Do your kids tend to prefer television or video games over playing outside? Well the results of this Australian study might prod parents to encourage their children to stay outside more than mere few minutes each day.

The said study found out that the simple lack of exposure to sunlight increased the likelihood of myopia or near-sightedness. The contrast in school children's activities was conducted between Singaporean and Australian students who are spending 30 minutes and 3 hours outdoors, respectively. Myopia was found to be up to 90% in young adults in Singapore and other East Asian countries, while only 10% in Australia, up to 40% in Britain and a very low 3% in Africa.

The researchers believe that exposure to the sun's rays stimulates dopamine production, which in turn stops the eyeball from growing elongated and distorting the focus of light entering the eye.

Myopia by haglundc

I am happy that Canadian schools have made it a policy to allot more time for outdoor activities, even during the winter months; and the government providing incentives for programs involving sports and physical activities, which not only prevent obesity and related lifestyle diseases, but possibly near-sightedness as well if these are done outdoors.

Now let's get our kids out of the house and play outdoors.  Better yet, parents should play, exercise, walk or even just hang out with them under the sun.  That's my cue to close my computer and head out...it's a lovely spring afternoon for the whole family to enjoy.  Gotta go.

   

Since Casa 3 (Preparatory to Grade 1) our kids are in school the whole day.  It is part of the Abba’s Orchard School practical life curriculum to train the children on table manners and use of eating utensils. As the child constantly take lunch on his own, he advances to independence. Wow, I just realized that I have been preparing our kids’ lunchboxes for 4 years now. I didn’t notice it’s been that long, probably because I am enjoying and getting much satisfaction doing it. Having to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning every school day to prepare healthy but enjoyable lunch and snack treats for our school kids, on top of a healthy breakfast for everybody, is a challenge I am taking with pleasure.

I have been consistently preparing their lunchboxes using the following criteria:

• Variety and Nutrition- go, grow and glow foods should be well-represented and whatever is prepared today should not be repeated tomorrow. No artificial juice, only plain water and milk or choco-milk for their drinks.
• Taste and Preference- finding out their food preferences through consultations and observations, and incorporating those foods in the menu if possible. My daughter’s favorite is cooked ham so I give it to her one day a week. Another favorite is bacon, which they get to enjoy once in four weeks only because of health and cost considerations.
• Perfect Combination- combining food types and recipes that go perfectly together like fried chicken + steamed veggies, and grilled fish + buttered veggies.
• Volume- finding the right balance between how much would satisfy them and how much they should consume to satisfy their nutritional requirement is important. Neither do I want them hungry because their food was not enough nor for them to bring home left-over food for the trash bin. (The school doesn’t tolerate this as well :D)
• Presentation and Color- for most people, especially children, presentation counts. A nicely presented food gets them excited and would entice them to eat. While color contributes a lot to the presentation, it also speaks of the food’s nutritional value. A multi-colored food preparation will more likely supply the varied nutritional requirement of growing children better than a single color dish. So a fried pork chop which is colored brown will be better served with green and orange vegetables and a yellow fruit for dessert.
• Convenience and Safety- making life easier for them by preparing for them simple, easy to eat foods. Boneless and fillet for fish and breast cut for the chicken are the best. Pork or beef are sliced into bite-sized pieces or small strips. Fruits are pre-washed and sliced for them.
• Surprise Factor- often, whatever is packed is not known to them to keep them guessing and inject some excitement. From time to time, I surprise them by adding fruits they love but don’t get to eat often (like grapes) or a piece of chocolate, which they don’t get to eat often as well. With this trick, I earned my halo points

This was how my kids’ lunch looked like yesterday: Boiled Lady Fingers with Soy Sauce-Lemon Dip, Boneless Garlic Milkfish and Ripe Mango Cubes. For their snacks; Egg Sandwich, Banana and Fresh Milk.

