When our bodies have a lot of good microbes living in the digestive tract we’re able to digest and process what we eat without a problem.

Different types of food encourage different species to thrive, supporting natural diversity. This diversity allows people to adapt to different diets more easily.

The team compared fecal samples from 15 healthy children of the West African village Nanoro, with those of an equal number of subjects living in the city of Florence.

This particular African village was selected because of its isolation and the fact that the diet is very much like that of the Neolithic age – high in fiber, cereals, non animal protein and plants; the European children eat a more Western diet – high in animal protein, sugar and fat, but low in fiber.

All the study subjects were between 1 and 6 years old, and had taken no antibiotics or probiotics for the preceding six months. The information on diet came from parents. Not surprisingly the Italian subjects consumed more calories per day, 1512 vs. 996 among two to six year olds.

The study authors provided material that supports the idea that human’s digestive organisms changed quite a bit once agriculture took hold and the society was no longer nomadic… a scant 10,000 years ago.

Once the food supply changed, the number and types of bacteria changed too, perhaps bringing more diseases. Once antibiotics, vaccines and better hygiene took hold, some scientists believe that more changes in the organisms took place – coincidentally at the same time medicine was seeing an increased number of allergic and autoimmune diseases.

Researchers wonder if the bacteria that populate the small Western stomachs might predispose these subjects to obesity or allergies later in life. DNA analysis found that Italian children had more bacteria linked with obesity with fewer fatty acids that can cut down on inflammation. The populations of bacteria were less diverse in the Western diet eating subjects.

African children had more good bacteria, and even some unique strains that weren’t found in the other subjects. The work clearly verified the idea that there is a difference in colonization of digestive organisms associated with a low fat, low sugar, low prepared food diet.

The study raises the issue that diet might have just as much impact on the makeup of digestive organisms as do sanitation, climate and geography.

Continues below…

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Western Diet Responsible for Excess Bad Bacteria… Continued…
This isn’t the first work to find that the Western diet might influence digestive organisms; an earlier work found that the mix of bacteria in a baby’s system might be able to predict whether that child will be overweight or obese later in life. Another study found that prescribing antibiotics to infants increases the chances the child might develop asthma.

The thing is, all of us eat too much cheap, convenient food according to Marianne Grant, registered dietitian and educator at Texas A&M Health Science Center Costal Bend Health Education Center. She contends that our bodies have not changed all that much since those hunter/gatherer days, and we should be eating more like our ancestors. Way more fruits and veggies and a lot of physical activity.

The work appears in the August 2-6, 2010 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team hopes that the research might lead to new probiotics that help improve the ratio of good and bad stomach bacteria of those eating a Western diet. It also suggests, that minus the termites, this may be a way to feed young children, a diet more heavy in fiber but with the same amount of calories.

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It seems that efforts to make healthier choices a part of school lunch menus still have a good way to go. Earlier research in this area has examined the nutritional content of school lunches; this is the first effort to assess the impact of those lunches on kid’s eating habits (and overall health as well).

“The school environment is an excellent opportunity we should not be missing to teach kids to make healthy choices, both in terms of food and exercise,” says Elizabeth Jackson MD, MPH an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Health System. And with skyrocketing rates of childhood obesity, many experts are worried about young people setting themselves up for future health problems before they’re able to understand the consequences.

“One-third of kids in the U.S. are now overweight or obese, which means one-third of kids are at risk of heart disease and diabetes as they age. That scares me,” Jackson warns.

The research, presented March 13, 2009 at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, involved 1,076 Michigan area middle school students who answered questionnaires that covered what they ate, how active they were, and the number of hours they did things like watching TV, playing video games and spending time on the computer each day.

The researchers also collected data on student weight, height, blood glucose and cholesterol levels. The subjects were then divided into three groups, depending on whether they said they always or almost always ate school lunch, always or almost always brought a lunch from home, or did either one or the other.

The kids who ate school lunch…

- Were more likely to be overweight or obese (38.2% vs. 24.7%) and had higher levels of bad cholesterol.

- Were more likely to eat two or more servings of fatty meats, fried chicken or hot dogs, each day – 6.2% vs. 1.6%.

- Were more likely to have two or more sugar-sweetened drinks daily (19% vs. 6.8%).

