During the month of December, I am going to focus on the problem of hunger in America, particularly childhood hunger. Although it may appear unrelated to the main topic of this blog, it actually is not. Whether it is because of over-abundance of food or because of hunger, poor childhood nutrition is a common concern. In both cases, our children face a future of poor health, lost opportunities and unrealized dreams.

Here are some facts about hunger based on 2008 data that may surprise you:

1. There were 17.2 million households that faced food insecurity. This means that they had trouble providing food to all family members sometime during the year.
2. About  6.7 million were characterized as facing very low food security.
3. Over half of the food insecure households were white, non-Hispanic.
4. Hunger is a problem even for those who may not be homeless or out of work. 36% of individuals served by Feeding America network of food banks have at least one working adult in the household.
5. Over 1 million children live in households with very low food security. Although children are generally shielded from these problems, there were over half million households where both children and adults experienced very low food security.

Sources:

USDA report on Household Food Security in 2008
Share Our Strength Hunger Facts
Feeding America Hunger 101

I am so excited to be able to offer you this collection of science-based, real-life practical tips from pediatricians and dietitians! If you are like most toddler parents, you have often wondered if you are doing all you can to ensure adequate nutrition for your growing child. You want to encourage him to eat more fruits and veggies, limit sugary treats and enjoy a family meal at dinner. You wonder if you should be giving her any vitamins and supplements, especially if you are following a strict vegetarian diet. And you are often at your wits’ end to feed your picky toddler.

So many questions, so much of conflicting advice out there!

That is why this compilation of toddler nutrition questions  is a handy resource for all toddler parents. From the Foreword written by pediatrician Dr. Ayala:

There is no better time to address the issue of good nutrition than in childhood.  Childhood is the time when eating habits are formed, and what we do as parents can be a lifelong gift of healthy eating and better overall health for our kids.

This collection of tips from experts and practitioners in the field of childhood nutrition—many of them parents themselves– is a wonderful way to gain from their expertise and experience to address some frequent questions toddlers’ parents encounter.

Best of all, when you buy this eBook, you will be helping Share Our Strength fight the serious problem of childhood hunger. That is because 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this eBook will go directly to them to support their work in ending childhood hunger in America by 2015. I have supported them in the past and would like them to be the beneficiary of your generosity this holiday season. Here are a few reasons why I have selected them for this effort:

1. They are focused on childhood hunger in America. I want our dollars to solve the problem at home first
2. They have a good brand, they have the right scale and they have broad-based support
3. Their fundraising capability is impressive – they have raised over $245 million and provided support to 1000 non-profits working to end hunger
4. I believe they can be instrumental in helping our country achieve the goal of no child hungry by 2015

This 52-page eBook costs only $9.95 USD. Download a FREE 6-page excerpt, check it out and when you are ready to buy, visit the Buy eBook page or click here.

With your help, we can make childhood hunger a problem of the past!

Thank you and enjoy the Holidays.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

It is great to see orange everywhere in the neighborhood these days! Some people have already put up their Halloween decorations. We don’t get to enjoy the Fall colors as much in Florida. So these decorations – along with the cool evening air – remind us of the changing season. It is great to be outdoors these days!

It seemed like a busy week for nutrition related news. Probably because I discovered a great website which aggregates news from different sources and organizes them in different categories. It is called Alltop and it is created by none other than the Marketing Guru Guy Kawasaki. I was delighted to see my blog listed on Alltop’s Top Nutrition News page. Check it out!

Here are the 5 nutrition related news that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Watch out, eating hamburgers can paralyze you

I was shocked beyond belief to read the unfortunate story of 22 years old Stephanie Smith, who got really sick after eating a hamburger contaminated with E. coli. She was so sick that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks, after which she could no longer walk because she was paralyzed from the waist down. A very heavy price to pay for a cheap hamburger all of us assume safe for eating without much thought.

Turns out there are serious gaps in the food inspection system which is supposed to test packaged meat for E. coli contamination. Ground beef is produced by processors from beef trimmings and other parts which they buy from many different suppliers. Not all of these incoming supplies are tested for contamination before grinding. The result is that  contaminated cow parts can sometime enter the ground beef supply undetected. Does not happen very frequently, but it does happen often enough to make the news. 8000 people have become sick from 16 E. coli outbreaks in the last 3 years.

No matter how many regulations and inspections are put in place, there is no way to be 100% safe because of the way meat is processed in modern plants. My advice – cut down on beef in the first place – it has been shown to increase the risk of various types of cancer. And if you do want to enjoy a burger, make sure you follow the safe handling procedures and cook it thoroughly so that the inside of the hamburger reaches 165 °F.

