More than 70 million Americans suffer from digestive disorders.  Many of those sufferers are children.  A study by the University of Utah School of Medicine and Primary Children’s Medical Center analyzed the number of children hospitalized for of digestive disorders in 1997 in the United States. They found that there were 329,825 pediatric discharges associated with a principal gastro-intestinal disorder, accounting for more than 2.6 billion US dollars in hospital charges and more than 1.1 million hospital days (1).  Many more children are affected by a more common malady – food allergies.  Of the more than 11 million Americans suffering from food allergies, 6-8% of those are children (2). 

Effects Of Fast-Food Consumption Among Children

In a national household survey recently conducted by the US Department of Agriculture Research Service Center located in Beltsville, Maryland, and reported in the January 2004 issue of the Pediatrics Journal, showed startling results from fast-food consumption among children of both genders.

Children who ate fast food, compared with those who did not, consumed more total fat, more total carbohydrate, more added sugars, and more sugar-sweetened beverages. Conversely, they consumed less fiber, less milk and fewer fruits and fewer vegetables. CONCLUSION: Consumption of fast food among children in the United States seems to have an adverse effect on dietary quality in ways that plausibly could increase risk for obesity and the later onset of diseases related to obesity such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

If you serve your child seconds of milk at dinner in the hopes of building his or her bones, you might want to add another serving of fruits and veggies, too. Researchers from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis found that children with high fruit and vegetable intakes lost less calcium through their urine, which may result in healthier bones.

Vitamins are organic micronutrients that are required (compared to other nutrients) in small amounts in order to sustain human life. Vitamins (with few exceptions) cannot be manufactured endogenously and must therefore be obtained from Natural, Whole Food Derived supplements or from Foods via the diet.

Are Your Vitamins Killing You?

People in the U. S. are taking billions of dollars worth of isolated or synthetic vitamins with the thought in mind that these are going to keep them healthy when just the exact opposite is probably true.

Broccoli is Broccoli - But is a Vitamin, a Vitamin?

Fruits and vegetables sold in Canadian supermarkets today contain far fewer nutrients than they did 50 years ago, according to an analysis conducted by The Globe and Mail and CTV News.

Vital vitamins and minerals have dramatically declined in some of our most popular foods, including potatoes, tomatoes, bananas and apples, the analysis reveals.

Take the potato, by far the most consumed food in Canada. The average spud has lost 100 per cent of its vitamin A, which is important for good eyesight; 57 per cent of its vitamin C and iron, a key component of healthy blood; and 28 per cent of its calcium, essential for building healthy bones and teeth.

It could be argued that never in history has so much money been spent on the advertising and purchasing of any merchandise, with so little knowledge of the product itself, on the part of either the seller or the buyer, as has been spent on vitamin and mineral supplements.

Billions are being spent annually, and most of the purchasers, retailers or direct-to-the-consumer salespeople do not know the difference between a synthetic, a crystalline, and a truly natural whole food vitamin, or the difference between chelated organic and an inorganic minerals.

A photochemical (fight-o-chemical) is a natural bioactive compound found in fruits and vegetables that works together with vitamins, minerals, and fiber to promote good benefit your health in many ways. Literally thousands of phytochemicals have been discovered. You can benefit from all of them by eating 5 to 9 servings of colorful fruits and vegetables everyday.
The bioactive functions of phytochemicals — or the way they work in your body — is an ongoing area of research. For example, some studies show that phytochemicals can:

• Act as antioxidants
• Stimulate detoxification enzymes
• Stimulate the immune system
• Positively affect hormones