Nourriture et Voyage

My patience is running extremely low; I have a trip to France in July and all I can think about is food!! There's Tarte flambée it's made of thin bread dough that is topped with onions, bacon and some fresh cream ( Hella tryin' it!). Next there's Ratatouille- and NO it has nothing to do with an actual rat it is a traditional vegetable dish. It's complete name is ratatouille niçoise; it consists of stewed vegetables. Ratatouille is generally served as a side dish but it can be served as a complete dish in its own as well. This dish is generally prepared in the summer season and since I like to stay in season its all me. It's all about desert anyhow as the French are known for their pastries. Gougère is a more savory pastry made with cheese and are also known as cheese puffs; this one is number 2 on my list.We're gonna have to stop at Chocolate Mousse before I go against all my Healthy Food principles. But what are principles if they are never broken!!!

Bon appetit mon Oeufs

Yohan Callen

Eating Processed Foods As a Toddler Is Linked To Having a Low IQ

Did you know that if a 3 year-old eats too much processed food, it can affect their IQ by the age of 8? Me neither; you learn something new everyday. Researchers say that a toddler's diet made up of foods that are high in fat, high in sugar and are processed, may lead to a small decrease in their IQ five years later.

So, instead of getting french fries buy more veggie sticks. More apples and oranges and less potato chips. Bake foods instead of fried foods and more organic foods that aren't processed. If parents follow the food pyramid and stay wise with the choices of foods that you feed your toddler. Then your child will be better off when they get older.

_ Tierra Walls

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS

There are many terms that are misleading in the food advertising industry today. Think of how many times you see healthy phrases plastered all over food containers. For example: Fat Free , Reduced Fat, Low Fat, Sugar Free, No Added Sugar, and Diet. All this means that we are supposed to believe that each of these labels makes a food product healthier. In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. This upsets me because they dish out advertising about their products knowing that it's no good for us and they still don't care.
Do you really what to know what that stuff really means? Here's my version:

Fat free (but full of sugar and chemicals)
Reduced fat (but high in carbohydrates)
Low fat (but high glycemic index)
Sugar free (but artificial everything else)
Diet (but it causes cancer in lab rats so don’t drink/eat too much of it!)
These are the real meanings of those heathly products labels. Consider the logic that food manufactures would have us believe: fat-free is good for you; jelly beans, jolly ranchers, and cotton candy are fat-free; therefore all those sugary candies are good for you. Makes sense? Think about it. Most processed food products on the market today are in some way or form, pretty much killer food, that's the mind control they have over us.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

@------'-----

JO-JO

Toddlers Becoming Addicted to Unhealthy Food.

Let's stop this pattern!

So, I have a two year old cousin and he is addicted to potato chips. I won't ever forget when my little cousin fought me for MY bag of chips. The way he gets really upset if you don't give him any of your chips, it's ridiculous. It's getting out of hand; I don't think my aunt and uncle realize that if they don't say "no" more often, the tantrums that he throws now will get serious and out of hand. His parents won't know what to do but supply him with what he wants. What's really crazy is that his erratic behavior is because this little boy is addicted to potato chips.

The real reason why he is addicted to Potato chips is MSG, otherwise known Monosodium Glutamate, which is a flavor enhancer. The flavor enhancer consists of sodium salt of glutamic acid, a natural non-essential amino acid. What's a flavor enhancer? Its something that causes your body to chemically crave that substance. So MSG in our potato chips, makes us, including my little nephew, addicted. MSG can cause heart attacks, obesity, migraine headaches, hyperactivity and more. So we need to watch out for this "flavor enhancer" that is in practically everything we eat. For children under 5 years old, we need more enforcement on the types of foods they eat.

