BALANCED SNACK DIETS FOR KIDS

Summer is a favorite season for young ones. They hang around the house with friends and cousins - lazy and typically, graze! This means endless snacks and meals. So instead of just three big meals, it is six to ten big snacks, which add up to lots of calories eaten. Parents have a hard time striking a good balance between how much snacks should be given - what kids like versus what is nutritious and healthy. This can be very challenging or stressful for a mother who is at work and whose kids love to snack unabashedly lording it over the nannies and cooks.

Snacking is not only inevitable but it is a necessity for growing children. Children have smaller stomachs than adults, so serving three healthy child-sized meals with two or three healthful snacks in between is actually a very good way to meet children’s energy and nutrient needs.

But healthy snacks need not mean boring or unappealing fare, nor do they necessarily  need to be fat or sweetener-free. Children’s diets and energy needs can accommodate some fat and sweets, assuming they are consistently receiving nutritious meals.

It is important to read the labels on snack products and cereals. However, what may appear to be a healthy alternative is often much higher in sugar, fat, sodium, and artificial additive than the packaging may imply.

Plan a Healthy Snack

Snacking is not only for kids but its worst for adults because they have the means to buy their favorite snacks. Research has now confirmed that wanton and excessive snacking can lead to weight gain. A snack is a mini meal stopgap to overeating for the main meals.

1. Plan your snacks to be sure you are getting nutrients, not just calories. Instead of a quick trip to the convenience store or vending machine for a soda and a candy bar, keep favorite healthy snacks in your office desk drawer or kitchen cupboards like cracker, instant noodles, and cereal drink.

2. Be aware of healthy substitutes and how they help you meet recommended dietary guidelines. If you tend to skip breakfast and just grab a cup of coffee, opt for fruit or vegetable juice instead. If you crave a candy bar, have a piece of fruit or try a whole grain cereal bar or fig bar. Look for options that are relatively low in fat when possible. Delicious ice cold coffee mixes are lower in calories than those gourmet coffees.

3. Choose to snack. Make snacking a conscious activity. If you snack while doing something else, such as watching television, you are much more likely to overeat without realizing it.

Spiritual Nourishment is a Must

Rationale for a plant-based diet

Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and nuts are high in fiber, high in phytochemicals, high in unsaturated fats, high in tocopherols, ascorbate, carotenoids, saponins, and flavonoids, high in antioxidants, moderate in indoles and isothiocyanates, which may decrease carcinogenesis, low in cholesterol, saturated fats, hydrocarbons, and hydrocyclic amines (carcinogens).

Because of its being anti-CHD (coronary heart disease) and cancer, a healthy diet can increase lifespan and quality of life. God truly loves us and desires that we have healthier and more energetic lives. We can celebrate in the wide colorful variety of foods He has given us. We may, with the same satisfaction that food brings to the pangs of hunger, appease the yearning of our human soul. Spiritual food is found in God’s Word. It is necessary for us to feed the inner being on biblical promises, stories, exhortations, and prayers. We should not neglect to make a daily practice of feeding on God’s Word. We should strive to build our spiritual temple along with the physical body. As we do this, we will be assured of our optimal chance at an energetic and healthy life - a life free from spiritual cancers and diseases as well.

ABOUT SYPHILIS

This disease is almost always passed from one person to another person through direct contact with a syphilis sore, lesion or moist rash. It is almost always passed during sex. Moist kisses can transmit the disease if the infected person has a lesion on the lips or in the mouth. The first stage of syphilis is seen by the outbreak of a single sore, which lasts up to five weeks and heals on its own. The second stage starts when one or more rashes break out. A person can pass the disease to sex partners only when first or second stage sores are present. The third or latent stage occurs as the rash fades and the disease may begin to attack the nervous system and internal organs. Untreated syphilis will slowly kill nearly 20 per cent of those with the disease.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have a disproportionate impact on women, reports the United States Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for HIV, STD and Tuberculosis. For women, STDs can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, potentially fatal ectopic pregnancies and cancer of the reproductive tract. Women need to protect themselves against infection through regular medical checkups and careful screening of partner’s sexual and drug use histories.

Avoid self medication. Persons suffering from a sexually transmitted disease (STD) should consult the doctor immediately.

Awareness to Sexually Transmitted Diseases

HERPES

Herpes, which stays in one spot in the body and is spread by direct skin-to-skin contact, is usually spread during sex. The virus can also be passed whenever it is present on the skin, such as right before an outbreak. The first outbreak can last two to three weeks. Small red bumps appear near where the virus entered the body. These turn into blisters or open sores, scab over and heal without scars. During an outbreak, people should keep the blistered area clean and dry. Avoid touching the sores, which cold spread the virus to other areas of the body. Any unusual discharge, sore or rash, especially in the groin area, should be a signal to stop having sex and to see a doctor at once.

GONORRHEA

This bacterium is almost always passed through sex, including vaginal, anal and oral sex. Women often have no symptoms, whereas men usually experience a burning sensation when urinating and a thick, yellowish or greenish discharge or “drip”. But if gonorrhea has spread to a woman’s womb, it can produce pelvic inflammatory disease, which may cause fever, sharp low pains, nausea and backache. Sex may become painful. There are no methods for determining if someone has gonorrhea other than an exam and lab tests by a health care worker.

