy essential fatty acids.
• The egg is as close to a nutritionally perfect food as you are likely to find.  The carrots or celery are loaded with essential minerals, fiber and other important nutritional components.  The almonds are rich in essential minerals and mono-saturated fats that are extremely good for you.
• This lunch is loaded with good nutrition, it will keep your child’s blood sugar in a healthy range, keep them alert, and will keep their appetite satisfied for hours!

Day 2

Chile (from last night’s dinner) Use only LEAN beef; I recommend Texas Longhorn brand available at Randall’s or The Whole Food Store. It is 98% lean and is made from cattle raised with NO hormones, NO steroids, and NO antibiotics. (This is TRULY healthy beef.)

Corn Bread (made fresh with no hydrogenated oil) Apple or other fruit Cashews or other unsalted nuts Milk or water

Day 3

Chicken lettuce wraps (use sliced Chicken Breast cooked extra from dinner) String Cheese (the good stuff, not processed) Chunked Watermelon OR apple slices OR grapes OR strawberries Pork Rinds, (not a perfect snack but FAR BETTER than potato or corn chips) Water (flavored with fresh lemon or lime juice)

Day 4

Ham Wrapped Cheese ( Use real ham sliced thinly.  Avoid processed lunch meats, they are loaded with sugar and preservatives!) Green salad served in Tupperware Boiled (or stuffed) Eggs Sweet Potato Chips (made at home in the microwave) – a healthy treat! Milk or water

Day 5

Peanut Butter on celery (or whole wheat bread).  Purchase only natural peanut butter with no sugar or hydrogenated oils added. Laura Scutter is a brand available at most grocery stores. String cheese Home made oatmeal cookies with raisins Mixed nuts (always unsalted!) Water

Notes and Extras

• Flavor water with fresh lemon or lime juice for a little change
• Make trail mix with nuts, a few dried fruits and seeds
• Mix fresh fruit and plain yogurt for a sweet treat-include seeds too
• Plain yogurt mixed with cinnamon and raisins tastes great
• Real cheese is better than processed

Get a thermal lunch kit that keeps hot things hot and keeps cold things cold.  Hot dishes should be micro waved in the morning, foil wrapped and thermal packed to stay hot and tasty.

With a good thermal lunch kit there’s no limit to the delicious, nutritious  lunch entrées you can prepare for your kids!

Delicious, nutritious lunches are EASY … when you plan ahead!

Think about your child’s lunch when planning your evening meals. Making a little extra chicken, chili, steak, meat loaf, vegetables or other dish is easy and saves time when making a lunch for the next day.

KIDS LEARN FAST 

• Teach you children about good nutrition, let them take part in the process, get them involved in making healthy choices for themselves. 
• Teach them, guide them and lead by example.
• Involve your kids.  Explain the goal. 
• Get your child to help plan their lunches a week in advance and make sure there are lots of healthy choices to choose from.
• Make a "lunch meal plan", let them help, post it on the refrigerator door.  Include their favorites whenever possible.  You make it, but they eat it!

The BEST way to teach your children is to be a good example!

You kids learn by watching you.  If you’re a fast-food and dessert junkie, your kids will follow in your footsteps.  But if you hate junk food and wouldn’t feed candy and soft drinks to your worst enemy, your kids will avoid them just like you… no will power required.

Teaching is easy when you teach by example. 

As an adult, the more you know about good nutrition the healthier you will be and the more able you will be to help your child develop healthy eating habits.

To learn more about how food affects your health be sure and read the articles on this Web site discussing protein, fat, carbohydrates and cholesterol.  Also, you may want to learn even more, my 5 Steps to Optimal Health Program may be right for you.

One of the greatest gifts you can give a child is to help them develop healthy eating habits while they are young.

I never cease to be amazed at how fast kids learn. 

Talk to your chlidren, love them, tell them the truth, be playful, lead by example and your kids will excel beyond all expectation … and then some!

IMPORTANT POINTS:

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are epidemic with children because of poor dietary and lifestyle habits and for NO other reasons.

