6 Ways to Keep Your Kids From Getting Fat

By Peter N. Nelson, The Faster Times
Posted on January 5, 2010, Printed on January 5, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/144934/

This article was reprinted from The Faster Times. Faster. Smarter. Funnier: Go to TheFasterTimes.com for the latest in News, Politics, Science, Arts, Health, Nonsense, and everything else.

If you’re like me, you considered it your duty, as a good father, to eat more than your share of rich fatty sugar-laden foods over the holidays, as a way of protecting your family from obesity. The instinct to protect one’s offspring is hardwired throughout the animal kingdom and a noble calling, so if you’ve gained 10-15 pounds since Thanksgiving, you are to be commended.

Now, Pork-Boy, it’s time to take your New Years’ resolutions seriously and lose a few pounds, particularly if part of your stay-at-home dad’s duties is to buy and prepare foods for your family.  Odds are, you’re not the only one in your family who gained weight, or needs to shed it, including your kids.

I won’t bother you with a lot of statistics about the ongoing obesity epidemic (two thirds of adults and about forty percent of all children in this country are overweight) or what the health costs are (diabetes, hypertension, chronic heart disease etc) — if you don’t know this stuff already, you’ve been in a coma for the last ten years.

Kidding aside, it’s important.  Bad eating habits are learned young - rarely do fat kids come from thin parents.  If you really want to protect your kids, implement the following changes:

Cut sugar. Sugar sends a signal to your body: “burn me first, store fat for later.”  We evolved to store as much fat as possible as a defense against future famines, but the mechanism works against us when there aren’t any famines, and there aren’t, at least in this country.  If you avoid sugar, you’ll burn fat.  Eating sweets before bed is the worst thing you can do.  Dr. Naomi Neufeld, Los Angeles pediatric endocrinologist and author of Kidshape (Rutledge Hill, Nashville, 2004, with yours truly as co-author) recommends Splenda as a substitute, though years of studies have shown Sweet ‘N’ Low to be safe too.  And don’t fool yourself, thinking fruit juices are good because they have the word “fruit” on them — some have more sugar in them than sodas.

Cut fat.   Duh.  Two percent instead of whole milk, margarine instead of butter, chicken or turkey instead of beef or tofu instead of chicken, and just a bit of olive oil to fry with.  Read labels and if you see something at the store that says “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil,” don’t buy it, and hide it so no one else can either.

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The "Slow Money" Movement May Revolutionize the Way You Think About Food

By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet
Posted on December 22, 2009, Printed on December 26, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/144721/

The slow food movement that started in Italy two decades ago has gained much attention and popularity, with a blossoming of community supported agriculture (CSA), local organic farms and general awareness of where our food comes from. But money doesn’t grow on trees, and in an economy structured around industrial-scale global agriculture, starting and sustaining small farms and local, sustainable food processing and delivery systems can be a challenge.

About five years ago, veteran financial manager Woody Tasch and his colleagues at the Investors' Circle began discussing how an intentional and organized influx of investment into localized sustainable food systems could be paired with a general increasing philosophical commitment to slow food principles.

The result is the Slow Money movement, shepherded by the Slow Money Alliance, of which Tasch is executive director. Now 750 members, including individual investors and sustainable farms and food-related businesses, are members of the alliance, and 450 people attended a Slow Money conference in Santa Fe in September.

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