DIET COLUMN

If you have kids, work with kids or are ever responsible for feeding kids - you need to grab this book. “Eat This, Not That for Kids!” is the second in the series, written by Men’s Health magazine editor-in-chief David Zinczenko. The book is a fun, colorful and highly informative read that points out the hidden truth behind more than 1,000 “kid” foods you find at the supermarket and on kids’ menus.

We think it’s best read with your children, so they can learn about nutrition right along with you- rather than just accept the food prepared for them. When you both better understand nutrition and what you’re putting in your bodies, it’s easier to encourage one another.

Eat This, Not That for Kids! takes a hard look at everything from the cereal aisle, to what your kids pack in their lunch boxes, to what the waitress delivers at a restaurant.

In the cereal aisle, they identify seven cereals you should be stocking your pantry with- based on lowest calories, fat, sugar and highest fiber. For the same criterion, they identify seven cereals your kids shouldn’t ever eat.

If you send your kids to school with a sack lunch- are you watching what you pack? School lunches are notorious for providing kids with high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium processed foods. Packing a lunch gives the opportunity to provide children with wholesome, nutritionally balanced meals that will give them the energy to run and think their way through the day. They advise whole grain sandwiches with lean meats like turkey, snack that go further than cookies and chips like veggies, fruit and nuts, and drinks like milk, water or 100% juice.

The next time you go out for dinner, see how the restaurant scored on the Eat This, Not That for Kids! Restaurant Report Card. They investigated 43 major U.S. chain restaurants based on calories/meal, soda alternatives, nutritious vegetable side dishes, and even took away points for having trans fats. Here’s a list of a few restaurants that made the grade and failed to live up to expectations. Some of the restaurants received Fs because it’s their official policy not to publish nutrition information (that’s an entirely different rant for a different post).
Chick-Fil-A: A (the only solid A on the list)
Subway: A-
Wendy’s: A-
Olive Garden: F
IHOP: F
Applebee’s: F
TGIFriday’s: F

A fair number of Bs went to KFC, McDonald’s and Panera; Cs went to Taco Bell, Burger King and Au Bon Pain; Ds earned by Chipotle, Dairy Queen and Baja Fresh.

Ensuring kids make healthy decisions about the food they eat starts at home. This book makes it simple and fun for parents to educate themselves and their children about the healthiest ways to eat. Other features in the book include “Drink This, Not That,” “Ten Healthy Foods that Aren’t,” and “The 8 Foods You Should Feed Your Kid Every Day.”

See our full review of Eat This, Not That for Kids!
See the original adult-size Eat This, Not That review
Be the first on your block to buy Eat This, Not That for Kids!

Imagine running across a stage for nearly two hours every night, singing to thousands of screaming fans and working up a pretty decent sweat. For the Jonas Brothers, this is just a typical night and one heck of a cardio workout.

“You just feel great at the end of the night and when you wake up in the morning,” Kevin Jonas said at a recent stop with his brothers at the White House.

The sibling trio was there to help encourage kids to be more active, and to talk about diabetes. The youngest sibling, Nick, has been diabetic since he was 13. They filmed a PSA encouraging kids to visit national parks and get plenty of exercise.

Researchers may have stumbled upon an interesting foreshadowing to obesity in adults. Clumsy kids may grow into a life of obesity, if a European study has any validity to it.

A study of thousands of British children found that those with the worst cognitive and physical function at the ages of seven and 11 were much more likely to be obese later in life. It’s unclear why there is a connection, but scientists are finding a number of connections between neurological problems and obesity. So, it may not be as ridiculous as it sounds. The most logical explanation may be that clumsy kids don’t exercise, then grow up to be sedentary adults. But the study hints at more complicated explanations.

The Oprah episode that aired today, featuring Dr. Mehmet Oz, discussed teens undergoing obesity surgery. Seeking either gastric band (like the Lap Band) surgery or gastric bypass surgery, these teens had the support of their parents to use this method to lose weight.

Cassie was 200 pounds at age 13 Four years later she maintains a weight of 141 pounds. She noted borderline diabetes and taunting from school friends as motivators, in addition to wanting to avoid life-long weight related health issues. The FDA does not approve gastric banding for youth (a small belt clipped around the stomach to reduce the amount of food you can ingest), so Cassie’s mother took her to a notable surgeon in Tijuana, Mexico. Today, Cassie is happy, thriving and healthy.

Mac underwent Gastric Lap Band surgery at the University of Illinois as part of a clinical study. Six months before he was allowed to even join the study he underwent physical therapy, visits with a nutritionist and psychological consults. At the time of his surgery he was 360 pounds. He cites depression and having always been an active kid, but since learning to step it up. He’s lost 150 pounds in one year; and recently his football coach encouraged him to put on a few pounds to his 175 pound frame in order to play.

Kylie was 17 when she had gastric bypass surgery, a non-reversible surgery that cuts away most of the stomach and bypasses digestion more quickly through the small intestine. She was going blind and having migraines- symptoms obese adult women experience. Since surgery she’s lost 120 pounds.

