January 28, 2012, Dayton Daily News, Cornelius Frolik

About 78,000 people in the Miami Valley live in poorer areas that lack markets that sell affordable and nutritious food, and low-income residents and those without post-secondary educations have some of the highest obesity rates in the state.

Experts said the struggling economy is likely contributing to bulging waistlines, because consumers are spending less on food and some are sacrificing nutrition for the sake of cost. Health experts said obesity is an “epidemic” that often has grave medical consequences.

“A lot of people are digging their graves with their forks,” said Dr. John Maguire, medical director for the surgical weight-loss program at Miami Valley Hospital.

In 2010, about 34.3 percent of Ohioans earning $15,000 or less were obese, which is defined as having a body mass index of 30 or more, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.” Similarly, 35.5 percent of Ohioans earning between $15,000 and $30,000 were obese.

But among Ohioans earning $50,000 or more, only about 27 percent were obese.

Disparities also exist among Ohioans of various education levels.

In 2010, about 35 percent of adult Ohioans who had not graduated from high school were obese, and so were about 33 percent of adults who had a high school diploma or a general equivalency diploma, according to the CDC.

In contrast, only about 24 percent of Ohioans with college degrees are obese.

Healthier food is more costly

In general, people with less education earn less, and people with low incomes live in poorer neighborhoods, which are rife with obstacles to staying fit and eating well, said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Washington, D.C.,-based Trust for America’s Health.

READ MORE via 78,000 area residents live in food wastelands.

January 25, 2012, Houston Chronicle

School lunches, long saddled with an unhealthy reputation, are getting a makeover.Instead of salt-doused fried foods, highly processed white bread and sugar-laden desserts, cafeteria trays will be carrying whole wheat pizza, leafy green and orange vegetables and fresh fruit.The changes, announced Wednesday by first lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, mark the first major nutritional adjustment to the $11 billion school meal program in 15 years.

Under the new guidelines, which were directed by the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, schools must limit calories, trans fat and sodium, while serving students a wider variety of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.The nutritional overhaul reflects both a societal shift toward a more health-conscious diet and a growing concern about childhood obesity, which affects 17 percent of the countrys children.”When we send our kids to school, we expect that they wont be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we try to keep them from eating at home,” Obama said in a statement.The updated regulations were first proposed a year ago, giving school districts the opportunity to make comments and revamp their menus.

After opposition by potato growers and food companies, Congress blocked proposed changes that would have limited starchy vegetables to two servings a week and required pizza makers to increase the amount of tomato paste to qualify as a vegetable serving.

Local districts effortsThe new rules, which will affect 32 million children, will be phased in over the next three years.Many Houston-area school districts have already taken steps to raise nutritional standards, instituting changes that mirror many of the new USDA requirements.

Read more via School lunches get a healthy makeover – Houston Chronicle.

January 9, 2012, Blisstree.com, Deborah Dunham

As the battle to point the finger at someone for our nation’s childhood obesity epidemic continues, one top New York City Department of Health official now says that the free breakfast program in city schools is to blame. It’s what she says is causing poor kids to get fat, but in reality, she couldn’t be more wrong–or more insensitive.

Director of Community Epidemiology, Gretchen Van Wye said the in-class meals that these students receive each morning at certain urban schools is resulting in over 21% of the underprivileged kids eating two breakfasts.

According to a recent study that analyzed the free breakfast program for 2,289 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in East and Central Harlem, North and Central Brooklyn, and the South Bronx, researchers compared kids who ate the free breakfasts and and found that about one in five were eating breakfast twice. When presenting these findings to her agency co-workers, Van Wye stated:

Special care should be taken to ensure that children are not inadvertently taking in excess calories by eating in multiple locations.

But in direct opposition to that, another health official told the New York Post:

We’d rather have kids be hungry than fat? Horrible! The evidence is so shaky. And the implications are terrible—kids going hungry.

While they both make valid points, it seems like they’re missing the main culprit of childhood obesity, which is the type of food, not necessarily the quantity.

