I'm Not Playing the Box Top Game

Photo Courtesy of Simply Organized Blog

I'm sorry, I don't like Box Tops!  There, I said it and there's no going back now.

For those of you who might not have kids or who don't work in education, Box Tops are a program where you buy certain products which have the logo on the right, clip the top of the box, deliver them to your child's school and the school then receives money from the Box Top for Education organization.  From the Box Top for Education website, "Box Tops has helped America's schools earn over $475 million since 1996."  With school funding always an issue, especially here in California, it's great that there is a way for schools to have access to extra funds to provide quality education.

So if it's such a great way to help fund my local school, why should I hate Box Tops?  The answer is simple.  MOST (not all) of the products with the Box Tops logo are (how can I say this nicely) nutritionally challenged.

You can see the whole list of participating products here.  If you look at the list you quickly notice that there are some big name brands that participate.  Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Cheerios, Chex, Pillsbury, Kix, Fiber One and Yoplait to name just a few.  If you dig a little, you'll find that all of these products are owned by (drum roll please), General Mills. Interesting, right?  Can you guess which company started the Box Tops For Education program?  That's right: General Mills.  According to their site, Box Tops for Education was launched in 1996 in California on cereals like Cheerios, Total and Lucky Charms. 

What's wrong with General Mills being brilliantly smart by creating a program to boost sales and also help fund struggling schools?  Absolutely nothing except that their slogan which they proudly display is :

Photo Courtesy of Box Top for Education

How can you "nourish young lives" when the majority of the food you are feeding them is full of added sugars, artificial colorings and trans fat?  We hear a lot about how marketing to kids affects intake, but this program is genius because the schools do all the marketing to the kids and partents.  Kids come home excited to find Box Tops and compete to bring in the most in their class.  Parents feel good because they are helping their child's school and General Mills laughs all the way to the bank.  But General Mills simply can not "nourish young lives" when the food they are supplying is hindering our children.

There is some good news. 1) There are some healthier products that have Box Tops like Cascadian Farms cereals, Green Giant produce and frozen vegetables and Larabar Multipacks.  2) Box Tops are available for a variety of non-food items like Avery labels, Ziploc bags and Brita waterfilters.

Where does that leave me as a parent whose children are now Box Top crazy?  If it comes down to just money, I'll be happy to donate a few extra bucks to help fund my children's education.  Let's say hypothetically, my kids bring 10 box tops a week.  That's $0.10 per top for a total of $1.00.  If you subtract about 12 weeks for summer and vacations, that's about 40 weeks.  At $1.00 per week for 40 weeks is a grand total contribution of $40.  I can handle that!

As always I welcome your comments.

Let's Have a Healthy Halloween

Originally written for and posted on Grandparenting Plus Blog.  In the interest of full disclosure the authors of this blog are my mother and grandmother.   (Yeah they blog too...who doesn't these days?)

No other holiday tests our parenting skills more than the issue of how we handle candy on Halloween.  But as with many of our current holiday traditions, Halloween and candy haven't always been linked together like they are now.  Halloween was originally a Celtic harvest holiday and was brought to the United States with the 19th Century Irish immigrants.  As the holiday evolved, kids began to trick-or-treat and until the 1950's trick-or-treat'ers were more likely to get non-food related booty, like coins, pencils and other trinkets rather than candy.  It was not until candy manufacturers started to market candy as a way to boost revenues that sweets became synonymous with Halloween.   To illustrate just how much emphasis candy companies put on Halloween I took my 5 year old son along to check out two very different stores: Whole Foods Market and Rite-Aid Drug Store.  It's pretty shocking to see the stark difference between them.

The Halloween candy section at  Whole Foods in Tarzana, CA

The Halloween aisles at Rite-Aid in West Hills, CA

When we think of all the candy that kids might get for Halloween, the first thing we think about is all the sugar that our kids are going to eat.  Unfortunately, the sugar is the least of our worries.  Sadly, it's the artificial food colorings and trans-fat that is pervasive in many of these foods that we should be concerned with.  The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) published a great report on the risks of artificial colorings in 2010 called, "A Rainbow of Risks".  You should definitely read it and you might reconsider buying M&M's.

