Time to read: 5 minutes. You need to get nutritious foods into your child’s body — not to be educated on their benefits.  Preferably without the crying, begging or attempts to con your child.  Fail, fail, fail.  Today I’m revealing a three step process to do-away-with your veggie-refusin’ picky eater — forever.  Don’t give up yet.  Read on and join the many parents who’ve overcome picky eating to create happier, healthier kids!

First, please don’t think that you’ve heard all there is to hear — and tried everything there is to try — only to fail.   Yes, your child will give it a try.  Follow me.  Success will not happen overnight but it will happen if you are consistent yourself — and patient with your child.

Action step #1:  Make a smooth move

Got an infant?  Steam some green (this is critical) veggies for 4-5 minutes and put them in the food processor for 1 minute.  Done.  Let cool and serve or freeze for later.  Do you have minutes to make a healthy meal PACKED with nutrients?  Yes, you do, hot mama.   Plan your day otherwise the day will plan you.

Got a full-blown, militantly anti-veggie child?  Or maybe the only thing they’ll eat is “foods with colors that are a variation on beige” as my husband’s friend once said about his son.  No problem.  Make your child a healthy drink.

As an example:  A green smoothie.  How to create a green smoothie?  More importantly one that your child will honestly crave?  Here we go…

Use pure water, or coconut water, as a liquid base in the blender.  Use the fruit that your child loves.  Take your pick.  Toss in a few dark green leafy vegetables (they must be dark green, please) and a little honey to make it more sweet if needed.  Honey is an insanely-nutritious, beneficial, natural form of sugar.  Don’t go overboard but get that honey going.

The Golden Rule for picky eater success:  Start with 80% fruits and 20% greens in the beginning and, over time, slowly decrease the fruit and honey and increase the greens to maximize health benefits.

Here is a sample recipe you can start with.  Again, use your child’s favorite fruits.  Mine are just examples.

Killer green smoothie

1 cup coconut water (coconut water is full with electrolytes and is great way for re-hydration)

1 mango

1 banana

1/2 cup strawberries

1/2 cup organic spinach 1/2 cup ice

Blend in the blender and and serve.  This way your child receives a mega-dose of vital nutrients that are necessary for the day.  If you can work 2 smoothies in per day you won’t need to wage battle over eating veggies at the dinner table.

Go crazy and toss in some chocolate.  Yes, you can say yes to chocolate but in its raw form.

Toss 1 tsp. of raw cacao powder into the above smoothie.  Raw cacao powder is the best source of magnesium on Earth.  It’s FILLED with powerful anti-oxidants that will keep your child healthy, happy and disease-free.

Brave enough?  Toss in 2 tbs. hemp seeds (a tremendous source of protein).  They don’t really taste like anything and your child gets a natural protein boost.  (essential because most artificial, man-made protein supplements don’t actually absorb into our bodies!)

Or you can use dates for sweetening up the taste.  Natural forms of sugar are MUCH more healthy and beneficial for kids.  PLUS your child gets tons of needed fiber from dates.

Action step #2:  Create desserts using tasty, nutrient-dense Superfoods

Create desserts (like cookies) out of Superfoods.  Skip the bleached flower and refined sugars.  Here’s how.  This is one of my son’s favorite recipes you can use.  Rip me off!

Goji berry cookies

1/2 cup goji berries

1   Tbs. hemp seeds

1/2 cup almonds (raw)

2   Tbs. coconut butter

1   Tbs. coconut oil

3   Dates

First put the goji berries and the Almonds in the food processor.  After they combine well add the rest:  coconut butter, coconut oil and the Dates.  Blend for another minute.  Put the dough in a bowl and add the Hemp seed.  Fold gently.  Roll as a balls or make a flat cookie shape — take your pick.  Put them in the freezer for at list 30 min.   Enjoy. This is a treat that you do not have to use restriction rules.  No, seriously.  Cookies without restriction.  They’re Superfood cookies!

