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• Pregcellent: Eat Well, Period. Prenatal Diet Influences Puberty Onset

  Just when the pregnant ladies thought they got enough flack about what they ingest during gestation. Now check this out: Researchers say a mother's prenatal diet can influence the early onset of puberty. Sheesh, I was chalking it up to non-organic milk and Bratz dolls. You mean my nutritional choices during the most hormonally insane period of my life are to blame for my daughter's precocious eye-rolling?  Well, in case you were wondering, it's a... Read More... Posted Jun 18 2008, 09:34 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, research study, nutrition, fat, girls, diet, puberty, menstruation, pregcellent, preteens, gestation, adolescent, prenatal

• Gasp! Childhood Obesity Not Exploding

  Hey, remember how a little while back we were told childhood obesity was a horrific epidemic ravaging the land? And then every thirty seconds or so a study and accompanying news story would appear, saying that juice or distant mothers or text messaging was one of the causes? (Side note: News outlets almost always use one of maybe three pictures of overweight kids for these stories. I do hope those kids are getting royalties or something.) It seemed like you almost couldn't go a week without at least one "such-and-such is contributing to the fattening of our youth" story appearing somewhere. Well, now there's more news in the kid and weight front. Apparently... Read More... Posted May 27 2008, 07:10 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: kids, food, health, research study, racism, nutrition, childhood obesity, diet, overweight, weight, experts, activity, sedentary, poor, disparities, economic

• Ending the Food Fight: Stopping Childhood Obesity

  You pretty much can't turn on the tv with out hearing how fat American kids are today. Every empire must fall. In Rome, Christian was the downfall. In England it was overextension. Apparently the fall of the American Empire will be juvenile diabetes.       A new book tackles the “epidemic” of childhood obesity in our country...  Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 09:01 AM by Cole Gamble with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: food, fast food, fat, childhood obesity, diet, overweight, Americans, book, juvinile diabetes, dr. david ludwig

• Babble Talk: The Worst Food to Feed Your Kids

  Amy Kalafa and Dr. Susan Rubin recently spoke to Babble about their documentary, Two Angry Moms, in which the pair investigate cafeteria junkfood. Some of the offending school lunch offerings the two mentioned by name: Blue slushies, candy and the balanced meal of chicken nuggets and tater tots. Not exactly the nutritionally sound stuff we would hope our kids get every day. All of which got me to thinking about the food we serve our children at home: Do we do better than some of the schools Kalafa and Rubin describe? Read More... Posted May 12 2008, 10:03 AM by Jen Chaney with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: health, nutrition, junk food, diet, babble talk, Amy Kalafa, Two Angry Moms, Dr. Susan Rubin

• Best of FameCrawler: Week of May 9th

  Hello, Harlow! Sheyla Hershey's Got Big (Size FFF) Dreams Nicole Kidman: DUMPED Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Post Baby Bikini Bod! Secrets of How Celebrity Moms Lost Their Baby Weight Britney Finally Gets Her Boys Oh My God That Britney's Shameless: Oops, She Did It AGAIN? Pregnant Posh! Beckham Baby on the Way! Sarah Jessica Parker's Pregnancy News! Laura Fay Is N.Y. Rep. Vito Fossella's Baby Mama Posted May 09 2008, 04:00 PM by Whit Honea with | with no comments Filed under: kids, celebrity, baby, parents, dads, pregnant, Britney Spears, strollerderby, family, moms, secrets, diet, boobs, boys, body, Brazil, Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, breasts, victoria beckham, david beckham, elisabeth hasselbeck, weight, movie, gossip, posh, famecrawler, joel madden, nicole richie, sarah jessica parker, hair, Hershey, Baby Mama, stars, best of, harlow, bikini, vito fossella, laura fay, swimsuit, sheyla hershey, post-baby, 34, hello, lyrics, sex in the city, cooter buger, lionel richie, n.y. rep, fff, spice, huge boobs, dumped, shave, implants

• Daily Duh: Less junk food leads to weight loss

  In Philadelphia, land of the cheese steak, five elementary schools participated in a program where candy and soda were eliminated from the vending machines, and kids were rewarded with raffle tickets for "making healthy food choices." And guess what?   Read More... Posted Apr 11 2008, 03:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: food, school, Philadelphia, eating, junk food, diet, studies, snacks, calories, sugar, daily duh

• Your Girls Can Be "Bimbos" Online!

