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Category Archives: Nutrition
Guest Post: How to Get Kids to Eat Healthy Food, Part 2
Aside from starting kids off at an early age with good eating habits, I believe that making food look fun and appetizing is key to getting them to enjoy eating healthy food. My Japanese heritage reinforced the importance of presentation of meals. Instead of fat and carbohydrate-laden, processed-food school lunches, you may have heard of the “bento-boxes” that Japanese moms make for their kids. Everything is carefully arranged, taking into account color, texture, size and shape of the food to create a work of art, almost too good to eat. See Bento Box Lunches and Adventures in Bento Making for … Continue reading
Guest Post: How to Get Kids to Eat Healthy Food, Part 1
My husband and I have never had a problem with getting our daughter, who is now a teenager, to eat healthy food. We started early, just asking her to try new things and if she didn’t like it, she didn’t have to eat it. By the time she was 4, she would announce to anyone who asked, “I love broccoli, it’s like candy to me!” She also devours kale, brussel sprouts and cauliflower. Part of our strategy was to let her know the importance of good food to help her grow big and strong. She’s not so “big” at the … Continue reading
Ask Dr: Marcel: How to Make Your Own Breastmilk Replacement Formula
Reprinted with permission from “Pediatric Nutrition and Natural Health Protocols,” by Dr. Marcel Hernandez, ND Nothing can really replace mother’s milk. However, situations may arise when a mother cannot naturally meet her baby’s needs, as in cases of insufficient production or severe mastitis. Store-bought formulas are high in various forms of sugar and contain chemicals and high antigen foods that may compromise a child’s immune system. The formulas listed below were developed by Dr. William Mitchell of Seattle. Dr. Mitchell, one of the co-founders of Bastyr University, has been a mentor and role model to many naturopathic physicians. These formulas will … Continue reading
A Fantastic Recipe for Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffins
I haven’t had much time to blog lately, but I did want to jot down this crazy-like-a-fox-good recipe for gluten-free blueberry muffins, in case I forget it. Basically, I found the original in this month’s Shape magazine, the one with Mariah Carey on the cover, and made a few modifications. It’s on page 157, called “Better Blueberry Muffins.” Here is what I used: 2 cups of The Gluten-Free Bistro’s Bistro Blend Flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup canola oil 2 large eggs 1 cup unsweetened applesauce 1/2 cup … Continue reading
Posted in Gluten-Free
Tagged blueberry muffin, gluten-free, goat yogurt, recipe, shape magazine
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10 Things You Should Know about Raw Local Honey…and Why I’m Suddenly Thinking about Beekeeping
I recently learned that my co-worker and friend, Larry Bunka, keeps bees in his backyard. His kids finance their annual class trips through the sales of the honey his bees produce, and since he lives within 1.5 miles of me, his honey is truly “local” to us…and so, I bugged and begged and pleaded with him to bring in a few jars and sell them to me. He did, and I bought two jars off of him for $10. Wrapped around the jars was this very sweet, charming, and educational writeup about “Neighborhood Honey.” I asked Larry for permission to … Continue reading
Incapacitated, laid out, poisoned…by macaroni & cheese (?!)
Of all the injustices in the world, surely food poisoning has to be among the greatest. Losing the ability to control your body and being reduced to involuntarily ejecting projectiles (from both ends) is definitely a punishment devised by someone wicked. To make things worse, sometimes you don’t even know which end it’s going to come out of until you get to the toilet. And to make things even worse than that, your toddler gets it the same time that you do, vomiting 7 times in one night. And THAT is how my weekend went, thank you very much. This … Continue reading
Posted in Nutrition
Tagged diarrhea, food poisoning, mac cheese, macaroni cheese, toddler, vomiting
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Dr. Marcel’s Suggested Sample Lunch Ideas
I’ve still got school lunches on the brain, and would really like to be able to combat the school lunch dilemma by having an arsenal of lunchbox ideas ready to go. It turns out my favorite pediatric ND, Dr. Marcel Hernandez, had a few sample menus up his sleeve to share, so I am in turn sharing with all of you (I also published his article, “Packing a School Lunch” just a couple days ago). Dr. Marcel’s Sample Lunches In general, Dr. Marcel has 4 different themes that he plays on: Roll-ups, Pasta, Rice, and Sandwiches. Then, he comes up … Continue reading
Posted in Nutrition
Tagged dr. marcel, healthy lunches kids, how to pack healthy lunch, pasta, rice, roll ups, sample menu, sandwiches, school lunch
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Dr. Marcel’s Strategies for Packing Healthy Lunches for Kids
So I’ve been scouring the Internet for healthy packed lunch ideas ever since I posted on the school lunch dilemma this past Monday. I did find some great resources, which I wanted to share with you all. I also wanted to reprint, with Dr. Marcel Hernandez’s permission, his article below on strategies for packing a healthy – yet palatable – lunch for your child. Enjoy! Great web resources chock full of healthy packed lunch ideas for kids: Home-packed lunches your kids will eat Healthy Sack Lunch Tips Vegan & Vegetarian School Lunch Tips (& Recipes) Pack a Lunch with Punch! … Continue reading
Posted in Nutrition
Tagged dr. marcel, healthy lunches kids, how to pack healthy lunch, ideas, lunchbox, pesticides, school lunch, substitutes, tips
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The School Lunch Dilemma
Packing a lunch for my toddler for her day caregivers to feed her is ALWAYS a dilemma for me. While the day care does feed the children a hot lunch during the day, it is usually not vegetarian and my husband and I don’t want to introduce our little Apple to meat just yet. Take the need to pack a vegetarian lunch, and the fact that I am not a Mom who is super-versatile in the kitchen or knows how to make healthy foods palatable and yummy to my kid, and you’ve got quite a pickle. Err, I’ve got quite … Continue reading
A Holistic Mama’s Vacillations & Dr. Marcel’s Calcium Content of Foods Chart
It’s hard to know what to do sometimes as a holistic Mama. Sometimes I feel like a moth in the wind, blown this way and that by whichever strongly worded article I am reading at the time. Case in point: the all-important question of what kind of milk my toddler should be drinking. Boy, it’s been a tough and confusing journey thus far. On the one hand, I want to stick to my guns and avoid feeding my baby pasteurized dairy, as Dr. Ben Kim strongly suggests. In a subsequent newsletter, he also warns that dairy contributes “to unnecessary ear … Continue reading
