Food For Thought with Kat | Doctors’ orders

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As a (not so) little girl, I struggled with a lot of things, one of which was finding snow pants to house my rather large mid-section. It didn’t go unnoticed by my 8-year-old compatriots who often asked whether I could see my toes over my stomach and why my […]

Click here to view original web page at www.reformer.com

As a (not so) little girl, I struggled with a lot of things, one of which was finding snow pants to house my rather large mid-section. It didn’t go unnoticed by my 8-year-old compatriots who often asked whether I could see my toes over my stomach and why my mom was skinnier than I was. Though these cuts are only scar tissue now, I walk a fine line with my children when it comes to their food intake. I try to say no to the junk enough to keep them healthy and say yes just enough to keep them out of therapy later.

It may feel as though we’re at the mercy of Big Food and its ultra-processed, brightly packaged foods that are marketed to kids. How can they not want to eat their contents with cartoons dancing across the labels? Although we’re health conscious here in Southern Vermont, it can be a daily struggle when our kids come home from school having made Fruit Loop necklaces one day and laden with Valentine treats the next.

We all desire what’s best for our children. We want to feed them good food and give them ample opportunity. With so many additives in our food, selecting what our kids eat can be some of the toughest choices we face as parents.

The doctors are in

Pediatrician Dr. Noel Salyer, says parents sometimes feel helpless when it comes to kids’ nutrition when all they want to eat is “kid food.” She doesn’t label foods as good or bad, but talks to kids about foods that make them “strong and healthy,” calling them “growing foods.” “You can control the home environment. You can’t necessarily control every other interaction that your kid has,” she says.

Salyer’s colleague, Dr. Karina Eastman, is a graduate of the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. It dawns on me when I realize she attended UVM for med school, why I might’ve been drawn to her for my kid care all the way out in California. She focuses on getting to the root of the problem, rather than just treating the symptoms, a holistic ideal I celebrate.

“I liked the way that UVM approached things,” Eastman says as she explains her decision to attend med school in Burlington. “The atmosphere there, the people are so lovely, so friendly. It was still a very rigorous academic environment, but the faculty and the other doctors that you work with were so approachable.”

When asked about the top two things to avoid in our children’s diet, both physicians agree that added sugar and food dyes top the list. “It’s not just the sweets and the candy and the things that we know have sugar,” Eastman points out. “It’s hiding in our crackers, in our popcorn, in our dressings, in our pasta sauce, in our vitamins; it’s in everything.”

When Eastman points out that the recommended amount of added sugar for children aged 2 through 18 is less than 25 grams, I’m shocked and not because of how easy it is to consume six teaspoons of sugar. The recommendation is the SAME for teens nearing adulthood as it is for toddlers? Eastman emphasizes that it’s not just the immediate effects like bouncing off the walls. “Excess consumption of sugar early in life is linked to the onset of type-2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity later in life … and [is linked to] decreasing our immune system.”

Small steps

When boosting immunity, both doctors underscore the importance of a good diet and recommend omitting processed foods. Since nutrients are more effectively absorbed in whole foods rather than in pill form, eating well is essential. They agree that sleep is pivotal when it comes to our immune systems. Both sleep and exercise boost our immune cells called T cells. “[Exercise] improves response to vaccines and improves resistance to viral and bacterial infections,” continues Eastman. “Meditation decreases inflammatory markers, increases T cells, increases antibody levels and deep sleep.” I picture getting my 2-year-old to sit still for 30 seconds and stifle a giggle.

Eating the rainbow should only pertain to colorful fruits and veggies. Though many food colorings have been banned in Europe, dyes like Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5 and 6 are still available in the U.S. Used prodigiously in “kid food,” these dyes have been linked to hyperactivity, including ADHD, irritability, behavioral changes and even depression. While some children have developed allergies to them, several hues have even been linked to tumors in lab rats.

Salyer practices what she preaches with her three kids. “We schedule breakfasts. My kids were wanting to have cereal every morning. I fall into these traps too … so now we have a schedule of breakfasts, so we’re getting variety. I think there’s a balance, I really do.”

“It’s really easy to get lost in all of this and get overwhelmed by trying to do the right thing and trying to feed your kid as best you can,” Eastman’s voice is soothing. “All the information out there about chemicals and organic, we all just do the best we can with the information we have. Small steps get us to where we want to be. Everything in balance.”

Life is, after all, a balancing act.

Butterfly Tea

This tea is naturally blue, filled with antioxidants and decaffeinated.

Squeeze a lime in it to turn it purple and sweeten it with honey or maple syrup instead of “kid” drinks!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup boiling water

2 tablespoons butterfly tea flowers

2 teaspoons honey

1 wedge lime

METHOD

Boil water and pour over tea flowers, allowing to steep for 3-4 minutes.

Strain and sweeten. Squeeze lime to change color.

Fun for the kids and much healthier than the other purple stuff!

No matter where we look, whether it’s the mirror, a magazine, social media or the internet, opinions are everywhere. We’re told, “don’t eat that, eat this,” preferably combined with something else in a certain order, maybe even on a certain day. We may hear about a great weight loss program that has worked for a friend or a celebrity, but the only thing we can actually rely on (other than death and taxes), is that health (and skinny) chatter doesn’t stop. Unsolicited and often conflicting advice barrels its way to us and by the end of the day, we may not know which way is up.

