Healthy Holiday Season

The holidays can be such a challenging time to try and stay on a healthy eating and living plan. I have included some links that have tips that might be helpful to participating families in the Healthy Weight Clinic.

The California Pacific Medical Center offers ten tips to avoid overeating and weight gain over the holidays, as well as a breakdown of specific foods and how to handle them such as gravies and dressings.
http://www.cpmc.org/about/e-health/11-05%20healthy-holidays.html

Alliance for a Healthier Generation has some advice on caring for ourselves in this busy season, from healthy eating tips to tips on getting enough rest.
http://www.healthiergeneration.org/parents.aspx?id=4181

The Mayo Clinic site offers many healthy recipes for all courses of holiday meals.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/holiday-recipes/NU00645

I hope these resources are helpful as you support your patients during this busy holiday season!

Unhealthiest Cereals Marketed to Children

Steering kids towards healthy eating is challenging in the best case scenario. A study from Yale recently identified one reason for this uphill battle. Cereal companies advertise their most unhealthy products to children ages 2 and up. Kid cereals have more sugar, more sodium, and less fiber than cereals marketed to adults. Please see the below articles that lay out the details of the study. Also included is an article that outlines what tactics companies use to target kids and concrete tips on how parents can combat advertising within their own home.



Cereal Companies Market Least Healthy Products to Children and Teens:


http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/10/27/consumer-unhealthy-kids-cereals-yale.html


http://kidshealth.org/research/kids_marketing.html