ha!Now HERE's an interesting profile page!:
CarrotAndStickSince May 22, 2004
My opinions are NOT reflected by my posting
Posted on 03/21/2005 2:28:06 AM PST by CarrotAndStick
Recently, in a tête-à-tête with fans, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he wants to ban all sales of junk food in California schools.
He disclosed he wanted vending machines that dispense fresh fruits, vegetables and milk in their place.
Radical? Not really.
Talk to dieticians, school counsellors, even educationists, and you will find that Schwarzenegger has probably said something very close to their heart.
Says Swati Popat, director, Podar Jumbo Kids, Mumbai, "We have a whole generation of kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. And the reason for this is largely [the kind of] food [that children eat]."
If you think your child is naughty and half an hour of him/ her is enough to exhaust you, it might be wise to check the food you are giving your child. Junk food might just be the culprit.
Please note, though: there is a difference between junk food and fast food.
Sports nutritionist and child counsellor Sejal Mehta says, "Fast food is food that is fast to cook. Idli is fast food and highly nutritious. [But] Junk food harms the system with empty calories. It has no proteins and vitamins. For instance, aerated drinks fill your stomach with carbon dioxide and decays the food in your intestine. The high sugar content slows down the blood circulation in the brain.
"The child feels full and is instantly energised. The energy then dissipates and the child is left lethargic in half an hour. S/he then wants more of the stuff, thus causing addiction."
So what is junk food, really?
Junk food is a slang word for foods with limited nutritional value.
To put it simply, foods high in salt, sugar, fat or calories and low nutrient content can be termed junk food.
Salted snack foods, candy, gum, most desserts, fried fast food and carbonated beverages are some of the major junk foods.
So if your child has fries at McDonald's or decides to wolf down vada pav at the roadside, or simply have some good old pav bhaji that mommy made at home, s/he is consuming junk food.
Any over-cooked food or food that is cooked in high heat kills nutrition. What you consume then is fibre.
All packed food contains preservatives. Most contain food colouring. But both are harmful and often contain carcinogenic substances.
When your child consumes foods like these, s/he could develop allergies like asthma and skin rashes.
Homeopath Rajiv Menon says he categorically tells parents to stop their children from eating all pre-packed snacks and stop aerated drinks when they come to him for prolonged allergies and asthma attacks. "Half the time, they don't even require medication after that," he says.
A step in the right direction
Some schools in India are taking a stand about children's diet, though. Take the Podar schools all over India. They seem to be imposing good eating habits among their students.
Says Dr Devika Paul, a parent, "I was surprised when my kindergarten-going daughter Priyanka told me not to pick up a packet of Ruffles [pre-packed crisps]. She told me it was bad to eat and her teacher would not allow her to carry it to school."
At Podar Jumbo Kids, parents whose kids have gained admission to the pre-primary school are surprised when they are counselled about food.
"The right diet is important for school-going kids," says Popat. "We give a food timetable to parents. They are free to work around it. For instance, on Monday, children are allowed to bring in cooked or uncooked cereal. On Tuesday, it is only fruit. On Wednesday, they are told to bring bran bread or chapattis with vegetables.
"We tell parents to avoid chapattis, though. They tend to get rubbery and can be hard on tender jaws. We also tell parents mandatorily that children cannot bring in pre-packed food, wafers and sweetened water in any form. We encourage children to drink water. The more water [you drink], the more oxygen [supplied] to the body."
As for parents, Popat says, "Mothers don't like it. It is so much easier to pack a Peppy [pre-packed crisps] for dabba along with a Frooti."
A school teacher at Arya Vidya Mandir, Bandra, Mumbai, says she noticed all 40 children in her class brought packed snacks to school. This causes a chain reaction. If ten children bring packed food to school, the rest, too, want to bring the same thing.
It is better if the school bans junk food at school, says another school counsellor.
Parents, heed this!
Perhaps an easier way would be to educate adults and children on how to judge the food you eat.
i. First, while buying pre-packed, convenience food, check the list of ingredients and nutrition facts label found on packages.
Keep an eye out for sugar, fat or salt as one of the first three ingredients. If any of these are listed high in the ingredients, consider that food to be very high in sugar, fat or salt.
The high sugar content in junk food causes tooth decay, increased tendency for blood clots, decreased levels of good cholesterol, increased levels of blood fat associated with diabetes and heart disease, and childhood obesity.
Says Meenal Rajani, "I just spent Rs 7,000 on root canal treatment for my 11-year-old son."
At Chaturbhuj Narsee Memorial and ND Parikh pre-primary school, Mumbai, children are served healthy snacks, like sprouted bhel, sandwiches, idlis, khichdi curry, patties stuffed with vegetables, unmashed pav bhaji. "And the children love it immensely," says a teacher.
ii. The nutritional information on the label also registers the number of calories per serving, grams of fat, sodium, cholesterol, fibre and sugar content. This information will make you more cautious and select the foods to reduce your child's nutritional health risk.
iii. Studies show that the colour of food affects us, too.
