To peel or not to peel? Veggies have evolved to provide humankind with more nutrition than most any other food on earth, yet myths about their preparation and nutrition persist. Fortunately, the fables at the table are easy to sort out.
An old Greek myth has it that one of our earliest veggies was derived from a beautiful woman, Cynara, who enraged the jealous Zues with her frequent trips home to earth.
The foods kids eat contribute substantially to their moods and energy levels, with veggies playing a starring role. Making the most of them, however, also means understanding what contributes to temper tantrums. How veggies can transform little sourpusses into afternoon delights.
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Here’s a kid conversation starter: Next time your child laughs, tell her she is acting like a cucumber.
The foods we eat contribute substantially to our moods and energy levels,
The foods we feed children and even babies determine their health and happy-meters for the rest of their lives. How much do we know about the additives? Happy kids eat healthy foods, but food labels can be confusing.
Here are a few good things to know.
Superfoods have gained an unexpected super power – the ability to shift shapes from one form to another. With the focus on healthy eating expanding the superfood family, consumers are increasingly unsure, or misled, about what qualifies. We explore what makes a food super.
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Wish as we might, we couldn’t simply slip a cape onto a Twinkie and claim that it is super.
This may be how some of us feel,
There are many things about our children’s future we have yet to know, but do we really want any of them to involve what we put on their plates?
We speak here of three simple letters that are capturing increasing amounts of attention, yet are still misunderstood: GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. You’ve likely seen the letters, but what do they mean, and why should we care?
We care because of the unknowns.
The old saying goes that we eat with our eyes first. And when it comes to catching our eyes, especially our kids’ eyes, few things work as well as color.
Perhaps this is why Americans today consume five times more synthetic food dye than they did in 1955. Artificial dye is to foods, beverages and cosmetics what Technicolor was to Oz, a burst of manufactured vibrancy that is hard to resist. Synthetic dyes in fact give products an edge: Their brilliant appeal has tremendous influence on our food and drink preferences – this goes especially for children.
Butylated hydroxytoluene, butylated hydroxyanisole, sodium nitrate and erythorbic acid. Who’s hungry? These preservatives and many others exist in the foods we purchase and feed our families every day.
If they sound synthetic, it is because they are – at least in comparison to natural preservatives such as sugars, salt, vinegar and citrus.
These hard-to-pronounce preservatives are created in laboratories and may contribute to health and behavioral problems ranging from hyperactivity to cancer,
Many good parents consider the ABCs and 123s as building blocks of child development, but we also can improve children’s intelligence, and health, by learning about the I+Gs.
I+G is the manageable term food scientists use to refer to the food additives disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate, two flavor enhancers often used together to boost a food product’s savory flavor.
I+G may in fact be among the most common ingredients you didn’t know.
If the quest for all-natural foods is a journey toward good health, then consider the search for MSG-free meals as a process to escape the processed.
The foods most likely to contain MSG are just that – processed. Salad dressings, frozen meals and soy sauce. Still, some of the products that contain MSG may surprise you – it is in many foods we consider healthy, including veggie burgers and chicken soup.
