Kids Eat Real Food!

Kids need REAL food to grow and thrive. The biggest pet peeve of mine is the assumption that kid & adult food is different and that they will only eat processed food. Of course mac n’cheese, chicken nuggets, and pizza are acceptable to most kids if you buy into that logic and that’s all you feed them. These manufactured meals offer tons of calories, but very little nutritional value. A child raised on this diet is likely to become overweight but at the same time be severely malnourished.

The increase in chronic disease and health challenges of children in this country are largely do to nutrient deficiencies, poor digestion, and toxic overload (also lack of exercise, sleep, and play).

It takes more time and persistence, but continually offering your child real homemade food is the most loving thing you can do for them. I understand the challenge. Some kids are very picky and their tastes continually change. But it’s still wise to be persistent in offering them a variety of whole food, knowing that they will one day make better choices.

My son still doesn’t eat kale and spinach (unless they’re in smoothies), but he will eat broccoli, peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. And now that he’s a reasonable 8 year old, we’re able to get him to eat even more veggies in an Asian stir fry or noodle dish. You need to be persistent and continue to model what a healthy diet looks like and your kids will come around eventually!

Dietary Advice For Healthy Kids

Protein, Fat, and Carbohydrates are the basic macrobiotics for balanced nutrition.

If you are under the impression that fat is bad, I’m sorry, but you have been greatly misled by our government and the American Heart Association. Read The One Surprising Thing You Need To Add To Your Diet to learn about why good quality fat is essential for our health and why you should reconsider it’s worth.

Basic dietary guidelines/macrobiotics by age:

~ Complex carbohydrates should consist of mostly organic vegetables and fruits in a 2:1 ratio with no more than 3 servings of whole grains per day. Try seasonal vegetables & fruits, oatmeal, rice, polenta, and buckwheat.

~ Protein should be organic and sourced naturally. Animal sources contain the highest amount of protein per serving. Make sure the animals were fed organic food diets without hormones or processed feeds. Try organic grass fed beef, organic chicken, wild caught salmon, organic whole fat yogurt, organic eggs, nuts and nut butter, and beans/lentils.

~ Fat is the main source of energy for infants from breastmilk. It continues to be important for a child’s brain to develop as they start to explore different foods. Try avocados and their oil, coconut and it’s oil or milk, flax oil, olives and their oil, egg yolk, organic butter, organic nuts & butters, and deep sea fish.

You don’t need to be super strict about the percentages of each macrobiotic, but just be sure that each group is represented and that your child is eating lots of vegetables, protein, and plenty of natural fat.

Dietary Supplements for Kids

Vitamins and minerals are the micronutrients that we all need for our cells to function at their optimum. Unfortunately, farming practices in this country have severely depleted the soil. Even organic fruits and vegetables do not have the nutrients they once did decades ago. Either we need to grow 100% of our food, making sure to feed the soil continuously through organic fertilizers & composting, or we need to supplement.

Choosing supplements can be challenging. A good place to start is visiting your local health food store and speaking to a clerk who has experience using the supplements. My son currently takes dōTERRA’s A2Z chewable multivitamin and IQ Mega Omega-3 oil (he actually asks to have his fish oil everyday!)

Gut Health Basics

My son admiring our homegrown kombucha

I’ve already written about gut health extensively, so revisit these articles to understand what damages gut health (more than most people realize!) and how you can get it back on track. It’s the basis of strong immunity, so an aspect of nutrition you don’t want to ignore!

Improve Your Family’s Gut Health, part 1

Improve Your Family’s Gut Health, part 2

Ideally, try to add fermented vegetables to your child’s meals 1-2 times per day. Pickled cucumbers and carrots, yogurt with no added sugar (add in bananas for the sweetness), and kombucha are usually well accepted. I also suggest supplementing with a probiotic. My son loves dōTERRA’s PB Assist Jr.

I hope these suggestions are clear and get you off to a good start! If you need more help, please post in the comments or reach out to me personally with questions.

You can also revisit these blog posts:

What Does It Mean To Be Healthy?

A Simple Guide To An Organic Lifestyle

3 Quick, Healthy Breakfasts That Will Set You Up For Success

And here’s my favorite websites for kids’ nutrition that will give you even more guidance:

Nourishing Meals – Alyssa Sergersten

Weelicious – Catherine McCord

Weston A. Price Foundation – Children’s Health

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References:

Children’s Health Technique Seminar, Annette Schippel, DC & Doris Kutz-Compton, DC, July 22-23, 2017

Do you have any dietary advice for healthy kids that would benefit other parents?  Please let us know in the comments!

