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Article first published as Teaching Children Nutrition: A Resource Guide on Technorati.

By: Ali Al-Rajhi, head editor

Parents want the best for their children. The BEST education…the BEST clothes…the BEST toys. But, there is one area that parents may neglect – nutrition! It’s never a parents intention to neglect proper nutrition, but it’s a common trend to overlook the long term importance of establishing solid nutritional habits for their children; and even for parents themselves as they must lead by example.

This is an area that I am passionate about for my family and friends. I’ve compiled a couple of useful tools that are helpful to teach nutrition. Keep in mind, that it’s a family effort and strive for PROGRESS, not PERFECTION.

1) Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Campaign

Why? Jamie Oliver presents the issues that should concern every parent in the U.S. caused by our obesogenic environment (e.g., rising rates of childhood obesity, diabetes, etc). His website is filled with tips on how to start a community campaign to address local food systems such as school cafeterias, how to educate kids on where their food comes from, and tips for families to get in the kitchen and cook with their kids. Check out the video on his site! Also, HERE is a quick guide to his Food Revolution.

2) The ABC’s of Nutrition

The name says it all.

3) Nourish Interactive’s Guide to Reading Food Labels

Knowing what your food is made of can be very powerful in making healthy food choices. The guide helps to “demystify” the food label for children.

4) Final thoughts

Most importantly, teaching your kids how to prepare and cook meals is the most powerful way to establish the important of a nutritionally sound lifestyle. All that children learn will assimilate nicely when experience the joy of cooking!

Again, strive for PROGRESS…not PERFECTION!

Article first published as The Paleo Lifestyle: Living and Playing Like Cavemen on Technorati.

source: flickr.com/photos/lord-jim/2245362817/

By: Ali Al-Rajhi, head editor

I have started to adapt to a more Paleolithic lifestyle after reading Arthur De Vany’s book “The New Evolution Diet”and Mark Sission’s book “The Primal Blueprint,” I have found that it’s a much more natural lifestyle that our bodies may have been better suited for. The following were some question I asked myself when I began to learn more about the Paleo lifestyle.

1. What is Paleo?

In the simplest terms it’s adapting to a lifestyle (primarily our diet & physical activity) to best suite what your body was intended to do in terms of genetics. The best examples of how such a life was lived are derived from how our Paleolithic ancestors lived.

2. What is the Paleolithic Diet (or Paleo Diet)?

A diet “based on the simple understanding that the best human diet is the one to which we are best genetically adapted” (thepaleodiet.com). In essence, consuming whole fruits and vegetables, lean protein (lean meat, chicken, fish), avoiding processed foods and grains. This is analogus to the fact that our Paleo cousins consuming what was in their environment (e.g., hunting wild game, fishing, consuming berries, etc) and avoiding what they did not with the logic that our genetic makeup has not changed significantly from our Paleo cousins.

A book I recently read by Dr. Arthur De Vany – author of “The New Evolution Diet” and a prime example of how the Paleo lifestyle can be beneficial – makes a very important point: It is difficult for the average person to live exactly like our Paleo cousins, instead we should try to mimic our diets to what was consumed (a diet high in protein and whole fruits & veggies) by adapting to what is already in our environment. For example, shopping only the periphery of the super-market (meats, fruits, veggies) and avoiding the center isles (processed foods, cereals, breads, etc), except for certain nuts which are rich in protein and healthy fats.

Wired.com

Please feel free to copy the interview as long as the “The Public Health Bugle” is cited.

By: Ali Al-Rajhi, Editor of the Public Health Bugle

Readers, it’s my greatest privilege to present to you Thomas Goetz who I’ve recently started to admire due to his philosophies of preventative health care. In his book The Decision Tree: How to Make Better Choices and Take Control of Your Health, Mr. Goetz explains how using a Decision Tree “nudges us to think through options, to act consciously and with consideration” in relation to making better health decisions.

Biography of Thomas Goetz, Courtesy of Wired Magazine:

As Executive Editor, Thomas Goetz oversees all aspects of Wired Magazine, from story conception to cover packages. In addition to guiding editorial content, Goetz writes frequently for the magazine on health and technology. Recent cover stories include “Your DNA, Decoded,” about the nascent personal genomics industry, “The Truth About Cancer,” about the riddles of early detection, and “The Thin Pill,” about the pharmaceutical industry’s evangelism of metabolic syndrome. His writing has been selected for The Best American Science Writing and The Best Technology Writing anthologies. Since Goetz joined Wired in 2001, the magazine has been nominated for 12 National Magazine Awards, and has won six, including three for General Excellence. Before joining Wired, Goetz was an executive editor at the Industry Standard, the late but lauded news magazine of the Internet economy. He has been a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and The Village Voice, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Details, Rolling Stone and other publications. He holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree in American literature from the University of Virginia. He graduated from Bates College.

Ali Al-Rajhi: Thank you for your time, Thomas. Could you please provide our readers with your background, where your interest in journalism stemmed from, and how your interest in public health developed?

