The recent revelation of Arsenic in Apple Juice has parents concerned and frustrated.  Concerned because children are the single biggest consumers of juice; Frustrated because they think juice is 100% healthy.

I'm not going to debate whether I think the study from Dr. Oz is legitimate or not, as it probably is pretty accurate.  I think Juice is vastly misunderstood by 99.9% of the population.

Juice is not a health food!  Kids should not be drinking juice everyday, throughout the day.  The juice from fruit is actually the BAD part of the fruit; it's the fruit minus all the fiber, and micronutrients.  It's pure fructose. 

Only your liver can metabolize fructose so let me take you on a journey through your liver when you consume juice.  Your body first has to give up phosphates to start metabolizing the fructose making the waste product Uric Acid (causes gout) which blocks the enzymes from making Nitric Oxide (keeps your blood pressure low), when you can't make nitric oxide your blood pressure goes up.  Nova Lipogenesis gets activated and now you get fat.  When you consume fructose you are consuming fat.  Fructose increases inflammation in the liver by initiating an enzyme that is truly and appropriately named “Junk 1".  Free fatty acids form and populate muscles.  Some fat will not make it out of your liver, and you wind up with fatty liver, Non-Alcoholic Liver Disease.

Your pancreas starts working harder generating more insulin because your liver becomes insulin resistant.  The more insulin your pancreas makes the higher your blood pressure goes and it also generates more fat.  The higher your insulin goes your brain can't see it's leptin (the thing that tells your brain you are full) and you keep consuming calories because your body thinks it's starving.

Is it any wonder why the obesity epidemic is growing fastest in 2-5 year olds?  That young children are being diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, gout, fatty liver disease, heart disease, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and high cholesterol? ALL of these things happen with chronic fructose exposure.

One thing you can do as a parent to help your kid's avoid pain & illness is to limit all beverage consumption to plain water, and milk.  It's probably the single most important thing you can do.  Offer fresh fruits and veggies.  Fructose is absorbed differently if consumed in its natural whole fruit form as the fiber attached helps slow absorption.

I used to always cook with vegetable oils mostly because that's what my mom cooks with and that's the way I was taught to cook.  AND we've also been told that these vegetable unsaturated oils are more "heart healthy" and are supposed to protect us from heart disease. It turns out, that was a really BAD idea as they actually do more harm than good. 

Here is why.  Unsaturated oils like vegetable oil, corn oil, safflower oil just to name a few oxidize when exposed to any heat, even room temperature heat.    The problem with oxidation in oils is that it makes it rancid and produces Free Radicals.  Free Radicals are molecules that are missing a critical component and steal what they need from your healthy cells, altering your DNA which accelerates aging and over 90% of all diseases we suffer from today.  This is BAD, and why you should move your family away from these oils, and stop cooking with them.  Cooking with these oils accelerates oxidation which produces more Free Radicals.

One other really cool fact that I as a mom found really interesting is that Coconut Oil contains Lauric Acid, which is a natural compound found in breast milk.  Lauric acid is super important because it strengthens your immune system.

I've recently moved over to cooking with Coconut Oil.  Coconut Oil is saturated and heat stable so that it doesn't get damaged when you cook with it, and it does not oxidize... so NO FREE RADICALS are getting into my kids bodies destroying their healthy cells.  You can cook with it, bake with it, and mix it up for dressings and other healthy treats.

Other benefits:  
                                PROMOTES heart health
                                SUPPORTS the Immune System
                                Gives you ENERGY
                                SUPPORTS healthy metabolism
                                PROMOTES weight loss
                                MAINTAIN normal Cholesterol levels

It also doubles as an excellent moisturizer for your skin :)

Be choosy when purchasing Coconut oil.  I use Fresh Shores Extra Virgin Coconut Oil that I find in my local health food store.  Find one that is cold pressed, organic, made with fresh coconuts (instead of dried "copra" used in cheap oils), not refined or bleached.

Fast food has become a staple in most American diets.  Even if it's just a once a week dare I say "treat" as some parents would call it.

If you were to prepare a special treat for your child at home, would it contain dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent made of silicone, in it?  What about tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a chemical preservative so deadly that just five grams can kill you?  Probably NOT!

These are 2 ingredients found in the McDonald's Chicken Nugget. Only 50% of the chicken nugget is actually chicken, the rest of it is fillers and chemicals.  Ordering chicken nuggets is nowhere close to frying chicken yourself at home. 

Federal Judge Robert Sweet said it best in 2003: "Chicken McNuggets, rather than being merely chicken fried in a pan, are a McFrankenstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook."

Eating fast food twice a week doubles your risk of developing insulin resistance, which is the primary underlying cause of most of the diseases we struggle with like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. 

Food for thought:  Making smart food decisions can literally "override" genetic predispositions for disease, on the flip side making poor choices will alter your bodies DNA and will set your child and even your future grandchildren up for poor health down the road.

Yesterday I posted a super yummy all natural Fresh Lemonade recipe using Honey instead of Sugar.  Some of you wondered…Why?

Here are the basics:

Refined Sugar: Also called Sucrose, table sugar, or saccharose.

Refined sugar often comes from sugar cane or sugar beet.  That’s the natural part.  It’s what happens after it’s been harvested.  It’s manufactured and processed until it has been stripped of all vitamins, minerals, and proteins; and you end up with refined sugar.  The sugar is empty, dead, naked…your body get’s absolutely nothing from it except for a spike in energy and insulin which is NOT a good thing. 

So what?  Why should you care about consuming these empty calories?  It’s the nutrients your body has to give up to metabolize it.  The sugar makes your body unstable, so your body has to give up precious minerals like potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium to restore balance.  Your body gives up calcium from your bones and teeth first which makes them weak and start to decay, hence tooth decay and osteoporosis.

Your liver stores refined sugar as glucose, but capacity is limited.  The glucose is released into your blood and is stored in your belly, thighs, breasts, and butt!  Once these places are full, it travels to your kidneys and heart where abnormal blood pressure begins.  Eventually your nervous, circulatory, & lymphatic systems are invaded, your white blood cells are elevated and your immune system becomes so comprimised your body has a hard time fighting off anything from a bug bite, to a serious infection.

It also causes your body to produce excess amounts of insulin.  Insulin encourages cellular growth, great for healthy cells, but not so good for abnormal and cancer cells.

The energy spike is very temporary and makes you crash which leaves you in a constatnt state of fatigue and wanting more.

It’s highly addictive!  The average American eats 2-3 pounds of sugar EVERY WEEK!

If you and your family are on a high-sugar diet, start weaning yourselves now!  You may feel ok now, but you will pay the price later.  Diseases like heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes don’t happen overnight…it takes YEARS for these illneses to build up.

Honey

I’m talking about raw natural honey, not the typical processed stuff you find in a cute little bear at the local grocery store.  That stuff is not much better than refined sugar.  Generally the darker the honey the more antioxidents it has do don’t be afraid to go with something darker.

Honey is superior to refined sugar in that it has nutrients your body can actually use and absorb.  It has antioxidants, enzymes, 22 amino acids, and studies show it to increase your bodies ability to effectively process glucose (the exact opposite of sugar).  Because of the anti-bacterial properties of honey it can help to improve the digestive system.

It has lots of ancient healing properties which I will not get into here, but it’s been around for thousands of years and has been used as an antiseptic, cleanser, and anti-inflammatory to name a few.

It is calorie dense, so beware of how much you are using.  You will need less honey than refined sugar as honey is sweeter. If honey is your only sugar intake (and it most likely is not) 3-5 tablespoons per day is more than enough.

Disclaimer:  Do not give honey to children less than 1 year!!!