Home Chef Cooking Tips

Beige Foods are Bad for Your Kids

Last modified on 2009-12-08 02:55:03 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Are you one of those parents who thinks it takes too much time to prepare healthy meals for your kids? After all, is it really worth the effort to save a few calories? Then why don’t you consider this:

• Childhood obesity rates have tripled in America since 1980
• 16% of all children aged 6 – 19 are obese 
• 70% of obese adolescents will be obese as adults
• Obesity leads to increased risk of heart attack, stroke and early death

Children’s Health magazine recently determined the 20 Worst Kid’s Foods in America.

If you’re in the food industry, the color of money isn’t green-it’s beige.

Parents know that the majority of their kids favorite foods, from french fries to white bread to chicken nuggets, are beige. Beige is the color of highly processed foods, which means cheap, calorie-rich, nutritionally bankrupt food.

Next time you’re at your favorite fast food restaurant and your child is checking out the kids menu, steer them clear of those monochromatic clusters of cheese sticks, dinosaur-shaped chicken and fried potatoes.

When eating out, follow this simple rule: all kids dishes must come with at least two colors (and ketchup doesn’t count).

In case you’re interested,  the #1 Worst Kids Meal in America is the Uno Chicago Grill Kids’ Kombo with French Fries

• 1,250 calories
• 79 g fat (11.5 g saturated)
• 2,850 mg sodium

The moderately active 8 year old only requires 1600 calories and ~60 gms of total fat (17 saturated) per day! Add to this 150% of your child’s recommended daily allowance of sodium (salt) and you can see why this is the worst kid’s meal in America.

Should you find yourself at Uno’s with a hungry child, have them try this instead;

Kids Pasta

• 300 calories
• 3 g fat (0 g saturated)
• 270 mg sodium

Healthy Antioxidant Rich Snacks

Last modified on 2010-02-12 05:16:33 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

It is a widely accepted fact in scientific circles that eating foods rich in antioxidants help to protect your body from harmful free radicals. By helping to neutralize these radicals, antioxidants provide a barrier against heart disease, premature aging and some types of cancer.

By neutralizing free radicals that enter your body, antioxidants provide a protective barrier within your body. Free radicals are simply chemically active atoms or molecule fragments. They are active because they are electrically charged, either positively, missing electron(s), or negatively, containing excessive electron(s). This electrical charge seeks to become neutralize itself by scavenging your body to remove (or donate) electrons, in the process damaging your healthy cells.

Free radicals are generated naturally within, and are generated externally. Internal sources of free radicals include aerobic respiration, metabolism, and inflammation. External sources include sunlight, strenuous exercise, x-rays, smoking, alcohol and pollution.

Regardless of the source excessive free radicals (generated by pollutants) can cause damage to your body in excess of what it can naturally combat. Every time a free radical is neutralized by an antioxidant, the antioxidant itself is consumed, and is no longer able to defend your body. This is why your body’s level of antioxidants must be maintained.

The most antioxidant rich foods are nuts and berries – natural and unprocessed – which make a very tasty and healthy snack.

The top seven antioxidant rich nuts and berries (in terms of antioxidant content per serving) are:

-          Blackberries

-          Walnuts

-          Strawberries

-          Cranberries

-          Raspberries

-          Pecans

-          Blueberries

To make sure that your child receives the full benefit of theses nutritional powerhouses, each healthy snack should be at least a single serving in size.

For the berries, a single serving is 1/2 cup, and for nuts a single serving is 1 oz, or approximately 1/4 cup.