  Sometimes you see stuff and think, "Is this fer real?" When I read about the Miss Bimbo game, I kept thinking, "Oh, in a minute they'll say the game is for adults." But no, in fact the majority of the 200,000 players are between the ages of 7 and 17. But let me back up: There's a virtual "fashion" game for girls where they get a "Bimbo" and have to navigate her through boob jobs and diets and so on to make her the coolest bimbo of all. Girls can dress their dolls in sexy outfits for clubbing, and are encouraged to keep them waif thin through diet pills and plastic surgery. Niiiice. Most of the accounts I read focused on the weight and cosmetic horrors of the game, but I personally was more disturbed by the fact that... Read More... Posted Mar 25 2008, 07:02 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: health, teens, internet, girls, diet, daughters, online, self-esteem, plastic surgery, eating disorders, weight, sexism, virtual reality, body image, boob job, dolls, computer games, misogyny, sugar daddy, self image

• Girl Scout Cookies--Now With Calorie Burning Tips!

  Hey, guess what? The Girl Scouts are going to start putting out cookies in 100 calorie packs. That's okay, right? I mean, that's like one Samoa per package... Oh, but wait: The 5 Resolutions Blog just alerted us that the packs are also going to have tips for girls to burn calories. Well, thank god, because I so want my daughter to know exactly how to obliterate the potential weight she might put on from those Thin Mints. Never to young to start counting calories, right? Sigh. Think I'm overreacting? Well, the packages say things like... Read More... Posted Mar 14 2008, 05:06 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: activities, nutrition, sports, obesity, girls, media, diet, self-esteem, weight, body image, calories, Girl Scouts, gymnastics, 5 resolutions blog

• Stand In Kitchen, Lose Weight

  Wanna lose the baby weight? (Even if the baby is now a toddler or, Christ, in junior high.) One "expert" recommends heading straight to the kitchen. But not for a snack or even to throw out the high-calorie, high-carb salt & vinegar kettle chips. He wants you to ...   Read More... Posted Mar 07 2008, 01:02 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: healthy eating, nutrition, diet, baby weight, weight loss, clutter, lose weight, clutter expert

• Which Came First -- The Salt or the Corn Syrup?

  The human body can't function without a little bit of the old NaCl. But most human bodies also have a huge -- and growing ever huger -- problem with moderation. If a little is good, then a whole lot must be better.   Read More... Posted Feb 27 2008, 02:32 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: diet, soda, high blood pressure, high fructose corn syrup, salt

• Pregcellent: Eat This, Not That

  Sometimes I wonder why I get so pissy about stuff when everybody does it, but I do. Take the diet/nutrition book, "Eat This, Not That" now in a pregnancy edition. It's pimped on the Today site right now. So the original, non-pregnancy version of the book was all over Today and msnbc, three times I believe. Hmmm, it's by the editors of Men's Health--could there be a connection between that mag and Today? Yeah, yeah, nothing new, I know. And the book made dubious claims about nutrition as a way to target belly fat. Again, not unheard of for a diet book to make lame and questionable promises. And I noted that some of the caloric amounts for the "bad" food choices were pretty high, like perhaps they had chosen the worst possible offender and generalized. No, that's not unique. So, how does the expecting mom version stack up? Well... Read More... Posted Feb 27 2008, 08:32 AM by Kelly Mills with | with no comments Filed under: food, health, pregnancy, nutrition, fat, diet, calories, pregcellent, msnbc, eat this not that, resources, mens health, today, expectant moms

• My Two-Sided Stomach Theory, Vindicated

  It's still a huge joke in my family how, when I was a child, I would tell my mother, "the dinner side of my stomach is full, but the dessert side is empty."  That's why it's so exciting to find out that, while there may not be a physical divider involved, I was actually describing a legitimate physiological phenomenon called "sensory-specific satiety."  That is, we become full after eating one type of food - i.e., salty - but can still have an appetite for a different taste - i.e., sweet.   Read More... Posted Jan 16 2008, 10:30 AM by asflutz with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: diet, taste, appetite, sensory, satiety

• Maybe Bazooka Is Better

  I always thought giving my kids sugarless gum was better for them than, you know, the tooth-rotting variety.  Now an article in The British Medical Journal reports that too much sorbitol, the sweeter used in sugarless gum and other sugar-free foods, can cause severe diarrhea and weight loss.   Read More... Posted Jan 13 2008, 08:37 AM by asflutz with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: diet, weight loss, diarrhea, sugarless gum

