For some reason that I’ll probably never understand, First Lady Michelle Obama has repeatedly been criticized by the press and blocked by lawmakers in her efforts to make school lunches healthier in this country. By no means do I think government should be dictating diet to people; however, nobody wins when we continue feeding our kids lackluster lunches comprised of pizza, French fries, and other unhealthy options.

Childhood obesity begets adult obesity, and associated health problems like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and more, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Some schools have claimed that healthier governmental standards, such as increased whole grains and decreased sodium, have been difficult to implement because students complained they were still hungry, or didn’t like the texture of certain foods. Others note that requiring students to take a fruit or vegetable with every lunch leads only to healthier trash cans, as that is where the fruits and vegetables often wind up. For some schools switching to whole grains has been a challenge.

And yet, other schools have observed that while students were not happy at first, they have gradually adapted to the new standards, and now enjoy the fruits, salads, vegetables, and other healthier alternatives available for purchase. Transition is not easy for any of us, and it can be particularly tricky for kids. When the companies peddling unhealthy foods lose money, hire lobbyists, and get lawmakers involved, it doesn’t make that process any easier.

Michelle Obama and others are repeatedly forced to defend and explain why they want to promote better eating habits among the youth in this country, and prevent childhood obesity. Unfortunately, in many households, a healthy school lunch might be the only worthwhile food some kids eat all day. Fortunately, this provides an opportunity to expand their culinary horizons, if just once a day, and maybe even take some of these inadvertent nutritional lessons home.

Critics say that healthier school lunches can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, don’t work. But one community in New York City has been making it work for the last 12 years. The Bilingual Head Start program at the East Harlem Council for Human Services, where I am on the board, has been making strides against childhood obesity in its mostly Hispanic community by shifting everybody’s attitude – children, parents, grandparents – about food.

Among other activities, the program offers a community garden where children help grow, harvest, learn about and cook fruits and vegetables. The center has eliminated sugary juice drinks and sodas, and has created a “Sugar-Free Zone” that discourages vendors from selling sweets nearby. Children are served organic milk, cut-up fresh fruit and cooked dried beans. They and their families are taught how to adopt healthier eating habits from the ground up by having a nutritionist on site to offer basic, accessible lessons. Miraculously, they have done all of this and more while staying within budget.

As Rita Prats-Rodriguez, the program’s director, wrote in a 2010 article in the Amsterdam News, “To beat childhood obesity, we must always be ready to try new things.” The residents of East Harlem were ready for this significant change in their children’s diet — healthy eating! Not only have they embraced new eating habits, but they are making strides against obesity: Between 2010 and 2012, the average body mass index of children in the program declined by more than 7 percent.

When any of us seeks to make a change on any scale, support from friends, family, colleagues, teachers, and the community is key. If students don’t feel as if the people around them support healthier eating habits – at lunch, or elsewhere – then they may not feel as encouraged to make substantive change.

From my perspective, we have two choices: offer our children nutritious foods, or live with the fact that we might be contributing to certain illnesses, rather than preventing them.

Source: Fox news

Children can learn to eat new vegetables if they are introduced regularly before the age of two, suggests a University of Leeds study.

Even fussy eaters can be encouraged to eat more greens if they are offered them five to 10 times, it found. The research team gave artichoke puree to 332 children aged between four and 38 months from the UK, France and Denmark. One in five cleared their plates while 40% learned to like artichoke.

After 24 months children become reluctant to try new things and start to reject foods” Prof Marion Hetherington University of Leeds. The study also dispelled the popular myth that vegetable tastes need to be masked in order for children to eat them.

During the study, each child was given between five and 10 servings of at least 100g of artichoke puree. The puree was either served straight, or sweetened with added sugar, or vegetable oil was mixed into the puree to add energy.

The researchers found there was little difference in the amount eaten over time between those who were fed the basic puree and those who had the sweetened one, suggesting that making vegetables sweeter does not encourage children to eat more. Overall, they did find that younger children ate more artichoke than older children in the study.