Today, they will be having Fried Chicken, Tomato, Lettuce and Cucumber Salad in Vinaigrette, and Mandarin for their lunch. For snacks, it will be Peanut Butter Sandwich, Apple and Choco-Milk.

My kids now noticed (and their teachers, too) that among their classmates, they are the only ones consistently eating vegetables in school and they are proud of it. When they open their lunchboxes, theirs are the most varied and colorful, and yummy as well. During our daily gratitude ritual after dinner, they would usually say they are thankful to me and for the food. This signals success in my healthy lunchbox challenge, Yippee!

Allow us to begin by defining detox or detoxification in the context of diet modification for optimum health. Detoxification is the removal of toxins or the effect of such in the body through a dietary regimen. It is believed that our bodies are inundated with numerous toxins each and every day through bad diet, food additives, pesticides, air pollution, cigarette smoke, alcohol and caffeine. Together with stress and depression, accumulation of these ingested toxins can affect our different body systems and may eventually cause illnesses. Elimination of these toxic elements improves the functioning of many body systems that provide better sleep, energy, mental alertness, healthy skin as well as enhanced immune system function. On the other side of the court are the opposing views stating that there is no evidence that detox diet actually removes toxin from the body and that it has no proven health benefit. Well this statement could be true because more scientific evidence is still needed for it to be generally acceptable.

From the standpoint of someone like us who are seeking health, wellness and long productive life, whatever sounds logical is always worth a try. As mentioned in a previous blog on Natural Body Cleansing Detox Diet Recipes, we wanted to be proactive and try whatever is logical to improve our health and the quality of our life rather than having no option later on but to try everything out there to cure a lifestyle disease that could have been prevented in the first place.

Subgroups in the detoxification diets as categorized in Detoxification Diets include raw food diets, which are based on the premise that uncooked foods prevent the accumulation of toxins in the digestive system; mono diets, in which the dieter consumes only one or two foods (sometimes in liquid form only) for a period of 10-14 days; juice fasting, in which the dieter consumes large quantities of fruit and vegetable juices along with water and herbal teas for one to three days; and vegetarian or semi-vegetarian detox diets, which allow the dieter some variety of cooked whole grains, steamed vegetables, fresh fruit, and small amounts of protein foods as well as several glasses of water and herbal teas each day.

Wanting to be realistic with our goals, we chose to follow the least restrictive…semi-vegetarian detox diet. This will serve as a springboard for us to engage in a healthier lifestyle and hopefully halt the development of any impending lifestyle diseases. After the detoxification regimen, which will last for two weeks, we can continuously adapt some of the healthier ways that are sustainable in the long term and appropriate even to our children. For now let us share with you the guidelines that we will follow in our detoxification or detox adventure. These were formulated by putting together whatever information gathered about the subject that sounded logical to us. This is more like the dos and don’ts in natural body cleansing detox diet.

1. Include only the following foods in the detox diet meal plan:

• Fruits- fresh, frozen, dried or canned in natural fruit juice.
• Fruit juice- make homemade fruit juices or smoothies from fresh fruit, or drink pure and unsweetened ready-made juices.
• Herbal, fruit and green teas (caffeine-free). Take green tea for its antioxidant property and calming effect.
• Vegetables including beans and lentils- fresh, frozen or canned in water (without salt added).
• Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes (minimum)
• Brown rice and rice noodles, rice cake and rye crackers (minimum)
• Fresh fish or canned salmon and tuna in water
• Unsalted nuts and seeds (avoid nuts, especially peanut, if you are allergic or sensitive to it)
• Plain popcorn- without sugar or salt
• Live natural yogurt/probiotics
• Extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• Garlic, ginger and fresh herbs
• Naturally brewed soy sauce (minimum)
• Ground black pepper
• Honey, Organic coco-sugar or Muscovado (minimum)

