Tag Archives: Healthy Children

Fast Food Companies Fight Back Against Toy Bans in Kids’ Meals

When I was a little kid, I wanted to go to McDonald’s every week to get the newest Happy Meal toy. Sure, the food was yummy, but my main motivation was definitely the toy. Now, toys in Happy Meals and other fast food meals are facing extinction as new legislation is attempting to decrease childhood obesity in our country spreads from San Francisco to other cities, such as New York City.

Many activists – including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Chicago Hispanic Health Coalition, and obesity experts at Tufts University – are claiming that the toys used to promote children’s fast food meals are a main contributor to the childhood obesity epidemic. They claim that these toys encourage children to eat unhealthier meals, such as chicken nuggets and french fries.

Although this can be the case at times (as it was for me when I was younger), banning these restaurants from using toys to promote their products does not seem right to me. McDonald’s, Sonic, and several other fast food restaurants have started offering milk and juice with their kids’ meals instead of soda. They are also offering apple slices instead of french fries. When it comes down to it, it is the parent’s responsibility to monitor what their child eats; the parents allow their children to order sugary sodas and fattening french fries. Banning restaurants from using promotional items will not stop parents from buying their children unhealthy foods.

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Posted on May 20, 2026 by Health Buzz

Doctors Turning Away Obese Pregnant Women

According to the Sun Sentinel in South Florida, 15 obstetrics-gynecology practices out of 105 that the newspaper polled make it a practice to turn away pregnant patients who exceed a predetermined weight limit.

As disturbing as this may sound, doing so is not illegal. Some doctors say that their main motivation is that their tables can’t handle obese patients, but considering the fact that some of those polled have said their starting weight limit is 200 pounds, that reasoning doesn’t hold much water.

When it comes down to it, the real reason for refusing obese patients is fear of legal action due to the potential medical complications associated with obesity. According to the Sun Sentinel, at least six doctors have said this is their reason for avoiding obese patients. (more…)

Posted on May 19, 2026 by Jason

Weight Watchers’ Cooking with Kids Series Helps Families Bond in the Kitchen

Every parent knows how important it is to teach their kids to eat right and lead healthy lives, but it isn’t always easy. Recently, Weight Watchers launched its first-ever online “Cooking With Kids” video series, which brings to life teachable moments to help kids value fresh and healthy foods to instill good eating habits at an early age.

“When most people think of ‘kid food’ they think of pizza, chicken fingers and French fries, ” said Theresa DiMasi, Editor-in-Chief of WeightWatchers.com. “One of our goals is to show our readers that there is no such thing as ‘kid food.’ We want to introduce kids to wholesome, natural foods.”

With the help of renowned chef Lidia Bastianich and chocolatier Jacques Torres, Weight Watchers has produced a series of videos featuring real kids who go behind-the-scenes to learn the art of selecting fresh foods at the market and preparing them in nutritious, tasty foods.  From homemade pasta to roasting cocoa beans for chocolate, kids get hands-on experience and learn the value of healthful eating.

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Posted on May 5, 2026 by Maris

Best and Worst Easter Basket Candies

by Kelsey Murray

For many people, Easter is a religious holiday that causes them to meditate on the sacrifices their Creator made for them. For most children, however, Easter is all about the Bunny and the candy. For the parents of these children, Easter is about sugar-highs and trips to the dentist.

If you are a parent and want to give your children healthier candies and chocolates this year (or if you just have a sweet tooth yourself), consider these Easter sweets instead of your usual standbys.

Dark Chocolate Covered Nuts. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, and other nuts provide healthy fats that are essential for your body to function properly. Dark chocolate provides antioxidants while also lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol and boosting your mood (every woman knows that chocolate has magic mood-lifting powers). The combination of nuts and dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) usually weighs in at 210 calories per 1.4 ounces while also providing 8 percent of your daily dietary fiber.

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Posted on April 8, 2026 by Health Buzz

Should You Put a Child on a Diet?

Recently, I was profiled in Redbook magazine, answering the question, “Should you put your child on a diet?” My reply was yes.

I’m not advocating starting your eight year old in the Weight Watchers plan, packing the lunchbox with Slim-Fast shakes and enrolling your daughter in a prepared meal plan. I’m also not advocating counting calories with your child, focusing on the number on the scale, or instructing her on weighing out her meals. Rather, I want to talk about helping your child to be healthy, and in some cases, this does mean keeping an eye on her weight.

One of my own daughters began to look a bit heavy. At her 6 year old pediatric check up, her doctor told me that she was getting too heavy and she illustrated this by comparing her growth curve on the chart. She told me that I needed to begin to keep an eye on her portions. I decided that I would begin an experiment. Without telling my daughter what I was doing – because I had no desire to call her attention to the issue – I decreased her portion sizes slightly. She had been eating a little bit more than she probably should have been, and had also become fairly sedentary due to an exceptionally rough winter. It’s tough to get out there when it’s cold and wet all the time.