They also featured Nathanial, a high school student who had gastric bypass only one week ago and has since lost 14 pounds. At the time of surgery he weighed 340 pounds and was a borderline Type II Diabetic, had acid reflux, sleep apnea, knee and back problems.

The Lap Band is not currently approved for youth, and the bypass surgery is still questioned by many surgeons. The long-term effects post-surgery are still unknown in those under age 18.

There’s an informative article at WebMD that examines a study of 13 fast food restaurant chains and how healthy - or unhealthy - their kids meals are. It should come as no surprise that they got a failing grade.

Ninety-three percent of the choices had too many calories. While that’s high, I found it a little surprising to see that less than half (45 percent) had too much saturated fat. I just figured that would be much higher.

The article categorizes the worst and best choices you can make for your kids at some of the establishments they studied. Those you should avoid include Chili’s, KFC, Sonic and Burger King. Those with healthier selections include Subway, Denny’s and Arby’s.

The fast food industry disputes the claims of the study, but it seems they aren’t hearing what is being said. The claim is that most choices are unhealthy. But they dispute by saying that they have healthy choices. Right, but most aren’t.

Some blame has to go to consumers who make poor choices. But let’s be honest. If you’re in Burger King, and you smell the grilled beef and fries, it’s mighty tempting to skip the dainty salad that’s buried beneath all the other fatty sodium-filled choices.

Bernie Salazar’s School Year Resolutions from Diets in Review on Vimeo.

It’s my first video blog! You can expect to start hearing, and seeing, from me in video during my regular Thursday posts.

This week I want to talk to you about your children’s nutrition. The health of our children is very important to me, and I hope it is for you as well. Back to School is just days away for some kids. As each of you start preparing, I ask you to keep in mind these simple school year resolutions that will make a serious impact for your child’s health.

1. Pack School Lunches. They should include vegetables, fruit and no soda!

2. Stay active. Do this as a family and it will feel less like exercise and more like playing!

Have a healthy school year.

See more DietsInReview.com videos at YouTube.

It’s approaching back to school time, so have you though about your child’s (or children’s) lunch?  It’s sad to say, but for the most part our school’s cafeteria food is extremely lagging in terms of providing healthy, nutritious meals.  Even more upsetting is the fact that little can be done to improve these meals… simply put, it comes down to budgets and money.

I do have good news!  Packing your child’s lunch can help guarantee your child is receiving a healthy meal that will help them stay focused and be motivated at school.  Same rules apply here for your child as they do for you: limit the amount of processed foods (packaged cookies, chips, etc) you provide, pack water, milk, or 100% juice instead of soda, provide plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, and make sandwiches on whole grain/whole wheat bread.

Make it a group effort; you and your child can make the lunches together as part of your nightly routine before bed.  That way your child has a say in the foods he/she will eat, you provide education to why eating a healthy diet is important (and lead by example!). It allows for some extra bonding time, and you are laying the foundation for your child’s health and their future food choices.

There’s a slight discrepancy in estimates of how much food and beverage marketers spend targeting kids. A mere $8.4 billion.

An FTC report says food and beverage companies spent $1.6 billion marketing to children under 17 in 2006. But $10 billion is the estimate cited in a government study from the National Academies of Science Institute of Medicine.

It seems that the lower number has more validity. According to a consumer group, the higher number includes some money that was intended for marketing to parents.

“The obesity problem is a complex problem. It’s not only about advertising,” Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

True, but billions of dollars can be a pretty powerful persuader.

Most people don’t want to consider the idea of a nanny state. But one can make the argument that junk food is as dangerous as elicit drugs in the long run. And most activists don’t want to treat junk food exactly like drugs. That is, it should always be perfectly legal to eat, just that we need to understand the consequences of massive junk food marketing.

Congressmen Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is a strong critic of junk food marketing to kids:

“Food companies are spending millions of dollars to target children so they can become lifelong consumers of their unhealthy products… While many food and beverage companies have pledged to market healthier options to kids through self-regulatory programs, I want to see real results and changes in the types of products marketed towards children. If these programs do not produce significant changes — government will have to act,” he said.

Back to school isn’t too far away.

With childhood obesity out of control, there comes some nasty baggage. Adult health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are all now on the rise with kids. So, now children are taking obesity-related drugs to combat these problems. Indications are that hundreds of thousands of children are on drugs to control blood pressure and sugar levels.

This opens the debate on whether kids should be on these drugs in the first place. Obviously it needs to be looked at on a per-patient basis, but the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that this can be seen as an opportunity for drug companies to up their bottom line.

Here comes the “back in my day” speech… It’s time to get kids to play outside more instead of web surfing. And while I’m certainly not an old fuddy-duddy about video games, it might be nice to see kids play more honest-to-goodness mud-slinging football than by joystick on the couch.

Are they still called joysticks?

Maybe I am an old fuddy-duddy.

See this related story: Kids and Cholesterol: New Recommendations Call for Statins