The in-class breakfasts at these city schools are said to feature “tempting treats” such as cream cheese and bagels, string cheese and apple loaf. And, based on what people like Jamie Oliver have revealed in the past, we all know the unhealthy foods probably don’t stop there. Yes, the federal guidelines mandate that the meals be roughly 450 calories, but 450 calories of what? Because a breakfast with 450 calories of fresh fruit, low-sugar cereal and skim milk would likely not contribute to childhood obesity, even if a student ate it twice a day.

Instead of arguing about this and possibly putting a much-needed program in jeopardy, the health officials need to pay more attention to the quality of food served, versus the quantity these underprivileged kids are eating. After all, if they come from poor homes where food is lacking, how can anyone deny them a healthy breakfast? Or two?

via Not Solving Childhood Obesity: Health Officials Say Free School Breakfast Makes Poor Kids Fat.

December 29, 2011, Reuters

Older Icelandic men who remember chugging a lot of milk in their teens are three times as likely to be diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer as more-moderate milk drinkers, researchers have found.

That makes them wonder whether the years around puberty, during which the prostate matures, could be a time of heightened vulnerability for the gland.

“We believe that our data are indeed solid and provide important evidence for the role of adolescence as a ‘sensitive period’ for prostate cancer development,” Johanna Torfadottir, a nutrition scientist and a graduate student at the University of Iceland, told Reuters Health by email.

“However, we remain cautious in our interpretation,” she added. “Causal inferences are not made on one study alone, thus more studies are needed to confirm our findings and also to explore possible mechanism behind this association.”

So far, she added, the two studies on prostate cancer and milk intake in adolescents have come to mixed conclusions — one found milk lovers seemed to be somewhat protected against the disease, while the other found no link at all.

Read more via Milk intake in teens tied to later prostate cancer | Reuters.

December 29, 2011, Fox News

Older people with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins B, C, D, and E in their blood do better on cognitive tests than those with lower levels, according to a new study.

On the other hand, trans fats were found to hurt cognition.

Together, the omega-3s, vitamins, and trans fat levels, as measured by a recently developed blood test, accounted for over 70 percent of the variation in the scores of cognitive tests taken by the study subjects, the researchers reported.

“This is a study where we were looking to figure out better ways to study the role of diet and nutrition on healthy brain aging, so we’ve used blood measures to reflect dietary patterns rather than have people report what they’re eating,” Bowman said.

The study suggests some diet patterns should be avoided to help people stay sharper as they get older. “Trans fats are known to be bad for cardiovascular health, so it’s not too much of stretch to think that they’re bad for the brain,” Bowman said. “It turns out trans fat was actually our most consistent finding in the study.”

In addition to the reduced cognitive ability, the researchers found that trans fat consumption correlated with more shrinkage of the brain.

“One main thing we can draw from this is it looks like trans fats are a big no-no for brain health,” Bowman said.

Researchers not involved in the study said the findings show promise for a new avenue of research, as well as confirming current ideas on maintaining a healthy brain with age.

Read more via Elderly Brains Stay Sharp After a Low Trans Fat Life | Fox News.

 December 25, 2011, The Star Online.

The beneficial effects of functional foods must be scientifically substantiated.

A GREAT deal of attention is now given to the potential health significance of components other than nutrients that are found in foods. These bioactive components have been found to be able to serve physiological roles beyond provisions of simple nutrient requirements, and even reduce risk to chronic diseases.

Foods containing such components have been termed “functional foods”.

Consumers are now more health conscious, especially in view of the increase in diet-related chronic diseases. There would certainly be a great deal of interest to see if some functional foods or ingredients can indeed help in reducing the risk of these diseases.

However, there must be adequate scientific proof that these functional foods do indeed provide beneficial health effects. All over the world, there are specific regulations that govern the types of health claims that are permitted to be made on functional foods.

I would like to share with readers two recent scientific meetings on functional foods that I participated in. The first was an International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe regional conference on functional foods. The second was a conference organised by Universiti Putra Malaysia.

In both meetings, I spoke on the global regulatory aspects of health claims on functional foods.

Other healthful components in food

Two main functions of food have conventionally been recognised. The primary function is to provide a variety of macro- and micro-nutrients to nourish the body. The secondary function is sensory functions, eg to provide tastes, flavours and texture to food.