With dry January behind us, many of us may be thinking about the next steps for keeping our resolutions on track, whether that’s cutting out certain foods or incorporating more of others.

As a society, we tend to gravitate toward a quick fix. With all the new weight loss medications on the market, we’re fixated on what works the fastest. Rarely do we consider how long our weight loss will last and often don’t even take potential side effects into consideration. I remember a friend — who had recently become her new skinny self, thanks to SlimFast — lamenting that, with all the ingredients listed on the label, it couldn’t be healthy. She was skinny, though, and that was all that seemed to matter.

Once the weight came back on, that same friend decided to try a new weight loss medication. Wearing white in New York City as a 20-something was of the utmost importance; after all, we only had from Easter until Labor Day to sport our summer togs. Thanks to this new medication, my friend couldn’t wear white. It literally said on the bottle that people taking the medication should steer clear from light-colored clothing, thanks to some of the possible side effects. This was years ago, yet new weight loss systems complete the cycle and offer similar solutions: more short-lived weight loss and side effects.

To juice or not to juiceMedications aren’t the only weight loss “solutions” with side effects. Juice cleanses have been all the rage for decades, not the oldest of which is the Master Cleanse, or the lemonade diet, which has been around since 1941.

Juice bars abound across the nation. Some of their programs claim to do everything from helping us to lose weight and boosting energy to the extreme of being medicinal and sponsoring major health benefits. It’s not that tough for juice cleanses to deliver on their weight loss promise. As with all fad diets, once we give up our beloved processed foods, sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy and anything else that may bring us pleasure (or nourishment), we will lose weight! Until we meet again, that is …

Although by 2026, the global market for detox products is projected to surpass $75 billion, all those cleanses, juice, herbs, teas and pills may not be all they’re cracked up to be. Short-term cleanses show little detriment to the gut or our overall health, but we may not be getting the benefits we hope to. Those of us looking to detox from chemicals are likely to be disappointed. Overall, we can’t pinpoint specific chemicals we may have ingested with certain foods or juice combinations. The only method is to avoid the chemicals we can, eat well, sleep well, drink enough water and rely on our God-given detox system.

Our bodies have natural detox systems — we excrete toxins through our sweat, breath and bathroom excretions. Our skin, lungs, liver, digestive tract and kidneys all act as a filtration system as well. While many experts concur that there most likely aren’t any long-term negative effects sponsored by doing a juice cleanse for a few days, others worry they lead to disordered eating. Using cleanses as a quick fix can mean that we eat less consciously when we’re not on our detox.

Natural detoxing can be done by focusing on whole foods, steering clear of sugar and booze, getting enough sleep, exercising and drinking enough water. Quick fix? Think again. Many of us attribute the way we feel when we’re focusing on a detox to just that: the detoxification process, but often these are simply manifestations of having given up the things we include in our diet like caffeine, sugar and alcohol. It’s not rocket science that a juice diet may sponsor more frequent trips to the bathroom, something we might attribute to our cleanse. Dizziness can be a simple effect of low blood sugar, which is easy to experience if we’re not eating enough during our detox.

From one extreme to another

When we juice fruit or even vegetables, the pulp, the “garbage” that the juicer spits out, is the fiber from the produce. Fiber is the stuff that makes the sugar in fruit and veggies break down less quickly. It’s one of the reasons we’re told to eat vegetables. This is stuff we should be ingesting with the fruit or veggie, not treating as garbage. Without fiber, sugar levels in the juice are higher, making juice consumption on the regular a questionable idea.

Rarely, if ever, might you sit down to all of the whole fruits or vegetables that are used to make a single serving of juice. Whether it’s in smoothie form or juiced, these drinks host a much larger serving of fruits and vegetables than we would be able to eat in their whole form.

Aside from lacking fiber and protein, juice contains little vitamin B12 and could lead to loss of bone and muscle mass over time. Muscle loss can slow our metabolism, which can lead to weight gain once we’ve started eating regularly again. So this year, skip the juice cleanse and enjoy whole fruits and veggies as part of your meals and snacks. Focus on fewer ultra-processed foods, more sleep, water and exercise to really get the detox going.

Naturally detoxifying veggie soup

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, roughly chopped

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped

3 stalks celery, roughly cut

4 whole garlic cloves, peeled

1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped

3 sprigs, fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons salt

Pepper, to taste

1 quart vegetable stock

2 sprigs parsley, with stem

1 teaspoon turmeric (more if desired)

2 to 3 stalks kale, destemmed

½ lemon, juiced

Method

In a large pot, heat olive oil.

Tie thyme and bay leaves into a bundle, using cooking twine.

Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, parsnip, thyme and bay leaves.

Cook until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add tomato paste, sauté, adding salt and pepper.

Stir in stock, bringing to a boil.

Add parsley, turmeric and kale.

Cook for 30 to 45 minutes.

Turn off heat, allow to cool.

With an immersion blender, puree mixture to desired texture.

Stir in lemon juice.

Heat again and serve, topping with chopped parsley.

Katharine A. Jameson, a certified nutrition counselor who grew up in Williamsville and Townshend, writes about food and health for Vermont News & Media. For more tricks, tips and hacks, find her on Instagram: