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23.01.2010 | 9:34:18 am | Posted by colleenh
By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist
Mum Mum’s recently reported on understanding a whole food based diet. Developing healthy eating habits is not as difficult as one might think, and starting children are born with a clean slate and pick up their eating habits by mirror others. Even if you understand the lingo, but are still having a difficult time grasping how to implement a healthy diet into your family’s meals here are 8 building blocks to a healthy diet:
- Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes are the foundation of a healthy diet. Low in fat, rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients; these foods provide what your body needs and should represent the bulk of your diet.
- The second principal is to eat those foods in a wide variety, as different foods provide different nutrients. Create a rainbow on your plate of colorful produce daily and mix up the types of grains and legumes for
 maximum benefit.
- The rest of the foods should come from low-fat dairy, lean meat, fish, and poultry. Vegetarians and vegans can still get adequate protein without animal foods as long as the previous rules are applied.
- Make sure to include dark leafy green, yellow, and orange vegetables and fruits daily as they not only contain disease-fighting antioxidants and natural immune boosters, but are also important nutrients for growing kids like vitamins A and C, as well as calcium.
- Choose high fiber foods: this one is easy if you follow the previous steps! Fiber is abundant in whole grains, legumes, fruits, and veggies and is basically an added bonus for the good food choices.
- Go for the healthy fats and limit the unhealthy: opt for fish, nuts, and nut butters as well as olive and canola oils over hydrogenated oils, butter, margarine, or trans fats.
- Get enough calcium: calcium is critical to maintain healthy bones and teeth and kids need lots of calcium to support their growing bones. Low fat dairy is an option, but if there is a dairy allergy in the house, emphasize non-dairy calcium sources like leafy greens, almonds, soy nuts, beans, or fortified orange juice.
- Have sugary foods, processed grains, and high sodium snacks in moderation: this is the last step because these types of food can be eaten only when the proper foundation of a healthy diet is laid. Just like you can’t put a roof on a house until it is built from the ground up, refined or processed snack foods fit best on top of the healthy diet building blocks.
21.01.2010 | 9:59:34 am | Posted by colleenh
By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist
Last year, stories regarding the chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, were abundant for several months causing plastic bottle manufacturers to change their ways particularly baby product makers. The debate was heated as proponents of the removal of BPA from baby and children’s products claimed there was plenty of evidence BPA was potentially harmful to children, yet chemical companies argued the research was inconclusive. BPA is back in the news again this week and US Health Officials announced Friday that more research needs to be conducted.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claimed in 2008 that the ‘trace’ amounts of BPA that leach out of food packaging and plastic bottles were not harmful. BPA is leached into food and liquids when exposed to high temperatures such as leaving a water bottle in the sun or when parents heat their baby’s formula or breast milk before pouring into a plastic bottle. After scientists complained the decision was based on a small number of industry sponsored studies, the FDA stated they would revisit their stance.
 Revisiting time has arrived, as the US Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that they will expand research efforts and monitor the potentially harmful effects of BPA. The announcement came as US Health officials stated that research does show cause for concern over BPA’s possible adverse health effects on children, particularly when it is used to line the cans of liquid infant formula and in the production of baby bottles.
Bisphenol A is used to harden plastic and has been used to protect canned foods from metal, plastic cups and bottles, food packaging, and many other common household items from glasses to CD’s. Some scientists believe BPA can cause harm to the nervous and reproductive system and may promote certain types of cancers. Dozens of animal studies using BPA have found negative health effects but the results yet to be repeated in human studies.
An American Chemistry Council statement maintained that BPA is metabolized quickly and does not remain in the body, yet 90% of Americans have trace amounts of BPA in their bloodstream. Concerns over the safety of BPA date as far back as 1930 but remained unproven. One thing both sides can agree on is that more research is definitely needed. Last year’s tidal wave of concern was enough for the government to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles and infant feeding cups. Until a decision is reached, the Department of Health recommends throwing away scratched baby bottles and not pouring hot liquids into plastic containers or bottles that may contain BPA.