Action step #3:  Create snacks using Superfoods

Create snacks from dark green leafy vegetables as an example.  No, really.  Hear me out.  I have yet to meet a child who rejected these and I meet a LOT of kids in my business.  I want to share my kale chips recipe with you.

Kale chips

1 bunch organic duno (or “elephant”) kale (this is best but any kale will do)

3 tbs. raw honey (must be raw to get the nutrients!)

1/2 organic lemon

pinch celtic salt (again, loaded with nutrients)

1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Cut the stems from the kale leaves.  In a bowl combine the squeezed lemon juice, honey, salt.   Mix together.  Add the kale leaves and make sure every part of the leaf is coated with the mixture in the bowl.  Leave it for ah hour so — let the kale absorb the mixture.  Put the leaves in a dehydrator on 115F for 8 hours — or in your oven on the lowest setting for 2 hours.   Enjoy crispy nutritional chips with great health benefits.

Empower yourself by getting real

Be honest with yourself.  If you do this one thing you’ll multiply your chances of success — you’ll win over the picky eater.

Reality:  Our palates are “trained” the moment we start eating solid foods as kids.

Reality:  WE (parents & caregivers) are in control of what our kids eat.  If we want to, we can start serving them food — real food — rather than buying jarred baby food or other processed foods from the store that are nutritionally poor.

Reality:  You have the time.  You have nothing but time.  You simply need to adjust your priorities.  Sure, you have nothing but priorities — got it.  But if you truly care about your child’s health you will invest MINUTES per day to make better health a reality.  It will feel great to make your child’s health a priority — far better than showing them a good time at Chuck E Cheese.  Trust me.  There’s something in it for you too.

When you start is critical

The earlier you start with your child the faster and the better result you will have. But if you child is of an age where eating habits are already formed do NOT give up.

Parents and caregivers create the eating habits our children have today.  We bear this responsibility.  But it’s not a burden.  We make the food choices we make every day.  Our children don’t have any idea what is good for them and what is bad.  They do not go to the store and buy the food that is in our pantry and our fridge.  We do.

This is how, unknowingly, we create their eating habits.  This… my friends… is how we train their taste buds and develop their palate. And this process is on-going.  This is why there’s hope… opportunity.

If you start from early days to introduce conventional, nutritionally depleted foods — made with highly refined sugars and additional fillers — this is what your kid will crave throughout his/her life.  But if you start with home-made or natural, organic nutritionally-dense food (Superfood snacks, green smoothies) this is what your child will learn to crave.

So take action now and start making these delicious recipes – take the first step towards raising a healthy, happy child.  Not to mention saving yourself a lot of headaches!

photo credit: technopinoy

Being responsible for your family’s health doesn’t need to be a drag, says Dr. Rob Streisfeld.  “Believe me, you can have a lot of fun — live a cool and active lifestyle — that has health as a foundation to it.  It doesn’t have to be ‘oh I’m giving up the fun stuff and the enjoyment just so I can be a little healthier.’  That’s totally not the case.”

If you missed this week’s live teleseminar on creating wellness naturally through a fun, new approach to eating you’re in luck.  You can now listen to it on your own busy schedule.  Just click below and listen now or download it for when you have the time.

In just 40 minutes we covered how to:

• Make prevention an expression of style – making character-defining choices (just like our fashion, hair, etc.)
• Use chocolate and salt to get healthy — yes, healthy!
• Create better health by taking things ONE or TWO steps at a time — not “all or nothing” change
• Work WITH your cravings — turn them into our tools for better health!
• Improve how you look & feel by getting back to basics: Traditional fermented foods and kombucha
• Use food to boost immunity, fight depression, relieve stress and increase overall health — TODAY

Click the PLAY button below to listen or DOWNLOAD HERE.

40 MINUTES

Want to be alerted to our next teleseminar?
Just sign up below and I’ll send you an email!