Prof Marion Hetherington, study author from the Institute of Psychological Sciences at Leeds, said this was because children become picky and wary at a certain age. “If they are under two they will eat new vegetables because they tend to be willing and open to new experiences. “After 24 months, children become reluctant to try new things and start to reject foods – even those they previously liked.”

Most children in the study were found to be “learners” (40%), who ate more artichoke over time. Twenty-one per cent consumed more than three-quarters of their serving each time and were labelled “plate-clearers”. “Non-eaters” made up 16% of the children because they ate less than 10g even when it was offered for a fifth time, while the rest did not conform to any one group.

Prof Hetherington said her research, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE and funded by the EU, offered some valuable guidance to parents who want to encourage healthy diets in their children. “If you want to encourage your children to eat vegetables, make sure you start early and often. “Even if your child is fussy or does not like veggies, our study shows that five to 10 exposures will do the trick.”

Globe artichoke was chosen as the vegetable in the study because parents said it was one of the vegetables they were least likely to cook. NHS guidelines are to start weaning children on to solid foods at six months.

Source: bbc news

New research shows overturns belief that fetuses grow in a pretty sterile environment, finds link to preterm births

Surprising new research shows a small but diverse community of bacteria lives in the placentas of healthy pregnant women, overturning the belief that fetuses grow in a pretty sterile environment.

These are mostly varieties of “good germs” that live in everybody. But the study, released last week, also hints that the makeup of this microbial colony plays a role in premature birth.

“It allows us to think about the biology of pregnancy in different ways than we have before, that pregnancy and early life aren’t supposed to be these totally sterile events,” said lead researcher Dr. Kjersti Aagaard of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

We share our bodies with trillions of microbes — on the skin, in the gut, in the mouth. These communities are called our microbiome, and many bacteria play critical roles in keeping us healthy, especially those in the intestinal tract. A few years ago, the U.S. government’s Human Microbiome Project mapped what makes up these colonies and calculated that healthy adults cohabitate with more than 10,000 species.

Healthy newborns pick up some from their mother during birth, different bugs depending on whether they were delivered vaginally or by C-section.
What about before birth? There have been some signs that the process could begin in-utero.

But, “we have traditionally believed in medicine that the uterus is a sterile part of the human body,” said Dr. Lita Proctor of the National Institutes of Health, who oversaw the microbiome project.

With the new research, “we realize that microbes may play a role even in fetus development,” added Proctor, who wasn’t involved in the work. “The results of this study now open up a whole new line of research on maternal and pediatric health.”

Aagard’s team earlier had studied the microbiome of the vagina, and learned that its composition changes when a woman becomes pregnant. The puzzle: The most common vaginal microbes weren’t the same as the earliest gut bacteria that scientists were finding in newborns.

What else, Aagaard wondered, could be “seeding” the infants’ intestinal tract?

With colleagues from Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital, Aagaard analyzed 320 donated placentas, using technology that teases out bacterial DNA to evaluate the type and abundance of different microbes.
The placenta isn’t teeming with microbes — it harbours a low level, Aagaard stressed. Among them are kinds of E. coli that live in the intestines of most healthy people.

But to Aagaard’s surprise, the placental microbiome most resembled bacteria frequently found in the mouth, she reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The theory: Oral microbes slip into the mother’s bloodstream and make their way to the placenta.

Why does the body allow them to stay? Aagaard said there appears to be a role for different microbes. Some metabolize nutrients. Some are toxic to yeast and parasites. Some act a bit like natural versions of medications used to stop preterm contractions, she said.

In fact, among the 89 placentas that were collected after preterm births, levels of some of the apparently helpful bacteria were markedly lower, she said.

Aagaard is beginning a larger study to explore the link, planning to analyze the oral and placental microbiomes of more than 500 pregnant women at risk of preterm birth.

Source: Toronto star