Well wishes to you all…

Insect bites & stings

If pests get past your defenses, try these essential oil remedies to soothe the pain, itch, and swelling (from Modern Essentials, 8th edition):

Bee/Wasp/Hornet stings – After removing stinger, apply a cold compress of Roman Chamomile to the area for as long as possible.

Mosquito bites – apply lavender (diluted as recommended in chart at bottom) to the bites every few hours.

Spider bites – Dilute basil as recommended and apply as a cold compress to the area.

Tick bites – Don’t add oils to remove the tick or they may inject their toxin into the wound! Pull out the whole tick out close to the mouth without twisting. It’s wise to save the tick to get it, and the person bitten, examined by your doctor. Apply 1 drop of lavender to the wound every 5 minutes.

Sunburns

For minor sunburns, mix 10 drops of lavender with 1/4 cup water in a small spray bottle. Be sure to shake well so the oil is suspended in solution before spraying over the affected area.

Poison Oak

Though the red color on the “leaves of three” makes this plant more recognizable in the summer, avoiding it can still be tricky when it comes to kids and pets.

Rose, lavender, and Roman chamomile are all indicated for helping to relieve the itch. However, with conditions like this that ooze blisters, sometimes adding oil alone can spread the rash. You may want to look into combining the power of essential oils with a drying calamine lotion, or see an acupuncturist/Chinese herbalist for a drying solution like this one.

Indigestion

Eating heavily processed, greasy, and low quality foods at amusement parks or on the road can lead to an upset stomachs, gas, bloating, constipation, and/or diarrhea. DōTerra’s DigestZen blend can help immensely with all of these symptoms! Ginger, Fennel and peppermint are the main oils in this blend that help ease discomfort and can regulate the bowels. These oils have also been reported to help relieve food poisoning, stomach bugs, or motion sickness.

You may also consider increasing your whole food supplements to fill in any nutrition gaps, keeping your gut flora happy and your immune system working well while away from home.

Cooling down

Combine 2-3 drops of peppermint with 1/4 cup pure aloe vera and 1/4 cup witch hazel in a spray bottle. Shake well and mist body as needed to cool down which might be especially helpful at night to prevent restless sleep. This solution can also help easy sunburn discomfort.

Do you have any ideas for using essential oils in the Summer? Please let us know in the comments!  And if you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends!

The liver is the organ that processes the body’s hormonal and metabolic waste as well as toxins.   A toxin is anything that stresses the body and decreases health.  Examples of toxins are pesticides and sugar in our food, phthalates in skin products, and sodium laurel sulfate in hair products.  Then, there’s chlorine & fluoride added to our city water, pollutants in the air, plastics, metals, pharmaceutical medications, etc.

The liver is aided by our excretory system and toxins are expelled through our sweat, urine, and bowel movements. This is an awesomely efficient system, except when the liver gets overwhelmed and sluggish. Typically, our bowels slow down and we experience constipation, weight gain, and inflammation.  Subsequently, skin rashes and acne may result from this GI tract congestion.

What are other signs that your body needs to cleanse? Take this questionnaire to find out.

We are more challenged than ever with environmental toxins.  Therefore, it’s nice to give the liver some extra support a few times a year with a thorough cleanse.

There are several whole food diet programs that help reduce the load on the liver and clear out all the excretory organs. However, many of these programs are quite challenging to stick with.

Fortunately, there are many changes you can make at home to help your body detox easily every day. Here’s how…

6 Ways To Detox At Home

1. Avoid Toxins!

Of course, it’s better to avoid toxins as much as you can.  Here are the things you want to look out for and change if possible.

• Adopt an organic lifestyle to avoid pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
• Stop eating sugary, processed, packaged, and fast food made with trans fat.
• Avoid eating and drinking from plastics, cooking with aluminum foil and teflon, wearing fire retardants in clothes, burning candles and other synthetics substances, etc., whenever possible.
• Switch to natural beauty products that meet the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Skin Deep criteria.
• Avoid pharmaceutical medications and seek out natural alternatives from a holistic health practitioners.
• Get home water and air filters.