Awareness to HIV and Chlamydia

HIV

The human immnunodeficiency virus can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, which has no cure. We must remember that prevention remains our best and most cost-effective tool for saving lives and bringing the epidemic under control. HIV is spread by sexual contact with an infected person, by sharing needles and/ or syringes (primarily for drug injection) with someone who is infected or, less commonly (and now very rarely where blood is screened), through transfusions of infected blood. Today there are also new advancements in the treatment of HIV, namely combination therapy to increase the quality of and prolong life for people with HIV infection.

CHLAMYDIA

Approximately 75 per cent of women infected with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis have no symptoms and may not even be aware of their infections. When diagnosed, chlamydia can be easily treated and cured. Untreated, it can lead to PID, a critical link to infertility, and potentially fatal tubal pregnancy. For this reason, all pregnant women, regardless of their sexual history, should be tested. Teenage girls have the highest rates of chlamydial infection. Screening of all sexually active females under 20 years of age at least annually is recommended, and annual screening of women ages 20 and older with one or more risk factors for chlamydia (that is, new or multiple sex partners and lack of barrier contraception).

Lumpiang Hubad (A Healthy Recipe)

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic

200 grams carrots

200 grams ubod

200 grams shrimp

50 grams skinless peanuts

1 whole onion

200 grams sweet peas

200 grams firm tofu

150 grams assorted salad greens

1 tbsp brown sugar

pepper and fish sauce to taste

cooking oil for sauteing and deep-fat frying

Preparation:

Wash onions, garlic, carrots, sweet peas, ubod, and lettuce. Peel onions and garlic and chop finely. Slice carrots and ubod into sticks. Blanch carrots and sweet peas in boiling water until cooked. Slice tofu into sticks and deep fry until golden brown. Roast skinless peanuts and ground finely with brown sugar. Remove shell and devein shrimps and cut into cubes. Make a stock from the shrimp heads and shells. In a pan, add the shrimp heads and shells with a cup of water, season with a dash of fish sauce and pepper, then bring it to a quick boil and lower the temperature in a simmer. Cook for 15 minutes strain and let cool.

Procedure:

Saute onions and garlic in little oil. Season shrimp with pepper and saute it quickly. Toss in carrots, sweet peas and tofu. Add the shrimp stock for two minutes. Turn off the heat, add the ubod at the last minute. Serve the sauteed vegetables over the lettuce and top with ground peanut sugar mixture.

Pasta Pilipino (A Healthy Recipe)

They say life without salt is lifeless, but this recipe beg to differ.

This recipe uses the natural flavor of all the ingredients and you do not have to add table salt. The flavor was enhanced and infused by the natural salt water and cheese. The saltiness has been neutralized by the sweetness of the red cherry tomatoes that makes it flavorful and healthy especially with the use of extra virgin oil.

Ingredients:

1/4 kilo of angel hair pasta (cooked)

1/4 kilo of clams

1/4 kilo of red cherry tomatoes

virgin oil or palm oil for sauteing

1/4 kilo of mussels

1/4 kilo of peeled oyster

sili leaves (optional), for toppings

white cheese, sliced

Procedure:

Let the mussels, clams and peeled oysters simmer into its natural salt water for three to five minutes. Drain and set aside the mussels, clams and oysters. Keep the broth for future use.

In a separate pan, saute the garlic, onion and red cherry tomatoes with virgin or palm oil. Add the mussels, clams and oysters and allow it to simmer with the natural broth prepared earlier.

Mix the prepared sauce to the pasta and top it with sliced white cheese and fresh sili leaves.

Makes four to five servings.

Proper Treatment to Conjunctivitis

Viral or bacterial conjunctivitis may respond to topical or oral antibiotics but acute conjunctivitis may not. That is why at the onset of sore eyes, an eye checkup is recommended instead of using over-the-counter eye drops.

Antibiotic therapy is adjusted according to culture and sensitivity results or if the condition does not respond. A follow-up check every one to two days initially to see the progress of the treatment is recommended, then every two to five days until completely cured.

Most of the times, people buy a combination of antibiotics with steroids without consulting a doctor but these medicines must only be taken with specific guidelines and proper dosage. Some will use them for one month, two months, and they end up with steroid or antibiotic overdose.

Remember that prolonged use of steroids can cause glaucoma, cataract and other eye diseases.

Other eye problems not derived from other diseases can be prevented with basic hygienic practices. Using disposable tissue paper in wiping the eye or washing hands before touching the eye is recommended. Avoid unnecessary drops especially if it is not prescribed.

As a rule, for any persistent eye problem such as redness, swelling or discharge that does not go away after a few days, an ophthalmologist must be consulted before it’s too late.

Treating Sore Eyes

There are several types of conjunctivitis, commonly known as sore eyes, therefore one treatment for a certain type may not work for another. Aside from the conjunctival congestion or red eyes, watery or pus-like discharge usually accompanies conjunctivitis. However, this kind of liquid discharge may help determine the type of sore eyes, the two most common of which are acute and viral or bacterial.

Acute conjunctivitis leads to swelling of the lid, inflammation, and redness at the conjunctiva and lines inside the eyelids due to allergic reactions. The pus-like discharge that keeps eyelid sticking especially in the morning is another indication.

It is important to know that conjunctivitis cannot be passed on by merely staring at the eyes of an infected person. There has to be contact or transfer of fluids from the eyes infected by conjunctivitis.

Viral or bacterial conjunctivitis may respond to topical or oral antibiotics but acute conjunctivitis may not. That is why at the onset of sore eyes, eye checkup is recommended instead of using over-the-counter eye drops.

Antibiotic therapy is adjusted according to culture and sensitivity results or if the condition does not respond. A follow-up check every one to two days initially to see the progress of the treatment is recommended, then every two to five days until completely cured.

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