VIDEO: Marketing Food to Children - Anna Lappe at TEDxManhattan 2013

A wonderful TED Talk.  The [junk] food industry is not the only industry whose dubious marketing strategies impact heavily and negatively on children's lives. I wonder what would happen and how our lives would change if marketing to children was banned?  I believe it should be - across the board.

ROADTEST: Pineapple in juices

Lately I have been looking for foods that are good for the digestive system. Pineapple apparently is a digestive system superfood.  Word on the street is that the enzymes in pineapple help to break down food and remove toxins.  So I went and got me some fresh pineapple to make a juice.

This juice was 50/50 fruit and vegetable - half pineapple and apple, and half kale and celery.  We are getting closer to our aim of mostly vegetables in our juices. The adults would add a little zippiness next time with a squeeze of lemon or ginger, but the kid was totally happy with it just the way it was and gave it 5/5.  I would give it 5/5 just for the colour which was gorgeous!

BOOK REVIEW: BEAUTIFUL GIRL by CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP

I have been a huge fan of Christiane Northrop for some time.  Northrup's books and talks on women's health are wonderful - well researched, detailed, informative and empowering. So, I was pretty excited to discover that she had written a book for young girls.

'Beautiful Girl: Celebrating the Wonders of Your Body', has been written for little girls aged 2-5.  This is not a 'where-do-I-come-from' book, it is a book about developing a positive attitude towards being a girl and having a girls body.  The book is filled with opportunity for all sorts of discussion with your little girl.

A garden is filled with delicate plants and tiny creatures.
As you walk among them, you are careful with them.
You should be just as careful with your own body.
Treat it gently and make sure that others treat it gently too.  (Beautiful Girl, Northrup. C, 2012)

Illustration by Aurelie Blanz

Aurelie Blanz created the illustrations in the book, and they are simply gorgeous!  A stand alone reason for purchase. I shared the book with Lilli (9) and we ooohed and ahhhed over the illustrations together.  With the text, she was a little bit "yes I know all that" (I would have loved to have had this book when she was younger), but even still, certain parts of the book gave me the opportunity to open up lines of discussion that were new to us.
Lilli gave the book 4/5 (she is a little bit older than the age group it is aimed at and not old enough to appreciate it from an adults perspective).   I gave it 5/5.

EXERCISE: MUNCH AND MOVE

NSW Department of Health

I am enjoying using the music from the 'Munch and Move' (NSW Dept of Health, Australia initiative) at school.  The songs are short and make nice little gap fillers.  The lyrics are simple and easy for the children to follow as instructions, and to sing along to.  They also make for great discussion.  My 4-5 year olds particularly like doing the 'Warm Up' song, followed by 'Twist, Balance, Shake, Run'.  They were fascinated to discover that their heart did indeed pump harder after exercise.

FINDING TIME TO JUICE

We have just finished a two week Spring break. I felt so noble, getting up each day to prepare my family a lovely nourishing breakfast complete with fresh juice.  Fast forward to this week, and we are back to school/work and an extra 15-20 mins in bed in the wee hours of the morn instead of juicing is so tempting.  So, I have cut the juicing down to 5 min by preparing all the night before, ready to just throw in the juicer.  I know it seems obvious, but it never really occurred to me to do that before, and consequently never had fresh juices on a school day.

ROADTEST: Beetroot in juices

I have been juicing a lot lately, and coincidence or not, have been receiving positive remarks about my skin, and my daughters as well.  I am determined to make juicing a big part of our lives.  I have no problem getting Lilli to drink the fruit based juices.  The plan however, is to slowly replace fruit with vegetables, to make an even healthier juice.  Carrot and orange gets a 5 star rating from Lilli, but I think we can do better.  Cucumber with fruit also gets a thumbs up.  Today we tried beetroot.

2 beetroot

2 apples

2 cucumber

2 carrots

The juice was super sweet so I thought we might have a winner, but no, while she admired how it looked, beetroot apparently tastes like dirt (ok, it does a bit).  Overall not a very successful juice.  Too sweet for the adults and the healthy little creature gave it 1 out of 5.  

Would love to hear from anyone who has found a beetroot juice combo that children love.