In the News: Go Veg in Paris, Obesity Arrest, Misdiagnosing Food Allergies & More

From this week’s headlines: Snack ads might cause your kids to eat more (surprised?), get the right carbs for a slimmer figure, Paris goes veg and more.

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From this week’s headlines: Snack ads might cause your kids to eat more (surprised?), get the right carbs for a slimmer figure, Paris goes veg and more.

Snack Ads Encourage Kids to Eat More

Eating in front of the TV is one habit I always encourage my young clients to break. I’m not the only one who figured out it's potential harm. An experiment conducted by Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale found that kids ate 45% more while watching food ads on TV than those who watched commercials on games and entertainment. Food ads can pop up on TV at anytime, so your best bet is to feed kids (and adults, too) at the kitchen table -- and keep the snacks away.

More Carbs, Slimmer Figure

A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetics Association examined the diets of healthy Canadians and found those who ate the least amount of carbs were more likely to be heavyset. On the other hand, those who ate more carbs were slimmer and because they were eating higher amounts of fiber, fruits and veggies. Those carb-light diets (Atkins, etc.) have been big in year's past. If you’re thinking that high protein is the way to go, you may want to think again. By the way, when we say "carbs," we mean fresh produce -- not chips and other junky snacks.

Obese Kid = Child Abuse?
A South Carolina woman was arrested for criminal neglect because her 14-year-old kid weighed in at 555 pounds! Cases like these have come about in New York where the judge ordered the child to undergo nutritional counseling, gym time and cooking classes. Does this mean that all parents of obese kids can be arrested? Is this really a form of child abuse? What do you think?
Who Recommends Your Supplements?

A study found that not only do 72% of nurses and 89% of physicians use dietary supplements themselves, most of them recommend supplements to their clients, too. Been to the doctor lately? You are rushed in, rushed out and probably barely had the chance to address the medical issue at hand. Do you really think in those 10 to 15 minutes that the doctor has time to examine your complete nutrition work out to see what supplement you may need or if any supplements interact with your medications? Stop running to buy all these pills -- write down the names and do some digging yourself. Also, go visit a registered dietitian in your area to get an in-depth dietary analysis and see how you can improve your health with real food.

Misdiagnosing Food Allergies

Are food allergies really on the rise? According to this LA Times article, many parents misdiagnose their children and eliminate foods the kid can tolerate just fine. There are also more nonspecialist doctors who are offering to test for allergies and get results that's aren't accurate and oftentimes point a finger at an innocent food. I agree that food allergies are a very serious issue, but make sure to identify the real culprits with a qualified allergy specialist if you have suspicions.

Veggies Du Jour!
First, we had Meatless Mondays in America, Meat Free Mondays in Britain and now Paris is jumping on the vegetarian bandwagon. Years ago you couldn’t even imagine vegetarian French food, but today the City of Lights hosts some top-rated veggie restaurants like L’Arpege. You can even find tofu popping up in several restaurants -- how do you say “tofu” en Francais?

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