Archive for the ‘Diet’ Category
December 8th, 2011
A Healthy Serving for Kids
“If you won’t eat it as an adult, why should Children?”
Words from the Coach
Here at the home field of Team4orce, we often ask the question, if we are so very concerned with our own diets and well being, and we love the children in our lives, then why can’t we make some changes in their eating habits and how they look at food? True, convenience, the hectic schedules and the numerous activities and academic responsibilities all factor into a formula that shows the difficulty of creating consistently healthy meal plans for families. It’s true that there is some change that is going to have to happen, cultural change that has been imbedded into us for generations, but where and when will it start if it doesn’t start in your home. Be honest with children and let them know about the food they eat, and how good food taste just as good as the junk food and comfort foods, except its more functional and it makes you feel a whole lot better. We don’t have to create social monsters, food snobs, just educated little people, much like how we would want our child to read good books, the classics.
Its starts with the adults, so think about this and make some notes, create those goals and then make that change. The articles we are looking at below are focused on the Paleo diet, or the Primal Diet. That is not the only style of eating, so vegans, juicers, zone eaters, as well as moderately healthy eaters, please don’t rise up and dunk on us! This blog is a front row ticket to the learning about good food seminar (part I/think about it)! Learn about what food is good and why, what it does to your body and your child’s body, and then where to find deals on these foods.
The Game Plan
Below is some a little information, both from two separate blogs that are highly credible and informative.
Paleo Diet For Kids
by Tricia Ballad
Nearly 20 percent of American children are obese, according to statistics published by Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. Even more are overweight, with a Body Mass Index higher than normal but not high enough to be considered obese. The best way to help your child lose weight is to teach them to eat a variety of nutritious, low-fat foods and to get enough exercise.
The Paleo Diet
The concept behind the Paleo Diet is that you should eat the foods that your ancestors consumed. In prehistoric times, humans were hunter-gatherers. They may have eaten a variety of vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, lean meats and seafood. Cereal grains and dairy products did not enter the human diet in large quantities until humans developed agriculture. The Paleo Diet is a modern attempt to mimic what we researchers have surmised about the hunter-gatherer diet.
Eliminating Dairy, Grains And Legumes
The Paleo Diet demands the elimination of two food groups: dairy and grains. This could lead to serious nutritional deficiencies, and places the Paleo Diet squarely within the realm of the fad diet. One sign of a fad diet is that it requires the total elimination of fat, sugar or carbohydrates such as dairy and grains, according to KidsHealth.org.
Calcium
According to a study published in the “European Journal of Clinical Nutrition,” 50 percent of the individuals studies could not complete three weeks on the Paleo Diet. Those who did stick to it lost 50 percent of their blood calcium levels.
Your child’s calcium requirements change as he grows. Children between the ages of four and eight need 800mg of calcium per day. Children between nine and 18 years old need 1300mg of calcium per day, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. While it is not advisable for you to put your child on the Paleo Diet, if you do, be sure that your child gets enough calcium from other foods besides dairy products or from supplements.
Before You Begin
Always discuss any significant change in diet with your child’s pediatrician. He is your best source for up to date information and guidance on your child’s specific nutritional needs. He will help you design a specific program that meets your child’s nutritional needs while helping her achieve a healthier weight. He may recommend supplements to ensure that your child gets enough calcium and other nutrients that may be missing due to the elimination of dairy and grains on the Paleo Diet.
Transitioning To The Paleo Diet
Depending on your child’s age and temperament, he may resist making significant changes to his diet. If your child is in school and responsible for making his own food choices, you will have to make sure he understands and accepts the Paleo Diet. Encourage him to become involved in meal planning and preparation, and offer plenty of information on the benefits of healthy foods. Go slowly, and give your child’s tastes a chance to change. In time he will begin to appreciate the flavor of simple foods.
The Paleo Diet and Children
Dear Readers,
Today’s Paleo Diet Q & A focuses on use of the diet for children.
Q: Thanks for all of the hard work your team puts into this. I’ve been receiving the e-mail blog for quite some time, have read both Paleo Diet and Paleo Diet for Athletes books, and subscribe to a Yahoo Paleo blog as well. I thoroughly enjoy reading the information sent to me every few days including the archives.