_Tierra Walls

River's of Waste

I was looking for some topics to write about when I was halted by RIVERS OF WASTE! This isn't some movie title, its a growing disaster. People see water as a easy way to dump the unwanted filth. Our oceans have become a natural landfill that never fills up, but the sea life is being threatened by this process. Over 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals are killed each year when they mistake plastic bags for food. The ocean can be a good place to dispose "natural" products , but if you have to question if its natural or not... find a trash can or RECYCLING bin! When unnatural products are introduced, the ocean has a hard time breaking down its compounds. Okay, we aren't always to blame; in the fall some leaves can land in rivers where they decay, which results in temporary pollution. But this natural form of pollution is considered minor to humans wide spread lifestyles. Our biggest problems are industrial discharges, agricultural waste along with fertilizer's, road waste, and poorly treated sewage from old or overloaded sewage refinery's. Take charge in your neighborhood by separating your recyclables and monitoring your gutters!!!!!

!Preserve Water: Without It, We Cease To Exists !

Yohan Callen

Vent

So, I go to Oakland School for the Arts and at my school there is a strict healthy foods program. The school provides healthy alternatives to processed foods filled with artificial ingredients. Many students reject this by going out on their lunch breaks munching away on french fries dusted with a salty mix, paired with a sugary poison-soda. There is actually a student in my class that serves as a black market salesman, you name it he's got it. He goes out of his way to disrupt class with his latest inventory, "I got .....two bags of Doritos left .....cool ranch, and cheddar!" he sqeals, "only $1!" The disapproval he receive's from the faculty does nothing to him, its all about the making a buck with this one. I would love to see this business go into the black but he has what the consumer wants. Students at my school still choose the unhealthy, highly processed product over healthy, more organic options. It's also really upsetting that this one student is taking advantage of that fact......killing our own folks!


Yohan Callen

SMH... OMG- what is Obesity!

Did you know?
There are six causes of obesity (that we know of right now)

• Genes: Obesity tends to run in families. This is caused both by genes and by shared diet and lifestyle habits. Having obese relatives does not guarantee that you will be obese.

• Emotions: Some people overeat because of depression, hopelessness, anger, boredom, and many other reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. This doesn't mean that overweight and obese people have more emotional problems than other people. It just means that their feelings influence their eating habits, causing them to overeat. In some unusual cases, obesity may be used as a defense mechanism because of the perceived social pressures related to being more physically desirable, particularly in young girls. In these cases, as with the other emotional causes, psychological intervention may be helpful.

• Environmental factors: The most important environmental factor is lifestyle. Your eating habits and activity level are partly learned from the people around you. Overeating and sedentary habits (inactivity) are the most important risk factors for obesity.

• Sex: Men have more muscle than women, on average. Because muscle burns more calories than other types of tissue, men use more calories than women, even at rest. Thus, women are more likely than men to gain weight with the same calorie intake.

• Age: People tend to lose muscle and gain fat as they age. Their metabolism also slows somewhat. Both of these lower their calorie requirements.

• Pregnancy: Women tend to weigh an average of 4-6 pounds more after a pregnancy than they did before the pregnancy. This can compound with each pregnancy. This weight gain may contribute to obesity in women.

Ways to prevent it:
Eating less over the long term means learning to think about your eating habits and patterns.
Increasing your activity level is largely a matter of changing your attitude. You don't have to be a marathon runner.
_ Tierra walls

Healthy weight or healthy mind? Psych drugs can pile on pounds

Katie's temper tantrums and emotional outbursts became uncontrollable when she was 5 years old. After diagnosing her with Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), doctors placed her on Risperidone, an anti psychotic drug used to treat irritability and aggression in autistic children.

The medication "took the edge off," according to her mother, Janet, but it also made Katie ravenously hungry. In less than a month, the slim, 40-pound kindergartner gained 5.5 pounds -- about 14 percent of her body weight. (That's comparable to a 120-pound woman gaining 17 pounds.) Within a year Katie weighed 60 pounds. -CNN health

So would you rather have your child with a healthy mind or healthy body? I'm not a mom yet, so I can only speak from where I am. I would say I would rather that my child have a healthy body than having more health problems associated with childhood obesity. I would try to figure out another way to treat the disorder, because the cure for her disease may be worse than than the disease itself.


_ Tierra Walls