• Prevent the swine flu / H1N1 naturally
• Use Superfoods to boost immunity, fight depression, relieve stress and increase overall health
• Fall in love with kale, raw cacao and berries like acai and goji?
• Use surprisingly delicious, simple treats and desserts that appeal to your inner-most food cravings
• Quickly make ridiculously healthy desserts and smoothies — and have fun doing it
• Boost brain chemistry, increase energy, sharpen memory, fight disease, reduce child obesity
• Begin incorporating organic “living” foods and dairy-free treats into your family’s daily routine

Click the PLAY button below to listen or DOWNLOAD HERE.

50 MINUTES

Want to be alerted to our next teleseminar? Just sign up below and I’ll send you an email!

Hi, everyone.  Just a quick note to remind you that I’ll be making presentations live at Chicago’s The Kids Table — talking about how Superfoods can help prevent disease by giving you a bigger, better bodyguard.  In other words your immune system!  Register now… while there’s still space left.  We have limited seating and cost is $45.  And yes we WILL be firing up the blender making snacks, desserts and treats.

Win a free Superfoods smoothies/desserts starter kit valued at $100!
AND
Get 7 easy tips on how to start eating your way to better health.

Register below and attend my rockin’, live teleseminar this week and you’ll get the tips AND a chance at winning $100 worth of cacao, acai and other goodies.  If you’re not in Chicago (can’t make it to Wicker Park for The Kids Table) or just lazy and want to listen from home be sure to tune in.   I’ll give you 7 easy ways to start ENJOYING cold and flu season — by improving your immune system using delicious treats.  No, really!

Elena Marre, owner of Kids Table and picky eater expert, says her 7 year old son,

Aleks, “asked for a lifetime supply after tasting my dairy-free, nut-free, sugar-free and amazingly-good-for-you ‘ice cream. And this boy is not easily pleased!”

Sign up NOW

Time to read: 7 minutes

Everything in the store is “low sodium” or “no transfats” or “fat free” or “low sugar “or “lite”… yet we’re all getting heavier. Fact.  Child obesity rates have more than tripled since 1980.  Fact.  Constipation in children is a growing problem.  Fact.  You can blame evil marketers and their manipulative ways or you can join me in DOING something about these trends.  Let’s “call bull” on food that isn’t food.  Ok — if you read the following weight loss tips for kids and constipation tips you’ll be more successful at raising healthier children.  I promise.  Stand with me and say, “hey, that yogurt and bread isn’t yogurt OR bread!”  Let’s quickly take a quick look at why you should — and HOW you can — help treat child obesity and constipation in children — by doing what you’ve always wanted to do.  Dump fake “food” and say yes to healthier kids. 

To keep it simple, I’m listing off my top “good foods gone bad.”  We’ll discuss how to avoid them without going totally insane.  Ready?  Go!

Open your fridge…

Open your fridge.  See that cheese that isn’t cheese?  You know, the stuff that our government reluctantly insists marketers call “cheese food.”  Toss it!  And while you’re at it take a closer look at other faux foods like most yogurts that aren’t yogurts, pizzas that aren’t pizzas, canned soups that aren’t soups, sliced breads that we all know aren’t bread and cereals that we’ve always known aren’t cereal.

Ok — I promised you that this wouldn’t make you insane and by now you might be wondering, “is she one of those organic ‘food Nazi’s?’”  I’m not asking you to “go organic.”  I’m asking you to act on what you KNOW is true.

When we indulge on foods that we willingly believe are good and healthy for us — when deep down in our hearts we know otherwise — we’re lying to ourselves.

As Dr. Phil likes to say, “and how’s that working for you?”  (lying to yourself)  For most of us, the results are ugly.

Solve the health care crisis: Stop eating junk

According to a new report adult obesity is also increasing in 23 states.  Here’s the worst part: is not decreasing ANYWHERE.  Not a single state in the past year, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009, a report by the Trust for America’s Health.  The percentage of overweight children is at or above 30 percent in 30 states.