• Minimize sugar and carbohydrates including cake, candy, soda, snack foods, bread, potatoes, pop corn, pretzels, juice, pasta, cereal, crackers, etc.
• Make sure your child gets a good quality protein with every meal
• Minimize ALL fried foods – the hydrogenated oil wreck your kids arteries and the carbohydrates make your kid fat.    
• LEARN how food effects your health; learn about proper supplementation. 
• Enjoy lots of fresh green vegetables
• Keep your child active.  Get them in dance class, martial arts, track and field.  Anything that gets them on their feet and keeps them moving.  No wasting away in front of the television. 

TRUE STORY:  My 12 year old niece was 30 pounds overweight when I gave her the video game Dance Dance Revolution.  Playing the dance game, she lost 30 pounds in less than two months and never gained it back.  Today, four years later, she still plays the Dance Game and uses it for exercise.

Help your kids develop healthy eating habits and help them develop a love for being physically active.  A healthy diet and a physically active lifestyle will do more to protect your childs health, now and in the future, than anything else you can possibly imagine. 

Be sure and read the article on How To Read Food Lables Like A Nutritonal Pro and be sure and sign up for the FREE NEWSLETTER so you are notified every time a new article or Special Report becomes available.

To learn about all about the nutritional value of soft drinks, try this article… Soft Drinks – Friend or Foe

Colas, Soft Drinks & Your Health

by Russell J. Martino, Ph.D.  The Voice Of Health www.DrRussellsHealthAndWeightLossBlog.com

A powerful secret for developing excellent health is to get yourself in the habit of doing lots of things that are good for you and avoiding things that damage your health.

To listen to this entire post, click twice.

One practical example of this is your food selection.

To build health and high energy and avoid tiredness and fatigue develop the healthy habit of choosing foods that are full of nutritional virtue and avoid foods that have little if any nutritional value but are loaded with calories and chemicals.

A famous nutritionist once said, "We dig our graves with our teeth", I like to put it this way; You determine your level of health and vitality with your food selections. Every bite and every swallow counts.

Food has a powerful effect on your hormones and your hormones have a powerful effect on your health.

As you come to fully understand how your food choices effect your health and begin applying your knowledge in your daily meal selections, you’ll be amazed at how quickly your health responds. Things get better fast!

Perhaps more powerfully than any other single factor, your daily food choices determine whether you are basically healthy and strong throughout your life or whether you suffer with average health and eventually fall victim to illness and disease.

Your daily food choices have a powerful effect on your energy level, blood pressure, kidney function, immune system strength, your bone density, the level of inflammation in your body, and much more.

If you want excellent, long-term health there’s little choice, you need to develop a basic understanding of how food, (and the ingredients added to food), effects your health. Only then will you be able to make consistently healthy choices.

With this in mind, lets discuss colas and soft drinks.

Of all the things that can inflict maximum damage on your health is the regular consumption of soft drinks or sweetened drinks of any sort.

When you understand what’s in this stuff and how drinking it pulls the rug right out from under your health, you’ll want to stay as far away from from these beverages as you can. 

FOR STARTERS: All dark colored soft drinks and all cola drinks contain PHOSPHORIC ACID. 

Drinking down a tall, cool glass of phosphoric acid laced with sugar or artificial sweetener is just a little less bad for you than gulping down a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner!

I’m sure it’s no surprise to learn that Drinking Acid Is Hazardous To Your Health; and that’s true whether you gulp down the phosphoric acid contained in cola drinks or copious quantities of the citric acid contained in clear soft drinks like Ginger Ale and all other clear or light colored soft drinks.

The Phosphoric acid in cola drinks is so strong that it reacts with the aluminum inside soft drink cans, dissolving microscopic bits of the toxic metal, causing it to mix right in with the soda.

If you’re up on the latest Alzheimer’s research, you know that aluminum is linked with the development of Alzheimer’s. There’s no proof that aluminum causes Alzheimer’s but it’s a fact that every Alzheimer’s victim has an unusually high concentration of Aluminum in their brain tissue. (Do you really want to risk it?)