Despite all the horrible things in candy, for me as a parent and as a dietitian the biggest issue during Halloween is how I approach and handle my kids' candy intake.  If you follow my blog (www.BVMRD.com) you know that I believe in a non-diet approach to eating.  I am a believer in Intuitive Eating and I apply these principles to my clients and also to my family.  The other philosophy that fits nicely with Intuitive Eating are some of the theories on feeding children from Ellyn Satter.  When I decided to talk about eating and Halloween, Satter was the resource that I knew I had to include and thankfully she addressed the topic both in her book and in her website:

Halloween candy presents a learning opportunity. Work toward having your child be able to manage his own stash. For him to learn, you will have to keep your interference to a minimum. When he comes home from trick or treating, let him lay out his booty, gloat over it, sort it and eat as much of it as he wants. Let him do the same the next day. Then have him put it away and relegate it to meal- and snack-time: a couple of small pieces at meals for dessert and as much as he wants for snack time. (From EllynSatter.com The Sticky Topic of Halloween Candy, Family Meals Focus #30 on 10/22/08)  

I know you are reading this and saying, "Are you serious?", or maybe, "Oh hell no, I am not going to let my child dive head first into a full bucket of a candy."  But hear me (and Satter for that matter) out.  By allowing your child to have the freedom to learn to manage their own candy instead of you controlling it will allow him or her to develop a sense of trust around food.  If your child breaks this trust, you can take the candy away until they demonstrate that they can handle it.  The goal is to let your child build confidence and self-reliance around listening to their internal cues of hunger and fullness.  If this method still seems too extreme for you, try to modify it, but the key is for you not to interfere with what they choose or how much of it they eat.  The hope is that the relationship your child develops with food and sweets is based on their own internal cues and not on restriction.

One important thing to remember is that the best way we teach our children is though modeling our behaviors. If we call food "junk," "bad" or "garbage," our kids will pick up on that.  Conversely, if our children see us having a healthy relationship with candy, the chances are that they will develop the same attitude.  Be aware of how you handle candy because that will affect you child's behaviors.  These are just some of the concepts that are discussed at length in the new edition of Intuitive Eating in which the authors devote a whole chapter on raising Intuitive Eaters.  I highly recommend you read it.

Don't think of Halloween as a power struggle between you and your children.  If they are old enough explain to them what your plan is.  If they are too young to understand, try explaining your rules for Halloween so they know what to expect.

Halloween is just one day but feeding a child and raising an Intuitive Eater is the foundation for healthy eating for a lifetime. Here are some simple things you can do:

1) Don’t restrict dessert. Make it a part of regular meals and try serving it with all the other things during dinner time.

2) Try to refer to food in non-judgmental terms. Take out the “good” vs. “bad” so that kids don’t feel guilty for eating “junk.”  Try using terms like "play food" vs. "growing food."

3) Divide responsibility. It’s your job as a parent to provide balanced, nutritious meals with a variety of play foods. It’s your child’s job to eat.

4) Don’t be a short-order cook.

5) Trust in your child’s innate abilities. Children know how much food they need so allow them the freedom to choose how much to eat. Overall, they will choose foods that help them grow and most of all they’ll develop a healthy relationship with food.

As always, I look forward to reading your comments.

Slow Cooker Brisket

There is something really great about making brisket at home!  One reason I love to cook brisket is tradition.  I can think about many of the Jewish holidays I celebrated with my family and I can remember my grandmother's brisket at our table.  Having those same smells in my house transports me back to my childhood.  The other reason I like brisket and the reason all of you (who are not vegetarian/vegan) should try to make it at home is it's hard to mess up brisket.  It's a tough cut of meat that requires a long cooking time to break down that tough connective tissue and transform it into a melt-in-your-mouth treat.

The Slow Cooker Photo property of BVMRD

My wife and I bought a slow cooker a few years ago and we are always looking for things to cook in it.  A few years ago we also started hosting Passover so we needed to find a brisket recipe.  Thankfully the folks at Epicurious.com had a simple solution for us: Slow Cooker Brisket.  This recipe is super simple and you don't need much prep or cooking time.  Most of the time is hands off while the brisket cooks in the slow cooker. 

Since we've been hosting so many folks for Sukkot (and I took the day off work on Friday to take my daughter to school) it was a perfect storm to make some brisket for Shabbat dinner.  I scooted off to Trader Joe's to buy some of the ingredients but since I've made this a few times, we had most of the stuff already. 

Ingredients for our slow cooker brisket.  Photo property of BVMRD

The first thing you do with this brisket is to brown the sides of the brisket in a hot pan.  Browning does one main thing: it adds flavor!  It turns a "ho hum" brisket into a "OMG that was amazing" brisket.  Yes, it adds one more step and one more dish to clean but it worth it.  The key is to get the pan hot, set the meat down and not to touch it again for about 4-5 minutes.  If you try to move it too early, it will stick and that's not good.

One side of the brisket browned.  Photo property of BVMRD

While the brisket is browning, slice the potatoes into disks and add them to the slow cooker.  They will make a great addition to the final dish...trust me.