2. Drink a few glasses of water first thing in the morning

Encourage peristalsis and get the bowels moving with a nice big flush of room temperature water.  If you add lemon and a splash of apple cider vinegar,  you’ll stimulate the liver and gall bladder to increase digestive function.

3. Load up on vegetables and fruits

Nature provides the best detoxing program! Just about every fruit and vegetable can support the liver and bowels in eliminating toxins.  However, some work better than others:

Top 10 Foods for Detoxing

Just make sure that they you’re eating organic produce or you’re missing the point!

4. Sweat it out

Saunas, steam showers, and hot baths have numerous therapeutic qualities. Releasing toxins is one of them.

In one study, samples were collected from 20 individuals (10 “healthy” and 10 with known health problems). “BPA (bisphenol-A from plastics) was found to differing degrees in each of blood, urine, and sweat. In 16 of 20 participants, BPA was identified in sweat, even in some individuals with no BPA detected in their serum or urine samples.”

5. Essential oils

Applying essential oils topically is an easy way to support organ detoxification.  Place a few drops on the liver area (right side of lower rib cage) and the soles of the feet (where there are numerous reflexology points) .

The oils below have antioxidant effects, support organ cleansing, and make up the dōTERRA Zendocrine Detoxification Blend:

• Cilantro
• Rosemary
• Juniper Berry
• Tangerine
• Geranium

6. Epsom salt baths

Soaking in an epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) bath pulls out heavy metals and other toxins through our porous skin. Dr. Axe suggests adding 2 cups of epsom salt to hot/very warm bath water and soak for 40 minutes.   (20 min. to purge toxins + 20 min. to replenish magnesium which helps with sleep & digestion!).

If you’re needing a detox, adopting one or more of these practices at home is a good place to start!

Do you have experience cleansing with one of these techniques? How did it work for you? Anything else to suggest? Let us know in the comments!

I’m dying to try out these disgusting, yet nutritious apple bites, probably substituting almond butter for the Sunbutter for our play group.

2. Give out healthier treats on Halloween night

For trick-or-treaters, you can add to their health by giving out non-food items like cute erasers, glow-in the dark bracelets, stickers and such.

Or if you still want to give out candy, consider passing out treats that are organic, lower in sugar, and free of artificial colors and flavors. This fun option that has just 6g of sugar (oops, I swear it wasn’t me who already sampled this open package!)

But for the pulp, I prefer to roast sugar pie pumpkins to make pureé instead. It’s not as challenging as you may think, and can be super fun if you let the kids participate. You can eat pumpkin pureé as it as is, maybe seasoned with a little cinnamon and maple syrup. Or add it to yogurt, oatmeal, soup, or a pancake recipe. And of course, you can make pie!

Here’s some recipes your family with love…

Healthy Pumpkin Recipes

Easy Roasted Pumpkin Pureé based on recipe from Weelicious

Choose a healthy, blemish-free sugar pie pumpkin

1. Heat oven to 400°F.
2. Cut out a hole at the top of the pumpkin and just like you’re going to carve it, go ahead and scoop out the insides, placing the seeds into a bowl of water if choosing to save them for roasting separately.
3. Place pumpkin on baking sheet and cook for 40 minutes.
4. Fit top back on pumpkin and bake for another 20 minutes or until tender.
5. Remove top again and cool until easy to handle.
6. Scoop out the pumpkin and either mash, run it through a food mill, or pureé in a blender/food processor.

Use the  pureé in any of these Healthy Pumpkin Recipes:

Creamy Paleo Pumpkin Soup (dairy-free) by Tessa Domestic Diva

Healthy Pumpkin Pancakes (Gluten-free) by Paleo Grubs

Pumpkin Pie From Scratch by Food Foundation

20 Paleo Pumpkin Recipes by Against All Grain

And here’s a quick and easy recipe to roast pumpkin seeds:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds by Allrecipes

Enjoy!!

Do you like eating pumpkin in season? Are there any recipes you think we should try? Please let us know in the comments!

Maybe you heard it from your grandmother, or maybe from a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, like me: you need to stay warm in cold weather to prevent illness!

Until fairly recently, medical doctors believed this was a folk myth – only microorganisms can get you sick, not the weather. And because people crowd closer together indoors when it’s cold, they are more likely to share germs. But researchers at Yale have confirmed now that colder weather (and a colder body) actually slows our immune response, making rhinovirus and other pathogens more likely to get us sick.