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Posted on April 7, 2026 by Carmen

Teach Your Kids to Eat Healthy Foods

When you say the words, “kids” and “healthy foods,” do you quake  a little inside? Do you secretly laugh, thinking to yourself that the two concepts just don’t mesh? Do you bemoan the fact that your kid, when pressed for a vegetable choice, picks french fries every time? Do you think to yourself, “Well, maybe he’ll eat vegetables when he’s a grown up?”

These are all things that people have said to me when I ask about the eating habits of their children. Many parents despair, give up and forget about offering healthy foods. They stick with so called “kid foods” – Pop Tarts, Lunchables, sodas and chips. In reality, children do often have more finicky palates and less tolerant taste buds. It can take a lot of time and encouragement, but these difficulties can definitely be overcome. Here are some tried and true tips to improve your children’s dietary habits.

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Posted on April 5, 2026 by Carmen

Childhood Junk Food Linked to Lower I.Q. Scores

The brain grows most rapidly during the first three years of a child’s life, and so it stands to reason that the foods a child eats during that time are of utmost importance. A recent study confirms this. The long term health and well being of around 14,000 children born in 1991 and 1992 is being followed by a group known as ALSPAC, or Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. All together, data was compiled for just over 4,000 children.

Parents were given questionnaires to complete, requesting documentation of the types and frequency of the food and drink their children consumed when they were 3, 4, 7 and 8.5 years old. Overall, three basic dietary patterns were identified: “processed” (high in fats and sugar intake), “traditional” (high in meat and vegetable intake), and “health conscious” (high in salad, fruit and vegetables, rice and pasta). The I.Q. of all participants was measured using the standard Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children when they were 8 years old. Numerical scores were calculated for each child.

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Posted on February 10, 2026 by Carmen

How the New Dietary Guidelines Affect Your Children

Every five years, the  USDA and Department of Health and Human Services work together to update the Dietary Guidelines to reflect changing and new research. This is the year that the new 2026 Dietary Guidelines for Americans have been released, and the changes were minimal for the most part, although there was an additional emphasis on addressing the ever increasing obesity epidemic. There was a special section devoted to the health and well being of our children.

To illustrate how times have changed for our children, let’s take a look at the rates of obesity and how they have increased. In 1970, less than 5% of all children were classified as obese. In 2026, that figure has doubled. Similar rates of increase were seen for most other age groups. The most shocking increase was seen in children ages 6-11, a group which showed an increase of 400%, jumping from just 4% to more than 20%.

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Posted on February 3, 2026 by Carmen

Easy Super Bowl Beef and Bean Chili Over Wagon Wheels

When a lot of us think of chili, we think of indulgent bowls of cornbread topped with juicy beef, beans and tomatoes. We think of mounds of cheddar cheese, sour cream topped with crushed tortilla chips.

If you’re feeding the family on Super Bowl Sunday and you want to keep your menu on the healthier side, opt for a lighter chili loaded with blood pressure-lowering fiber and no-salt-added beans and tomatoes.

Instead of serving with bread or chips, serve chili over whimsical wagon wheels for a fun, lighter spin on a hearty winter favorite.

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Posted on January 31, 2026 by Maris

Healthier School Lunch Guidelines on the Way

The USDA announced new guidelines for school lunches on January 13, 2026. These are the first changes to the guidelines in over 15 years and have been made in part to help stop the rapidly increasing rates of childhood obesity.

“The more we can reinforce the right set of choices and encourage the right set of choices, the greater the chances are that we will get a handle on obesity,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told Good Morning America. “This doesn’t mean that we are going to eliminate treats, not at all. But it is a circumstance, situation where treats have a special meaning, a special occasion, a special circumstance that we celebrate with a treat.”

The new guidelines set the first ever maximum cap on consumable calories in addition to the minimum already allowed. They set high standards: reduce saturated fat, sugar and sodium, increase whole grains and serve both fruits and vegetables daily. Children consume up to half of their calories at school, and these guidelines help to make sure that they are meeting their dietary needs.

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Posted on January 14, 2026 by Carmen

Children’s Eating Habits Aren’t Influenced by their Parents, Study Says

The New York Times reported on a collection of research done which examined different studies related to children’s eating habits and those of their parents. The results surprised (and slightly disappointed) me. It turns out that we can only accomplish so much by setting good examples. The old adage, “It takes a village to raise a child” came to mind when I learned that external influences play a greater role in shaping the eating habits of our youngsters than we, the parents, do.

Dr. Youfa Wang, of Johns Hopkins, led the team of researchers and they admit that the findings were a bit flimsy. According to the New York Times, “The authors acknowledge that their conclusions were based on limited data, that only three of the studies were conducted in developing countries, and that methodologies varied.” Even after accounting for less-than-ideal studies, it certainly appears that the parent-child connection just doesn’t hold strong enough in a world inundated with advertisements and bad influences.

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Posted on January 6, 2026 by Theresa