One concern I do have is that the bulk of the information seems to be targeted toward adults. More specifically adults with health problems that have already occurred and are in many cases not being addressed or cured by “traditional” medical practices. As the kids grow I feel it is important to develop proper dietary habits now, not when they are older and dealing with the after effects of poor health.
In my personal case I have a young son who has had issues with asthma. We have sought medical help but my mind keeps coming back to the Paleo Diet. Is there more detailed information available to address the issues of babies, young children and some of the issues they deal with as they mature?
Again, thanks for the great job.
Murray
A: Hi Murray,
The subject of pregnancy, young children, and The Paleo Diet was discussed in Volume 5 Issue 24 of our newsletter, The Paleo Diet Update. Here is the full text of that article:
Pregnancy, Young Children, and the Paleo Diet
by Loren Cordain, Ph.D.
With the growing popularity of the Paleo Diet, we’ve received questions about adapting this diet for pregnancy, particularly with regard to the low fat aspect of the diet. Others are also asking for more information about adapting the Paleo Diet to the growth and nutritional needs of infants and young children. With a little modification, the Paleo Diet can meet these needs, help children escape the growing childhood obesity problem, build life-long eating habits to lower the risk of disease, and generate healthful, vital longevity. Here are some recommendations for using the Paleo Diet to optimize nutrition during pregnancy, infancy and childhood.
What about pregnancy?
Due to the metabolic changes that occur in the liver during pregnancy, women cannot tolerate protein levels as high as they normally could. This has been documented in both the anthropological and clinical literature. To accommodate this, higher fat meats, higher fat vegetables, and more carbs can be included in the Paleo Diet during pregnancy than most people eating the typical Paleo Diet will need.
Numerous studies have shown that fetal and infant cognitive development requires sufficient omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and nursing. Our ancestors got most of their dietary fat from leaner meat, which was a richer source of monounsaturated and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, than the meat from feedlot animals today. The Paleo Diet is high in mono-unsaturated fats, such as olive oil, and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats from fish. It also avoids feedlot meat to increase the omega-3 in our diet, and enhance the omega-6/omega-3 ratio to more closely resemble the healthful diet of our ancestors.
What about infancy (the first two years of a child’s life)?
Hunter-gatherer children were typically introduced to solid food later than what is considered normal in the Western world. Studies of five hunter-gatherer societies (Kung, Ache, Inuit, Australian Aborigines, and Hadza) have revealed the average age of weaning to be 2.9 years. Hence, the early nutrition of hunter-gatherer infants is highly dependent upon mother’s milk. Because hunter-gatherers typically consumed a diet higher in omega-3 fatty acids, mother’s milk likely would also have been higher in omega-3 fatty acids than milk from the typical nursing Western mother. This difference is important in light of the studies indicating the importance of sufficient omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and nursing for cognitive development. For the Western mother, weaning at age 3 is impractical, but weaning should be delayed as long as possible (preferrably at least 1-1.5 years). After weaning, I recommend that infants be given a formula th at is enriched with both docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA). Infants should not be given eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in the form of fish oil because it competes with AA metabolism and can result in impaired motor development and growth.
Human milk contains very little iron, but infants are born with iron stores sufficient to last 9-12 months. Pediatricians typically recommend that infants’ first solid foods be iron-fortified cereals. Commercial baby foods, such as beef, pork, or chicken, are a better alternative to this. Hunter-gatherer mothers introduced their infants to solid foods by thoroughly chewing meat, marrow, nuts, seeds, fruits, etc. If you do give cereal to your infant, I recommend rice and not either wheat or oats.
Virtually all pediatricians recommend that cow’s milk and other dairy products, such as yogurt, cheese, etc., be excluded from infant diets during their first year. Early exposure to dairy products has been implicated in increased risk of a number of autoimmune diseases, particularly type 1 diabetes.
What about when solid foods are introduced?
