Your World and You: Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health – Issue 28 (Premium)
Environmental and Nutritional Tips to Improve Your Family’s Health
This feature highlights reports, studies, and feedback on efforts that can make a positive impact in our quest for health. Topics we cover in this issue are included below. We invite you to share material with us that you think would be of interest to our readers.
Topics featured in this article:
- Video How Children in California Have Been Contaminated by Food
- Advice on how to keep kids safe around cellphones
- Gut bacteria and your mood
- Great article on food dyes and ADHD to share with schools and loved ones
- Have you tried these 27 gluten-free substitutes?
- Speaking out: Teachers label students who aren’t “perfect”
- ADHD medication: Scary facts many parents don’t know
- Brain and behavioral effects of early exposure to a neurotoxicant
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Video: How Children in California Have Been Contaminated by Food
Michael Greger, MD: In a study highlighted in this video, California Childen Are Contaminated, researchers analyzed the diets of California children ages two through seven to determine the cancer and non-cancer health effects from food contaminant exposures. It turns out food may be the primary route of exposure to toxic heavy metals, persistent pollutants, and pesticides.
A mom’s advice on how to keep kids safe around cellphones
Rachel Sarnoff, author of the site MommyGreenest.com site, gives tips for reducing EMF exposure for her children.
She says: I’ve worried about my children ever since the World Health Organization called cell phone radiation a “possible human carcinogen.”Studies show that children receive more phone radiation than adults because of their thinner skulls.
But what about the electromagnetic fields — better known as EMF — generated by wireless technologies such as tablets and WiFi, as well as cell phones? Recent action taken by the French government has me worried about that, too.
Gut bacteria and mood
Can the Bacteria in your Gut Explain Your Mood?
Never mind that integrative physicians have recognized the gut-brain connection for more than 40 years. It’s good to see mainstream articles sharing this topic with the public and the scientific community starting to jump on board.
See the New York Times full article here.
Great article on food dyes and ADHD to share with schools and loved ones
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese will soon be free of yellow dye. Kraft announced that it will remove artificial food coloring Yellow No. 5 and Yellow No. 6 by January 2016. Instead, the pasta will maintain its bright yellow color by using natural ingredients: paprika, turmeric and annatto—the latter derived from achiote tree seeds. (The food is still junk, but it will be less harmful.)
This article in Scientific American, though, goes well beyond Kraft trying to catch up with the times. It gives a convincing explanation of the food dye issue, one that is worthy of sharing.
Speaking out: Teachers label students who aren’t “perfect”
A teacher shares in the Guardian that her peers can be too quick to label children in the classroom:
“You don’t want to be in 4J, you’ll get dyslexia.” This has been the standing joke in our staff room for years, owing to the teacher’s over-zealous approach to diagnosing any child not brilliant at reading as “dyslexic.” She’s a great teacher who is passionate about children and who gets good results (which could be why she needs to find a reason for anyone not making the grade under her watchful eye). However she is a labeler—one of the many idealistic adults who can’t bear to believe a child is less than perfect unless it’s because there’s something wrong with him or her that’s nobody’s fault.
Have you tried these 27 gluten-free substitutes?
Kate Morin offers 27 gluten-free cooking substitutions as a contributor on greatest.com
(I wonder if her mashed potato pizza crust is as good as she says!) You can check them all out here.
ADHD medication: Scary facts many parents don’t know
Featured on the Canadian version of Huffington Post. Author Alyson Schafer is a best-selling author of three parenting books: Breaking The Good Mom Myth, Honey, I Wrecked The Kids, and Ain’t Misbehavin.’ She wrote:
“I am a therapist in private practice so I regularly have parents coming to my office saying that they have a child who has ADHD. What to do? I want to make certain that parents get all the information before making a choice regarding their treatment plan. Too often parents only hear a limited part of this complex diagnosis and its treatment options. . .”
Read the full article here.
Brain and behavioral effects of early exposure to a neurotoxicant
(Technical) U C Davis MIND Institute offers a “distinguished lecturer” series on their website with a range of health topics at a professional level. The most recent one (May 2015) is by Dr. Virginia Rauh.
This presentation addresses the impact of prenatal exposure to a common neurotoxicant on brain structure and neuropsychological function. The toxic chemical, an organophosphate insecticide (chlorpyrifos), has been banned for indoor residential use in the U.S. since 2001, but continues to have widespread application for agricultural purposes.
“Results suggest that prenatal pesticide exposure, at relatively modest doses common in agricultural regions of the U.S., results in a signature pattern of neuropsychological deficits, accompanied by disturbances in brain morphology by MRI, persisting into the early school years.”
See the transcript of the video here; Click image below for the video.
Dr. Rauh has served on numerous national committees including the Scientific Advisory Board for the Environmental Protection Agency, NIH study sections, and expert panels for EPA, NIEHS, NIMH, and NICHD.
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