The report warns that half of America will be dangerously obese by next year.  Literally.  We are facing national crisis if we continuing to act on ignorance — or look the other way.  If you’re looking for an answer to the national health care crisis it’s right here.  We are what we eat.  So what do we eat?

Food that isn’t Food

There are a lot of causes of obesity — many are psychological.  Today, I’m aiming my gun at food itself.  Fish, cereal, yogurt and other basic foods can be very healthy — until they’re corrupted by mass manufacturing.

Scientific fact:

The more food is processed, the less nutritious (unhealthier) it becomes.

Fish Sticks

The name sounds patently silly doesn’t it?  Ever think about that?  Fish is considered a healthy food — and it is.  Mass produced fish sticks are usually made of pollock… rather healthy.  The “stick” part seems to be the remaining TWENTY ingredients listed on the box which typically aren’t healthy.

Solution: Fish is healthy food when the ingredients list contain mostly one ingredient: FISH

Yogurt

Where I grew up people made their own yogurt: essentially milk fermented with certain bacteria. Done! This is high in protein, calcium and vitamins.  We humans do not have the the necessary enzymes to digest the protein in milk — and yogurt’s properties make it a better choice.

Next time you find yourself in the diary section browsing packages (because that’s how most of us buy our bacteria+milk) get a grip! What’s sold in mainstream American supermarkets under the name “yogurt” is not yogurt — by definition.  It’s a dairy dessert loaded with (you’ve convinced yourself it’s ‘complimented by’) high fructose corn syrup (or sugar if you’re real lucky!) and processed fruit.  It’s labeled as a healthy food when, in fact, it’s damn un-healthy and in many cases dangerous.

Not to mention the price of the stuff!  We’re paying a premium on fake “healthy food.”  You’re welcome!

Solution: Invest in an in-expensive yogurt maker.  They exist!  It takes 5 minutes to bring the milk to a boil, mix it with yogurt starter and leave it it overnight at 90 degree temperature.  You are both in control of what’s in the yogurt and saving money.

Canned Soup

Soup is remarkably healthy, inexpensive and easy to make.  A lunch of hearty homemade soup and bread, cooked in bulk and frozen in individual containers for the week, will cost less than a dollar a day.  Nearly all canned soups, on the other hand, are un-nutritious concoctions of salt, fat, artificial additives, preservatives, water and maybe part of some vegetables (with their color so fadeed that they do not look like veggies).  One serving typically contains 1,000 milligrams of sodium — about half your daily allowance.  Makes sense right?!?!

Solution:  Invest 15 minutes of your time and make your own home made, fresh soup and be in control of all the flavors — and save money.

Sliced Bread

The most common form of bread in America is the mass-produced white, soft doughy bread in plastic bags with a shelf life of weeks.  Nutritionists agree it is often a major contributor to obesity and diabetes.

True bread is flour and water with a pinch of salt and yeast.  Yes, you need to chew it — I’m sorry.  Some people even like it that way! 

Most packaged white bread contains flour and our good friend sugar (or high froctose corn syrup) — and plenty of it.  Oh, and often a dozen other ingredients.  The processing creates a food product that, once eaten, is quickly converted to blood sugar, called glucose.  This causes the pancreas to work overtime and ultimately destroys the organ.  Even mass-produced whole wheat breads are unhealthy because they are made palatable by a rather unholy trinity of sugar, salt and softening additives.  Palatable to those of us who are trained to only eat cake — oops… I mean, processed white bread!

Solution: Buy bread.  Real bread.  The ingredients list contains the following: Wheat flower, salt, yeast, oil and water (any seeds are fine too).

Breakfast Cereal

The word “cereal” has been hijacked!  Yes, once again by food producers who make tiny, crunchy breakfast cakes out of true cereal with the addition of sugar, corn syrup, salt, food dyes and preservatives.  Because what good is cereal if it goes bad in a few months right? We apparently need more than a year to eat cereal??!!