• Weekly Check-Up: Blogger Loses Weight On Advice of Elmo's Daddy

  I have personal trainer certification through one of the more reputable certifying entities, which shall remain nameless for now. I have never heard of anyone having their certification stripped from them for anything other than some litigation-worthy bad behavior or neglecting to pay dues or get those dang continuing education credits. But I am now about to test the standards of that entity. Should a bunch of very tanned, fit people rush me in the middle of my next workout class and make a big show of ripping my certificate into shreds, this is probably why. See, Linda Keenan, mom to a toddler and creator of the blog Thoroughly Modern Mommy, wrote on the Huffington Post that she lost weight by abandoning exercise and salads, and by always having dessert and even bags of potato chips every once in a while as a meal. Heresy! Read More... Posted Jan 10 2008, 08:32 AM by Kelly Mills with | with no comments Filed under: nutrition, huffington post, exercise, diet, weightloss, weekly check-up, linda keenan

• Unpopular and Fat: A Scientific Fact

  Which came first, the social isolation or the excess pounds? A new study looking to, I don't know, dredge up the deeply buried insecurities of grown women and/or convince parents to homeschool their kids has found that the less popular a girl perceives herself to be the more weight she'll gain during the teenage years. Conjuring images, no doubt, of the lonely sophomore eating a pint of ice-cream in a darkened kitchen while her cellphone never rings. Ugh! Read More... Posted Jan 08 2008, 01:43 PM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: research study, teens, middle school, diet, weightloss, weight loss, popularity, weight, overweight children, diet and exercise, mean people, weight gain, isolation, overweight teens

• Family Members Eating Peanuts May Trigger Allergies In Kids

  Okay, so one of the theories about peanut allergies is that a lack of exposure to peanuts may be responsible for an increase in the allergy. Folks point to the fact that peanut allergies are evident at a much lower rate in countries where peanuts are a big part of a baby's diet. And it makes sense, since allergies are an immune system overreaction, so less exposure might be bad, right? Um, maybe not. A study funded in part by the British government found that in households where more peanuts were eaten, kids were more likely to develop peanut allergies.  Now, we should be clear that the study wasn't talking about the kids themselves eating peanuts... Read More... Posted Jan 01 2008, 09:33 AM by Kelly Mills with | with no comments Filed under: research study, diet, allergies, peanut allergy, safety tips, immune system, allergic

• Don't Get All Guilty About Eating Crap

  You'd think I'd be totally into an article on why you shouldn't feel bad about "diet flubs," but apparently I'm so crabby I can find fault with anything right now. Basically the gist is that nobody eats perfectly all the time, and that you may not be as bad as you think. So if you lament that you eat empty carbs, you can chillax because only half your grain servings need to be whole grain; if you love red meat, just keep it to lean cuts three times a week; if you only like carrots as a veggie, don't stress because you'll probably get sick of them; and if you don't read nutrition labels, great cuz you aren't being suckered by healthy, sugar-free claims, just keep an eye out for hydrogenated oils. Fine. So why am I still somewhat hissy? Well...   Read More... Posted Dec 18 2007, 08:11 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: holidays, eating, diet, Paris Hilton, weight loss, nutrition labels, mistakes, whole grains

• Portion Size Matters For Fat Kids

  Doing my part to fuel the childhood obesity hysteria while also making parents feel like every strategy to prevent raising little fatties is wrong, wrong, wrong, I bring you this: Read More... Posted Oct 25 2007, 04:20 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: research study, obesity, childhood obesity, diet, Madeline Holler, diabetes, diet and exercise

• As Suspected, Everything Makes Kids Fat

  Somehow, I think we’ve all known this for a very long time: everything – yes, EVERYTHING – is making kids fat. A short list: Food Diet food And drink Lack of exercise TV TV commercials Their mothers  Read More... Posted Sep 27 2007, 03:22 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: research study, obesity, childhood obesity, diet, diabetes, diet and exercise

• Pink Grapefruit Juice Voted Most Nutritious. Now Try to Get Your Kid to Drink it.