Potatoes added to the slow cooker. Photo property of BVMRD

Once the brisket is browned on both sides, add it to the slow cooker.  Onions are then added to the pan you browned the brisket in and cook those until they are soft.  Add some garlic to the onions and saute for a few minutes and add the garlic and onions to the slow cooker on top of the brisket.   Once the pan is empty, you add the beer and the broth to deglaze the pan.  Just like browning, deglazing is all about flavor.  You've spent time browning the meat and when you are done, you'll notice there are all these bits left in the pan.  These bits are called "fond" and by adding them back to a sauce or dish, we add flavor.  Remember, we're going for an "OMG that was amazing" brisket here!

While the onions are cooking, I assembled the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and mixed them up.  You are basically making a BBQ sauce.

BBQ sauce ready to be added to the slow cooker.  Photo property of BVMRD

Once the onions are done, the deglazing liquid is added to the slow cooker, the BBQ sauce is added and you are done.

Everything added to the slow cooker Photo property of BVMRD

You can cook the brisket on high or low settings.  I have done both and they are equally good.  Once the brisket is done cooking you'll notice how some of the sauce has reduced.  You'll know the brisket is done because you will be able to just pull a piece off with you hand.

The finished product in the slow cooker Photo property of BVMRD

Take the brisket out and scoop out the potatoes.  Slice the brisket across the grain of the meat and plate it up.  I made it this weekend with some broccoli and farfalle pasta.  This dish is great for everyone.  Kids will eat it, your friends will think you are a genius and your spouse/partner will not even think twice about doing the dishes for you because you are such a culinary God! 

I hope I inspired you to try this dish.  If you do, let me know how it goes. If you have another favorite brisket recipe, please share!

The finished dish plated up and ready to serve. Photo property of BVMRD

My own plate do delicousness! Photo property of BVMRD

Snack Ideas for Your Child Athele

My son just started playing organized sports this year. He finished one season of t-ball and he just started soccer this fall.  Maybe it's just an occupational hazard but I can't help but marvel at some of the snacks my son has been served since starting these sports.  In my brief experience with children's sports, I've noticed that many of us parents are sending the wrong message to our kids.  What does it say when we reward performance with doughnuts and Rice Krispy Treats?  Are we missing the connection between playing well and eating well?  Are we stressing team work and good sportsmanship but serving our teammates food that does more harm than good?

It can be daunting to feed a whole team of kids, but here are a few tips that might make things a little easier for you.

1) Serve whole fruit instead of "fruit" snacks like roll ups.   Fruit roll ups from General Mills are "made with real fruit" but when you look at the ingredients (see image below), you find some interesting things.  First, the main ingredient in the strawberry fruit roll up is pears, not strawberries.  The next three ingredients are sugar (in the form of corn syrup, dried corn syrup and sugar) and the fourth ingredient is partially-hydrogenated cotton seed oil or commonly called trans fat.  Last I heard, trans-fat and corn syrup didn't help improve any sports performance that I'm aware of.  Instead of these "fruit" snacks try some fresh grapes, oranges, apple slices, or melon.

Photo Courtesy of General Mills.com

2)  Include a whole grain starch in your snack choice.  Try making small sandwiches made on 100% whole wheat bread or whole grain crackers.  I found that most kids enjoy the Kids Clif Z Bars which come in a few different flavors.

Photo Courtesy of Clifbar.com

3) Try to provide a simple protein in your snack.  String cheese or peanut butter could be a great addition to your whole grain crackers or bread.

4) Read the ingredients list when you buy processed foods and try to avoid products that have high fructose corn syrup.

5) Leave the cupcakes and doughnuts at home.  The common thought is, "My son/daughter is burning so many calories that it doesn't matter what they eat."  Well that is just wrong.  Yes, they are burning calories but don't we also want our kids to be healthy?  If you want something sweet, try making some whole wheat banana bread or whole gain muffins.

6) Be sure to remember to bring fluids, ideally water.  Unless you child is exercising for more than an hour, you probably don't need a sports drink but it might be appropriate if it is a hot day.  Kids are more likely to suffer from dehydration so be sure to encourage your little athlete to drink plenty of water before, during and after the game.

By making just a few simple changes our children will see how food can help then score the winning goal, hit that home run and sink the game winning shot.  Healthy food is just as important as sportsmanship and teamwork.  It all lays the foundation for habits that will help them succeed not just on the field but in all aspects of life as well.

I'd love to hear what great sports snacks you've come up with for your son's or daughter's team?

