Childrens' Health

5 Ways to Raise Heart-Healthy Kids

Helping your children become heart-healthy from a very young age helps reduce their risk for heart disease later in life and teaches them to make heart-healthy choices throughout life. Keep Reading →

AINA In Schools: Creating Lifelong Environmental Stewardship

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our kids could really connect with the earth in a meaningful and lasting way? If school programs could help them form a lifelong appreciation and caring for Hawaii’s environment? If planting, growing, harvesting, and eating fresh, local produce could teach them about good nutrition, healthy choices, and where food comes from? If school cafeterias could be a market for local farmers so that fresh, local crops could end up as wholesome school lunches? Keep Reading →

Childhood Obesity

The plump, reddish cheeks and fat fingers of babies and toddlers are sure to charm anyone. Certainly, nobody wants to have a bony baby. At a child's baby stage, plump is not uncommon, but when a child adds more weight than is proportionate to his height, it may be time to worry about obesity. After all, not all kids lose their "baby fat" automatically. Keep Reading →

Diet Alters Your Children's Behavior and Health

As we prepare our children for the new school year, it’s time to think again about one of the most important and least understood aspects of their daily lives: nutrition. What’s good for them, and what’s not. We’ve all heard it many times, yet many of us ignore it—or at least don’t do much about it. We do so at our children’s peril.

Since the 1920’s parents and experts have suspected that certain foods and ingredients ramp up their children’s behavior and contribute to weight and related health problems. Research has proven this to be true.

Reduce Sugar in Your Child’s Diet

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FAQs: Raising Vegetarian Teens

The teenage years can be difficult times for vegetarians or aspiring vegetarians. Peers, teachers and parents who are unknowledgeable about vegetarianism may question the teens’ dietary choices. The most common concerns are whether a growing teenager will get enough protein, calories, and other nutrients such as Calcium, Iron, and Vitamin D. In reality, a properly balanced vegetarian diet is ideal for optimal growth and development at any age. Vegetarian diets are loaded with essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals needed for proper growth. Keep Reading →

Healthy Back-to-school: In the lunch box!

As summer vacation winds to an end, it’s time to welcome the school year with exciting and nutritious lunches for the kids. Packing a lunch for your child allows you to have some control over what he or she is eating at school and keeps your child from having to buy school lunches. Typical school-bought lunches are meat-based and loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol, as well as refined sugars, flours, preservatives, and artificial ingredients. Keep Reading →

Healthy Kid Meals

When steering your children to a healthy lifestyle, it can be difficult to decide what to feed them. So, here are a few ideas for preparing tasty and healthy treats your kids will love!

Try these ideas for school lunches:

Sandwiches

Cheese sandwich in cookie-cutter shapes
Cheese and tomato on whole grain hamburger bun
Mini bagel with cream cheese
Avocado, lettuce, tomato, and sprouts on whole grain bread
Gardenburger with all the trimmings

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Organic Babies & Kids

The last fifty years have seen an alarming increase in the variety of synthetic chemicals in our everyday environments. These chemicals have inundated our food supply, personal care products, clothing, housewares, as well as the foods and products that we give to our children. It is the effect of these chemicals on babies and children that is most pertinent to address. Keep Reading →

Organics Rid Your Body of Pesticides, Study Shows

Common sense suggests that fruits and vegetables grown without the use of hazardous pesticides and insecticides are safer to eat. This is particularly true of organic produce, which is grown without using conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Keep Reading →

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Packing a Healthy Lunch for School

According to a 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine, the past three decades have seen the childhood obesity rate more than double for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and more than triple for children aged 6-11 years. Currently, approximately nine million children over 6 years of age are considered obese. Keep Reading →