There is now thought to be a third or tertiary function of food. This function pertains to regulating the physiological processes of the body, and even promoting health. In this new dimension in the relationship between food and health, this function is not performed by nutrients in foods, but rather by other components in food.

It is now generally recognised that foods do not merely provide nutrients. It has been shown that there is a large variety of bioactive or functional components in foods that are capable of promoting health. Many of these bioactive components have been shown to be able to serve physiological roles beyond those provided by “classical” nutrients such as protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins and minerals.

Characteristics of functional foods

To date, there is no unanimously accepted global definition of functional foods among the scientific community. Nevertheless, a generally accepted understanding is that functional foods are foods that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. This is by virtue of physiologically active (or bioactive) food components (functional ingredients) present in these foods.

Functional foods are similar in appearance to conventional foods and are intended to be consumed as part of a normal diet. They possess sensory characteristics including appearance, colour, texture, consistencies and flavours, and are not in the form of capsules and tablets. These are traditionally recognised as food, and are unlike herbs and other botanicals.

In recent years, the bioactive components in functional foods have been extracted, purified and added to various other food products. For example, plant sterol has been extracted from soya bean and added to milk powder. Another example is the addition of oligosaccharides such as inulin to various beverages.

In this way, the functional properties of these components are made available to the consumer through various vehicles that do not naturally possess such components.

The bioactive components have also been isolated and presented to the consumer in medicinal forms, eg capsules and tablets. In such forms, not associated with food, these products are appropriately known as nutraceuticals or health supplements.

Functional foods have featured prominently in food and nutrition scene internationally. The various regional branches of ILSI have been the main drivers of scientific activities in functional foods. There has been active research and development in function food products. Numerous conferences and other scientific meetings have been organised, and volumes have been published on the matter. Functional foods have been traded internationally and are huge businesses.

Common examples of functional foods

Soya beans contain a number of phytochemicals, and several of these have been studied for their anticarcinogenic activity. Isoflavones have been studied for their oestrogen properties and in relation to lowering blood cholesterol. Soya protein and phytosterols have been demonstrated to lower blood cholesterol.

High soya intake is associated with lowered risk for breast cancer and prostate cancer, whereas high soya and/or isoflavone intake has been reported to be positively associated with bone mineral density.

Flavonoids are a diverse group of polyphenol compounds found in various plant foods. The most important flavonoids in tea are flavanols and flavonols, eg catechins, many of which have been studied for their antioxidant properties.

The possible effects of these bioactive compounds in lowering risk for cardiovascular disease have been investigated, eg via lowering of blood cholesterol and blood pressure, protection against LDL cholesterol oxidation and reduction in platelet aggregation.

Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables (including cabbage, kailan and cauliflower) contain glucosinolates which are capable of being converted to a variety of hydrolysis products including isothiocyanates and indoles. These compounds have been studied for their capability in reducing risk to some cancers.

Another group of bioactive compounds found in many fruits and vegetables is carotenoids. Carotenoids give the bright orange colour to these plant foods. Lycopene in tomato and papaya is an example of a carotenoid. It is not converted into vitamin A but may possess other physiological properties, eg as antioxidants.

Several undigestible carbohydrates have been demonstrated to be able to impart beneficial effects on human health. As dietary fibre, these carbohydrates have lower energy value (< 4 kcal/g). Many of these can serve as prebiotics and bring about beneficial effects, including promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria and improving bowel health.

Several studies have also demonstrated the ability of several dietary fibres to lower blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and to improve calcium bioavailability and immune function. Several examples of these are the non-digestible oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, eg oligofructose, inulin, polydextrose, resistant starch.

Related to gut health is the role of another group of functional components, namely probiotics. Common examples of these beneficial bacteria are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria that have been demonstrated to improve gut health and possibly reduce the incidence of colon cancers. Probiotics are now added to yoghurt, fermented milk and milk drinks.

Health claims on functional foods

The term “functional foods” is currently not used in any of the relevant regulatory or legal systems. The approach by regulatory agencies towards these foods is therefore focused on health claims and their scientific substantiation.

There have been major worldwide regulatory developments in health claims, specifically “other function claims” and “disease risk reduction claims”.

Other function claim describe specific beneficial effects of the consumption of a food bioactive or functional constituent in improving or modifying a physiological function, eg plant sterols help in lowering blood cholesterol.