19.01.2010 | 7:03:26 pm | Posted by colleenh
By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist
No, whole food doesn’t always refer to that ubiquitous grocery store chain but rather a way of eating. It has become quite a common catch phrase these days which can only add to the confusion for parents attempting to provide their kids with a healthy diet. Mum Mum’s advocates starting kids off right with a well balanced, minimally processed diet – but what exactly is that?
Whole Foods Vs. Processed
The phrase “whole food based diet” basically means choosing foods in as close to their natural state as possible, which provides the body with maximum nutrients a food has to offer. Although we have made major advancements in the past 50 years with respect to food processing, research is pointing for us to go back in time and eat the way our grandparents did. Essentially, choosing foods that go the shortest distance from the ground to your plate.
Processed or refined foods are pretty much the opposite of a whole food. Again, these are buzz words found all over the place but often without explanation. A refined food may have come from nature at some point, but has been processed – chemically, mechanically, or both- into a new food. A perfect example is white rice. Rice, in nature, is dark (brown) because of the rich sources of nutrients. To make the rice white, the germ and bran are removed, and the rice is polished using glucose or talc then sometimes parboiled at high temperatures. This process removes most of the nutrients that are then added back into the food through a process called enrichment, yet enrichment cannot replace many phytochemcials.
The definition of processed foods is loose because even healthy foods may undergo some processing including frozen  vegetables or dried fruits. It is when the processing either makes a ‘food’ from a group of chemicals or as biotechnologyonline.gov explains: “Any food product that has undergone physical or chemical treatment resulting in a substantial change in the original state of the food”. For processed foods following the latter description, they are often lacking in nutrients and likely have added fats, sugars, and a lot of other chemicals that do not provide nutrients. Yes, they are ok once in a while but should not make up the basis of a diet. When it comes to children, they often eat small amounts to begin with and filling up their tummies with foods of little nutritional value may lead to nutrient deficiencies.
Well Balanced
Just like it says, a well balanced diet is not too heavily weighted in any one particular type of food and includes all the food groups, espeically whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. This is another media catch phrase but ironically there is no real definition of what exactly constitutes a “well balanced” diet, but perhaps the operative word here is ‘balanced’. Kids do not need caloric restriction because they are growing rapidly and need lots of fuel, yet it is also not appropriate force feed children. As the wise Ellyn Satter explains: parents provide the what (to eat) and kids decide how much. Research is now correlating adult diseases with childhood diet, which is why what you are feeding your children now is so important. While science has not yet proven for a fact what types of refined or processed foods are detrimental to long term health, what has been proven is how harmful the lack of whole foods can be in the long term. By offering your children a variety of whole foods, with of course some treats mixed in now and then, you will be teaching them habits – and that ever elusive ‘balance’- that will last a lifetime. Check out myPyramid for kids, a great resource for meal planning and understanding the nutrient needs for kids of all ages.
| 11:42:15 am | Posted by colleenh
By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist
Kids and vegetables kind of go together like oil and water - or at least are certainly not synonymous. Parents and healthcare providers everywhere try (and try again) to come up with new ways to get kids to eat their veggies. One  common notion is that kids will be more inclined to eat a veggie they helped pick out, but a recent study found there may be little truth to that.
Parents are not the only ones who note children’s less than favorable attitude towards veggies, as researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands set out to discover how to encourage kids to warm up to vegetables. Dr. Cees de Graaf and colleagues compared whether giving 4 to 6 year olds their choice of veggie, or no choice, had any affect on how much produce the kids actually ate.
From the 156 boys and 147 girls in the study, researchers determined which of the 8 commonly served veggies was their favorite: carrots, beets, broccoli, red cabbage, French beans, peas, spinach, and cauliflower. During a restaurant meal with their parents, 110 kids had a pre-meal choice of equal amounts of 2 veggies the kids themselves had approved. Another 97 had the same choice but only as the meal was served while yet another 97 discovered a vegetable of their liking on their plates.
Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study did not find any significant difference in the amount of veggies the kids ate. The tallies revealed the kids with pre-meal choice ate about 2 ounces, those with the at-mealtime choice ate just under 2 ounces, and those offered no choice at about 2.24 ounces. Though the consumption of veggies wasn’t very different a post meal survey revealed the kids were quite happy about being able to choose. Personality had come into play in this study as those kids who were described by parents as being “reactive”, or purposely doing the opposite of what they are told, ate half the amount of veggies in the no choice group than the more easy going dispositions.
18.01.2010 | 4:36:35 pm | Posted by colleenh
By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist
Parents and researchers alike have known for some time that music is both a great learning tool and lots of fun. Music has been thought to boost brain power from babies to college students, as a controversial 1993 study found college students improved IQ scores by listening to 10 minutes of Mozart; sending parents everywhere to the music store. Although that study was found to inconclusive, a recent study brought Mozart’s music back into focus but this time for premature babies.
Conducted by Tel Aviv University, the study revealed that 30 minutes of exposure to Mozart’s music per day caused preterm infants to expend less energy resulting in less calories needed to grow rapidly. This was compared to when infants were not “listening” to the music.
One of the main priorities for doctors treating preemies is to get the baby up to an acceptable body weight so that the infant can be sent home from the hospital. In addition, premature babies are exposed to a host of bacteria and illness while in the hospital and a healthy body weight protects the babies from future problems.
The study was conceived through an international project by United States based consortium NIDCAP, whose purpose is to create a set of best practice standards for the health and well-being of neonates. Several environmental factors have been proven to affect the health of premature infants including tactile stimulation and room lighting. This study, however, was the first to quantify the effect of music on newborns. Researchers measured the physiological responses to 30 minutes of Mozart’s music and compared the infants’ energy expenditure pre and post music listening finding significantly less expenditure after the music, which could ultimately lead to faster weight gain.
 Researchers theorize the music makes the babies calmer possibly due to the repetitive melodies of Mozart’s music in particular, which bears a stark contrast to other great classical composers. Israeli researchers planned to continue the study to find the long term effects using different types of music including rap, pop, ethnic, and of course classical music as well as surveying mothers to discover what types of music their infant was exposed to in the womb. The correlation between infant brain development and Mozart has been around for many years with a variety of ‘Baby Mozart’ CD’s still on the market, however, many of the myths of this positive association have been debunked. Research has shown that babies do benefit from listening, and singing along, to a variety of musical styles.
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The Baby Mum-Mum blog discusses everything to do with babies and parenting with a focus on child health and child development. Baby Mum-Mum is a healthy, easy to digest baby rice snack that is enjoyed by babies and mothers around the world for its portability, gluten free ingredients and great taste.
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On February 22, the FDA issued letters relating to labelling to 22 food companies, including several baby food manufacturers. We were advised by the FDA that we are not permitted to print the statements "Low in Fat" or "No added fat or oils" on our Baby Mum-Mum packaging.
Although these statements are true and each serving of Baby Mum-Mum does not contain any fat, the FDA has brought to our attention that these claims are technically not allowed on our packaging solely because the product is intended for consumption by infants and children under 4 years of age.
In the future, these claims will be removed from our packaging.
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| 10 Most Recent Posts : |
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03.01.2010 Child Nutrition – Infant to Toddler Nutrition Transition
02.28.2010 Baby Health – Prevention is Key Research Goal for Premature Babies
02.26.2010 Child Nutrition – Tips for Feeding Your Toddler
02.25.2010 Baby Development – The First 3 Months
02.24.2010 Baby Nutrition – DHA and Eye Health: Study Supports Omega-3 in Formula
02.22.2010 Child Health – Recommendations for Fluoridated Toothpaste Use in Children
02.18.2010 Child Nutrition – Gluten Free Recipe of the Month: Chewy Granola Bars
02.16.2010 Baby Development – Longer nursing may Aid in Kid’s Mental Health
02.01.2010 Baby Nutrition – Mother’s Milk: What Determines Breastfeeding Rates in the UK?
01.28.2010 Baby Nutrition – Industry Views Sought on Baby Milk Ingredients
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