Hey… this is probably why this “cereal” is so expensive too.  They contain all these ingredients that shouldn’t be there. Real cereals — like  wheat, barley, rice and oats, to name a few – are and have always been the most important food of the human race.

Solution: Real cereal is far healthier and far cheaper.  If you want the healthy benefits of a cereal buy the real stuff.  Just read the label.  Get ready to bypass plenty of boxes on the shelf at the store!

Pizza

I’m sad that most Americans have never eaten pizza and confuse it for the junk food advertised on television and in the frozen section.  In Italy there are laws defining pizza — which set allowances on the type of flour, tomato, mozzarella, olive oil, basil and oregano.  Kinda like Champagne.  You’d not buy fake Champagne would you?

Pizza is inherently nutritious and filling.  Street corner pizza shops in Philadelphia, New York and other large cities kept close to the original idea of simple, fresh ingredients. Then came the pizza chains which put most local shops out of business. Fresh ingredients were replaced with preservative-laden, cheap and fatty ingredients that could be mass-produced, frozen and shipped across the country. Commercial pizza is now a high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium, low-nutrient food.  

So next time when you thing of a nutrition breakfast, lunch or dinner for your child spend 30 min. to prepare real food. And don’t look at those 30 minutes like wasted time because it’s not. You are investing time to serve your child and your family nutritional needs.  Pay with your time and save big time on your doctor’s bill.

Remember — the healthiest foods have no list of ingredients.  They are what they are.  Got questions?  Think I’m a crazy person?  Get in touch with me.

Time to read: 2.5 minutes

Acai (pronounced “ah-sah-ee”) is a nutritional, energizing fruit that gives you more antioxidant and amino acid bang-for-the-buck than nearly every other food on Earth.  Forget about the scam advertisements, weight-loss pills etc.   It’s a superfood with remarkable powers:  supporting your immune system, digestive functions, eye health and — many suggest — mental clarity.   You’ll notice that I didn’t mention weight loss or quick fix pills being pumped by everyone from Oprah to email spammers.  I recently came back from Brazil where I tasted fresh berries.  WOW!  Acai is street food in Rio de Janiero has been used for FAR longer than down there versus the U.S.   It’s valued for NOT for weight management — more for it’s nutritional properties.  Did I mention how addicted I became to its taste in the form of an ice-cream like smoothie?  Keep reading and I’ll share a rockin’ recipe with you too.

You haven’t heard of the Acai berry? Well get on board… it well known in Brazil but not in the States until recently. Today every one is talking about Acai and how to lose weight by taking Acai pills.  Is this the most important benefit of this nutritious fruit and if so why? Well isn’t not a surprise.  Again we are facing the influence of marketing. Once again marketing is setting trends and consumer buying habits.

Acai actually possesses far more benefits including boosting our immune systems and digestive functions.

Acai pills are being promoted  everywhere from Oprah to filling up you spam box every single day. Unfortunately, losing weight (sometimes with deadly pills) earns the public’s attention.  It’s more important for us to find a quick fix to get slim rather than develop healthy habits — work at our health a little.  The result?

Mother nature’s superfoods get reduced to marketing gimmicks.  Acai just happens to posses qualities that can BOTH aid weight management and energize our body in remarkable ways… but weight loss gets all the attention.

Mega-antioxidant!

So now let’s get serious and discover the nutritional properties of Acai.  The berry is grown in the Eastern Amazon and Guianas, Northen Brazil, Venezuela and Trinidad… and flooded areas.  Hence, it’s no surprise that Acai isn’t very well known in most parts of the world.

Acai offers us:

- a remarkable concentration of antioxidants
- an almost perfect essential amino acid profile (like few other foods)
- a healthy fatty acid content similar to olive oil
- a uniquely full array of natural vitamins, minerals and trace minerals.
(Vitamin B1, B2, B3, C ans E. Very high in potash, calcium, iron, magnesium and phosphorous)
-  large amounts of plant sterols (phytochemicals with numerous health benefits)
-  significant amounts of natural fiber

The payoff: A simple, fast acai superfood recipe

Now let’s take an action on what we know.  Let’s experience the benefits of Acai.  Here is a simple recipe  I’ve developed in my own practice for a great start in the morning.