  For me, the words "grapefruit juice" and "effing poison" are about synonymous. Who invented that twisted fruit, anyway? Once I drank a bottle of that stuff and my throat began to itch afterward; you think I'm going to try it again, even if some new study (likely funded by the Underappreciated Oddly-Colored Grossly-Swollen Citrus Association) claims that pink grapefruit juice is the most nutritionally-dense juice out there? I don't care that it beat orange and apple juice for the title; is your kid going to drink it? Of course, I've got to point out that the study failed to consider really nutritious juices that also happen to actually taste good, like blueberry, pomegranate, cherry, and they also discounted tomato juice since they say most people think it's not fruit juice to begin with. And we all know that cranberry juice is good for you, right? But they didn't use that because it's normally sold as a "cocktail beverage". Which I would like one of right now, thank you very much, but make mine with a little vodka, will you? And none of this tells me how you're going to get your kids to drink pink grapefruit juice. Because it's pink and girls love pink? Yeah. Right. And what about the boys? And more importantly, what about the taste?  Bleh. But hey, if you like it and your kids will drink it, go for it. I just don't want to look. Posted May 31 2007, 03:01 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: kids, nutrition, diet, juice, pink grapefruit juice

• Families Drive Top 10 Food Trends of 2007

  The very fake-sounding Institute of Food Technologies has just released its list of Top 10 Food Trends of 2007. Busy families seem to have played a large role in influencing the top trends. The number one trend of 2007 is dining at home. Thanks in large part to Rachael Ray and her unstoppable culinary juggernaut, I'm sure, 75% of people polled eat dinner at home at least five nights a week. Why? Because she and her team of Food Network celebrity chefs finally taught the whole country how to cook. *eye-roll* Convenience products (#3) make dining at home easier, especially for busy families. Products like pre-packaged salads, pre-cut veggies and fruits, and tuna pouches make quick work of preparing meals. Eating locally (#7), which seems counter-intuitive to the #3 trend, is becoming trendy as the Slow Food movement gains popularity and people start watching their "food miles." My family is trying to eat and shop locally so our food doesn't have to travel as far to get to our table. Thankfully, we live in Northern California. Kids' health needs and the growing problem of childhood obesity (#5) are also on the list. Parents are seeking out and preparing more healthful snacks. Speaking of snacks, snacks and mini-meals (#10) are also trendy so, um, yeah. Good luck with that childhood obesity, parents! Click here to view the entire list, and see if you and your family are slaves to the latest food trends. Posted May 22 2007, 12:02 PM by Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: food, feeding kids, nutrition, diet, food trends, snacks

• Kids and Vegetables: Making Friends Of Foes.

  I have three very particular eaters in my home, two are children and one is a 39-year-old child-like adult. I've dropped the word 'Picky' because I'm attempting to think about their absurd eating habits in a more positive light. One day they will be connoisseurs with wildly successful food blogs where they explain in glorious detail how that tomato in their mouth sort of feels like a tiny blob of puke. Or they will note how from the moment they poked that souffle with the tip of their finger, they knew it would be horrible. Their blogs will be titled something like, "The Extremely Particular Food Blogger" or "I can tell I don't like it by the way it sounds." Oh yes, I am familiar with the eating habits of the fickle younger set. Read More... Posted May 21 2007, 11:03 AM by Melissa Summers with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: eating, obesity, diet, vegetables, health and kids

• Using Food To Promote Literacy: A is for Appletini, B is for Bruschetta, C is for Camembert

  Most of us know letter recognition for young children is important in promoting literacy. Deanna Mascle says there's no need to buy expensive learning aids, incorporate the alphabet into your young child's daily life by pointing out what they're eating. You can make this project as involved or as simple as you'd like. You could serve foods featuring the 'letter of the day' or serve one meal featuring all foods with your current letter. Or, you could just be sure to point out the letter what you're serving starts with. As your child gets older, you can have them name the letter each of the foods on their plate starts with. In our house this activity may backfire since The Pickersons have such limited palates, they'd be learning P for Pasta, A for Apple and N for Nutella. Oh my this suddenly became very self revealing and I'm uncomfortable. Don't worry they'd also learn R for Rose's Lime Juice and M for Moldy Leftovers. I love this idea because with all the classes and activities we try to give our kids, we can forget that most learning is part of everyday life.  Posted May 14 2007, 12:03 PM by Melissa Summers with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: nutrition, reading, diet, literacy, abcs

• Families that Eat Healthily Together, Stay Together?

