Fruits and vegetables have a season, just as your healthy snacks should have a season. Although fruit

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juice popsicles are a great snack, no one wants that in the dead of winter. Instead, try granola bars, cheese, grapes and whole fiber crackers along with 100% juice. Store these healthy items in individual serving sizes in a zipper bag to easily hand out. You can also create your own healthy trail mix – since my daughter is allergic to many nuts, I only use almonds and all my children enjoy my mixture of whole grain pretzel nuggets, goldfish crackers, dried banana chips, almonds and semi sweet chocolate chips.

If you don’t have the time to create your healthy snacks, many supermarkets have a bulk food section as well as individually packaged trail mixes and granola bars. Just be sure to read the label so that you approve of all the ingredients.

Eating healthy is not difficult, but does take some planning. Rest assured that the extra effort you put into creating or purchasing healthy snack foods for your children will pay off in the future in good eating habits.

Due to a scarcity of butter in 1869, Frenchman Napleon III offered a prize to anyone who could invent an inexpensive substitute for butter. Hippolyte Mege-Mouries won when he presented his beef suet and milk called oleo margarine. Although flavorful, the margarine was an unappealing, grayish color so Hippolyte added yellow food coloring to make it more appetizing. It was a huge success in France, which motivated the manufactures to begin marketing their inexpensive product world wide.

In the 1870s, the grayish butter substitute made its way to America and was becoming quite a hit. Well, at least until in true capitalistic spirit, the US dairy industry lobbied against it. They asked the federal government to restrict the sale of margarine, tax it, and ban the yellow food coloring so that the putrid gray color was the only color that Americans would see. This lobbying was effective in keeping sales down until the 1930s, and then all bets were off.

By the 1960’s, margarine sales were solidly gaining market share because it was inexpensive. Conversely, butter sales were quickly melting. During World War II margarine went on to become an American staple because it was branded as a “healthy alternative to butter.” Albeit- healthier when vitamin A and D was eventually added to it. Everyone was happy and healthy with this cheap new substance- or were they? Cardiologist soon discovered that margarine was anything but nutritiously healthy.

At the beginning of the 1900s, deaths from heart attacks were extremely rare. Conversely, during the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s, middle aged men and post menopausal women were frequently dying from heart attacks. Cardiologists linked these deaths to the increased consumption of margarine due to the hydrogenated oils and trans-fatty acids that it contained. What are trans-fats?

According to the FDA, trans-fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil–a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats and it creates the right “feel and texture” in your mouth. Trans-fats are found in most baked goods such as cakes, cookies, crackers, salad dressings, candies like sprinkles, breakfast cereals, shortening, margarine, and potato chips, etc. While these foods’ shelf lives will probably out live us, and they taste sinfully good- are they good for us?

The answer is a blood curdling NO. As mentioned earlier, trans-fats are linked to cardiovascular disease and it restricts blood flow through the arteries. According to Dr. Andrew Weil, a resent research paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology makes the possible consequences of this situation scarily clear. Australian investigators gave subjects three different meals containing measured portions of fat. The first meal came from a deep fryer in a restaurant, the second meal had the same amount of fat but it was uncooked, and the third meal was low fat. Four hours after the meals, the researchers measured the blood flow through the brachial artery- the main artery supplying the arm. They found significant restriction of blood flow in subjects who ate the fast food meal, some blood flow restriction in those who ate the uncooked meal, and no restriction from the low fat meal. They interpreted that the restriction of blood flow was due to the oxidative stress resulting from toxic compounds entering the blood after eating the high trans-fat meal from the restaurant.

So use your noggin! The next time you go food shopping, don’t just look at the label-also read the list of ingredients. If you see any ingredient with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil of any kind, run in the other direction (while you still can) and find a healthier alternative. Lastly, try to avoid eating in restaurants as much as possible because 99% of the time, you will be eating a sinfully delicious cocktail of cancer causing preservatives, and blood pressure raising salt, and artery clogging trans-fat.

References

(2003, September-October). Revealing Trans Fats. FDA Consumer Magazine .Vol 37, Number 5. Retrieved January 28, 2009 from http://www.fda.gov/fdac/503_toc.html

Nestle, M. What to Eat. New York. North Point Press, 113-11.

Weil, A. Eating Well For Optimum Health: The Essential Guide to Food, Diet, and Nutrition. New York. Random House, 79 and 90.

FYI About the Author:  Toni Hall Parker graduated from Smith College with a psychology degree and managed recruiting for various pharmaceutical companies’ North American region.  She began self-studying nutrition in 2003 and attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York in 2008 to become a Holistic Health Counselor.  She now resides in Dallas, Texas with her family. For more information, please visit her website at www.myfoodtherapy.com

Going to the supermarket these days can be a confusing experience, especially for those who are trying to select the healthiest food available for their families.  There is an astounding array of different kinds of foods labeled ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ or ‘hormone free’.  Products like eggs, mean, fish milk and fruits/vegetables can also be confusing – brown eggs, white eggs, free-range, organic, natural…who can figure it all out? What difference do these labels make and how does it effect the quality of the food, if it does at all?   Are these labels merely a marketing ploy?  Once you learn what these specific labels mean, you can make an educated decision about whether you want to spend the extra money on these products.

Natural vs. Organic

Natural is a term that is most commonly associated with fruits or vegetables.  By definition, natural has a number of definitions:  “not artificial” and “relating to or being natural food”.  By extrapolation, we can surmise that this means found in nature – i.e., not man-made.  Therefore, labeling a fruit or vegetable as natural is redundant – as far as I understand all fruits and vegetables come from nature.  (This is of course if the fruit/vegetable is not genetically altered, a discussion that I will not get into here.)  In addition, natural is not a term that is regulated by the United States federal government and therefore means little to nothing when placed on a label.

If you see the label “organic” on a food, then it DOES mean something.  In the United States, an organic food is food that has been certified by the United States government that they have been grown and/or produced under certain conditions such as no conventional pesticides and no genetic engineering.  In the case of animals, the livestock must be fed organic grain and not be treated with growth hormones.  In addition, the livestock must be able to go outside to graze.   Finally,, any synthetic  substances–such as vaccinations or medicine for a sick animal or pesticides –used with these foodstuff or livestock must be from an approved list.  (USDA Organic Production and Handling Standards, http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3004445&acct=nopgeninfo)

Free range chicken or meat merely indicates  , a label on eggs and meat can indicate if the animal was caged or penned. This does not make a difference in the quality or nutritional value of the meat, but is simply a matter of animal rights. These products may be a bit more expensive, but if you want to make humane decisions, that is the way to go.

Reading the label and making healthy choices can sometimes be difficult, but learning how to do so can help you make the best choices for your diet.