What food your children should eat

Today, we will look at food and nutrition for your children, and focus on what they – and you – should be eating rather than what they shouldn’t be eating.

Nothing here is rocket science or new, but since we have just done extensive research into this, we thought it was worth writing an article about it. So lets get into it!!! Now we know kids aren’t big, on eating heaps of vegetables or fruits etc, so we will list the top three that you and your kids should eat daily.

Broccoli: When it comes to basic nutrients, broccoli is a mother lode. Ounce for ounce, boiled broccoli has more vitamin C than an orange and as much calcium as a glass of milk, according to the USDA's nutrient database. One medium spear has three times more fiber than a slice of wheat bran bread. Broccoli is also one of the richest sources of vitamin A in the produce section.
But the real surprise is this vegetable's potent cancer-fighting components.
At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, food chemist Dr. Paul Talalay has gone so far as to name his lab after "Brassica," the genus that includes broccoli and cauliflower. Talalay and his team at the Brassica Chemoprotection Laboratory have discovered that broccoli is rich in substances called isothiocyanates -- chemicals shown to stimulate the body's production of its own cancer-fighting substances, called "phase two enzymes." According to Talalay, these enzymes, in turn, neutralize potential cancer-causing substances before they have a chance to damage the DNA of healthy cells.
To test broccoli's cancer-fighting power, Talalay fed rats hearty servings of the vegetable for a few days and then exposed them to a potent carcinogen known to trigger a form of breast cancer in the animals. Broccoli-munching rats were half as likely to develop tumors as animals on standard chow, according to results published in the April 1994 Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
"Even those rats that did develop cancer ended up with fewer and smaller tumors, which is an important advantage in itself," says Talalay.
More recently, scientists at Tokyo's Graduate School of Agriculture have shown that isothiocyanates can block the growth of melanoma skin cancer cells, according to findings published in 1999 in the journal "Nutrition and Cancer."

Blue Berries: Are you eating blueberries? If not you might want to reconsider this wonderful food that is so good for you.
The dye that is released from the blueberries' skin may well be the most valuable nutrient the fruit has to offer. The pigments in blueberries and also in red crops such as cherries, plums, and red cabbage are powerful antioxidants. They have been determined to be a much-heralded chemical warrior against heart disease and also cancer. Blueberries actually have the highest antioxidant capacity because of their large anthocyanin concentration.



Antioxidants in our food can save us from virtually everything. Most of our health misfortunes are due to the perversity of oxygen. Our cells are perpetually besieged by toxic forms of oxygen which have been proved to have fierce destructive powers. So far scientists have linked destructive oxygen reactions to at least sixty different chronic diseases, as well as to aging itself. Oxygen free radicals can attack DNA, the genetic material of cells, causing them to mutate, which is a step on the path to cancer.

One of the great revelations of the last few years, according to a massive and growing body of evidence, is that you may be able to eat your way out of this dilemma insofar as the boundaries of human life span and genetics allow. You can supply your cells with antioxidant food compounds that strike down, intercept and extinguish rampaging oxygen molecules and even repair some of their damage.
Blueberries are not only a powerful antioxidant but also have been proved to preserve vision. Blueberry extract, high in compounds called anthocyanosides, has been found in clinical studies to slow down visual loss.
A recent study was done in a Boston laboratory by putting one group of young rats on a blueberry-rich diet and another on regular chow. Then the scientist exposed both groups to 48 hours of concentrated oxygen, stirring up in two days the amount of free radical damage that normally takes 20 rat months, or 75 humans to accumulate. Brain cells in the chow group became less responsive to neurotransmitters associated with short-term memory. The brains of the blueberry stuffed rats did not change. He also found that the fruit prevented the kind of short-term memory loss that comes with aging. Blueberries actually stave off declines in brain cell's ability to send messages to one another.
There are types of blueberries and the most potent ones are Bilberries, as they have the virtuous pigment in their flesh as well as in their skin, thus they pack a greater anthocyanin wallop. Wild blueberries are also high on the list because they contain less water. All blueberries are very rich with antioxidants. If you don't have them available in your area fresh then purchase the frozen blueberries in the bag in your grocery.
Now if you add blueberries to your pancake mix or just put them on top of a stack of pancakes remember if you smoother them with the saturated fat of butter or a sugary syrup you'll not have a healthy breakfast. Try blending frozen blueberries into your shakes in your blender.

Spinch: Benefits:
Saves your eyesight
Strengthens bones
Protects your heart
Combats cancer
Helps stop strokes
Boosts your immune system

Some simple receipes

So they are the top three…now how do you get your kids to eat them???

For Broccoli…try this:

Steam your Broccoli, place it on a dish and then add lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and a small amount of pepper – our kids love it.

For blueberries: Simply add to their favour yogurt.

For spinish: Either have baby spinach leaves in their salad, or once a week try the following dip:

1 tub mayonnaise
1 tub sour cream
1 french onion soup mix
1 packet of frozen spinach

Serve with biscuits or crunchy bread – the kids will love it.

And some other views...

The sun is shining in Melbourne today. Whilst there is a slight wind, the city seems to be showing signs that spring is on the way. Melbourne is beautiful city at this time of year, with small amount of rain with intermittent sun the city seems to glow.

Your editor had lunch at ‘Italy on the Bay’ today with a friend who is setting up a new business. The talk got on to property prices in Melbourne.

In Kew where your editor works, the median property price has just hit $1.4 million, a jump by 60% this year. How can most people afford this we wonder? The average wage has not gone up in any real terms, and the average house price in Melbourne is $400,000. We wonder what first home buyers are going to do.

We were at an Auction a few weeks ago, where the house went for just under $1.8m, in doing some research, we found that the home had the reputation of been one of Melbourne’s premier swinger homes!!!

‘What a history’ I said to my wife ‘It takes all sorts!!!’
‘Not our sort’ my wife replied as she held your editors hand down to stop him bidding.