TCM practitioners have known this about cold weather for thousands of years. Here’s a greater explanation of why you should listen to them (and your grandmother) when it comes to preventing illness when the temperatures drop.

How Weather Influences Us From A TCM Perspective

Cold is considered one of the “6 Evils”, along with Wind, Heat/Fire, Summer Heat, Damp, and Dryness. This might sound a little wacky to a modern mind, but if you place yourself in a world thousands of years ago when TCM was first developed, it makes perfect sense.

This is simply the way the Chinese explained how humans can be negatively affected by changes in nature. And what is happening outside of us can influence our inner landscape. For our discussion here about illness during cold weather, we are focusing on Cold and Wind.

Cold

External cold can create inner cold from the TCM perspective. Cold is congealing (think of water forming ice). It stagnates our vital energy and inhibits free movement of blood (slowing our immune response). It can also lead to sluggishness and cause muscles to contract & joints to stiffen.

This is why we TCM practitioners suggest that you stay warm in cold weather!

It’s why we use heat instead of ice to circulate energy around stiff, painful muscles & joints.

It’s why we suggest you limit cold, raw foods to the hottest months of the year and eat well-cooked food as well as inherently warmer foods (like onion and garlic if tolerated), during the rest of the year.

And it’s also why we suggest drinking fluids at room temperature or warmer.

Wind

The ancient Chinese Text Nei Jing says that “100 diseases develop from Wind”.

External Wind carries with it microorganisms and allergens. It’s light, airy, changes quickly, and likes to combine with other influences.

When wind is created in the body by itself, we experience dizziness, gas, tinnitus, tremors, and convulsions, depending on where it shows up in the body. When combined with Cold, a condition called Wind-Cold is created, which presents as initial symptoms of the Common Cold: stiff neck, headache, runny nose, chills, and possibly a fever.

Stay Warm to Prevent Wind-Cold Illness

Wind carries Cold into the body (in addition to Heat, but we’re not going there today). Certain areas of the body are more vulnerable than others, particularly the head, neck, and upper back. There is even a point on the upper back called Wind Gate that we use to “release exterior wind” when someone gets a cold. It’s important to stop the “invasion” here before Cold progresses to the Lungs and causes further complications.

But remember, any experience of cold and shivering with any exposed body part can lower your immune response, so these are not the only areas we need to guard.

Staying cooped up indoors is not a healthy option. Getting fresh air is still a good idea.

So how do you prevent Wind-Cold invasion?

Simply…

• Wear a scarf and hat
• Cover up immediately when your pores are open, like after a sweaty gym workout or getting out of a hot bath
• Wear socks or slippers in the house, especially on cold tile floors
• Wear pants and shoes (seriously Californians!)

Of course there’s still a chance you can get sick.  Your body will be able to cope so much better if you continue to stay covered and warm while you heal from the cold with natural remedies.

In Conclusion

Suffering from the wind and cold is not fun, so why don’t we listen to our bodies and just cover up? I know you don’t want to get sick and you certainly don’t want your family members to get sick either.

Hopefully the information I shared here is enough to encourage you to cover up sufficiently (in addition to eating well and avoiding stress) to protect your immune system and prevent colds. Because not everyone exposed to rhinovirus and influenza gets sick – only those who have a weakened immune system.

Next week we’ll look at TCM treatments you can apply at home if you do actually get ill…

What do you think about keeping your self warm to prevent illness?  As always, I’d love to read your comments and have a discussion about this!

There’s one food you need to add to your diet to maintain optimum health, which you might not prioritize right now. That food is high quality FAT. This may be surprising to you if you only get dietary advice from doctors who align with the United States Department of Agriculture, who don’t recognize the importance of fat.  You might be wondering:

• Which fats are healthy?

• Which fat is good, saturated or unsaturated?

• What are examples of good fats?

In this article, I’ll answer these questions and teach you how fat is an essential nutrient that can give your health a big boost!

How Fat Brought Me Back To Health

For most of my life I ate the popular high-carbohydrate (whole-grain centered), moderate protein, low-fat diet to manage my weight and sustain health, as my doctors and health magazines suggested. However, even though I was committed to what I assumed was a balanced diet, I wasn’t healthy. I had terrible digestion, I had acne, and I started to gain weight. I finally woke up and started to question this dietary approach when diagnosed with Hashimoto’s (autoimmune) thyroiditis in my early 30’s.