When switching to solid foods, I recommend focusing upon the same basic food types that I recommend for adults, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meats and seafood. There is evidence that the children’s livers are less able to deal with high levels of protein (~30-40 % total energy). Hence, higher fat meats and fish should not necessarily be restricted to the same extent as with adults because this will help balance the protein levels. Higher fat plant foods, such as nuts and avocados, and healthful oils are also useful, but monitor for nut allergies. Omega-3 enriched eggs should be the egg of choice, and they are a source of DHA.
I don’t advocate completely restricting processed food from children because eating involves behavioral issues. The best way to get a child to eat junk food is to completely forbid it. In our house, we serve typical Paleo foods in every meal. We stock very little processed food, so if our children are hungry, their choices are primarily healthy foods. We don’t allow unlimited access to TV, computers or electronic games, but we do encourage outdoor play. For active children, I don’t think that certain high glycemic load foods may be harmful. We do not restrict dried fruit, such as raisins and dates, and we encourage them to eat bananas, yams and sweet potatoes.
Source: The Paleo Diet & Live Strong
For those that are new to juicing and would like more information check out the movie Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.
Our good buddy Jeremy Johnson and his boy Kevin Garcia saw this movie and got motivated to juice. They have a game plan to shred some weight with what they saw in the documentary and are applying it for 30 days. They will be updating us on their juicing quest…check out the video below of their first days of juicing.
Monster Breakdown
kevin garcia 2-0 from Texas Fighting out if Hilo, Hawaii
age 21
5’5
Starting weight 170lbs
Heaviest weight 190lbs
Lightest adult weight 157lbs
Diet: 15 Days Juice then 15 Days Juice with 1 Raw Salad a day
Goal in 30 Days: 145lbs
Jeremy Johnson 8-1 from Team Quest Fighting out of Hilo, Hawaii
age 33
5’9
Starting weight 157lbs
Heaviest weight 180lbs
Lightest adult weight 143lbs
Diet: 30 days Raw.. 4 Juices & 1 Salad a day
Goal in 30 days 135lbs
30 Days of a Raw Life-Style.. This is the journey of 2 Fighters trying to go Raw. Both will have their own battles on the Road to Raw.. Here is Day 1-3
Starting Weights
Kevin 170lbs
Jeremy 157lbs
The sport of wrestling has had its bad reputation when it comes to unhealthy diets and using bad methods for rapid weight loss. I got an opportunity to interview Manny Rivera who breaks down the do’s and don’t of dieting for wrestling. Manny Rivera had a standout wrestling career at Minnesota. He was a four-year starter for the Golden Gophers and was a three-time NCAA qualifier, earning All-America honors in 2008 when he took seventh place at 141 pounds. He also was a member of Minnesota’s 2007 NCAA Championship team. He finished his Minnesota career with a 113-40 record and 27 falls. As a senior, he was a team captain. As a junior, he carried a 35-match winning streak at one point during the season – the sixth-longest winning streak in school history. I’ve known Manny for many years now and its good to see him giving back to the wrestling community with the wisdom that he has learned from the 16 years of wrestling . For those that are getting into the sport of wrestling check out the video as Manny breaks down nutrition for the wrestling athlete.
Film Room
You ate and sipped your way from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. The food was delicious; the eggnog and champagne divine. But now, well, now your pants won’t zip. Holiday weight gain is hands down the most unwanted gift of all. Fortunately, you don’t have to keep it. America’s favorite doctor, Mehmet Oz, better known as the host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” is here to share his most effective weight loss strategies for shedding those holiday pounds. Dr. Oz explains how to avoid the biggest dietingblunders so you’re sure to start off your post-holiday weight loss plan right.
Mistake No. 1: You Crash Diet
Of course, diets that promise big weight loss fast sound great. After all, who wouldn’t want to drop every pound you gained in just a few short weeks? And sure, if you radically cut your calorie intake, you will lose weight. But here’s the catch: You can’t eat like that forever. And once you go back to eating the way you usually do, you’ll regain what you lost and possibly even more. “The fundamental problem these diets have is that you cannot overwhelm your biological drive to eat with willpower. That’s why 98 percent of these diets fail,” said Dr. Oz. “Any diet that eliminates an entire food group or that replaces meals with mysterious concoctions aren’t good for long-term weight loss.”
