Your kids will thank you for their healthy weight!

Soaring intakes of sugar-sweetened drinks are associated with increased calorie consumption of other foods such as sweets and pizza in children, warn researchers.

Ten thousand children were studied. Those who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks or fruit juice sweetened with sugar (SSBs) were found to consume more high-fat, high-sugar foods generally. And the higher their consumption of SSBs, the more fried food, pizza, cakes, cookies and sweets they ate! 

This study should come as no surprise - as I blogged recently - studies have proven that junk food is addictive and junk-food-addicted, fat kids frequently point the finger of blame at their parents. They mightn’t be aware of the reasons, but they’re right that the fault for the fat, in many cases, doesn’t lie with them.

What would it take for your kids to thank you for slim build, strong physique, mental acuity, immune competence, gut health and a host of other vital goodies? Optimal physical, mental and emotional health isn’t in the lap of the gods, it’s not just the luck of the draw. It’s in your hands! You and your partner have the chance to give your kids the greatest gift of all - a lifetime of preference for real, live, healthy food, normal weight control mechanisms and so much more. You can get started now!

Be fearless - defy the doom-sayers

This story about “cancer-clusters” is interesting and raises a theory that I have long held. Modern medicine feeds on fear and as a population we are less “well” than we could or should be simply because we buy into the fear-mongering. But before I get started on that particular soap-box, back to the cancer-cluster story. It seems that there may be clusters (of any disease for that matter but cancer strikes fear into the hearts of most), however trying to pin-point a causative agent is usually a futile task, with clusters then dismissed as serendipity or random happenstance. 

Now back to the fear-mongering. It infects most of the population - none more so than the conceiving, reproducing, birthing and breastfeeding population, with whom I'm most familiar. It’s ubiquitous, it’s insidious and it’s under-mining women’s most fundamental beliefs in themselves and their bodies. But above all the fear-mongering is about big business. 

Prospective parents and new mums and dads listen up! Think of the massive commercial interests in IVF, pre-natal diagnostic screening, medical intervention and surgical births and breast milk substitutes before you buy into the spin of Dr. Fear and his cronies. 

“We'll assess how many healthy eggs you have left.” 

“We need to see if your baby's the right size for dates.” 

“We have to check the position of your placenta.”

“Your baby’s big, but your pelvis is small!” 

“Your baby’s not latching on, she’s still hungry!” and on and on ...

Step away, ignore the doomsayers and check out a different story. Find a story-teller that makes your heart sing, your spirits lift and infuses you with optimism, positivity and a belief in yourself. Then see if you can create a cluster of like-minded prospective and new mums! What would it take ... for you to be free of infection-with-fear?

Knowledge is power, and power trumps fear. Here are some brand new, inexpensive ways to wise up and get with the power.

A generation of fat kids - who's really to blame?

Researchers confirm that junk food consumption during pregnancy will program your unborn child for the same unhealthy preferences. 

If you watch the latest edition of Australia’s The Biggest Loser, even if you only watch the pre-screening ads, you’ll be seeing the trans-generational effects of poor dietary choices at first hand. Now the researchers shed some light on the mechanism and I can’t help but say “I told you so!”

Junk food addiction is indeed an addiction! The consumption of junk food stimulates the opioid receptors and just as with heroin, morphine and other opioid substances, tolerance develops ... more junk food is required to give the same “feel good” effect! And just as a heroin-addicted mother bequeaths the addiction to her infant, the same story applies in the case of junk food!

Good news is, you can program your baby for a different outcome, program her to enjoy a wide range of healthy tastes in exactly the same way. Even better, consumption of things like cruciferous vegetables during pregnancy can confer cancer-protective effects on your baby. 

So get rid of the high-sugar, high-fat, fried, additive-laden and get some clean, green, whole, in season fruit and vegies into you! Where to begin? Try some of the simple, truly nutritious recipes that my very own healthy baby (now 27 years old) has created for you. 

After all, you know that a baby addicted to narcotic drugs is a tragedy, but equally tragic is one addicted to junk food. Do you really want to be the one to blame for your fat family?

Don’t wait til you’re pregnant to improve your diet ...

Pioneering studies by molecular geneticist, Robert A. Waterland shed some light on how the foods that an about-to-be or newly-pregnant mother eats in the days and weeks before and around the time of conception, may affect the way genes function in her children, and consequently her children's health. 

Waterland, funded by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has examined subsistence farming villages in West Africa, tracking the epigenetic changes and linking them to the dramatic seasonal differences in the diets (both amount and types of foods) of women in the villages. His research not only confirms the vital importance of pre and peri-conception diet and supplementation habits, but sheds light on how the epigenetic mechanism actually works. If you’re not familiar with the term “epigenetics”, it simply means above and beyond genetics. For those who are interested in the actual mechanisms, they can impact, for example, the levels at which an everyday biochemical process, DNA methylation, occurs at regions of certain genes. DNA methylation is essential for cell development and for stabilizing cell function.

So epigenetic changes occur at the most fundamental cellular level and are exhibited across generations. While Waterland observes the negative genetic impact of dietary restriction (for example during the peak rainy season) his work provides yet more compelling incentives to get your diet into great shape before you conceive. Then back it up with robust supplementation to ensure those epigenetic effects are positive not negative ones!

       

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