Welcome to Small Steps to Health where we do not take orders from a cookie!

My friend, Ally, recently came over fuming about snack time at school.  After three days of her son bringing home the nutritious snacks that she carefully packs for him, she called the teacher.  Instead of eating the nutritious snacks, her son eats the chips and cookies that the teacher provides for the students without a snack.  What 8 year old wants string cheese or fruit pieces when there are Goldfish and Doritos?  Especially when junk food banned from the home?

Do as I say, not as I do

They say that it takes a whole village to raise a child.  Snack time at school is one prime example of how our village is not set up to encourage a healthy lifestyle. The teacher is doing the best that she can with her limited budget, often times using her own funds to subsidize the classroom. Can you blame her for wanting to provide the cheapest and most convenient snacks to those children whose families cannot provide their child with snacks? Short of health-minded parents subsiding or fundraising specifically for snack time, what can parent do to ensure their child eat the healthy snacks in their lunch bags?

Walk the walk

There is plenty a parent can do to instill healthy governing values in their child. To begin with, Ally does not take the time to eat healthy herself. She rarely eats fruits and vegetables. But she gives fruits and vegetables to her children all the time. Is it any wonder her children reject them for school snacks without her towering over them while they eat them at home?

Eat nutritious family meals at home

Eating together as a family is important. Teaching children about nutrition takes place during family meals. They get to see how the parents interact with food. What do you think Ally’s children feel when they are eating vegetables while their mother is not touching the stuff? Don’t all children learn by imitation in the early years? Make it a priority to let your children see you eat the healthy food that you are serving them. Here are some ideas on making family meals a regular occurrence in your household.

Who is the village idiot?

Our society is already set up to subconsciously make us all fat.  Don’t be the village idiot and keep your eyes half shut when it comes to your child’s future health habits.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

Photo by:  Starmama.

I forgot to mention that I was one of the featured bloggers on BlogHer’s Juice a couple of weeks ago.  That is what happens when you are planning a wedding, keeping up with the blogging community, remodeling a foreclosed home, and working a new job.

This episode of the Juice talks about tips on how to stay in shape when you are traveling.  You can view the video here.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

Judging by the shelves upon shelves of diet and health books that I found myself staring at recently in a bookstore, we all greedily lap up any information we can regarding what we should and should not do when it comes to eating habits. If a particular diet expert says that we are all probably deficient in calcium and need more of it to prevent bone loss in the future, society responds drastically. Calcium supplement sales shoot up and we start knocking them back. Why take just one when you could take three? It’s good for you, right? Better triple that dosage!

But it doesn’t work like that. Although we should indeed be concerned about nutrient deficiencies, we should equally be concerned about nutrient toxicities. If you’re doubling or tripling the recommended daily amount of calcium, for example, then you’re more likely to be susceptible to kidney stones. Excess calcium also hinders the absorbent ability of iron, which could then lead to a deficiency in that nutrient.

It also depends what kind of nutrient you’re consuming as to the likelihood of reaching deficient or toxic levels. Water-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin C, pass through our bodies quickly and therefore we need to consume an astronomically high amount of that vitamin to reach toxic levels. Fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, on the other hand, remain in the body and can reach toxic levels much quicker.

The moral of the story is to take the Goldilocks approach of consuming a moderate amount of every nutrient. Not too much, not too little: just enough to be healthy and reap the benefits. You can best achieve this by reading nutrition labels and doing a little research to learn what foods different nutrients can be found in. It is also good to know a little bit about which nutrients you may be lacking in due to a lack of variety in your diet.

Iron is a particularly tricky nutrient when it comes to achieving that desired balance. There are two forms of iron; heme and non-heme. Heme iron is only found in animal flesh, and it is absorbed twice as efficiently as non-heme. This is very problematic for vegetarians. There are ways that they can increase the absorption of non-heme iron, however: consuming the plant-based source of iron with a source of vitamin C is one way to enhance absorption. Toxicity levels of iron usually only occur when the person is taking iron supplements, so if you are taking supplements, you might want to discuss it with your doctor or a registered dietician to ensure that your nutrient levels are balanced.

It pays off to become savvy at reading nutrition labels and ingredient lists for figuring out the meaning of the labels on bottles of supplements. Increasing your awareness of the value and dangers of nutrient consumption will lead you to better health. Any kind of recurring problem, such as bleeding noses, insomnia, or diarrhoea, could very easily be a result of a deficiency or toxicity of a vitamin or mineral in your diet. How much do you know about the nutrients in the food that you eat?

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.  If you want to read more of Sagan’s writing, head on over to Living Healthy in the Real World.

With only three months left and so many details unplanned, I am starting to feel overwhelm about the wedding.  At first every one wants to help, but only if I agree with their suggestions.  Now I am tying tiny little bows on my invitations by myself.  I am an army of one.  Where is the help?

One sister is annoyed that I did not want her to arrange my flowers.  The other two are finishing up their finals.  My mom is too careless.  My husband has “big fingers” (according to him), so I will be tying over a 100 little tiny bows on invitations that he picked.  Oh yes, the rant about my wedding plans is leading somewhere.

I hate to “punish” my loyal readers, but I am have to take a long break from blogging.  For the next three months, I will only be posting occasionally when I need to take a break from wedding planning.  I have to spend my free time exercising and doing wedding related things like bow tying.  By making an “official” announcement that I will not be blogging, I hope to stop feeling guilty about neglecting my blog.

But after September I should be back to my regular posting schedule.  If any one is interested in guest blogging, please send me an email at asithi.blogATgmail.com

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

The drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, has a website for heart attack survivors.  They are giving away a free exercise dvd for heart attack survivors to help strength your heart.  The exercise program was developed by a doctor and Bob Greene.  The free exercise dvd includes activities that people can do daily at home or the office.

However, please note that if you sign up for the free exercise dvd you are giving the drug company permission to market to you.  But then again, some people like free even if it means getting some mailers in your mailbox or inbox.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.