According to Monisha Bharadwaj, writer of Indian Luck Book: How To Bring Luck Into Your Life, the colours of some food are important. Some can calm you, while some act as anti-depressants. Some are stimulating, while others can be antiseptic (see below).
So are all junk foods bad?
"Not really," says Anjali Bose, dietician. "If you can balance junk food with a fruit or a whole vegetable, it is okay, really. Junk foods may have higher levels of fat, salt and sugar, but they still contain nutrients and can be considered a small part of a healthy diet.
"A general rule of thumb is to eat fresh, healthy foods about 90 per cent of the time, and indulge in junk foods no more than 10 per cent of the time."
Here's to healthy eating!
How colours in food influence our health
~ Blue
Examples: Raisins, blue plums, mushrooms. Characteristics: Antiseptic, soporific. They affect: The mouth, throat and respiratory system. They induce calm and restful sleep without nightmares. ~ Green
Examples: Green grapes, coriander, cucumber, milk and milk products. Characteristics: Calming, relaxing. They affect: The ears, arms, digestive system, heart. They impart energy to your body. ~ Yellow
Examples: Yellow lentils, bananas, pineapple, corn. Characteristics: Cleansing, laxative, harmonising. They affect: The stomach, liver, nervous system. They calm the mind, promote well-being and happiness. ~ Orange
Examples: Mangoes, carrots, egg yolk, papayas. Characteristics: Tonic, appetite-builder, anti-depressant. They affect: The legs, stomach, the circulatory system. They protect against air pollution and the sun's ultraviolet rays. ~ Red
Examples: Berries, kidney beans, tomatoes Characteristics: Warming, stimulating. They affect: The kidneys, bladder, muscular system. Excessive amounts can cause anger, irritability and hyperactivity. Illustration: Dominic Xavier
Look, the last link I posted to you was from the actual newspaper's archives. Do you need any help in reading it?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/144132.cms
And you haven't provided any links yet. I take it you can't prove the contrary.
Look at the link again. Only this time, read it carefully.
I am not too keen to communicate with a brick wall.
Your kitchen appliances should be your friend, NOT your enemy. If you know how to cook you could make large batches of food that could be stored away for later use by either vacuum-packed freezer bags or home canning. Not only do you get far fresher food, but also you skip out on a lot of the chemicals in store-bought food that can occasionally cause no end of problems in children. Maybe the Mormons--with their strong emphasis on home canning--have the right idea?
My aunt does just that. No processed food in their home ever. And by the way, they grow many of their own vegetables, that too in Connecticut, of all places!
ha!Now HERE's an interesting profile page!:
CarrotAndStickSince May 22, 2004
LOL! Blatant are the games that one plays.
???
???Oh, excuse me. My "View source selection" cut off a word?
My opinions are NOT reflected by my posting behaviour.
Interesting. Are you British / UK ????
Thought you may find this interesting. Apparantly, some people on this forum think I am anti-Hindu, anti-India or something.
No, I am from India. But yes, I post articles from other news sites that I find are relevent to Indo-US discussions, hence the "don't reflect my opinion" part. If you've seen my earlier posts, you will notice that I'm all for President Bush's policy of getting closer with India. We too have common enemies, you know, the Chinese on one side and the Islamists on the other.
But why, may I ask, did you think I was British?
Funny... ;)
In case you weren't aware, it was me (besides others) who had posted an article on FR, where a poll conducted showed India, Poland and Thailand as the only three countries besides the US, among the rest of the world, whose citizens had a favourable opinion to Bush's II term victory.
I'm not up to speed on our relations with India. None of my
posts reflect adverse opinion or objection to your posts.I just found your profile page interesting and humorous (or
'humourous', if you prefer).:^)
But why, may I ask, did you think I was British?Simply from the way that you spelled "behaviour" on your
profile page.Americans spell it "behavior", while the British (and those
with British influence), spell it "behaviour".The British share a lot of history with India, right?
Well, we sure thank India (and Poland and Thailand) for that, too, then!Thanks.
Oh! I was all along thinking I ticked you off somewhere, and I was wondering where. Anyway, thanks for the compliments.
By the way, if you think I am posting too many India-related posts here, I'd be thankful to you if you could indicate to me if I am being inconsiderate.
Well, yes. We are a union and a functioning democracy, thanks to the British. But it wasn't entirely due to them that we are a free country. For example, Pakistan was created the same time out of the erstwhile British-Indian empire, but fumbled from being a democracy pretty early on, in spite of being of the same ethnicity as the rest of the Indians. And on the English language, I find that American English is a lot more practical than the other forms of it, but, as you would be aware, old habits die hard, and hence my preference for spelling words with 'our' instead of 'or'.
Being an engineering student, I often have to go through American and British books for many of my study subjects, and I've always found American books far more straightforward and easy to understand, than British ones. You may have noticed that too, especially when it comes to reading the occasional instruction manuals!
Oops, the above post should have been addressed to you.
How is this an attack on Hinduism? It's not. Hinduism is a marvellous, plural, religion. It accepts those who eat beef and those who don't. So, end of issue
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