Children, the Casualties in the War on Obesity

CNN posted an article recently about how eating disorders among children are on the rise.  Watch the video below for an idea of what the article discusses.

 

One of the more alarming things I read in the article was:

A study conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality showed that hospitalizations for eating disorders in children under 12 increased by 119% between 1999 and 2006.

As with any war, there are always casualties.  In the War on Obesity, we are beginning to see that children are among the casualties from our focus on losing weight.  As the article points out, children in the 3rd and 4th grade are already developing anxiety over their bodies.  The unintentional result of our focus on obesity versus good health is the increase of low self-esteem and a trend of prejudice against overweight people.

Where does this anxiety, obsession or focus come from?  Sure, part of it is media driven but it also comes from the home and from other children.  How do we as parents affect our child's body image and cocern about weight?  At what age do they become aware of our own actions: weighing ourselves; saying negative things about our bodies; restricting foods; avoiding bathing suits; avoiding pictures?  They hear us talk about eating healthy but we might unintentionally reinforce poor eating habits by using food as a reward or celebration on one hand but then restrict foods because of a diet or punishment.

It's not only what happens at home but also what happens at school.  Are our children being bullied at school about their weight?  Are they targeted because they are fat or made insecure about their body?  These factors all play a role in our children's body image and how they relate to food.

How do we change? What can we do to start to spare our children a lifetime of body shaming, weight issues and dieting?  One of the new chapters in the 3rd edition of Intuitive Eating is about how you can raise an Intuitive Eater.  This new chapter provides many great suggestions and tips that will help you and your family make peace with food.  If you are a parent, the Intuitive Eating 3rd Edition and Ellyn Satter's The Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family are must haves books!

As a parent, intuitive eater and dietitian, here are some things that my wife and I have always tried to do in our house and with our kids:
1) We are responsible for providing healthy and balanced meals for our children.
2) Our children are responsible for eating the foods we provide and eating until they are full.
3) We don't "bargain" or make deals with our kids.  We never say, "Just eat two more bites of ____ and you can be done."
4) We sit down as a family, without distratctions like the the TV, and enjoy mealtimes together as often as possible.
5) We provide a "treat" or dessert at almost every meal.
6) We do not hide foods.  Cookies are placed at our children's level in a cupboard that they can open and access at any time.
7) We don't allow any adults to talk negatively about their body while they are in our house.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Don't Believe the Hype!

Being a dietitian is one of the best jobs.  I love meeting new people, telling them what I do and then, like magic, they start to talk to me about the latest new diet they are on, hoping to hear my vote of approval.  The only approval they usually get is a smile, a nod and simple comment, "That's nice." I also love just walking around and seeing all the ads and products out there that entice us to lose weight with minimal effort.  Being a dietitian is not just about having good counseling skills, you have to have a little myth busting skills also. This past week I had two different experiences that were great examples of what I described above.

Photo Courtesy of Amazon.com

First off, my family and I ventured to the local mall on Saturday night.  It's 100+ degrees where we live and my wife and I figured we'd give our A/C a rest and head over to the mall for dinner and some people watching.  As we were strolling along, I came across one of those kiosks they have set up in the middle of the mall.  This particular one was selling a vibrating platform exercise machine (left).  Naturally, I had to stop and take a look.  My myth busting sensors were going berserk. Could standing on a vibrating platform really deliver all the benefits they promised?  They claim that you can replace your 60 minute workout with just 10 minutes on the vibration exercise machine and "melt" the fat away.  The machine is simple, you stand on the platform and it vibrates from side to side.  In order to maintain your balance you contract your muscles multiple times per minute.  The constant contracting creates a feeling like your muscles have exerted themselves but are you getting the same benefit from other forms of exercise?  From what I've found here, here and here, the answer is that these machines do serve some purpose for a select few groups: It can provide a brief benefit to athletes, it can help prevent bone loss and may be beneficial with some improved balance.  There has not been substantial research to prove that it is as effective as a 60 minute workout especially for the benefit of weight loss.  Research aside, these products (and there are a lot of them) prey on our hunger for the easy way out.  We want so badly to think that vibrating for 10 minutes a day will pay off with six pack abs, tighter tushies and will make the fat fade away.  If this is really how desperate we have become, I shudder to think about what product is coming out next.  Your guess is as good as mine.

