Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

From Dr. Fuhrman’s book Disease-Proof Your Child:

1. Remove temptation. Go through your kitchen removing from your cupboard all the junk food and processed food and dump it. Clean out your freezer, too, white you are at it.

2. Make a sign for the refrigerator listing what foods are inside, such as split pea soup, washed grapes, apples surprise, and eggplant dip. Make it easy for the family to find out what healthy foods are available. Have fun. Consider posting an advertisement on a bulletin board with larger letters and colorful stars and hearts for the dish you are encouraging for the day. Be flashy and creative. It works.

3. Keep a bowl of ready-to-eat-raw fruits and vegetables on your kitchen counter. Include cherry tomatoes, raw string beans, raw peeled carrot slices, snow pea pods, grapes, strawberries, melon cubes, and cut pineapple. Putting a healthy (nut-based) dip near the veggies is also a great idea.

4. Make several ears of steamed corn on the cob and keep them cold in the fridge for fast meals on the go. Meals and snacks that are easy to find, grab, and run with make it easy for your family to make healthy choices. Air-popped popcorn lightly sprayed with olive oil from a mist spray bottle and sprinkled with nutritional yeast is a tasty snack.

5. Soak dried fruits, such as unsulphered sun-dried apricots or mangoes, in a little unsweetened soy milk, or dried pineapple in a little orange juice, to use as natural sweeteners to add to frozen fruit in the blender or food processor to make delicious natural sorbets for dessert the next day. Keep sun-dried tomatoes soaking in a plastic bag with a little water, too, to add cut up to make salads or vegetable dishes.

6. Make extra servings of oatmeal mixed with apples and cinnamon and keep the leftovers in the refrigerator for a quick breakfast on the go.

7. Stock your cupboard with raisins, currants, dates, seeds, and nuts. Keep plenty of frozen vegetables and fruits in your freezer.

8. Make lots of trail mix packets for your family. Put together some “grab-and-go” minibags of raisins and diced dried apples with nuts and seeds.

9. Buy healthy breads that are 100 percent whole grain, coarsely ground, and low in salt.

10. Remove butter and conventional margarine and instead use only the trans-fat-free healthy spreads.

11. Cut up a fresh pineapple or melon, or juice or peel enough fresh oranges, so all can have some fresh fruit or fresh juice every morning.

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It's one thing to have something bad happen to you. It's another thing entirely to pay someone to do something bad to you.

That's how I have always felt about school lunches.

OK, fine, there are some times and places where children will get the message that pizza, chicken strips, and french fries constitute a normal lunch. And, OK fine, our tax dollars go to feeding children lunch. But to put the two together? To foot the bill to teach children to love food that contributes to disease? Wow.

The good news is that people across the nation are doing things about it.

Lisa Belkin has long been one of my favorite journalists. She wrote a big story about school nutrition which is on the cover of The New York Times magazine that came out yesterday. She profiles several such efforts, with a heavy focus on a district in Florida that has entered into an agreement with the Foundation run by man who made his money from the South Beach Diet. (The irony here is that the South Beach Diet is hardly a role model: Dr. Fuhrman calls it one of the most dangerous of several bad diets.)

The article points out that the holy grail that could lead to further, more profound school nutrition changes nationwide, is measurable evidence that changing the menu can make kids healthier. The experiment in Florida has made changes that any Fuhrman fan would find exceedingly moderate (along the lines of making the pizza crust whole wheat) yet still has some preliminary good news: 23 of the 486 children who had been classified overweight before the plan began are no longer in that category. At a control school in the same district, the number of overweight children increased.

Belkin describes aggressive dietary changes at a school district in California. These are also being studied. If it gets good results, perhaps that will be an important step in creating an environment in American schools where large quantities of fruits and vegetables are a regular part of life. Belkin explains:

Across the country, in Berkeley, the chef Ann Cooper questions the idea of making healthier versions of flawed foods. In her book “Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children,” she asks whether healthy food should simply mirror existing unhealthy patterns and concludes: “We just don’t need an organic Twinkie. We don’t!”

How can we feed our children more healthfully in school?

Cooper, who spent years impressively overhauling the menu at the select Ross School in East Hampton, N.Y., began trying to do the same thing at the 16 schools in the Berkeley public school district starting last October. Her six-figure salary is being paid by the Chez Panisse Foundation, which also finances, in Berkeley, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School’s Edible Schoolyard kitchen garden, a creation of Alice Waters, who all but started the organic food movement in the United States 30 years ago.