Food insecurity increases the risk of childhood obesity

Sounds paradoxical, doesn’t it? Food insecurity is defined as lack of access to food, or nutritionally adequate food. So it is surprising that new research from the American Dietetic Association concludes that there is a link between food insecurity and childhood obesity. In particular, girls from households facing food insecurity are more likely to be overweight or obese. Girls 2-5 years old from household with food insecurity were 47% more likely to be overweight compared to those from food secure households. Boys of the same age did not show this correlation.

What could be the cause of this? Researchers are not sure yet, but suggests that food insecurity creates stress which affects behavior including food choices. Add to that the availability of cheap, energy dense, nutrient-poor foods and binge eating and you can see why this could happen.

I believe that hunger and obesity are two sides of the same coin. In poor countries, food insecurity is real and energy-dense foods are not affordable. There you see severe malnutrition and low weights. In developed countries, food insecurity causes malnutrition on the other end – that is energy dense foods leading to overweight and obesity. The common factors are distribution, quality and cost of food. This is where organizations like Share Our Strength are so critical. I have supported them by writing blog posts and will continue to do so in future.

Soy isoflavones reduce risk of diabetes and heart disease

I was quite excited to read about new research from UMass (my alma mater!) which attempts to explain how isoflavones from soy rich foods work with fat cells to regulate glucose uptake and increased insulin sensitivity. This mechanism is similar to how anti-diabetic drugs work in the body. This is a very important discovery because soy rich foods have been known to lower diabetes risk, increase insulin sensitivity and reduce cardiovascular disease risk, but the cellular mechanism was not well understood.

Isoflavones are plant-based antioxidants found almost exclusively in beans such as soybeans. They are also known as polyphenols because of their chemical structure. Many of these isoflavones act as dietary estrogens. Some studies have shown a reduced risk of breast cancer especially if the soy-rich diet is given in early childhood.

Although much research still remains to be done, particularly in humans, these results are quite promising.

Michael Pollan considers rules to eat by

What are your rules of thumb that affect your food choices? Do you follow the advice of your Mom or Grandma, or do you make these choices by nutritional labels, diet trends or advertisements? Michael Pollan, the highly acclaimed author of The Omnivores Dilemma is compiling genuinely useful, nutritionally sound examples of popular wisdom about eating via the Well blog on the New York Times. He is writing  a book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual based on these responses due to be published in January.

Pollan is known for his skepticism about modern nutrition science and food marketing claims. At the core, he believes that how we eat has been, and should be, influenced by culture based on our collective wisdom accumulated over generations. In short, have more faith in what your Mama told you and skip the advice based on nutrition science.

I have a little bit of a problem with this. What is culture? How do we know that the wisdom of culture is still relevant today? I agree, that culture strongly drives our behavior, but culture is constantly changing. More so than ever now because we live in the age of the Internet. I say, listen to your Mama, but also learn the science so you can make your own decisions. If you leave the decision making to others, even if they are scientists, you are really giving up responsibility for your own health. Science and culture are not mutually exclusive; use the power of information to make your own decisions. I would love to hear Michael’s thoughts on this.

What do you think? What are your favorite rules?

Preservative-free doesn’t make salty processed foods any healthier

Annie of PhD In Parenting wrote a very nice post this week about how Nestle responded to her question on high sodium content in Stouffer’s frozen foods. This was precipitated by Nestle’s claim on Twitter that Stouffer’s meals contained no preservatives.

The No Preservative claim on processed foods is getting quite common these days because customers are getting more sensitive to chemical additives in foods. What they don’t realize is that just because a certain processed food claims to contain no preservatives, it doesn’t mean that it is healthy for them. Most of them still contain loads of salt, fat and sugar.

Nestle’s response to Annie’s question based on their expert opinion is quite ridiculous! They want you to control your toddler’s salt intake by managing the portion size – that is don’t give the adult size serving to your toddler! As if your child is a robot that you can dial in a serving size to manage their salt intake. The right thing to do is to reduce the sodium content in the food.

Instead of hiding behind the numbers in their so called “expert” response, I would have liked to see them take ownership of the sodium problem and announce specific goals to reduce them to a certain level in their products ahead of regulations. That would have shown true leadership and concern for the consumer.

What do you think?

Photo source -Barbara L. Hanson on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

I believe that obesity and world hunger are two sides of the same coin.

That is why I am supporting the Lose for Good campaign by WeightWatchers^®.