Reduction of disease risk claims relate to the consumption of a food or food constituent to the reduced risk of developing a disease or health-related condition, eg soya protein reduces risk to heart disease.

In Malaysia, the term functional food is also not used. Nevertheless, other function claims for bioactive components are permitted in the current food regulations. A “positive list” approach is adopted by the authorities, meaning only claims on this list are permitted to be made by a food product. A total of 29 “other function claims” for food components (non-nutrients) are permitted (as of December 2010)*.

A large number of these bioactive components with approved function claims are non-digestible carbohydrates or dietary fibres. These include inulin, galactooligosaccharide (GOS), fructooligosaccharide (FOS), GOS:FOS (90:10) mixture, oligofructose-inulin mixture, beta-glucan, polydextrose, resistant dextrin and High Amylose Maize Resistant Starch.

Other components include sialic acid, isomaltulose, soya protein, plant sterols/sterol esters, a patented cooking oil blend, Bifidobacterium, lutein, docosahexaenoic acid/arachidonic acid.

Some of the permitted function claims include reducing or lowering cholesterol; maintaining a good intestinal environment; increasing intestinal bifidobacteria; lowering rise in blood glucose; improving intestinal immune system of babies; contributing to visual development.

For each of the approved function claims, specific conditions are required. One condition that is required for all claims is that a minimum amount of the relevant “food component” must be present. Additional labelling requirements may be required for some components, eg caution for some population groups. In some cases, the claim is restricted to selected foods.

It is to be noted that disease reduction claims are not permitted in Malaysia. A clear distinction is to be made between function claims and disease risk reduction claims. Two examples of function claims would be that beta-glucan from oat helps lower blood cholesterol and that calcium is important for bone and teeth formation.

Disease risk reduction claims for these two components, which are not permitted in Malaysia, would be: beta-glucan from oat helps reduce risk to heart disease and calcium reduces risk to osteoporosis.

All of the function claims related to bioactive food components have resulted from applications from the food industry. Indeed, there is continuing interest among the food industry to apply for new function claims. A framework has been established by the Food Safety and Quality Division of the Health Ministry to review applications.

More research on local functional ingredients

It can be noted that only a few of the permitted functional ingredients with health claims in Malaysia are of local origin. There is actually a rich flora and fauna in the country which are potential sources of a large variety of functional foods or bioactive components that may be beneficial in promoting health.

However, the safety and health benefits of these local ingredients should be clearly demonstrated before being marketed to the consumer.

Marketing of functional foods often runs ahead of scientific substantiation. There are various claims of beneficial effects of specific ingredients or foods without proper scientific proof. To be accepted in the world market, intended claims must be scientifically substantiated.

The local scientific community could carry out research on this topic, to gather the required scientific data to support efforts to develop and market these functional foods and ingredients. Collaborations between the industry and academia will be most essential for the future development and advancement of local functional foods.

Advice to consumers

Some functional foods and ingredients may indeed possess beneficial effects on health. Consumers should indeed consume a variety of foods (particularly plant foods) so as to obtain a variety of nutrients as well as functional ingredients.

It must, however, be emphasised that these foods alone are not going to prevent chronic diseases. Functional foods must be consumed as part of a daily diet. There is no such thing as a magic bullet or super food to prevent or cure chronic diseases; indeed, foods do not cure diseases.

The best advice for consumers is to:

·Enjoy a variety of foods;

·Eat balanced meals;

·Eat in moderation, and

·Be physically active!

Functional foods health claims.

December 21, 2011, Jeremy Laurance, The Independent

The tobacco industry is accused today of misleading smokers over the safety of additives in cigarettes.

READ MORE via Tobacco firms misled public about additives – Health News – Health & Families – The Independent.

December 21, 2011, Los Angeles Times, Shari Roan

Feeding young babies solid foods such as crackers, cereals and bread, which tend to be high in salt, may set them up for a lifelong preference for salt, researchers reported Tuesday.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests that efforts to reduce salt intake among Americans should begin early in life.

It is even possible, the authors said, that infancy contains a “sensitivity window” in which exposure to certain foods and tastes programs the brain to desire them in the future.