It is a common assumption that the existence of programs like the Edible Schoolyard means that Berkeley students already eat well, but when Cooper arrived last fall, the district’s menu looked like menus everywhere with their fried and fatty foods. One item that Cooper makes particularly merciless fun of is the Uncrustables sandwich — the same one that caught Almon’s eye. She thawed one and kept it on display on a desk where, because of its preservatives, “it looked exactly the same months later,” she said while giving a tour of a high-school lunchroom.

In the time since she came aboard, a salad bar has been added to every school, with ingredients that include strawberries, organic chicken or turkey, sunflower seeds, fresh avocado and other eclectic in-season items in addition to the usual lettuce, tomato and cucumber. Ninety-five percent of the food was processed when she arrived, she says, and now 90 percent is fresh and cooked from scratch. And those foods are not what one would expect on a school menu, including choices like chicken cacciatore, organic sushi and organic chicken raised on a nearby farm. The foods she does not make on the premises, foods like fresh tamales and muffins and vegetable calzones, are brought in from small local businesses.

Even here, however, the “acceptance question” arises. When Cooper first removed nachos from the middle-school menu, the percentage of students buying lunch in the cafeteria dropped significantly. Cooper quickly restored the nachos, using transfat-free chips and Cheddar cheese — from an area cheesemaker, not an industrial processor — the equivalent, she concedes, of an organic Twinkie. And she did not even try to change the pizza her first year. “I just can’t take everything away,” she says. “Or they will walk out.

“Change is never easy. And if it’s hard for us, imagine how hard it would be in Oklahoma or Omaha.”

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Don’t be surprised if infant gyms starting popping up across the country because according to a new study children under the age of six are more likely to be overweight than they were two decades ago. Melissa Trujillo of the Associated Press reports:

"This just adds more weight to the growing body of evidence that there's an epidemic of obesity in the United States," said Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the Obesity Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who was not involved with the study. "Good habits need to begin at the very beginning of life."

The study's authors looked at medical records of more than 120,000 children who visited doctors from 1980 through 2001. All were enrolled in a health maintenance organization that used an electronic medical record system and most came from middle-class families.

The study found that over the 22-year period, the prevalence of overweight children increased from 6.3 percent to 10 percent, while the rate of risk for being overweight increased from 11.1 percent to 14.4 percent.

In infants under 6 months — a group Gillman said has seldom been included in weight studies — the prevalence of being overweight increased from 3.4 percent to 5.9 percent during the same period, a jump of more than 73 percent.

Trujillo explains for some having an overweight child can be quite a wake up call:

Sara Keng, 29, a mother of three from Woonsocket, R.I., said she wasn't surprised by the study's results. She blamed the increase of overweight children on "super-sized" foods and on harried parents who rely on fast foods to feed their families.

Keng said she got a wake-up call when her oldest son, now 4, became overweight when he was a toddler, forcing her and her husband to change the family's eating habits.

And there you have an important part of improving children’s eating habits. According to Dr. Fuhrman eating healthier is a commitment the whole family has to make. Consider this excerpt from Disease-Proof Your Child:

The major cause of this recent phenomenon of obesity is the availability and consumption of high-caloric, low-nutrient foods and the decreased consumption of high-nutrient foods. When families finally realize that the consumption of vegetables, beans, and fruits is the essential foundation of an adequate diet, we will rarely see an obese child. It is literally impossible to become obese when consuming a diet that predominates in healthful, natural food.

For more pointers on getting children to eat better, check out this podcast: Dr. Fuhrman on Getting Children to Eat Well

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From Dr. Fuhrman's book Disease-Proof Your Child:

Nutritional excellence combined with classroom and behavioral modification for rewarding positive behavior is a promising approach for treating ADHD. Often family therapy is necessary as well to address behavioral, emotional, and self-esteem issues. Combined with a vegetable-based, high nutrient diet, great results are the norm, not the exception. The essential features of my dietary approach for ADHD are as follows:

• A high-nutrient, vegetable-nut-fruit-based diet
• One tablespoon of ground flax seeds daily, easily added to oatmeal, shakes, and desserts
• At least one ounce of raw walnuts daily, with the addition of other raw nuts
• DHA supplement of 100-600 mg daily
• No processed foods, no dairy fat, no trans fat
• Little or no oils; essential fats are supplied from raw nuts and seeds and DHA supplementation
• Some children also must avoid gluten (from wheat products) and/or casein (from dairy products), as they appear to be bothered by these frequently difficult-to-handle dietary proteins

Flax seeds and walnuts are rich sources of beneficial but hard-to-find short-chain omega-3 fats, plus they are rich in lignans, minerals, and vitamins.

Until recently, the primary source of DHA dietary supplements was fish oil. However, new products are available that contain DHA from algae, the fish’s original source. Unlike fish oils, the algae-derived DHA, grown in the laboratory, is free of chemical pollutants and toxins that may be present in some fish oil-based brands. I recommended favorable DHA products that are designed for purity and are suitable for children. Neuromins is a common (non-fish-derived) brand of DHA sold in most health food stores, and I also have designed and manufactured an all-plant-derived DHA supplement, available on my DrFuhrman.com and in my office.