Since that time, I’ve made many lifestyle & dietary changes that have helped to manage symptoms. Transitioning away from vegetarianism and committing to a traditional whole food diet made the most dramatic change. This included adding more fat to my diet every day. Not just any fat, but SATURATED FAT. Yes, the kind that the American Heart Association is still blaming on clogged arteries and heart disease.

More on that in a moment, but back to my story…

In this last year, I’ve gradually increased the amount of high quality fat in my diet. It’s what my body is craving the most! Currently, I’m exploring a combo Autoimmune Paleo / Ketogenic Diet. According to my last blood panels, I’m closer to remission (and my pre-baby shape!) than ever. And by the way, my blood pressure and cholesterol are well within normal limits.

Current Research on the Importance of Fat

I’m a huge fan of fat, as are many holistically-minded people these days. There is a ton of research out there disproving that saturated fat causes heart disease.

Check out this article, where Dr. Aseem Malhotra, consultant cardiologist at London’s Lister Hospital says (based on meta-analysis, review of previous studies, and personal experience):

“This idea that dietary saturated fats build up in the coronary arteries is complete unscientific nonsense.”

And yet the AHA is holding on tight to it’s claims in a recent health report which again urges us to avoid saturated fats and replace them with unsaturated fats. They deny the importance of fat.  Coconut oil in particular was targeted as being unhealthy. I will not refute this claim here myself because others have already done a beautiful job:

Dr. Mercola – American Heart Association Renders Itself Obsolete With 1960’s Dietary Advice On Coconut Oil

Dr. Axe – Is Coconut Oil Healthy (The American Heart Association Doesn’t Think So)

This thorough article on coconut oil shows us how versatile and important it is in our diets and lifestyle!

52+1 Reasons to Love Coconut Oil

Fat is essential in our diets! Here’s more on the benefits of saturated fats in particular since their importance is the most misunderstood.

10 Important functions of saturated fats in human biology:

1. Half of our cell membranes are made up of saturated fatty acids, giving them structure and integrity.
2. Fat contains loads of vitamin A, D, E, and K and fat is needed to absorb these fat-soluble nutrients into the small intestine.
3. Fat and cholesterol are building blocks of brain tissue and needed continuously to maintain function.
4. Saturated fats protect the liver from alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and other toxins.
5. Kids need fat in order to develop properly. Nutritional dwarfing and inadequate weight gain have been observed in children placed on low-fat diets.
6. Researchers have shown that children oxidize fat quicker than adults and therefore need more. Even the American Family Physician (who is more in-line with government dietary suggestions) cautions against limiting fat and cholesterol in children less than 2 years old.
7. Increasing dietary fat while decreasing carbohydrates (favoring low-carb vegetables instead of grains) lowers blood sugar and insulin levels and also promotes healthy weight by balancing metabolism.
8. Cholesterol in foods with a lot of saturated fat is needed to make bile salts, steroid hormones (progestagens, glucocorticoids, mineralocorticoids, androgens, and estrogens), and vitamin D.
9. Eating fat keeps you satiated, reducing overeating. Try it and see for yourself!
10. Saturated fats support healthy thyroid function by making receptors more available to use T3 thyroid hormone.

Dietary fats are definitely not equal though! The infographic below is what I know to be true about what we should indulge in and what we should avoid.

Good vs. Bad Fats

The concern with “bad” fats is that most are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which have unstable chemical structures that leave them vulnerable to damage from heat, light, and oxygen.

Damaged PUFAs = Oxidation = Inflammation = Chronic issues like cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, fatty liver disease, some cancers, and much more.

Also, PUFAs are made up of Omega-6 fatty acids. Our ancestors ate diets with 1:1 ratios of Omega-3 to Omega-6 oils. However, modern Americans typically eat greater than 10X more Omega-6 than Omega-3. The imbalance causes inflammation (and the diseases mentioned above) in addition to damaging of gut flora.

This article has a very thorough explanation about the dangers of PUFAs if you’d like to learn more.

I hope this post gives you a greater appreciation of fat in our diets and that you recognize it’s importance. And if it makes sense to you to eat more fat, then please do! Your gut, brain, and hormones with thank you! If you’re not sure how you feel about fat, saturated in particular, then I hope this post was thought-provoking and you look into it further.

I’d love to know how you feel about the role of fat in human diets and about animal vs. plant fats. Also, are the amounts/types you’re consuming working for you? Please let us know in the comments!