3 Tbs. Acai (pure juice)
2 Tbs. raw cacao powder
the meat of one young coconut
1 cup organic baby spinach
1 cup water
ice cubes

Blend everything in the blender.  Enjoy together with your child and thank Brazil for producing this fantastic fruit!

And I highly recommend you take a trip to Rio and fly with the rather famous Chico Santos — who I just happened to run into. What luck. I got to fly with a world famous hang gliding pilot! Thanks, Chico and also to my hosts, James Heffernan and Gianpaola Guidotti.

Time to read: 2 minutes

Hey, I’m all about the truth and spinach has some surprising downsides.  Yes, too much of a good thing can be bad for you — including spinach.  Did you know that to avoid problems — and extract the most nutritional value from this famously nutritious veggie — you need to ingest olive oil?  It’s no coincidence that Olive Oyl was Popeye’s gal pal… it’s scientific fact!  Most of the vitamins in spinach need “good fat” to fully assimilate into our bodies. You’ve heard me and others praise spinach… now let’s take a fair and balanced look at the seriously surprising cons of spinach.

How spinach can hurt you

Spinach can be tricky.  It contains goitrogens which are naturally occurring substances in some foods that can interfere with the functioning of the thyroid gland. Cooking helps to deactivate the goitrogenic compounds but the risk to those with thyroid problems is not fully known.

Spinach also contains another naturally occurring substance called purine.  I know — it sounds like a great brand name of something that’s actually bad for you!  Seriously… purine is in spinach.  Excessive consumption of spinach can lead to excessive accumulation of uric acid in the body from the purine. Gout and kidney stones from uric acid are two examples of problems related to excessive consumption of foods containing purine.

Spinach also contains measurable amounts of naturally occurring oxalates.  When oxalates become overly concentrated in body fluids, they can crystallize and cause problems with kidneys and gall bladder.

You should also know that pesticides are often found in spinach — and any other dark green leafy vegetables.

To avoid the health risks from pesticides buy only organic dark leafy green vegetables.

Also, all of the green leafy vegetables contain alkaloids (alkaloids: sometimes toxic, bitter tasting, nitrogen-containing organic compounds released by plants). Even though they are in very small amounts I use different greens every day for my son’s smoothies.

By mixing it up a bit I’m eliminating the possibilities of accumulating certain alkaloids in the body.

Bottom line: Mix it up, include essential fats

I’m not suggesting you to eliminate spinach from your diet.  That would be foolish considering the remarkable benefits.  These concerns mean that spinach should be a part of a diet that is composed of a wide variety of foods.

With this in mind, when you make a smoothie with spinach to add some kind of “good fat” (as an example, coconut or olive oil).  Or when serving your child a salad, dress-it-up with hemp oil or flax seed oil.  Most of the vitamins (A, E) in spinach are fat soluble so in order to get all the benefits from them and to fully assimilate them we need to add fat.

Time to read: 1.5 minutes

We often hear “you are what you eat” but it’s a poor motivator.  Who cares… really!  “Eat this and avoid Alzheimer’s disease” or “… feed this  to your child and watch his intelligence blossom” is far more meaningful and TRUE.  Research proves — one particular green leafy vegetable helps protect the brain from naturally occurring (as we age) free radical damage and slows age-related declines in brain power.  It also improves learning capacity and motor skills.

Spinach is one of THE brain foods

Researchers agree — spinach has the strongest association with slowing down the cognitive decline by 40%.   It helps slow age-related declines in brain power.  Spinach will improve learning capacity and motor skills — no matter what the age.