As their members lose weight, WeightWatchers^® is pledging to donate upto $1 million to help feed the world’s hungry through its charitable partners Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger. They are also organizing local food drives to collect food donations. Last year’s campaign resulted in over 1.5 million pounds of donated food and $1 million in cash donations. I hope they do even a better job this year!

Today, in particular, is another opportunity for you to help raise an additional $25,000 by participating in their day-long Lose-A-Palooza social media campaign. Here are a few simple things you can do:

1. Leave a comment on this post and include the phrase “Lose for Good” in your note. Feel free to express your opinion and ideas about solving the problem of hunger even though we produce (and waste) a lot of food every year!
2. Send your friends to leave a comment on this blog post. Again, ask them to include the “Lose for Good” phrase.
3. Visit www.loseforgood.com and tell your friends about it via twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
4. Even better, sign up to lose weight yourself! You have until October 17th to shed those extra pounds you have always wanted to get rid off!

I have supported Share Our Strength in the past. I am glad they are going to be a major recipient of this donation from WeightWatchers^®.

Thank you for your support!

Ni Hao! Hope all of you are having a great week so far. This week is Food Allergy Awareness Week. This is the 12th year that the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) has organized a week of awareness about food allergies. Check out their website for more details on how to get involved if you are interested. If your child has food allergies, I would love to have you leave a comment and share your tips for managing nutrition.

Here is another set of 5 nutrition related news and articles from this week that I found interesting. Feel free to share your opinions in the comments section.

Ready for your order? Now let me tell you about sodium in our special today…

When I am dining out, I am usually quite impressed by the ability of the server to rattle off details of their specials of the day. But did you ever wonder why they don’t tell you anything about salt as they try hard to make your mouth water by the fancy description of the recipe? Turns out that if they did, the shock value would be enough for you to simply say “no thank you” and walk out never to return again!

In their report “Heart Attack Entrees and Side Orders of Stroke“, researchers from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) disclose that many of the popular menu items in chain restaurants have “dangerously high levels” of sodium. They examined 17 chain restaurants and found that 85 out of 102 meals had more sodium than a whole day’s worth (2300 mg) and several had more than 4 days worth of sodium! Among the top 10 saltiest meals -  Red Lobster’s Admiral Feast has over 7100 mg and Oliver Garden’s Tour of Italy lasagna with breadsicks, salad, dressing and a coke has over 6100 mg of sodium. Items on Kids menu are no better either with some containing as much as 2400 mg of sodium. CSPI estimates that reducing daily sodium intake by just 25% over the next 10 years could help save the US government over 9 billion dollars per year in direct medical costs.

Isn’t it ironical that even with so much salt in the meals, they still have the salt and pepper shakers on each table?

When eating out, ask for the low salt version of the dish you want to order. Same goes for fat, cholesterol and sugar. If enough customers start asking for healthy food, I think restaurants will change their menu to favor healthy recipes.

If Cheerios^® claims to lower cholesterol, should it be considered a “drug”?

The FDA certainly seems to think so. This week, they sent a warning letter to the CEO of General Mills informing him of “serious violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act” by the promotion of Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat cereal as cholesterol lowering. That would qualify it to be a drug they reasoned, because it seems to treat a medical condition for which drugs are prescribed. In the eyes of the FDA, it counts as an unapproved use since the product has not been evaluated by the FDA for safety and efficacy. Drug approval takes very long and requires a very strict quality control in manufacturing. This could turn out to be quite serious for General Mills who may have to withdraw this claim or modify it to comply with the regulations.

Another claim that FDA found troublesome was that “heart-healthy diets rich in whole grain foods can reduce the risk of heart disease”. Seems like they conveniently forgot to include fruits and vegetables in this claim, which together with a diet low in fat and cholesterol lower the risk of heart disease. Whole grains or dietary fiber is only one factor.

We personally like Cheerios -  it is a brand I have written about favorably in the past. But I am glad that FDA is sensitive to such over-ambitious claims cited in their warning letter. It is not uncommon to see health-related claims on products – for example, nutritional supplements make all kind of claims – but then they are also required to add that their claims have not been evaluated (and approved) by the FDA.

Will this affect your decision to by Cheerios or other products from General Mills? Weigh in.

HIV and safety of breast milk

Imagine the heartbreaking dilemma of a woman with HIV wanting to feed her baby with breast milk. Now imagine that this woman lives in a poor country, where women like her are routinely told not to breastfeed and formula is not affordable.  What are her options? Should she let her baby grow up without the benefit of breast milk, or in the worst case, even die of early childhood diseases?