Want another reason: Our bodies are built to help prevent us from starving when there’s not enough food to go around. But since our bodies don’t know the difference between famine and a crash diet, they react the same way — by slowing your metabolism, which makes it even harder to lose weight. “Your body is not going to let you waste energy, so it rapidly adjusts its metabolism based on caloric intake,” Dr. Oz said.
Dr. Oz’s Fix: Eat a variety of healthy foods so you don’t feel like you’re depriving yourself. Then track your calories with a food diary and find ways to eat just 100 fewer calories every day. “Every long-term weight study ever done in which people kept the weight off for more than two years came back to this same basic rule,” said Dr. Oz. “It’s not hard to do. And 100 calories is such a small amount, your body can’t tell you’re on a diet, so your metabolism doesn’t slow down and you’ll naturally lose the weight.”
Mistake No. 2: You Skip Breakfast
You’d think that bypassing breakfast would be a quick and easy way to shave some extra calories — except, you’re actually more likely to consume those calories (and more) later in the day. Thinking you have some calories to play with because you didn’t eat breakfast, you may supersize your lunch or grab snacks that aren’t particularly good for you simply because you’re hungry. In addition, skipping breakfast prompts your body to store fat rather than metabolize it. In fact, research shows that breakfast skippers tend to be heavier. While breakfast eaters consume more calories, they’re also slimmer, more active and have healthier diets overall. In a study of people who’d dropped at least 30 pounds and kept it off, 78 percent said they routinely ate breakfast.
Dr. Oz’s Fix: Eating something within an hour or so after waking up boosts your metabolism by as much as 10 percent. Go for things like oatmeal sprinkled with nuts and raisins or a tablespoon of peanut butter, a veggie omelet with whole-wheat toast, or low-fat cottage cheese with fruit. The mix of protein and fiber holds off hunger through the morning so you’re less inclined to help yourself to the powdered doughnuts at the office or overeat later on. In a recent University of Connecticut study, when volunteers had eggs for breakfast, they consumed 100 to 400 fewer calories at lunch than when they ate bagels, even though both the bagel and egg breakfasts contained the same amount of calories. Other research suggests that fiber-rich breakfasts help you burn more fat when you exercise. No time to sit down to eat? Do what the Oz family does: Drink a Magical Breakfast Blaster as you head to work or drop off the kids at school. “It’s fast, it’s filling and has everything you need in the morning,” said Dr. Oz. “It’s purple so kids like it, too.”
Magical Breakfast Blaster
This recipe makes two 136-calorie servings.
½ large banana, broken into chunks
1/3 cup soy protein
½ tablespoon flaxseed oil
¼ cup frozen blueberries
½ tablespoon apple juice concentrate or honey
1 teaspoon psyllium seed husks
1 cup water
Powdered vitamins (optional)
Put everything into the blender. Blend and drink.
Mistake No. 3: You Drink Extra Calories
When we eat a big meal, our body knows it’s been fed and we eat less at the next meal. But that doesn’t happen when we drink high-calorie beverages, which are estimated to add about 235 extra (empty) calories a day to our diets. Our bodies don’t seem to register liquid calories the way it does solid calories. So even after guzzling a jumbo-size soda at the movies, we don’t eat less when it’s time to eat again. Specialty coffee drinks, fruit drinks, sodas, energy drinks and alcohol are some of the biggest calorie traps. Alcohol is actually doubly so because drinking relaxes our willpower. Have a few cocktails and suddenly having that slice of cheesecake seems like a pretty good idea.
Dr. Oz’s Fix: Choose lower-calorie drinks. Like coffee? Leave out the whipped cream, syrups and chocolate shavings, and drink it black or with a little sugar. “A teaspoon of sugar is just 16 calories, a tiny amount,” said Dr. Oz. “People aren’t getting fat because of 16 calories.” Can’t give up your soda? You can have both soda and fruit juice if you add a splash of your favorite 100 percent fruit juice to club soda. You get the fizz with fewer calories. “If I’m sitting down to a meal, that’s what I’ll get,” said Dr. Oz.