2. Avoid the following foods:

• Red meat like pork and beef, chicken, turkey, and meat products such as sausages, burgers, pate, luncheon meat, meat loaf, etc.
• Milk, cheese, cream and other dairy products
• Eggs, shellfish, shrimps, crabs, lobsters (other detox programs allow these at minimal amounts)
• Butter and margarine
• Any food that contains wheat (bread, croissants, cereals, cakes, pies, pastry, etc.)
• Battered and breadcrumbed foods
• Salted nuts and seeds
• Junk foods (chips and processed snacks loaded with salt and artificial flavors)
• Chocolate, candy, donut, jam, and other preserved fruits- loaded with sugar
• Processed foods, and ready-made meals and sauces
• Alcohol- not to add more pressure to the liver. It has an acidifying effect and contains yeast, both bad for our body.
• Coffee, carbonated drinks and caffeinated tea
• Sauces, pickles, store-bought salad dressing, and mayonnaise
• Salt and processed sugar- to appreciate the natural taste of foods often masked by these condiments, deload the kidneys, minimize water retention and stabilize insulin levels

3. Increase the proportion of fruits and vegetables, get them fresh and eat them raw as much as possible.

4. Source natural and organic foods as much as possible to diminish accumulation of pesticide residues and other synthetic chemicals in the body.

5. Drink at least 8 glasses (equivalent to 64 oz) of water everyday to improve mood, rehydrate skin, boost immune system and increase metabolism. This will also ensure that we don’t get constipated especially with the increase in our fiber intake. Adequate fluid intake will hasten the process of elimination of toxins through urination and defecation.

6. Eat small frequent meals and chew the food thoroughly to increase metabolism and burn unwanted fats efficiently. Avoid feeling hungry, and more so, fasting.

7. Start the day with lemon-water for its antioxidant and good toxin-flushing properties.

8. Take regular gentle to moderate exercise like walking, stretching or even yoga. Go out of the house, breath fresh air and stay away from smoke. Nobody in our family smokes but for those who do, cigarette is prohibited during detox.

9. Everyday, do a few minutes of meditation and read articles on positivity for greater mental clarity. It’s like detoxifying the mind.

10. Take time to wind down and avoid stressful situations that will increase cortisol level leading to low immunity and high blood pressure. Do home-made body scrubs and massage to improve circulation and promote relaxation.

The immediate observable benefits we expect from this endeavor are restored vitality, healthier and younger-looking skin, minimized bloating incidence, better mood and improved immune system function. If we continue to embark on healthy lifestyle with minimized toxic loads even after this detoxification program as well as engage in detoxification twice a year as recommended, then we would expect the following: controlled blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure levels, reduced risk of cancer development and longer active and productive life.

The trade off? We are expecting higher expense in terms of money, time and effort, not to mention the sacrifices of not being able to eat some of the food stuff we have been accustomed to. This is like paying the premium for health now rather than paying it off with interest later on in life. Hope you know what I mean.

photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/lollyknit/ / CC BY 2.0

Note: I will post the actual two-week semi-vegetarian detox diet program that we are going to follow in the next few days.  So please keep coming back, or better yet subscribe via RSS or email using the subscription widgets at lower right hand side of this page.

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My adrenaline level is high....as I am challenged by my husband to come up with a natural body cleansing detox diet plan so we can keep our pledge of health, which is vital in ensuring that both of us will be together longer for our children and for each other. For sure I am not choosing the flight response because I am 100% ready to fight preventable lifestyle diseases head on. You may say that this ultimate objective is quite corny, but this is unarguably true to us and to other parents who have come to realize that once we become parents, we do not live just for ourselves anymore. Utmost care of our own selves become more imperative so we can be there for our offspring for the duration that we're needed. We have no major health concerns at the moment, but both of us deemed it necessary to fight our genetic predispositions to hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Prevention is always better than cure.

As I enriched my knowledge on cleansing and detoxification and as the principles became clearer, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found out. I learned that detoxification is not all about deprivation and starvation; instead it involves total indulgence of the body’s needs for proper nourishment, cleansing, relaxation and regeneration.