Besides the phosphate you are exposed to in cola drinks, many other products are loaded with phosphates, including baked goods, cereals, cheeses and evaporated milk.

In high enough concentration, phosphates, block calcium absorption and flushes calcium out of your bones, which makes them thin, weak and brittle.

Phosphoric acid, which is one of the main ingredients in Coke, Dr.Pepper, Pepsi and all cola drinks, has a pH of 2.8, which is strong enough to dissolve a nail in about 4 days.

Have you ever used a carbonated cola drink to clean corrosion off a car battery? It works great! Just pour some over the corroded battery terminal and the corrosion melts off like magic. This is the same stuff people drink.  Can you believe it!

The only reason the acid doesn’t dissolve your teeth, gums and esophagus is because your body makes a powerful base that neutralizes the acid almost the second it hits your mouth.

If not for this miraculous feat of human biochemistry, the phosphoric acid would dissolve your teeth with the same potent efficiency as it dissolves battery corrosion.

All it takes to neutralize a strong acid is a strong base. And as it turns out, the mineral calcium is perfect for the job.

Calcium is the primary raw material your body uses to make the base that neutralizes the acid and keeps your teeth from melting right out of your mouth. Thankfully, you have plenty of calcium to draw on, your bones are full of it.

Unfortunately, when calcium is sucked out of your bones to neutralize soft drink acid, your bones get thinner, weaker and brittle; doctors call this osteoporosis.

Based on the acid content alone, soft drinks should carry warning labels that read: WARNING: If you drink this sludge long enough your bones will rot.

The biochemistry involved here is simple and straight forward. Published medical studies document how efficiently the phosphoric acid in soft drinks deteriorates bone density.

One study of particular interest, was focused entirely on discovering why a group of healthy teenage girl athletes was experiencing an unusually high rate of bone fractures while playing their team sports.

The study, examined every imaginable factor that could account for the high bone fracture rate. Finally a common link was discovered; every member of the team consumed several soft drinks daily, including before and after practice.

Once this common factor was discovered, the mystery was solved. The researchers determined that calcium was being drawn out of these healthy teenagers bones to neutralize the soft drink acid resulting in weaker bones and the abnormally high fracture rate.

Imagine that!  Just a few sodas a day was all it took to weaken the bones of healthy teenage athletes.

But don’t be too hasty in your judgment on soft drinks.  All this negative press does not suggest that soft drinks are completely, utterly, absolutely and totally worthless.

The truth is, cola soft drinks have many excellent uses.

In some states the highway patrol carries a quart bottles of carbonated cola drinks in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident. The acid eats it right off the road!

I mentioned that cola drinks are great for cleaning corrosion off car battery terminals: Try it!  Just pour a little over the terminals and watch the corrosion melt away.

Cola drinks are great for loosening rusted bolts.  Soak a cloth in your favorite cola and let it sit on the rusted bolt several minutes and wah lah, the bolt comes right out. This works almost as well as WD 40, which is an excellent product made for loosening rusted bolts.

Cola drinks are also great for cleaning road haze off your windshield; for this reason alone it’s good to carry some of the stuff in the trunk of your car!

From a health standpoint, the acid content in soft drinks is not the only thing to be concerned over, it is just one of many.

ALL SOFT DRINKS CONTAIN SUGAR and/or HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP – OR – they contain ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS

As we examine these ingredients, keep something very important in mind.

When it comes to your health, you are always going one direction or another. You’re either moving toward strength, health and vitality or you’re moving away from it, there’s no standing still, there’s no status quo.

Food ALWAYS has a powerful effect on your body chemistry and your body chemistry ALWAYS has a powerful effect on your health. If you want good health you have to choose your food and drink wisely.

Make no mistake about it, a diet rich in sugar or corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods that are loaded with chemicals and preservatives will eventually destroy your health.

When you consume something high in sugar, in a matter of minutes the sugar is absorbed directly into your blood stream, causing your blood sugar level to rise.