Mistake No. 4: You Don’t Snack
Snacks get a bad rap because we think of them as junky foods weshouldn’t eat. But nutritious snacks are actually a dieter’s best friend, because eating frequently can actually help you consume fewer calories. “Thoughtful snacking keeps you from getting ravenous between meals and making poor diet choices later on,” said Dr. Oz. “People who eat several small meals and snacks a day are more likely to control their hunger and lose weight.” He should know. He snacks constantly. “I’d bet that at least half the calories I eat are snacks,” he said. “I don’t like being hungry, and I don’t like the threat of being hungry, so I keep healthy foods near me all the time. Whenever I feel a little tinge of hunger, I throw a handful of something in my mouth.” The snacks he relies on: apples, radishes, carrots and nuts.
Dr. Oz’s Fix: Each day, pack several healthy snacks in small containers or snack-size baggies to keep in your purse or an insulated tote in your car. If you always have diet-friendly snacks at hand, you’ll be less tempted to raid the vending machine. Just watch the portion sizes, cautioned Dr. Oz, “so you don’t overdo it.”
Mistake No 5:You Don’t Drink Enough Water
The next time you feel hungry, take a big, long drink of water and you may not need to eat. Because the hormones in our intestines that tell us we’re hungry are very similar to the hormones that let us know we’re thirsty, we’re not very good at distinguishing hunger from thirst, which is why we typically reach for food when we should be drinking. “Often hunger pangs are just your body screaming for a little extra H20,” said Dr. Oz. And when we’re not well hydrated, our metabolism drags. “Water is essential for burning calories,” said Dr. Oz. “Adults who drink eight-plus glasses of water a day burn more calories than those who drink less.”
Dr. Oz’s Fix: Drink water before every meal and snack and a few more in between. According to a study done at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, overweight or obese study volunteers who drank a 16-ounce bottle of water before every meal lost 44 percent more weight after 12 weeks than volunteers who didn’t drink water before dining. That may be because water drinkers ate about 75 fewer calories when they drank water before their meals, as another Virginia Tech study found. “I carry a water bottle with me wherever I go so I’m constantly sipping,” said Dr. Oz.
If eight glasses a day seems daunting, try this mind trick: Drink from larger bottles, so instead of consuming eight glasses, you’re sipping just three and a half bottles. Easy! And there’s no reason to always drink it plain. “I completely get that people think water is bland,” said Dr. Oz. “In our house, we make water more appealing by adding slices of fruit or a splash of fruit juice to give it a different taste.”
Resource: The Fit
Today we are going to highlight a great company that we look forward to working with in the near future (be on the lookout for some product reviews and custom blog entries from the fellas over at Team Scivation).
When we were in our retail store, the Scivation Xtend BCAA’s were one of the hottest items on the shelf.
It was really a pleasure to be able to get behind a product that we knew was not only the best in it’s category (taste and the quality of ingredients and amount given per scoop), but it was also a product that came from proper R&D.
So here is a little more information on Team Scivation.
Enjoy!!!
The Mission
Scivation is dedicated to helping people reach their goals through proper training, diet, and supplementation.
Scivation aims to be the providers of top notch Diet, Training and Nutritional Supplementation programs that enable people to reach their goals. Through our Team Scivation program, we seek to provide our customers with all of the necessary tools to achieve their dreams. Scivation was founded on the simple principle of providing innovative products combined with the latest scientific research.
As Competitive Athletes, we take pride in providing products and services that we use ourselves.
Scivation is committed to providing our consumers with high-quality, research-proven products to enhance performance and quality of life. We offer our consumers:
* Proven Ingredients—Backed by the latest research
* Superior Information—Based on science and experience
* Unparalleled Products—Utilizing research-proven ingredients
We help people reach their goals.
SCIVATION BOOKS
They also got a great selection of diet and training books click here to check out there books.
FREE Diet and Training for EVERYONE
Scivation not only gives you the tools to achieve your goals but they also offer free diet and training click here to sign up.
Stay tune as we will be reviewing quake 10.0 in the upcoming week.
Source: Scivation