The Chicago Health and Aging Project, reported by World’s Healthiest Foods, suggests that eating just three servings of green leafy, yellow, and cruciferous vegetables each day could slow down cognitive decline* by 40%.  This equates to getting back around five years of youthful memory/brain power according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center.

Here’s how spinach does it

-Vitamin K – which functions in retaining calcium in the bone matrix where it promotes bone mineralization.

- Vitamin A

- manganese, copper, magnesium, zinc, iron, and phosphorus

- excellent source of Vitamin B1, B2, and B6,

- good source of B3

- decent amount of Omega – 3

- lutein ( a major fighter against eye diseases)

- good source of protein

Our brain is like  any other organ in our body. We must take good care of and exercise it every day in order to maintain its full capacities… and one the first steps is to offer it the best (most nutritious) foods possible.

Of course spinach is not the only food that supports memory. Memory is too complicated a process and requires a great variety of nutrients than any single food can provide.  (to be continued)

* cognetive decline: is a decrease in the ability of brain to perform regular functions like judgement, reasoning, memory, learning and understanding

Don’t ever say ‘NO’ again when your child ask you for ice cream… Forget weight loss programs for kids that TAKE AWAY pleasures from children… or failed potty training techniques.  Check out my recipe for what I call my Cranberry ‘Ice Cream’ Sensation.

1 pound of cranberries (frozen or fresh)
1 cup of spinach ( Yes, spinach…trust me you wont taste it)
2 tbs. raw agave syrup ( add additional tbc. to satisfy your sweet teeth)
2 banana
1 tbs. coconut oil
1 cup coconut water (add the coconut meat if you wish, it will cut the sourness of the cranberries)

Start with a liquid base in your blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend for 2-3 min.  Pour into molds, freeze, enjoy and thank me later

Looking for more healthy dessert recipes that create results in kids?  Check these out.

Cranberry ‘Ice Cream’ Sensation

Time to read: 2 minutes.

Fact: There’s an increasing LACK of evidence that multivitamins benefit our kids.  Fact: Most parents believe that it’s good practice to give children good things masquerading as bad (like vitamins).  So long as they ingest it, all is good right?  Wrong.  Consider the scientific facts and the negative habits that this charade reinforces in kids. 

The inconvenient truth:

“More than half of Americans are taking dietary supplements, the majority of which are multivitamins, and the bottom line is that we don’t know for sure that they’re benefiting from them. In fact, we’re concerned that some people may be getting too much of certain nutrients,” says J. Michael McGinnis, M.D., M.P.P., Senior Scholar with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

According to this and various other studies, few scientists believe multi-vitamins to be good at reducing disease risk.

Even the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend vitamin supplements for kids on a healthy diet.

The multibillion dollar multi-vitamin business just got some bad news, eh? A National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel also found insufficient evidence on the benefits and safety of multivitamins needed to recommend their regular consumption. So what should we do?

Well how about getting all the vitamins and mineral we and our children need from REAL FOOD?  If your child has a diet rich in calcium and fiber — and low on saturated fat — he/she doesn’t need a multi-vitamin.  Vitamin absorption is also an issue often not considered.  Real food typically provides better absorption properties.

Just think back to the last time you were standing in the store isle and staring at the dizzying variety of multi-vitamins aimed at kids.  Confused?  Why should we be confused and overwhelmed?  It’s just vitamins.  This situation is a sign… not to mention the sugary, sticky nature of these candies posing as nutrients.  A closer look reveals ingredients that aren’t vitamins at all — stuff that is difficult to pronounce.

Still not convinced?  A study conducted by University of California, Davis found astonishing results. The study involved 11,000 children from age 2 to 17 years old who took vitamin supplements.  In the end, the researchers found that the kids were eating diets rich enough in vitamins — such that they didn’t need the pills (or shall we call them gummi candies).

Bottom line: present your child with a healthy choices, healthy diet rich on dark green leafy vegetables.  Basically, let your child eats his/her colors – and that’s not M&M I’m talking about.