To find out more about Global Toddlers click here.

You can complete a short online survey if you would like to showcase your toddler’s profile. The only criteria is that you should have at least one child between the ages of 2 and 5.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Last weekend, I had an opportunity to talk to several parents of young children at a local cultural event. I did a short survey with them to learn more about their issues and concerns. One of the questions was designed to find out which sources of information they rely on for advice on child nutrition. I did a similar survey last year and I reported the results in this article. I have now added the new data for this update.

This data set now has  a total of 202 picks from 97 respondents from the blog, Global Toddlers and the recent cultural event.

Here is how the question was posed:

Where do you go for advice on toddler nutrition? Pick 3

1. Your pediatrician
2. Nutritionist or Registered Dietitian
3. Internet
4. Trusted friend/family
5. Books or Magazines
6. Networking group
7. Other

And here is chart showing the results:

Top 3 sources of child nutrition advice for most parents are Internet, Pediatrician and Books/Magazines.

I think that there is a tremendous opportunity for registered dietitians to connect with parents and offer them credible, science-based, actionable information. They get extensive training in all aspects of nutrition and many of them have graduate degrees. I believe they can bridge the gap between the pediatrician, who is unlikely to spend a lot of time addressing nutrition needs of a child, and the internet, where nutrition information tends to be largely fragmented across websites of dubious credibility. I have had a wonderful experience working with over 30 registered dietitians who have answered reader questions in my Ask the Expert column.

What do you think? Are you surprised by these results?

I would love to hear your opinion on the results of this poll. If you did not get a chance to vote in this survey, please feel free to leave a comment with your picks.

©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Happy Friday! This photo touched my heart and reminded me the value of nutrition and care for our growing children. Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words!

That said, here are the 5 interesting nutrition stories of the week that caught my eye. Enjoy and drop a comment to let me know what’s on your mind.

Eco-Atkins diet

A low carbohydrate, high protein Atkins diet is popular for weight loss, but carries the risk of increasing LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Now some researchers are suggesting that a vegan diet rich in protein from plants and nuts reduces weight and lowers cholesterol, by as much as 20%. In a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, they concluded that a  plant-based low carbohydrate “eco-Atkins” diet resulted in about the same weight loss as a high-carbohydrate, dairy and whole grain vegetarian diet, but reduced the LDL cholesterol by a larger amount. Although the size of the study was small, it proves again the many benefits of a plant-based diet. Cutting down on meats which are rich in saturated fats and cholesterol is a good idea even though the specific results cited by this study may not be seen for everybody.

New FDA chief focuses on food safety

In an interview with the Associated Press, the newly confirmed FDA chief Dr. Margaret Hamburg put a high priority on restoring FDA’s credibility by using science-based information to drive decisions, and by implementing risk-based controls for early detection of food contamination in the farm-to-store supply chain. I don’t think there is anything earth-shattering here; this is precisely what the FDA is expected to do anyway. Also, this is what the public wants to hear in light of the peanut, pistachio, spinach, lettuce and tomato outbreaks. The public confidence in the nation’s food supply is shaken up, so naturally this is high on FDA’s agenda. What I would like to know is how she plans to fix the management system, improve visibility of problems and bring in a sense of accountability in the public office. Till then, these are simply nice sounding words and we will continue to remain one more outbreak away from another massive recall and public health scare.

Consumers want healthy food but unwilling or unable to pay more

According to the United Soybean Board’s 16th Annual Consumer Attitudes About Nutrition report, nearly 9 out of 10 consumers report wanting to buy nutritious and healthy food but only about half are willing to pay more. Of the remaining, about half say they want to but can’t afford nutritious food right now. A fairly large number of them also say that the food they buy is already healthy, and that the healthier version would not taste as good. There is a certain bias in this survey towards processed foods since that is clearly of interest to the soy industry. I don’t think they even considered asking questions about fresh vegetables and fruits and cutting down on meats. My guess is that the definition of healthfulness was limited to the nutrition facts label – the usual calories, fats, carbohydrates, sugars, proteins, vitamins and minerals etc. And the interesting fact about these labels is that even though most people do review them before buying, about half find the nutritional information confusing. With a limited definition of “healthfulness” and confusing nutritional information, how can we expect consumers to make the right trade-offs between buying healthy food and cost?

Challenges of reducing sugar in (processed) foods

I certainly cannot relate to the “challenges” faced by the food technologists in formulating foods with artificial sweeteners. Nor do I want to! But I found this podcast interview with the manager of sweetener technology at Tate & Lyle posted on the FoodNavigator site quite interesting. Turns out that sugar not only provides sweetness, it also affects the texture and feeling of the food. That is why, a simple substitution of natural sugar with artificial sweetener doesn’t work so well except in beverages. In ice cream, for example, reducing sugar or adding artificial sweetener can change its freezing point, and as a result, the consistency. In baked goods, sugar affects the color, taste, bulk and shelf life, which makes it difficult to reproduce with artificial sweeteners. So I guess they make these food technologists earn their paycheck after all! Anyway, this manager also commented that consumers want taste and choice, and for those wanting healthy foods with low sugar, it is a challenge to offer them all three. Tells me that her interpretation of what consumers want is incredibly – though understandably – quite narrow. What happened to fresh, natural, locally sourced, green, organic and wholesome? Guess they have decided not to listen to those customers since they will probably not be helping Tate & Lyle’s bottom line anyway!

Simplicity is the new message for “affordable” healthy food

My blogger friend and registered dietitian Janet Helm was recently interviewed by ABC News (Go Janet!) on the recent trend of going “back to basics” when it comes to food advertising. Janet has written about these trends on her blog Nutrition Unplugged in a couple of very interesting articles. So check out her blog and the ABC interview via her post Simplicity Sells in Tough Economic Times. Janet is also a contributor to my Ask the Expert where she recently wrote a very informative post about sushi and toddlers.

Enjoy your weekend! And let me know what you think.

Photo source – Thiru Murugan on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

I am excited to introduce a new series on Littlestomaks!

Each week, Global Toddlers will showcase a very short nutritional profile of a young child (2-5 years old) and his/her parents. As the name suggests, these children will be from all over the world. I am interested in learning more about the feeding preferences and concerns of parents from different countries. I think that cultural norms play a strong role in nutrition. I have designed a very short survey for Global Moms/Dads. I will present their response, almost verbatim, in a weekly post. A few points of clarification -

What Global Toddlers IS NOT:

• It is not based on a rigorous scientific survey. I am not using any scientific method to select parents and toddlers for this survey. Neither do I claim that all aspects of toddler nutrition are covered by this survey.
• It is not an attempt to stereotype people from a particular nationality. No general conclusions should be drawn based on a specific profile.
• It is not intended to collect medical/health information, or to provide any medical advice.
• It is not sponsored by any commercial agency. Data will not be used for any commercial purposes.

What Global Toddlers IS:

• It is an effort to learn more about the perspectives of global Moms/Dads on the nutrition of their toddlers.
• It is also an effort to build a global community of parents concerned about nutrition.
• It is intended to provide a voice to the parents and to allow them to connect with each other, share advice and ask questions about nutrition.
• When possible, it is also intended to collect and share real-life recipes suitable for toddlers.
• It is intended to be a work-in-progress. If a parent, or a reader, offers a reasonable suggestion to change the format or content of the survey, all efforts will be made to accommodate those suggestions.

If you would like to participate in the survey, send me a note using the Contact Us page. The only criteria is that you should have at least one child between the ages of 2 and 5.

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