Sugar - The Bitter Truth - a video must see!

As the country starts it's Easter binge on sugar, I recommend you go to this youtube video and watch this 90 minute presentation by Dr. Robert Lustig, pediatrician and endocrinologist at the University of California at San francisco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM. I Randy Rolfe have been teaching for over 30 years that refined sugar, whether from cane, beet, or corn, is the main cause of modern degenerative conditions like diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, obesity, joint problems, dehydration, and cancer. I first learned about it from nutrition texts from the 1920s, but the most convincing was the work of British Surgeon T.L. Cleave in the 1950s, supplemented by studies throughout the 1970s. Somehow after that our nation got on a kick to blame fat for getting fat and for the increase in heart disease in the twentieth century. Sounds obvious but it's wrong. All that just hid the real cause - the mounting amount of sugar added to our foods and beverages. If you want to protect your children's health and longevity, watch this film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Take home tip for the day. No more sodas. Drink natural fruit juices, diluted with purified water (not distilled - it robs your body of minerals). Limit all sweet baked goods to one per day or none. Avoid candy - except on an occasional holiday. (I do live in the real world.)

Get in touch with your child's social media habits now!

Social media is one of those areas where your child is unlikely to appreciate the risks until they already are deep into the habit of devoting a great deal of time to it. It is new area parents must be vigilant about. Not only should a parent know how much their child is using Facebook, for instance, but they should also have a regular dialogue about what is going on and how the child is reacting.

Furthermore, use should be restricted so that non-cyber activities predominate. And for younger children, the use of social media needs to be prevented, since the child needs to have a grounding in reality before he or she begins to participate in the what some are now calling the "Fakebook" scene. One 16-year-old in a newspaper interview said it was like a giant popluarity contest. It can exaggerate the already stressful effects of artificial competition for popularity in the school or neighborhood environment.

Here is the latest news.

CHICAGO (AP) — Add “Facebook depression” to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors’ group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site. A NEW CONDITION?

Researchers disagree on whether it’s simply an extension of depression some kids feel in other circumstances, or a distinct condition linked with using the online site. But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines.

Parenting Tip for Today: Randy Rolfe, author of The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents, recommends that parents be in touch with their children about their use of Facebook. For kids under 18 living at home they need to limit the child's time spent on social media or any type of cyber screen. And they should get their child to agree to let them have access to their Facebook and other pages. Things that go on on these pages are in fact public and a parent has the right and duty to guide their child's public activities for the sake of their child's reputation and future.

Easy way to remove toxic BPA from your family

For over thirty years my family and I have avoided plastic packaging whenever possible because I knew the plastic leached into our foods and I knew that couldn't be good. How did I know it leached? I could smell the plastic. If the plastic molecules could reach my nose, then they were getting into our food. So we stored food in glass and ceramic containers in the fridge.

Now, finally, with attention on the dangers of BPA in so many of the water bottles sold, a new study shows how prevalent the BPA is and also how changing to non-plastic containers can directly and immediately reduce your family's BPA load.

Here is the story from the San Francisco Chronicle:

"Forgoing packaged foods such as canned soups and vegetables could dramatically lower levels of a hormone-disrupting chemical that has been linked to myriad health problems, including birth defects, autism and reproductive issues, according to a study released today.

"In the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, five Bay Area families were asked to eliminate packaged foods from their diets and store food only in glass or stainless steel containers. After only three days, levels of the chemical bisphenol A in the subjects' urine dropped by more than 60 percent, researchers found.

"Researchers were surprised by the dramatic drop in levels of the chemical after such a short change in diet, even though it was known that bisphenol A, also known as BPA, does not stay in the body for long.

""We're hoping these very remarkable results will help us in our outreach and education to people to show them how easily changes can be made in their personal habits that may diminish significant exposure to BPA," said Janet Gray, an author of the report and science adviser to the Breast Cancer Fund, a San Francisco advocacy group and partner in the study."

Read more at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/30/MNSL1IIVQM.DTL&tsp=1

Tip for the day: Buy glass containers and avoid products that come in cans and plastics. Go to Randy Rolfe's book The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents to learn more about how to take care of the basic needs of your kids and family!

Little Pharma: The Medication of U.S. Children

Little Pharma: The Medication of U.S. Children

This is a wake up call for anyone tending to children. Nutrition, sleep, time with nature, hugs, clean water, and clean air will do much to avoid the need for medications. Let's start there, by educating families. I will soon have a radio show addressing family issues. I believe parents do the right thing when they have accurate information and children respond gladly when their parents are confident about solving problems around health and family life.

More sleep helps prevent child obesity

Here is yet another study showing that getting your child to bed can have long term benefits, including reducing the likehood of overeating and dealing with the health problems that come with obesity. As a child advocate, Randy Rolfe, that's me, wants to have every parent appreciate the simple need of every child for regular adequate sleep. My children regularly slept 10 hours growing up. It's not only good for appetite control but also for better moods and attention!

More Sleep Reduces Child Obesity

19 February 2011, Source: Prensa Latina

Guantanamo (Solvision).- About 10 hours of sleep a day is beneficial to prevent child obesity, concluded scientists in a recent study on food habits in this stage of their lives.
Inadequate rest causes alterations of appetite hormones that leads to overweight, informed the authors of a study of the Biomedic Research Center in Red-Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition in Spain.

Children who sleep well have a lower incidence of obesity and eight hours are not enough in infancy, they explained.

