Schools are out and all the children are home. You hear the constant whine of “Mom, I’m hungry” even though you just fed them not but an hour ago. You are still knee deep in laundry and don’t have time to stop and fix another meal. What are you going to do? That’s simple! Enlist their help and let them make themselves some quick snack ideas that even a child can make! The best benefit of these easy snacks is that they contain no honey, no sugar and no artificial sweeteners.

Strawberry Squash: Besides just eating strawberries plain, your children may enjoy making their own strawberry jam. Give each child a strawberry. Have them wash the strawberry, remove the stem and place the strawberry on a small plate. Each child can then chop the strawberry with a butter knife and squash it with a fork. Give your children each a piece of lightly toasted bread and have them spread on some peanut butter. They can then spoon on their homemade strawberry squash and enjoy a quick, healthy treat.

Banana Slices: Again, your children can slice their own bananas using a butter knife. Have them soak the banana slices in a little orange juice for a short while to give them extra flavor.

Fruit Pops: This idea needs to be done ahead of time but your children will have fun making them all by themselves. Freeze fruit juice in ice trays or a muffin tin. Use toothpicks or recycled Popsicle sticks for handles. For another variation, take a cup of seedless watermelon chunks, one cup of orange juice and one cup of water and freeze this mixture.

Orange/Strawberry Smoothies: Older children will have no problem combining a cup of orange juice, two ice cubes and two strawberries in a blender and pushing the button. This makes a refreshing and healthy drink after an afternoon of bike riding.

Sandwich Roll Ups: Let your children roll a rolling pin over a piece of bread to flatten it out. Next, let them spread on a sandwich spread such as peanut butter and smashed bananas. Next, have them roll their bread slices up to eat. You can also make these roll ups ahead of time and store them in waxed paper in the refrigerator for quick hand out.

Most of all, let them “help” you to ease the amount of time you need to spend in the kitchen, give them a sense of accomplishment, and also keep their little hands busy for at least five or ten minutes!

Tags: banana, healthy, peanut butter, snack, strawberrybanana, healthy, peanut butter, snack, strawberry

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According to the American Diabetes Association National Fact Sheet, 2005:

Diabetes is the #1 reason for non-traumatic limb amputations
82,000 people lose a leg or foot to diabetes each year
The risk of leg amputations is 15-40 times greater for a person with diabetes

At the 2006 ADA Expo in Utah, The Educational Institute For Healthy Feet had its first booth and conducted a market survey of diabetic participants. We received responses from participants ages 5 to 82. Note the high number of respondents from the age group 51-60 as shown.

Age Percent of Respondents
61-70 18%
51-60 27%
41-50 18%

Being in the business of “healthy foot care,” we are concerned about the risks people take by not treating common foot problems. In our survey, we concentrated on collecting data about foot calluses, cracks, and calluses with cracks. We found the survey to be quite astonishing considering the data from the American Diabetes Association relating to limb amputations and that 82,000 people are at risk annually.

Considering the statistics from our survey, information about the high risk of limb amputation from the ADA, and the fact that of the 185 people we surveyed 81% had some type of insurance, why were 64% of our respondents still suffering from calluses and/or cracks on their feet that are potentially life threatening? Drawing on 13 years of foot work experience, we propose the reasons may be:

1. Lack of education: The most common response is “I have dry skin and I should do something about it, but I do not know what to do.”
2. Heredity. We often hear remarks like, “My family has always had problems with calluses and cracks, and there is nothing I can do about it”
3. Hopelessness. Another frequent explanation is, “I go to the doctor’s office for treatments but the calluses just come back again”

Let’s take a look at each of these reasons.

1. Lack of education. We had the opportunity to go with a client to her foot care appointment and we asked her doctor if he would participate in an experiment. Marie had been going to the same doctor for over 15 years with dry calluses and cracks. The doctor would wet down the calluses with a disinfecting solution and then use a scalpel to shave off the calluses. He would then wrap her feet in tape so that Marie could walk out of the office. This procedure was done every 4 to 6 weeks with the calluses always coming back. Marie said that the procedure was painful. She became allergic to the tape and was unable to continue having her feet wrapped. This meant that she was in pain every time she walked for at least 3 days after each procedure. With the doctor’s consent, we decided to compare results of our foot treatment against that of the doctor’s standard treatments. We took care of Marie’s worse foot that had cracks and calluses. The doctor treated the other foot, which had only calluses. After 6 weeks and three callus treatments, the foot that the doctor had used the scalpel on was in worse condition than the foot that had a callus foot treatment. The doctor was amazed that the procedure and post-procedure were painless for the client. Interestingly, the doctor never instructed Marie to use moisturizing cr

Tags: Calluses, Diabetic, Diabetic Feet, Healthy FeetCalluses, Diabetic, Diabetic Feet, Healthy Feet

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Cooking shouldn’t have to be a chore. To many, cooking is a job, career and even a way of life. To some it is an art and to you it should be fun.

Making a habit of eating out raises many issues. What ingredients do they use? Are the ingredients fresh? Do they use hydrogenated fats? How big are their portions? While eating out may seem easy today, tomorrow you may wake up feeling differently (literally and metaphorically).

If eating out seems easy to you, buying a ready to eat meal (such as TV dinners) is even easier and much faster. If only fast food was healthy, as a nation we wouldn’t be facing a lot of the health challenges we are now having to solve.

When you cook, you know what goes into your food. Even assuming all restaurants are clean, a lot of ingredients used by them are harmful. There are almost no food labels to be found when you go out. Trans fat, salt and high fructose corn syrup are just some of the ingredients that are used but not advertised. Of coarse they taste good but at what cost?

We can no longer use the excuse we used in the past that we don’t know. Now we do know. Eating has a huge effect on our overall health. The results of eating poorly may not be seen for years but when they do come up you face all kinds of cancers, heart disease and a lower quality of life.

You should never deprive yourself of something you love. Eating out on a special occasion is OK but making a habit of constantly taking the easy way out is not.

More Information

Straight Health

Tags: cooking, corn, diet, eat, fat, food, fructose, healthy, high, nutrition, out, restaraunt, syrup, transcooking, corn, diet, eat, fat, food, fructose, healthy, high, nutrition, out, restaraunt, syrup, trans

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