If your blood sugar rises too high, too fast, you’ll pass out on the spot. To stop that from happening, your pancreas makes the powerful hormone, insulin, to stop the blood sugar from rising too high.

Insulin stops rising blood sugar in it’s tracks by literally turning the sugar into fat, so instead of having high blood sugar, you have high blood fat.

Common sense tells you that loading your cardiovascular system up with fat, sticky blood cannot possibly be healthy.

Now, instead of having high blood sugar to deal with, your body has to get rid of the fat that was made from the sugar, that came from the soft drink that your thought was such a good deal at just 98 cents for a 2 liter bottle.

To get rid of the blood fat your body, in it’s infinite wisdom, flips some metabolic switches that get you to STOP burning stored fat for energy and START burning the new fat that was just made from the sugar or corn syrup.

Since you won’t need all the extra energy the blood fat could produce, the blood fat that is not burned for energy is stored away in your fat cells, causing them to grow larger and causing you gain weight.

All regular soft drinks are extremely high in sugar and carbohydrates and drinking them causes a quick rise in blood sugar and an insulin response.

Living a dietary lifestyle that causes multiple insulin responses throughout the day is guaranteed to wreck your health.

Over time, it’s a sure bet that a diet high in sugar and carbohydrates will cause insulin abnormalities and insulin abnormalities are linked to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and several forms of cancer. Just say no!

But what about artificially sweetened beverages and diet soft drinks?

Except for the absence of sugar or corn syrup and presence of the artificial sweetener, diet soft drinks are exactly the same as other soft drinks and are just as damaging to your health.

However, because of the chemical properties of artificial sweeteners, diet soft drinks, which many people believe are ok, are potentially even MORE DAMAGING to your health than their sugared cousins!

Diet soft drinks contain no sugar and few calories, but even so, drinking them stimulates an insulin response and research has taught us that consistently elevated blood insulin is the "little spark" that turns into the raging fire that burns down the forest.

Insulin abnormalities are linked to most of the worst diseases known. Consistently elevated blood insulin levels pose a gigantic health risk.

In addition to these problems, artificial sweeteners contain chemicals that break down in your body, cross the blood-brain barrier and cause real neurological damage.

In his book EXCITOTOXINS – The Taste That Kills, available at all the major bookstores, prominent neurologist Dr. Russell Blaylock explains exactly how chemicals in popular artificial sweeteners break down inside the body and cause serious health problems.

There is absolutely no health advantage to be gained by drinking an artificially sweetened beverage.

That fizzy sweet stuff is no good for you and, as far as I can tell, it has no redeeming value.

If soft drinks were insects, they’d be disease carrying mosquitoes.

If soft drinks were bugs, they’d be rabid cockroaches.

If they were plants, they’d be virulent poison ivy.

Regardless of how you think of them, they’re bad for you and should be avoided.

Soft Drinks Are Loaded With Nutritionally Empty Calories

Besides giving your the metabolic equivalent of 8 to 10 teaspoons of sugar, an average soft drink serving loads you up with about 200 extra calories.

A pound of fat contains 3500 calories. If you drink 2 soft drinks a day, you get enough calories to pile on a brand new shinny pound of waist-expanding body fat every 10 days.

Two soft drinks a day pump you up with about 400 extra calories. To put this into prospective, consider this.

A 150-pound man running at 6 miles an hour burns about 300 calories an hour. This means that for every 2 soft drinks you consume, unless you run for over an hour, you’re taking in more calories than you burn and are on your way to weight gain.

Seems like an awful lot of work for such a little bit of slurp doesn’t it?

Saw buy

Soft drinks are high in calories and low in nutrition.  In fact, nutritionally empty soft drinks rob you of nutrients like a thief in the night.

Besides leeching calcium out of your bones, soft drinks cause your body to make insulin and insulin causes you to make adrenalin. Your body uses up a lot of precious essential nutrients making all these hormones.

