I saw a theme of food and children this week while I was going through my RSS feeds and wanted to link to a few posts that offer important reminders or information for me, and might help you too.

Tara from Feels Like Home reminds us that When We Know Better, We Do Better on using food for rewards and punishments. She describes receiving an email that "went on to describe ways that parents could help their children avoid behaviors that lead to obesity. I read intently, excited to see some concrete and specific actions I could take to help Gracie avoid the weight issues I'vesuffered my entire life."

Annie over at PhD in Parenting writes about Olympians and their McDonald's sponsorships, something we have discussed with our five-year-old as we've watched several OIympic events with keen interest. In Annie's post, she writes:

But when I'm trying to convince my kids that McDonald's is not good for you, that fast food will make you sick if you eat it too often, they get to see their Olympic heroes smiling and talking about how great McDonald's is and how much they love it. Mommy isn't an Olympian. If I want to achieve something big like those Olympians, I'd better listen to them instead of listening to Mommy.

I'd like to say my kids are smarter than that, but who am I kidding? They are five and almost three. Advertising works on them.

Katy Farber from Non-Toxic Kids has a guest post addressing Childhood and Obesity:

Studies have shown that obese children tend to have a smaller circle of close friends, leading to isolation and loneliness. Parents often join in the torment even if they are overweight. It can be difficult to escape from the self-image of unattractiveness and body dissatisfaction.

As we've watched the Olympics, we've taken the route of laughing at the commercials featuring the kiddie hockey team that "played like Olympians" and were rewarded with McDonald's chicken nuggets, and Z has picked up the thread and begun scoffing whenever a McDonald's commercial comes on. It's hard to say how deep this early version of critical engagement with advertising really runs, but maybe mimicry is the first step!

There has also been some interesting discussion surrounding our posting of Jamie Oliver's talk at TED regarding the epidemic of childhood obesity in this country, and the potential consequences of it for the lifespans and adult health of our children. While we think the primary commenter has some excellent points regarding our knowledge of obesity and its effects, our main point still stands - current mortality rates can tell you little to nothing about mortality rates under changing conditions, and those who claim "the sky is not falling" fail to understand the basic function and limitations of these statistics. If you'd like to enter the discussion with any observations or thoughts of your own, please do!

As you may have noticed, there is no shortage of magazines, publications or articles discussing the hot topic of nutrition these days. Personally, I find most of these materials to be overwhelming, too dry in content or just repetitive from last month's explanations. But there is one nutrition newsletter that I love to read: The Nutrition Action Healthletter. It is short (16 pages), concise, filled with pictures and just plain fun to read. The bimonthly newsletter presents excellent nutrition research in a concise format, with easy and practical lifestyle tips. It is the only newsletter that I actually read front to back. And for only $15 a year, I recently gave this newsletter subscription to five friends for holiday gifts!

The Nutrition Action Healthletter is published 10 times per year by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI is a nonprofit consumer health group that advocates honest food labeling and advertising and safer and more nutritious foods, and accepts no government or industry funding (not even advertising in their newsletter). Check out some of their articles or recipes on the CSPI website and consider subscribing to help support their work.

This video offers a good rundown of their accomplishments and goals. They created it to run on their website, which explains the "thanks for visiting" blurb at the end.


My favorite part of the newsletter? On the last page of every newsletter, they describe “RIGHT STUFF” vs “FOOD PORN”, and they break down 2 newer food products and categorize them accordingly. This month, the Chili's Restaurant Paradise Pie got a big thumbs down and shoved into the food porn category, due to the high calories (1600 calories per dessert!), excessive saturated fat content (35 grams) and 950 milligrams of sodium! You don’t even need to read the whole article to know that if a food fits into this category, you should avoid it entirely. Check out the full article here [PDF].

Have you seen the Nutrition Action Healthletter, or subscribe to another nutrition publication that doesn't overwhelm you with page counts, low relevance, and lots of advertising? Share your recommendations in the comments!