Americans’ fondness for salt, a source of dismay for health experts, is well known. A 2010 report from the Institute of Medicine concluded that the average intake of 3,436 milligrams a day for Americans over age 2 is more than double what is recommended, and that new government standards are needed to reduce the salt content in processed and restaurant food.

But little is known about the biology behind our love affair with salt. Researchers don’t even know what receptors are involved in tasting it. And though babies are born with a clear preference for sweet foods and an absolute distaste for bitter foods, they appear indifferent to salt in the first few months of life, said Leslie Stein, the lead author of the study and a senior research associate at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.

“When you give 2-month-old babies salt water, they have no facial expression,” Stein said. “This could mean that the baby doesn’t detect the salt or just doesn’t give a hoot about it.”

To get at the issue, Stein and her colleagues first gave 61 healthy 2-month-old infants a mild solution of salt water: Based on facial expressions and how much they drank, the authors concluded the infants indeed were indifferent to the taste.

READ MORE via Giving salty food to babies may create a lifelong preference – latimes.com.

December 15, 2011. LiveScience.com, Joseph Brownstein, MyHealthNewsDaily

Displaying the amount of time you’d need to jog in order to burn off the calories from a sugary drink, rather than showing a calorie count, may be more effective in dissuading you from consuming those beverages, new research suggests.

Researchers observed teenagers at stores in West Baltimore, where signs displayed either calorie counts, calorie counts as a percent of recommended daily calorie intake, or the time spent jogging that would be needed to burn off those calories. While all led teenagers to purchase fewer sugary beverages, the conversion to exercise minutes was the most effective.

“In general, people are very bad at estimating the amount of calories in food they consume,” said study researcher Sara Bleich, an assistant professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. “If we give them easy ways of examining it…I think we can be effective in reducing calories in purchases.”

After introducing the signs to neighborhood stores near schools, researchers observed teenagers and monitored how their beverage-purchasing habits changed compared with the period before the signs went up.

About 93 drinks a day were purchased in each store, on average, and this number declined slightly when the signs went up. Soda sales, which made up almost half of all purchases, dipped slightly, as did those of iced tea and sports drinks. However, sales of non-sugary beverages increased, especially sales of water, which went from 5 to 10 drinks sold daily, on average.

While all three types of signs seemed to reduce the number of sugary drinks that were bought, only the signs displaying exercise times had results strong enough to mean researchers knew the decrease in purchases could not be due to simple chance.

250 calories, or a 40-minute jog?

Researchers calculated the exercise times based on a 110-pound teenager, and jogging was chosen because many people don’t like to do it, Bleich said. Exercise times, she noted, would vary depending on a person’s weight. For example, a 110-pound person would need to jog for 50 minutes to burn off a 20-ounce bottle of soda, whereas a 150-pound person would need to jog for 40 minutes.

Some stores chose not to participate; their reasons included a language barrier and a fear of losing sales. Bleich said the sales issue may be an obstacle going forward, but the study offered some reassurance, as students bought more water when the calorie signs went up.

Bleich said they chose to study black teenagers because they are one of the groups with the highest levels of obesity, and tend to have lower levels of health information. A wider study is planned that includes Hispanic teenagers as well, she said.

Calorie counts soon to appear on more menus

If the results hold, the study may have a wider-reaching impact.

“It was a very interesting study, and I think most Americans would be floored to learn it takes 50 minutes to burn off one 20-ounce bottle of soda, basically a nutritionally worthless beverage,” said Julie Greenstein, deputy director of health promotion policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health and nutrition advocacy group.

“I think there’d have to be some further studies on that to see if there would be an impact,” Greenstein said. “If it does have an impact, the federal government should consider this on a broader scale.

“Sometimes other messages are more beneficial to reducing consumption. I think it makes sense to focus on sugary drinks, since they are the largest single source of calories.”

Bleich said that was one reason the study focused on beverages. With a mandate for calorie counts in larger restaurant chains coming next year, she said it is important to find a way to convey that information in a way the consumer understands.

While the current study was in black teenagers, Bleich said this means of conveying the information may work even better in other demographics.