Since the soft drinks add ZERO nutritional value, and stimulate the production of hormones that are made entirely from essential nutrients, it’s clear that drinking the stuff robs your body of nutrients.

Empty calorie foods can’t possibly satisfy your appetite because hunger is your body’s cry for nutrition, not your stomachs cry for potato chips.

Hunger is a signal from your brain, delivering the message that your body is crying out for nourishment. You need vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids and so on.

If you answer that cry by wolfing down junk food and soft drinks, your stomach is full, you’ll have hundreds of extra calories and you’ll be hungry again in no time because your body still need nutrients.

WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT FIZZ?

Those fizzy little bubbles in your soft drink are carbon dioxide molecules bubbling up through the sugar and acid and going back into the air.

When you swallow a carbonated liquid, some of the carbon dioxide bubbles up in your stomach, which is why you belch.   But not all the carbon dioxide is released in your stomach.

As your delicious soft drink exits your stomach and begins the journey through your upper intestines, all the remaining carbon dioxide is released.

When carbon dioxide is released in the intestine, some of the molecules are actually absorbed through the intestine wall and end up taking a wild ride through your cardiovascular system. In other words, the stuff gets in your blood!

While it’s true that plants thrive on carbon dioxide, unless you happen to be a house plant, YOU NEED OXYGEN.

Since the main purpose of your heart and circulatory system is to deliver oxygen rich blood to your cells, it follows that anything the forces oxygen out of your blood cannot possibly be good for you. And it’s not!

Sipping soft drinks robs your body of oxygen and results in tiredness and fatigue you would not experience otherwise.

To add insult to injury, keep in mind that not all those pesky little carbon dioxide bubbles get sucked up in your blood. There are always some left over to do damage elsewhere!

The carbon dioxide that you didn’t belch or that didn’t get sucked up into your blood just builds up in the intestines and causes gas and discomfort.

If you’re not convinced by now that drinking acid that rots your bones and sucks oxygen out of your blood is not a good idea, it probably won’t matter to you that in addition to all the other macabre ingredients, most soft drinks contain chemical coloring agents and caffeine.

So there it is!  Now you have the facts, everything you need to know to make up your own mind.

I wonder if you’re as excited about those Big Gulps as you used to be?

Is "the real thing" the right thing for you?

Before Gracie says good night, I have a little story to share with you.

Once upon a time the Dark Lord of Illness and Disease made a bet with God. The Dark Lord bet that he could talk millions of people into throwing away their health AND have them doing it with a smile.

What’s more, he bet God that he could get all these people to throw their health away by convincing them to drink beverages loaded with acid, carbon dioxide, sugar and chemicals.

To top it off, the Dark Lord bet God that besides getting them to drink acid, he’d have people paying big bucks to drink it and have most of them believing that drinking sugar-acid was part of what makes life sweet.

So how does the story turn out?  Who won the bet?

I don’t know.  But based on soft drink sales, my guess is that God practically fell down laughing as he took the bet and, at least for now, the Dark Lord is winning.

Here’s a final thought. Over two thirds of the surface of the earth is covered with water.

More that 50% of your body weight is water.

Every single cell in your body contains water, your blood is practically nothing but water and if deprived of water, you wouldn’t last a week.

There’s no beverage on earth more satisfying to your thirst than a tall, cool glass of pure, clean, healthy water. And besides that, water bestows upon you a number of impressive health benefits. But that’s the subject of another Special Report.

This is Russell J. Martino, The Voice of Health, reminding you that Health is a choice that only you can make and to be able to choose wisely, you must have good information.   My goal is to help you make that choice every day and subscribing to my blog helps insure you will never miss a new post or new article.  Subscribe Here: www.DrRussellsHealthAndWeightLossBlog.com

Until Next Time… All The Best To You And Yours!

Russell J. Martino, Ph.D Bringing You Health… At The Speed Of Life!

This is a small sample of the practical, usable information in 5 Steps To Optimal Health, a program thousands have benefited from since 1999 and I have updated continuously every year since.  Learn more here:  www.5StepsToOptimalHealth.com