  About two weeks ago, my husband and I embarked on the South Beach Diet, the veggie-filled moderated version of the Atkins Diet. Phase 1 involves cutting out all carbohydrates, sugar, and alcohol (aka: Parenting Survival Kit). We've nearly completed this portion and while we both see pasta everywhere, there is some hope that the reduced glycemic index is starting to generate more energy and less nutrition-related exhaustion. Family meals, usually comprised of some combination of cereal, oatmeal, or scrambled eggs, now include salmon, salad, and (occasionally) a Splenda filled dessert.  It  isn't easy.  Not by a long shot.  But we're impressed with how much more energy we have for parenting: the chasing, cleaning, cooking, laundering, and fight-breaking-up that makes up our average day. The key is how to market these changes to our girls.  We don't want them worrying about weight issues, so we explain that we're eating more healthily so they can grow big and strong.  Good nutrition for our family has always seemed like a pipe dream.  But this little blue book makes us think that if we can do it, anyone can. Posted Mar 28 2007, 02:04 PM by Rachael Brownell (Redsy) with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: health, nutrition, diet, dieting, weightloss, Atkins, low carbs, South Beach Diet

• Study: Canned, Fresh, Frozen Veggies All Good

  A new study funded by the Canned Food Alliance (big shocker) reviewed recent published research on the nutritional comparisons of canned, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables and determined that canned veg and fruit isn't as unhealthy as people think. The study published today in the online version of the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture confirms that canned, fresh, and frozen fruits and vegetables provide nutrients needed for a healthy diet, and exclusively consuming fresh fruits and vegetables ignores the nutritional benefits provided by canned products. Researchers suggest that "eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in all forms are important to a healthy diet." Research shows that canned, fresh, and frozen fruits and vegetables can all lose nutrients during processing and storage, as a result of exposure to heat and air.  In some cases, there appears to be a higher nutrient content in canned foods—such as increased carotenoids in canned vegetables—due to the heat in the canning process. Okay. I admit I have a sick fascination with canned peas, but I'll stick with fresh and frozen for my family. Posted Mar 15 2007, 11:46 AM by Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: food, feeding kids, nutrition, diet

• Trying to Conceive? Eat More Ice Cream!

  I remember what a nightmare it was when I was trying to conceive my daughter eight years ago.  Every month it was the same news:  nothing.  I obessively took my temperature for months:  nothing.  I tried Clomid:  nothing.  My husband was tested:  nothing.  I finally had exploratory surgery:  nothing.  The whole experience was devastating and I felt like a failure.  My body was failing me. How simple it might have been if I only knew to eat ice cream.  Can it be that easy?  Maybe it can.  A new study found a link between a low-fat dairy diet and increased risk of infertility due lack of ovulation.  Women who ate one or more servings of high-fat dairy had a 27% decreased risk of infertility as opposed to women who ate one serving one or fewer times a week.  More importantly, it appeared that eating low-fat dairy contributed to the risk of infertility.  The researchers believe that the presence of a fat-soluble substance, which improves ovarian function, might explain the lower risk of infertility from high-fat dairy foods. (To be clear, this wouldn't have helped me, since I ovulated regularly and therefore fell into the hole of "unexplained infertility".  But this might be helpful news for many women.). You have my permission to consume ice cream now.  Go have some; I'll wait here.    Posted Feb 28 2007, 04:17 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: babies, fat, infertility, diet, women, dairy

• Kids Eat Like Crap, Says Report

  Here is a newsflash for you: American adolescents aren't making good decisions about their health. Christine Dell'Amore reports that "Only 2 percent of kids ages 11 to 15 met the guidelines for diet, physical activity and sedentary risk behaviors as laid out in Healthy People 2010" on the United Press International website. Now, I don't mean do be cynical here, (who am I trying to kid? Of course I mean to be cynical) but is anyone surprised that 13 year olds aren't making wise choices? When I was 11 I thought I was going to marry Simon LeBon. When I was 13 I would come home and eat an entire bad of Doritos for an after school snack. When I was 15 I wouldn't eat anything all day, then I would eat dinner and do sit-ups until I threw up. Does anyone really think that pubescents are thinking clearly? Isn't this why they can't vote yet? All mocking aside, as parents we really need to watch our pre-teens and help them make better decisions about diet and exercise. It is also our job to show our children by setting healthy examples. I know it is hard. I struggle with this constantly, but I know that if my kids see me eating well and taking care of my body that they in turn will grow up healthier.   Posted Jan 29 2007, 02:33 PM by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, health, diet, chilldren