“My sense would be if you did this sort of study in a group of people for whom nutrition or fitness might be more important, you might have a bigger effect,” she said. “If you’re more interested in changing your behavior, you’re more likely to pay attention to this sort of information.”

The study appears in the Dec. 15 edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
If 250 Calorie Label Doesnt Stop You, 50-Minute Jog Label Might | Food Nutrition Labels Should Be Based on Exercise, Researchers Say | LiveScience.

December 14, 2011, Brittni Johnson, Winter Park/Maitland observer

For Marva Forbes and her family, dinner was coming home, hot oil in a pan and frying up some chicken.

“As a rule,” she said.

There was also lots of pizza, McDonald’s and chips and candy for snacks. Not much thought went behind planning meals for her family, which includes three of her children and two grandchildren.

“Our eating habits were: we just ate,” Forbes said.

That is until four years ago, when her 6-year-old grandson started going to Winter Park Day Nursery. The nursery, which offers free training from their chef on how to make healthy, affordable meals, taught Forbes and her grandchildren the wonders of eating healthy.

Adopting the Nemours program

Though the nursery has always had a healthy meal plan, a year ago they adopted a new program offered by the Nemours obesity prevention initiative. The initiative has already helped 11,000 Central Florida kids and more than 600 child-care providers. With a recent $50,000 grant from the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF), it will help 14 more providers in Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville.

Preschools are struggling when it comes to teaching healthy habits, said Dr. Lloyd Werk, director of Nemours’ Florida Prevention Initiative.

“There’s a knowledge gap, and we can help fill it,” he said. “This is where we can make a difference.”

They hope to saturate the entire Winter Park area with their program.

Nemours will have volunteers and paid staff train the child-care providers on two programs: Nemours Healthy Habits for Life and the Nemours plan for a healthy lifestyle: 5-2-1 Almost None. Healthy Habits teaches preschool children about “sometimes” and “anytime” food, eating the colors of the rainbow and including movement in all play. Almost None focuses on more exercise, reducing TV and computer time, making nutrition interesting and limiting sugary drinks.

“We’re trying to build a culture of wellness,” Werk said. “Many of our lifelong habits are developed in this time period.”

WPHF President Patricia Maddox agreed and said this program will help expand their current efforts, which include teaching public school children healthy habits, to an even younger group.

“The earlier habits are engrained in our lives … the better chance we have to keep them,” Maddox said.

Changes to the nursery

Since implementing Nemours’ program, the Winter Park Day Nursery has most changed their movement policy. Now, they include movement at least two to three more times than they did before. There isn’t any sitting around and waiting to start activities there. Kids are encouraged to play a slow-motion game, copy the leader and act like animals. They hop and skip to their next activity. It’s all about integrating movement into parts of the day they never thought they would.

And it’s the kids’ favorite part of the day — moving and playing is natural for them, unlike sitting quietly, Nursery Director Ali DeMaria said.

Games to teach nutrition include learning “sometimes” and “anytime” foods. Pizza pops up, and the children crouch down for “sometimes,” she shows cereal with fruit so they hop up and down from the energy they would get from that “anytime” food.

Next, they roll dice to see what movement they’ll do and how many times they’ll do it. The children obviously love it, excitedly hopping around, dancing and wiggling.

DeMaria loves that the teachers have a new resource to teach children about nutrition, and the children are really grasping the concepts.

“They know more about what they’re given,” she said.

And while the nursery has always had healthy meals, chef Shirley Shankle has made the change from canned to fresh fruit. She exposes the children to vegetables every day, and they are encouraged to try new things. She likes making eating broccoli a game — dinosaurs eating trees. Parents tell her that their children know what they’re eating and request “anytime” foods. Shankle said she loves getting the kids to try new things, and, eventually, like them.

“I feel that this is their most impressionable age,” she said.

Changes at home

Forbes sees those habits growing stronger at home, though it wasn’t easy at first. Her children now ask for carrots instead of candy, she bakes everything and her microwave has gotten dusty. Her picky family eats asparagus, which Forbes never imagined in a million years. They spend lots of time walking and outside, and television and computer time is stopped at 30 minutes each from the ding of an egg timer. They feel healthy.

“It’s funny because I never thought I could,” she said. “Everything has changed.”
Healthy habits for preschool.