To feed DHA-rich oil to a child is not difficult; just slice open the capsule with a serrated knife and mash it into a banana or mix it in orange juice or in morning oatmeal to disguise the taste. The dose may vary from 100 to 600 mg daily depending on the age and condition of the child. A child over the age of six with ADHD can be started on the higher dose for the first six months, and then the dose can be decreased to 400 mg daily for the next six months. I generally recommend supplementation with 100 mg a day for seven and older. However, this dose should be doubled for those with ADHD until the symptoms resolve.

Many families who have adopted my diet of nutritional excellence, combined with judicious use of nutritional supplements, report that they begin to see improvement in as little as three months. Keep in mind, this nutritional approach to ADHD does not magically make the problem disappear overnight; it could take six months to observe a significant change in behavior. The chief factor that indicates a successful outcome is the entire family’s willingness and desire to adopt a new healthy eating style for the benefit of all members. The child with the ADHD problem is never singled out as the only one required to eat healthy. In fact, I encourage the children to take responsibility in helping the parents to eat healthy, too. This prescription calls for nutritional excellence for the entire family. When families choose to work as a unit to improve the child’s emotional environment and nutrition simultaneously, it is rare that psychostimulant medications are necessary.

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From Dr. Fuhrman’s book Disease-Proof Your Child:

Clearly the omnivorous diet most children consume today is particularly dangerous to their future health. They eat a diet that receives most of its calories from flour, cheese, oil, and sugar, with negligible fruit and vegetables.

Many American children develop autoimmune illnesses as young adults before heart disease and cancer strike at a later age. Diseases of nutritional ignorance flourish, but they have not been connected to their cause—childhood diets—until now. The amount of animal products consumed and the type of animal products consumed by people including children is a major contributor to the health tragedies that occur later in life. An omnivorous diet with the typical consumption of dairy or meat at every meal is simply foolish.

High dairy fat and animal food consumption in childhood assures unnaturally high levels of hormone promoters that raise our children’s blood level of estrogen and testosterone, induce an earlier maturity, and initiate changes that promote adult cancers. One could make an omnivorous diet safer if dairy fat were removed, if one avoided the potential pollutants in fish, if processed food were significantly limited, and if an abundance of produce were consumed.

If you choose a limited amount of animal products to be included in your family’s diet, I favor eggs over fish or dairy, because of the potential for transmission of chemicals, mercury, and PCBs in the fish and dairy. Eggs, because they are virtually pollution-free, would be favored choice over other animal products to add to an otherwise vegan diet.

Therefore, I encourage consumption of a carefully planned vegetarian diet or a carefully planned diet that includes a very small amount of animal products, perhaps 10 percent of total calories or less, rather than the 40 to 60 percent that children eat today. An animal-product-rich-omnivorous diet cannot be called healthful.

If one is to utilize animal products in their family’s diet they should only choose low-fat or nonfat varieties of dairy products, if they are included in the diet at all. I recommend substituting nuts, seeds, and avocados as the major sources of fat in the diet, instead of dairy fat, oils, and meat.

Fruits, vegetables, avocados, nuts, seeds, beans/legumes, and whole grains are the optimal foods for children. Here are some of the long-term of plant-based diets:

• Vegetarian diets prevent and reduce high blood pressure.1
• Cholesterol levels are much lower in vegetarians.2
• Cancer rates are much lower in vegetarians.3
• Vegetarians are leaner and have less obesity in adulthood.4
• Plant-based diets encourage a later menarche, which has been shown to be associated with reduced risk of prostate and breast cancer.5

Both omnivorous and vegetarian diets can be made healthful or harmful, depending on food choices, wise supplementation, and nutritional sophistication. Inclusion of high-nutrient produce, including nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and beans are an essential part of every healthy diet.
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From Dr. Fuhrman’s book Disease-Proof Your Child:

It is important for children to avoid the typical school lunch of luncheon meats and cheese. Typical school lunches are greasy, salty, and of poor nutritional quality. Lots of the great-tasting, healthful recipes in this chapter include soups, puddings, and salads, so make sure you have a small container with a tight lid that your child can open and bring back home in his or her knapsack or book bag daily. Kids like soup cold, even when not a school, so you don’t have to worry about rewarming it. If you child doesn’t bring home the containers you may want to buy some small disposable plastic ones.