The second "dietitian moment" I had this week was when I learned about a new weight loss plan: the 4-Hour Body Diet.  I was at a wedding and someone who was sitting at the same table told me about their experience trying this diet. What is the 4-Hour Body plan? Well first off, the author has created this amazing movie-style trailer that would sell anyone!  The program claims: 20 lb weight loss in just 30 days, improved testosterone and sperm counts, increased energy with only two hours of sleep each day and six pack abs with just a six minute workout.  The meal plan is similar to any other low-carb or paleo style diet.  No carbs, no fruit and limited dairy.  What's new about this though is there is one day when you are allowed to eat whatever ever you want and as much as you want.  The author, Tim Ferriss has no credentials in nutrition or exercise to substantiate his boastful claims but instead says he was the "guinea pig" and tested the different ideas on his own body. So for those who love studies, when it comes to the 4-Hour Body, n=1.  There are some great articles that discuss why the 4-Hour Body is not a good idea and you can read them here, and here. Besides not being based on any sound science and totally unrealistic, if you need another reason not to do something like the 4-Hour Body, it is endorsed by my favorite TV doctor, Dr. Oz which should speak volumes enough.  So back to my encounter at the wedding, I asked the person telling me about the diet how they did and they said, "Great, I lost 5 lbs."  They also said that they stopped the diet because they got sick of eating so much meat and ended up craving more fruits and carbs.

One week and two more examples of our quick-fix mentality about weight loss.  As we focus on the scale and obsess about our bodies, we lose sight of the fact that improving our health takes work.  Getting healthy is not about the number on the scale or about your dress size or about how big your biceps are.  It takes effort.  It takes a commitment to self-exploration.  Improving your health is about learning how to deal with your emotions without food. Its about moving your body not just to sweat or to build muscles, but because movement helps relieve stress and because you feel better about yourself after a workout.

If you want to lose 20 lbs in 30 days go for it.  If 10 minutes on a vibrating machine sounds fun to you, have at it.  Once you get tired of your no-carb, no fruit, high protein diet with one day to "pig out" and once you realize that our rattling innards have had enough, call me.  I'll be here, waiting to help you on the journey to improved health.  No gimmicks, no promises of quick fixes.  Just an honest conversation about food, exercise and your health.

Exercise and Find Your Greatness

I just turned 40 this month.  As with any milestone birthday, I have taken some time to reflect and think about life; where I've come from and where I'm heading.  I'm amazed at how my life has changed over the past 10 years, I have a new career, I got married and had two amazing kids.  

I've also had time to think about my health and how that has changed (for the better) over the past 10-15 years.  From weighing 300+ pounds nearly 15 years ago to working on becoming an Intuitive Eater.  I've biked 100 miles in a day and found pleasure in running.  

I've also been watching a lot of coverage of the London Olympics.  I guess I'm like many others out there but the athletes have really amazed and inspired me.  So I guess I have exercise on the brain!


Coincidentally, there has been some news about the benefits of exercise.  This article from the New York Times highlights a couple of studies that look at which is more effective in helping people lose weight.  Each study showed that exercise did not have the same overall benefit on weight loss as did healthier low calorie diets. 

What does this mean for you?  In my experience as a dietitian (and as a person trying to lose weight and get healthy), most people exercise for one reason: to burn calories.  They join boot camps, push their bodies and go to the gym for the purpose of sweating off the pounds or burning last night's dinner.  But like the article points out, "People stick with low-calorie diet more readily than they continue with exercise to drop pounds."

There in lies the rub. You shouldn't do anything just to "drop pounds"  When you focus on weight you forget the simple goal of improved health.  By just focusing on how many calories you burn on the treadmill, you lose sight of the fact that you might not enjoy running on the treadmill and you'd get much more pleasure from walking outside.  Some people actually gain weight when they start to exercise.  Read this woman's journey with a half-marathon and her weight here. 

What do I recommend? I recommend finding an activity that you love.  Get inspired to try something new.  Our bodies are capable of so much.  Just watch what the Olympic athletes are doing in London.

Need more inspiration that just watching the Olympics? Take a look at these new Nike ads, "Find Your Greatness"







"Greatness is not some rare DNA strand.  It is not some precious thing.  Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing.  We're all capable of it.  All of us."  Greatness is within all of us, we just need to find it.  So go out and find your greatness, that is what I plan to do.

So in a grand gesture worthy of a 40th birthday, I'm committing to finding my greatness.  Not to burn calories or to lose inches, but because I know I have it in me, and you do too.  Huffington Post had a great article this week about an exercise bucket list and I thought that was a great idea.  Here is my exercise bucket list.  What is yours?

1. Run the 2013 LA Marathon
2. Ride up Alpe d'Huez
3. Complete the Aids Lifecycle
4. Kayak with dolphins
5. Embrace the mindfulness of yoga
6. Complete a triathlon (no matter how short/long)