Thomas Goetz: I got to Wired about 10 years ago. I was an English major and got a master in English Literature at the University of Virginia. I came into technology and science as a user. I have a family background in medicine, my father is a doctor, my mother is a nurse, and my other sister is a surgeon. So health was something that I was always exposed to but I had no training myself.

About 5 year ago I started to write on the interface between technology and medicine, in which I realized that a Masters in Public Health (MPH) would be a handy thing to get. So I luckily was able to sniggle my way into Berkeley and they had a nifty 1 year program for people who were already in advanced careers – mostly doctors. But Berkeley was open minded and accepted me, as a journalist, into their MPH program. So I took my spot and had a great time. It was a wonderful exposure to the “nitty-gritty” of public health and that really changed my perspective on public health in a number of ways.

–Please do not repost without acknowledging the Public Health Bugle–

Today, I’m joining educators across the U.S. to kick off National Drug Facts Week by offering up my own shout-out for educating teens about drug abuse. Sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Drug Facts Week is an official health observance designed to shatter the myths and spread the facts about drug abuse and addiction. To learn more about today’s “CyberShoutout” in support of National Drug Facts Week, checkout Sara Bellum Blog.

My discussion today will start off with a brief understanding of the world of drugs. Then I will delve deep into current data that looks at the prevalence of illegal drug use in the U.S. and current research that will take us to some interesting places. By the end of the article, I hope to provide insightful knowledge that teens can use to prevent illicit drug and alcohol use.

When discussing drugs, it’s best to understand that they can be categorized into four groups (image courtesy of David McCandless of Information Is Beautiful). It’s interesting to note that Cannabis falls right in the center as the “Super Drug,” and that Alcohol is categorized as a “Depressant.”

Now, what is the prevalence of illicit drug use by teens? Recent data (2007) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that:

• 8.0% of persons 12 years of age and over have used illicit drug in the past month.
  

• 5.8% of persons 12 years of age and over have used marijuana use in the past month.
  

• 2.8% of persons 12 years of age and over have used a psychotherapeutic drug (for non-medical use) in the past month.
  

Also, a report from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy found that even though there is a “significant downturn in usage levels, they remain at high levels and it has been shown that the earlier drug use is initiated, the more likely a person is to develop drug problems later in life.” It goes without saying that there are a number of health effects that can undermine a teen’s academic performance, peer and family relations, and even lead to increased chances of juvenile delinquencies. In relation to excessive alcohol consumption and marijuana use, a recent report published in the January 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (summary found HERE) found that “drinking during adolescence alters normal developmental processes in a way that negatively impacts learning and social adjustment into adulthood.” In other words…alcohol consumption is associated with BRAINDAMAGE! To learn more about U.S. trends for teen illicit drug use, please visit the following LINK.

I want to share three pieces of research that have been conducted this year.

By: Ali Al-Rajhi

When food companies have to slap a sticker claiming they use “all natural” ingredients, I start to question if it’s truly natural ingredients I’m consuming. I decided to take the initiative to do some research and determine what is meant by “all-natural” and how companies are able to make such claims – which are often misleading.

One medical doctor (Dr. Mercola) states that an “all natural” food label claim means “Zero. Zilch. Nada. Zip;” and when you attempt to find a definition for the phrase “all natural,” you can notice that nothing is set in stone:

• “Natural foods” and “all natural foods” are widely used terms with various meanings and no legal definition. Natural foods are not necessarily organic foods: - wikipedia.com
• Food that contains no artificial ingredients (eg, colors, flavors, preservatives and other chemicals) and is only minimally processed (so the raw product is not fundamentally altered): - vansfoods.com
• Made without artificial ingredients or preservatives. - snackaisle.com

What’s even more surprising is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “has no plans in the near future to establish a definition of the term ‘natural’, saying it has other priorities for its limited resources.”

To my understanding, the FDA checks food labels,  to see whether or not the Nutrition Facts panel is visible, rather than the accuracy of the information. In addition, the FDA allows for food labels to be no more then 20 percent off before it violates federal law and that 10% of all food labels contain inaccuracies in what they report.”

So, what can you do?

• Buying locally is a start. Check out your local farmer’s market where you can purchase products without additives, antibiotics, growth hormones, etc. Also, you are supporting the sustainability of these local farmers.
  
• Read the ingredients of the foods you are purchasing. The more natural the food is, the less ingredients it will contain.
  
• When shopping at your local grocery store, look for Non-GMO products (Organic Certified). Even then I question organic certified foods, but requirements to get organically certified by the USDA are more stringent and it’s an alternative for shoppers who don’t have access to a farmer’s market.
  
• If you have an iPhone, you can download a Non-GMO shopping guide free from the App store by searching “ShopNoGMO.”

Buying healthy, safe foods might require you to put in some effort as far as preparing in advance and to knowing what to look for, but in the end your are doing it for your health.