Basically, when under a body cleansing detox diet plan, (i) the amount of chemicals ingested is minimized (use of organic products as much as possible, no preservatives), (ii) foods that provide nourishment, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants necessary for detoxification are emphasized (raw vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts and seeds), and (iii) fiber and water intake are improved to increase the frequency of bowel movement and urination, which are the main passages of toxins away from the body.

Having all these in mind and looking at sample cleansing detox diet recipes, I am progressing on our own personalized diet plan. My research on detoxification, health and nutrition continues, but it is becoming clearer that our current diet doesn’t need a complete overhaul to qualify for a detoxification regimen. Though some favorite dishes will be missed, it looks like our upcoming detoxification journey is not to be dreaded; instead it is something to look forward to with all the health and wellness we expect to gain from it.

I intend to update you with the progress of this journey and provide more enlightenment on the subject. But for now let me share two of our favorite vegetable salads which are bound to be incorporated in our natural body cleansing detox diet plan.

Radish and Tomato Salad

4 pcs Radish

4 pcs Tomatoes

1 pc Green Bell Pepper

1 stalk Spring Onion

6 tbsp White Vinegar

½ tsp Salt

1 tsp Muscovado Sugar

¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper

Peel and slice the radish thinly crosswise. Slice tomatoes longitudinally. Mince green bell pepper and spring onion. Place vegetables in a large bowl. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small glass or bowl and stir to dissolve salt and sugar. Put the mixture together with the vegetables in the large bowl. You can let the mixture cool for 30 minutes in the refrigerator or serve immediately. This is good for 4-5 people.

Modifications made from the original recipes to suit a body cleansing detox program are the following (i) reduction in salt, (ii) use of Muscovado instead of brown sugar, and (iii) inclusion of more greens: green bell pepper and spring onion.

Ampalaya (Bitter gourd/Bitter melon) and Tomato Salad

2 pcs Ampalaya

4 pcs Tomatoes

1 pcs White Onion

6 tbsp White Vinegar

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

1 tsp Salt

¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper

2 tbsp Olive Oil

Cut ampalaya into half longitudinally. Remove the white pith and seeds in the middle using a spoon. Cut thinly crosswise. Put in a bowl, add the salt and squeeze the bitter juice out. Slice tomatoes and onion longitudinally and mix with the squeezed ampalaya. Add vinegar, fish sauce, olive oil and black pepper, then mix. Makes 4-5 hefty servings.

Modifications made from the original recipes to suit a body cleansing detox program are the following (i) reduction in salt, and (ii) addition of olive oil as source of monounsaturated fatty acid.

This year, there will be ten of us together for the Christmas Eve Dinner and celebration. Considerations made to come up with the menu are the following: (1) Budget- the ingredients should not be too expensive. (2) Preparation requirements- some procedures can be done ahead of time to avoid cramming in the kitchen. (3) Health and variety- meat-based dishes should be balanced by vegetables and fruits. There will be pork, fish, chicken, beef, vegetables and fruits. Much as I want to have prawns or crabs in the menu, the artificially high cost of these commodities during Christmas season make me shy away from them.

Christmas Embotido

I have been making embotido for its taste and convenience. My children love them for breakfast and packed lunch. This is very convenient because one preparation can last for weeks in the freezer. Adding a few ingredients will make it a little more special for the holidays. I will make this a week in advance of the Christmas Dinner and a few loaves will be saved for the New Year’s Eve. One kilo of ground pork would be enough for the two occasions. Click here for the recipe.

Sweet and Sour Fish

Sweet and sour sauce will be prepared a day before and will only be reheated before pouring over the fried fish before dinner is served. There are many kinds of fishes suited for this dish. They are the white flesh type and usually the more expensive ones. Tilapia is a more affordable option. One medium-sized Tilapia weighing about 1 kilo will be bought for this dish. You can find the recipe here.