It  is a sensitive topic; something a lot of us are fortunate enough not to have to worry about. Yet, the problem cannot be ignored if we want all children to grow up healthy. I was pleased to read about the efforts of researcher Sera Young of UC Davis, who is helping women of Tanzania learn a protocol to pasteurize breast milk by flash heating without affecting its nutritional value. Even though the WHO recommends HIV-positive to pasteurize breast milk,  no one in those countries knows how to do it. This project is a great start in that regard. And it is encouraging to note that the acceptance level is very high. The challenge will be to ensure that the pasteurization protocol is properly followed so that the breast milk is safe and still maintains its nutritional value. It is one thing to do it under the watchful eyes of a researcher, and something else to do it everyday on your own. But I do hope that it works in future at a much larger scale.

Link between obesity and food allergy?

This is what you could call a double whammy! Not only do we have rising rates of childhood obesity, we also have an increase in the number of early childhood food allergies and sensitivity to various foods. Now researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, have uncovered a link between obesity and high levels of IgE (antibody associated with an allergic response) based on the 2005 – 2006 NHANES data. Although, they are careful not to draw too many conclusions, it hasn’t taken all that long for people to ask the question “Is obesity fueling food allergies“? It is hard to say if high BMI and obesity is a cause of food allergy, or simply a common feature. Also, is there even a common cause between the two? Hard to say – because even though poor nutrition is linked to high BMI, we cannot say for sure that it also causes food allergy or intolerance. Could it be that the child’s parents have allergies? Could it be that they introduced these foods too early when the child’s digestive system was not fully developed? Just by looking at the survey data and drawing conclusions based on a statistical analysis does not mean that obese children are more likely to develop food allergies.

Support Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale

If you love to bake and would like do some good at the same time, you have a great opportunity to help end childhood hunger. Can you believe that 500,000 more children live in poverty now compared to an year ago and 16 million children rely on food stamps? Personally, I find this statistic embarrassing in our land of plenty! Now, Share Our Strength is running their Great American Bake Sale campaign where you can get involved – the proceeds of your bake sale will go to fund after-school and summer feeding programs in your community and across the country.

You can also support them by blogging about it, or even contributing a recipe to their virtual bake sale! They will raise money by selling eBooks of recipes.

The only thing I will add is that even though this campaign is sponsored by Domino and C&H sugar, try to go low on sugar! Leave a comment if you decide to contribute.

Enjoy your weekend!

Photo source – Davichi on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Hope is a wonderful thing. However hope is not a strategy!

Everyone has a renewed sense of hope these days, and it is all good. My hope is for a day when no child remains hungry and when no parent is tormented by the challenge of finding enough nutritious food to feed their family. Children are our future; we must do all we can to make sure that it is a bright and prosperous one for everybody.

It is indeed a great feeling to learn that there is an organization with a strategy to turn this hope into reality. Let us do our part to help them.

Share Our Strength is a national organization with excellent programs and great reach to help solve the problem of childhood hunger. I am especially impressed by their simple, yet powerful, philosophy:

Poverty is complex; feeding a child is not. Everyone has a strength and everyone has something to share. Chefs, companies, volunteers and everyday Americans who care.

Now Share Our Strength has launched a brand new campaign to raise funds to help end childhood hunger. “Operation No Kid Hungry“ responds to President Obama’s call to action to end childhood hunger by 2015. Share Our Strength has partnered with AT&T to offer two great ways that you can support and participate in “Operation No Kid Hungry”

1. Collect Food Donations

Now through January 31st, help feed those in need by donating food to your local food bank. Find a food bank near you and a list of the most needed nutritious foods. This has become very critical since local food banks are struggling to keep up with increased demand and reduced food donations due to the current economic downturn. Even a small neighborhood food drive can make a big impact.

2. Donate by text

Between now and March 1st, Text “SHARE” to 20222 on your mobile device to donate $5. AT&T will match all text donations up to $100,000.

Donations from the text program will help provide food for the 12.4 million children at risk of hunger in America and will help address the recent increase in demand for food aid across the nation. Click here for full details including service fees.

3. Spread the word

If you blog, you can also help by posting a banner or a badge (see an example on this blog) and writing a post. You can also tweet about it on Twitter. Click here for different banners and badges and select your favorite.

I am also pleased to learn that Share Our Strength’s child hunger partnership in my home state Florida, (the Florida Partnership to End Childhood Hunger) has successfully advocated for passage of The Willie Glenn Act which is bringing a summer meal site to within five miles of every elementary school in the state.  Today, all 68 counties in Florida now have summer meal programs—up from 30 in 2004.  See full details here.

I urge you to do something. Anything. Let us make childhood hunger history! Share a comment if you have already made a contribution.