Need another reason for kids to take their vitamins? It can help prevent eczema.

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, 15 million people have eczema.  As surprising as this is, perhaps more surprising is the fact that 20 percent of eczema sufferers—1 in 5—are children.

But parents can reduce this common condition in childhood by seeing to it that their kids get a hefty dose of vitamins and minerals every day.

Researchers from Seoul, South Korea enlisted 180 five-year-olds, all of them having the most common form of eczema (i.e. atopic dermatitis).  About 250 other five-year-olds also took part in the study, only they did not have atopic dermatitis.

But what these kids did have was a healthy dose of vitamins and minerals coursing through their blood, and researchers believe this fact was associated with their not having eczema.

After evaluating food frequency questionnaires and blood work samples, they found that the kids without eczema had high levels of beta-carotene in their blood.  This was associated with a 56 percent reduced risk of atopic dermatitis.

Three other vitamins and minerals associated with reduced risk for eczema were vitamin E, folic acid and iron.  Kids high in these nutrients were 67 percent, (vitamin E) 63 percent (folic acid), and 61 percent (iron) less likely to have eczema.

The study was published ahead of print in the online edition of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

This study piggybacks on a study I reported about earlier this year regarding eczema prevention through the fatty acids found in fish.  That study found that kids whose diets were replete in omega-3 fatty acids were 25 percent less likely to develop eczema.

About half of all kids with eczema—a skin condition that causes severe itchiness and redness—grow out of it by the age of 15, but that leaves 50 percent who are afflicted with it all their lives.  And while eczema is neither deadly nor contagious, it’s a constant irritant that causes the skin to thicken and turn leathery—a source of frustration and embarrassment for sure.

Eczema can occur anywhere on the body, but it most frequently rears its ugly head on the face, arms and legs.  A good friend of mine had eczema in the upper corner of his forearm and on his head.  Fortunately, though, he was one of the 50 percent of kids that grew out of it.

The point of all this is to make sure your kids are getting their vitamins and minerals.  Few kids get their vitamins and minerals from fresh fruits and vegetables, so a great alternative option is through multivitamin supplementation.

I recommend Ola Loa.   It’s a fun way to make sure they’re loaded with the vitamins and minerals they need, in a delicious cranberry-raspberry flavor (my personal favorite is Mango Tangerine, but the Cran Raspberry is good as well).

Sources:
yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com
nutraingredients.com

Parents may not have as much of an influence on their children’s eating habits after all.

According to a new report that’s published in the well-respected Social Science and Medicine journal, parents may not have as much of an influence on their children’s eating habits after all.

This study runs counter to many past studies that say otherwise.  For instance, a 2004 University of Minnesota study found that children who had dinner with their parents at least five days a week exhibited more healthy eating habits than those who didn’t.  The University of Minnesota conducted a similar study in 2009 and found the same thing, only this time it applied to all adolescents, as meal plans were more healthful and the regularity with which adolescents ate was much more wholesome than those who didn’t eat with their families.

And if that wasn’t enough, UCLA published a study this past winter that is in direct contradistinction to the report I’m about to tell you about.  They found that among 50 percent of cases, parents who drank soda regularly (i.e. every day) had kids who ate fast food regularly – as in every day!

While they also found that kids whose parents didn’t drink soda also had kids that ate a lot of fast food, it was far less frequent (in about one-third of cases).

So now comes as a study that says how parents eat amounts to nothing in terms of influence on their kids’ diet?  Hmmm…

To determine this, researchers examined and compared food intake questionnaires of over 16,000 people who were related in some way (comparing moms’ eating habits to the daughters’ eating habits, dads’ to sons’, etc.).  To see how closely diets resembled one another, researchers used a number of variables that were measured on a scale of -1 to +1.  A score of zero indicated no resemblance; a score of 1 indicated a perfect resemblance.

On average, the researchers found that there was very little resemblance, as scores among the participants ranged between 0.26 and 0.29.  Other comparisons were similarly bleak in their alikeness:  such as the amount of fat consumed between parent and same-sex child and total amount of calories consumed on a given day.

The researchers say that factors that have a greater influence on kids’ eating habits are peers in school, their knowledge of food in general, television-viewing, and self-esteem.

In short, to paraphrase the study’s lead author, parents don’t carry the same cache they once did in shaping their children’s chow choices.

As with virtually all studies, this one has positive and negative aspects to it.  I don’t doubt these researchers’ findings, but I don’t think they can be applied universally.

I say that because kids vary in how close they are with their parents, emotionally, in particular.  I grew up in a family that was very close, and what was served at the dinner table had a profound influence on my attitudes about food and the course of life I took in advocating for natural health.  But others aren’t emotionally connected at all with their family, and I think that had to factor into the findings of the researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

To some, this study suggests that parents shouldn’t worry about what they serve because it won’t affect their kids’ eating habits one way or another.  That’s not the way I view it.

Based on past studies mentioned, I firmly believe that parents have a big influence on their kids eating habits, but because things outside of the home now take up more time in the average adolescent’s life, parents aren’t as influential as they once were.

This should serve as a call to arms for parents to recommit themselves to their children’s lives, their nutritional lives particularly.  Don’t take this study as one that exonerates you from influencing how your kids eat; take it as one that motivates you to re-establish how you can shape your youngling’s noggin to eat healthfully.

Sources:
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com

High school cafeterias in 20 different jurisdictions across America were included in a study that discovered roaches, rats and outdated safety codes.

Researchers from The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is a Washington-based non-profit organization evaluated the cafeterias on four criteria which included:

1. How optimal the food safety codes are
2. How often the facilities are inspected
3. How easy is to obtain public information about the cafeteria from the Internet
4. How safe the cafeterias themselves are

Not one school received a full 100 percent. The average ranged from the 60 to 70 percentile range. CSPI’s hometown of Washington and the lowest-ranked school system of Hartford, Connecticut both ranked lower than 50 percent.

School systems at the top of the list included Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, Houston, Texas, King County, Washington and Maricopa County, Arizona.

Certain criteria used which could affect the rating of a jurisdiction included whether the jurisdiction’s federal requirement of having biannual inspections was met and the number of health violations found during these inspections.

Another factor which negatively impacted many jurisdictions was the lack of information available on the internet about the safety of their cafeterias, a criterion set by the CPSI. While receiving between 60 to 90 percent on all other categories, many received a less than 30 percent rating in this category, dramatically lowering their overall rating.

Schools that deserve special applause include Maricopa County, Arizona. which exceeded the federal requirement of biannual inspections, and the city of Chicago which features an inspection rule that results in an automatic failure for any rodent droppings spotted.

Our children’s safety should be our number one priority. My recommendation is for parents to “brown bag” their kid’s lunch with organic, healthy and most of all clean foods. Doing it this way leaves little room for error. Aside from the terrible quality of the processed foods found in most schools, sanitary issues are now giving parents more of a reason to prepare the food themselves.