Roasted Chicken
Pollo Iberico or Roast Spanish Chicken appealed to me but I was not able to complete the herb ingredients listed when I tried it 3 months ago. The recipe was further modified when I got tempted to incorporate other ingredients I normally use to marinate the local ‘Lechon Manok’ or Pinoy Roasted Chicken. It turned out great and everybody who tasted appreciated its unique pleasant flavor. One whole chicken will be marinated a day before so what’s left to do on the 24^th of December is to put it a broiler. I’m sharing the recipe with you through this link.

Cheesy Beef Caldereta

This is another family favorite. Kids love this dish because it catered to their preference for cheesy, sweet and not too spicy sauce. Half a kilo of beef strips will be marinated and tenderized a day before. The rest of the procedure to be done on Christmas Eve is simple. For the recipe, click here.

Buttered Vegetable

Broccoli, being a very expensive vegetable in this part of the country, is not always served in regular meals. For the Christmas Dinner, the inclusion of broccoli will make this dish so special. Other ingredients are carrot, green beans and corn kernels. My sons will surely dig in to this dish first before anything else.

Sliced and Chilled Fruits

Rather than making fruit salads or floats that would require the use of creams and sweetened condensed milk (my favorite), we will savor a variety of colorful and freshly sliced fruits. This is a healthier and cheaper option I would think…less sweet, less fat and less cost. Fruits more likely to be included are pineapple, watermelon, mango, banana and pomelo. This will be chilled in the afternoon (around 2 pm) of the 24^th.
Sliced Fruits photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/miheco/ / CCBY-SA2.0
Roasted Chicken photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniemole/ / CC BY 2.0

Kids always look forward to refreshing treats especially during hot days. We know that nothing beats water in quenching thirst. But adding natural flavors to it make it healthier and more fun to drink, and might even encourage intake of more fluids. I will be sharing one natural and healthy refreshment I learned from a friend.

One afternoon, upon getting home from a sleepover in a friend’s house, my daughter excitedly told me about a new drink that her friend’s mom prepared for them. She said that it's called Pink Iced Tea and it was made from Sweet Potato or Camote tops and Calamansi, a kind of citrus fruit. My Fish Sinigang that is colored pink whenever I add Camote tops instead of Kangkong leaves came to mind. Sinigang is an Asian sour soup. The sourness of the soup reacts with the extracts from the Camote tops, thus turning the soup pink.

Pink Iced Tea (makes 4 glasses)

Ingredients:

12-16 shoots Camote tops (preferably with 3-4 purple young leaves with stems)
4 glasses Water
4 tbsp Pure honey
4 tbsp Calamansi extract (from about 10 regular-sized Calamansi fruit)
Crushed ice or ice cubes


How to prepare:

Boil water in a pot, then put the Camote tops and boil for another minute (Do not overcook the leaves). The water becomes deep green to bluish green in color. Remove the leaves and set aside in a platter. Let the stock cool. Pour in a clear pitcher, then add honey and calamansi extract. Stir then add ice cubes. Voila!.. the green stock becomes your pink iced tea!

If you don’t have a clear pitcher, pour the green stock in individual clear glasses, only ¾ full, then add 1 tbsp of honey and 1 tbsp of Calamansi in each. Stir then add ice. The idea is for your children to observe the change in color like magic, so the preparation can be a fun family activity, too. You can adjust the honey and calamansi to suit your child’s taste.


Serve the boiled leaves as Sweet Potato salad with sliced tomatoes, soy sauce and Calamansi. Sweet Potato shoots (leaves and stem) are a good source of vitamins A, B, C, iron, calcium, zinc, and an excellent source of lutein. It is as nutritious as spinach. It can regulate blood sugar making it a healthy treat for diabetics. To know more about health benefits including anti-cancer and anti-hypertension properties, read this publication.

The use of honey instead of sugar is also good for diabetics. Honey, having a low glycemic index than table sugar, is a healthier alternative. The following link thoroughly discusses the benefits of honey over sugar.

Hope your kids will also be fond of this treat and enjoy its health benefits as well.