Some children are happy to eat healthfully, but when it comes to school lunch they don’t want to look different from the other kids. Packing fresh fruit and a healthy bread with some nut butter and unsweetened fruit spread can be a quick option. My children love raw cashew nut butter. If using peanut butter, purchase a brand without salt and other additives. My daughters also like to take peeled orange or apple slices with their lunch. We cut the apple into four sections around the core, most of the way through, keeping the apple intact, and then wrap it in silver foil. This way it stays fresh, without discoloration, and they can easily separate it into slices.

Whole-wheat pita pockets are a great option for a bag lunch. Any of your child’s favorite healthy salad dressings can be used to line the pita, which is then stuffed with a slice of tomato and salad. You can fill them with almost anything, including dinner leftovers, bean and mushroom burgers, salad, avocado hummus, rice, potato salad, or fruit. Many of the recipes below can be used as is or stuffed into a while-wheat pita and wrapped in foil. My kids love avocado, tomato, and shredded lettuce with the Hot Russian Dressing (recipe below) stuffed into pita. If making pitas or sandwiches with sprouts and tomatoes, make a great healthy spread by mashing avocado with some mustard. Always pack some fruit with their lunch—add some cut-up pineapple, a peeled orange, a banana, or any fruit in season.

• Hot Russian Dressing

1 small (4-ounce) can tomato paste
4 tablespoons raw almond butter
¼ teaspoon chili powder
¼ cup soy milk
3 tablespoons ketchup

Blend all ingredients together. Works well as a sauce for steamed leafy greens; as a condiment spread for lettuce, tomato, and avocado pita pocket sandwiches; and as a salad dressing. Serves 4-6.

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From Dr. Fuhrman's book Disease Proof Your Child:

There is considerable evidence that the lipoprotein abnormalities (high LDL and low HDL) that are linked to heart attack deaths in adulthood begin to develop in early childhood and that higher cholesterol levels eventually get “set” by early food habits.1 What we eat during our childhood affects our lifetime cholesterol levels. For many, changing the diet to a plant-based, low-saturated-fat diet in later life does not result in the favorable cholesterol levels that would have been seen if the dietary improvements were started much earlier in life.

As a result of the heart-unfriendly diet, blood vessel damage begins early. Not only does the development of coronary atherosclerosis develop in childhood, but earlier development of atherosclerosis and higher serum cholesterol levels in childhood result in a significantly higher risk of premature sudden death relatively early in life. Sometimes the effects of childhood dietary abuses can be seen relatively early, with premature death or a heart attack at a young age.

When we study people who died young of coronary artery disease, we find that the highest risk of an earlier death occurs in those who were above average weight in childhood.2 Findings from the famous Bogalusa Heart Study show that a high saturated fat intake early in life is strongly predictive of later heart disease burden and the higher blood pressure in childhood and adolescence is powerfully predictive of cardiovascular death in adulthood.3

A low-fiber, high-saturated-fat diet with lots of animal products, dairy fat, white flour, and sugar creates a heart attack-prone person with high cholesterol levels. The anti-cancer lifestyle, a healthy diet style for the entire family, started early in life, will have the added benefit of making it easier for children to become heart attack-proof. A diet high in plant fiber shows a protective effect against developing high cholesterol, obesity, and elevated insulin levels. Eating more of the natural high-fiber plant food in childhood has a powerful protective effect on preventing later-life heart problems, even for those a strong family history of heart disease.4 For those whose family genetically predisposes them to heart disease, early-life dietary excellence can make the difference between a long life free of heart disease and a heart attack in one’s forties or fifties.

The new recommendations developed by the American Heart Association’s Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young acknowledge that heart disease starts early in life and that the eating habits and food preferences that are continued into adulthood are more difficult to change. They advise the entire family to limit salt and saturated fat. This is an important message for our society to understand. Heart disease may be preventable and reversible with nutritional excellence in adulthood, but in most cases, people do too little too late and suffer the tragic consequences—40 percent of the American population is stilly dying of heart disease.

Heart disease as a pediatric disease best treated by physicians with the ability to intercede during childhood is an issue that has been discussed by researchers in this field for almost twenty years. At a 1986 heart disease symposium, Roger Williams, M.D., the director of Cardiovascular Genetic Research and professor of medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, explained that the best way to prevent heart disease in genetically prone patients is to intervene in childhood. He reported, when looking at those genetically predisposed to heart disease, that the only way to strongly protect against a sudden heart attack death at a comparatively young age is to intervene in their youth.5 He also said that telling patients and their families to “watch fat” is sufficient.

Scientific literature has continued to strongly support the view that coronary artery disease leading to heart attacks is an avoidable event, even for those with a strong family history. It is the high nutritional quality of the diet, with more fruits, vegetables, beans, and healthy fats from raw nuts and seeds that offers the type of protection that is really effective.
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