For a good therapy of sleep the specialists recommend an additional hour daily. It is also important, they explained, to avoid televisions in the rooms and viewing of films or programs that stimulate brain activity.

Lack of rest has an influence on several appetite regulating hormones. By increasing greline production, a stimulant of eating, reducing leptine in charge of limiting hunger, the scientists explained.

In this way persons who sleep poorly, eat more, they pointed out.

Previous studies in adults link sleep problems with an excess of weight. About 10 percent of the world population suffers snoring and apnea associated with obesity.


Sleep is listed as a basic need in Randy Rolfe's acclaimed book The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents, which is in the process of being published in a new edition. Staay tuned!

www.randyrolfe.com, www.yearbook.com.

When Grandma Is Gone

Parenting author and family expert Randy Rolfe, that's me, is working on a new book about what happens when a mother loses her mother. Having lost my mother a year or so ago, I discovered that many women around me were going through the same time of life and I wanted to honor our mothers and ourselves by writing about it. Could anything be more profound that the creative force of motherhood passed on from one generation to the next? I am having a wonderful time, though deeply moving and sometimes too emotionally heavy to bear – have to take some time out - talking to these wonderful women. One thing which stands out is the deep love and respect which permeates their stories, along with all the mixed feelings and impressions one might imagine when you have shared half a life-time with a beloved parent. For me, it was my sociologist mother who got me interested in observing and teaching about family in the first place, when she invited me to do a fifth grade project for my American history class not on some battle or some heroine but on the history of the American family! What a project for a ten year old! My life’s goal has always been to facilitate world peace, having grown up during the Cold War, but I soon discovered that world peace begins in the home. Anyhow, here is just one tidbit from the book right now – spend as much time as you can comfortably spend with your parents and your children together. The memories made now will last and last.

Check out Randy’s other books at www.randyrolfe.com.

Don't underestimate the power of sleep!

Randy Rolfe, parenting expert, recommends attending to your children's basic needs first. It's the Second Secret in her book The Seven Secrets of successful Parents.

Although we assume that in modern America the basic needs of children are more than met except among the very poor, basic needs like nutrition, quiet, and sleep are often lacking. Here is a very instructive report about new studies linking sleep and many of the most prevalent metabolic issues facing our children today, including emotional issues like irritability and attention problems. But first a story.

When I was a child, my preschool teacher asked my mother why I seemed so content. Her answer was that I got 10 hours of sleep a night and played outside in nature most of the afternoon. To this day I have treasured my sleep as a time of renewal and never short-changed myself. My heart goes out to those who don't sleep. The day is just that much harder. And there is lots you can do without resorting to drugs!

But back to our kids. I made sure my children had good sleep habits and they too were contented, easy to raise children. So start with good sleep habits and your parenting will be easier for sure!

Here is the article:

Children Need More Sleep to Prevent Obesity, Diabetes
Submitted by Deborah Mitchell on 2011-01-24

Children who get more sleep are more likely to weigh less and avoid metabolic factors that predispose them to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, according to a new study. If your children are getting less than 9 hours of sleep per night, they need more.
Catch-up sleep on weekends lowers obesity risk.
Parents can recognize when their children do not get enough sleep, because they may be cranky and less alert. Research shows that insufficient sleep among children can result in behavior problems, poorer performance on cognitive tests, and more injuries.
An earlier study from the University of California reported that a lack of adequate nighttime sleep among infants and preschool children was a significant risk factor for obesity later in childhood. Inadequate sleep is also known to weaken the immune system and make people more susceptible to infections.
A new study by investigators at the University of Chicago and published in Pediatrics shows an association between insufficient sleep and obesity and other metabolic problems. One major finding was that children ages 4 to 10 who got the least amount of sleep and who had the most irregular sleep schedules were greater than 4.4-fold more likely to be obese.
David Gozal, MD, of the University of Chicago, and his research team evaluated 308 healthy children over a one-week period. The children wore wrist actigraphs to record their sleep duration and patterns.
Researchers found that the children averaged about eight hours of sleep per night, regardless of day of the week or the child’s weight. The recommended amount is 9 to 10 hours.
Among other findings was that less sleep (about 6.5 hours) and irregular sleep patterns were associated with altered levels of insulin, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and C-reactive protein (an indication of inflammation and cardiovascular risk). The authors concluded that “the longer and more-stable sleep duration is, the less likely a child is to manifest metabolic dysfunction.”
On the upside, children who got extra sleep on the weekends lowered their risk of obesity to less than 2.2-fold. Overall, the study results indicated that children who consistently get 9 to 10 hours of sleep on both weekdays and weekends have the healthiest metabolic profile.
If you are a parent who would like to help your children get more sleep to ward off obesity, diabetes, and other health problems, you can find some help online. The National Sleep Foundation offers tips for kids, as does WebMD with Sleep Tips for Kids.
SOURCE:
Spruyt K et al. Pediatrics 2011; 127:e345-52

http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/children-need-more-sleep-prevent-obesity-diabetes

So get your children to leave the smart phones downstairs, keep TVs and PCs out of the bedroom, and send them to bed in time to get 10 hours sleep before they must prepare for school. Also, keep digital clocks away from the child's head - the vibes are disturbing - and be patient as you work through resistance the first couple of nights. Improved mood - and better health - will be a welcome payoff for both of you!

Check out more about Basic Needs in Randy Rolfe's book the Seven Secrets of Successful Parents. Find her other books on her website at www.randyrolfe.com. Wellness products for improved sleep can be found at www.nikken.com/randyrolfe.