- Were less likely to eat at least two servings of fruits (32.6% vs. 49.4%) or vegetables (39.9% vs. 50.3%) a day.

What’s more, the kids who ate school lunch were less likely to take part in activities like basketball, or team sports than the kids who ate lunches from home.

School lunch eaters also spent more time watching TV, playing video games and being on the computer after school.

So should the parents of the estimated 30.6 million U.S. students who eat school lunch start packing one from home?

Continues below…

Why Eating Lunch Can Be Bad For Your Health… Continued…

As any parent of an independent-minded middle schooler can attest, packing the nutritious foods is no guarantee they won’t be traded or tossed aside in favor of choices from vending machines or the local store. It’s better to work with your school to make lunches healthier -with less salt and fat, and more fiber.

Rather surprising that only 6% of school lunch programs currently meet the requirements established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To help your own kids, be sure to offer healthy food choices at home. And don’t forget the exercise. This can be something as simple as walking to school or helping out with chores around the house.

You’ll also want to remember that eating patterns are especially important during the middle school years when kids start to get more independent. The choices they make during this time will shape their eating and exercising habits as they get older. Now’s your chance to help ensure those choices are healthy ones.

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The term was coined in 2009 by doctors out of Mass General Hospital for Children, and is used for the lingering gases and particles from tobacco smoke that cling to clothing, hair, skin, carpets, upholstery and even wallpaper.

We’ve all caught the odor of smoke after a smoker exits a confined space… this is a real world example of third hand smoke according to new work in a paper appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Science has long known that tobacco smoke is absorbed onto surfaces; until now no one had looked at what might happen when these residual molecules came into contact with common pollutants in the atmosphere.

Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ran lab tests and found “substantial levels” of toxins on smoke exposed material. Such residue can react with a common indoor pollutant to generate dangerous chemicals known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). This residue can hang around for weeks or even months.

So smokers who may not indulge around their children, or crack the window in the car and smoke with their children in back, are unknowingly exposing them to heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials long after the smoke from the cigarette has cleared.

According to the researchers, third-hand smoke is an unappreciated health hazard, adding fervor to the anti-smoking movement and the call for bans on smoking in homes, vehicles, hotels and other public places. Young children are especially susceptible because they are breathing in closer proximity to these surfaces, and are not hesitant about licking or sucking on them.

In the tests, contaminated surfaces were exposed to high but reasonable amounts of nitrous acid, a common enough thing in the air that can come from unvented gas appliances as well as most car engines and exhaust.

The exposure increased levels of newly formed TSNAs ten-fold. Traces of TSNAs were also seen on the inner surfaces of a truck that belonged to a heavy smoker.

Researcher Lara Gundel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, concedes, “Smoking outside is better than smoking indoors but nicotine residues will stick to a smoker’s skin and clothing. Those residues follow a smoker back inside and get spread everywhere. Think about the lingering odor after a smoker comes back inside after a “smoke break”.

“Dermal uptake of the nicotine through a child’s skin is likely to occur when the smoker returns and if nitrous acid is in the air, which it usually is, then TSNAs will be formed.”

Continues below…

“Third Hand Smoke” New Danger… Continued…

Of course smoking advocates are skeptical of the danger. Simon Clark, director of the UK smokers’ lobby group Forest said, “The dose makes the poison and there is no evidence that exposure to such minute levels is harmful. That doesn’t seem to matter, though. The aim, it seems, is to generate alarm in the hope that people will be stopped from smoking or will give up.”

He went onto say, “The real danger is not third-hand smoke but propaganda dressed up as science.”

Whatever you believe the new work suggests that making your home and vehicle smoke free is a smart choice, especially if you have small children about.

You can also limit exposure to smoke and its after affects as much as possible – wash your hands, change clothes, brush your teeth after smoking and before holding or feeding babies and young children.

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It seems that family behaviors can have a significant impact on preschool children, helping them maintain a normal weight, and perhaps delivering other benefits as well.

The three habits?

- Sit down to dinner together as a family five or more nights each week.

- Be sure children get enough (10.5 hours a night at this age) sleep.

- Limit time in front of the TV or game system to less than two hours a day.

“Four-year-olds who regularly ate dinner with the family, got enough sleep and watched less than two hours of TV a day were 40% less likely to be obese,” points out study lead author, Sarah Anderson, an assistant professor of epidemiology in the College of Public Health at Ohio State University.

Since there are so few easy, effective treatments for childhood obesity, preventing it in the first place must get special emphasis. Childhood obesity isn’t something to brush of; it’s a serious medical condition that gets kids started on a path to health problems (high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol) once only seen in adults.

The research included a nationally representative sample of 8,550 four year olds along with one parent per child who answered questions about family routine and behavior. In children, obesity is determined by the BMI being greater than the 95th percentile when compared to others of the same age and gender. The group of children in this study had an 18% obesity rate.

Only 14.5% of the children were regularly exposed to all three of the at home behaviors, and the obesity rate for this group was 14.3%. For those kids who were exposed to none of the three, the obesity rate shot up to 24.5%. Researchers were able to link each behavior to a 17% reduction in the rate of obesity.

These results held even after the team controlled for things that might impact a child’s risk of being obese. These included obesity of the mother, race, gender, socioeconomic status and living in a single parent household.

The results show an association between the three behaviors and obesity rates, but the study was not designed to demonstrate cause and effect. “We don’t know if it’s the routines per se, or if it’s the parenting associated with these routines or something else correlated with these routines, but we do know these routines are associated with a lower incidence of obesity,” continues Anderson.

The good news for parents is that all three of the behaviors are pretty simple – things you can do in your own home, in your own way, to help your children. Not only will you be denying childhood obesity a hold on your child, you’ll also be taking part in activities that have been shown to aid behavior and cognitive development.

Continues below…

3 Home Habits to Stay Slim Continued…

Even if you can’t manage making all three steps part of your family routine, Anderson says that introducing at least one can have a positive impact. Or do one as much as possible for your lifestyle and schedule.

As a parent, you will need to make these behaviors a priority… perhaps limiting the number of activities or changing your own routine to make it work. You might start by trying the one behavior you think you’ll be able to do most easily and watch the results. If you’re already doing one (or more) of these, try adding another.

Young children aren’t the only ones who can be encouraged to get their weight under control, as shown by another study set to appear in the same March 2010 issue of Pediatrics.

This work involved 81 obese teen girls enrolled in the Duke University Healthy Lifestyles Program who were randomly assigned to read an intervention novel about an obese heroine who learns about eating right, being active and thus improving her self esteem, or a control novel.

The girls who read the intervention novel were more likely to reduce their BMI percentile than those who read the control book, or a third group of subjects who didn’t read anything.

Age appropriate fiction that addresses healthy behaviors might have potential as a supplement to a weight management program.

So parents, grandparents and others… if you’re worried about childhood obesity, there are simple steps you can take to make a difference… starting tonight.

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Experts believe that these endless queries are honest attempts to get to the truth, and kids respond better to some answers than they do to others.

The finding is based on a two-part study that involved children aged 2 to 5, suggesting that our youngsters are far more active in their search for knowledge than anyone had thought.

Research efforts from the early to mid 1900s on child development reported that young children were aware of temporal relationships between two events, but couldn’t distinguish between cause and effect until about age of 7 or 8.

Later work disputed this finding, suggesting that children as young as 3 understand cause and effect.

“Even from really early on when they start asking these how and why questions, they are asking them in order to get explanations,” explains lead researcher Brandy Frazier of the University of Michigan. The new findings appear in the November/December 2009 issue of the journal Child Development.

To figure out kids’ responses to different questions, Frazier and her team began by looking at transcripts from everyday conversations of half a dozen kids, aged 2 to 4, who were talking to their parents, brothers or sisters and visitors at home. There were 560 conversations, with over 3,100 casual “how” or “why” questions.

Kids were more than two times more likely to re-ask the question after a non-explanation than when they got a real answer. The questions got explanations about 37% of the time, and this made the kids four times as likely to ask a follow up question than if they got a non-explanatory answer.

The next part of the study was lab-based and included 42 preschoolers, in the age range of 3 to 5 years old. These kids chatted when presented with toys, books or videos that were designed to create surprising, question provoking situations. The children were shown a box of all red crayons- a puzzle with a piece that wouldn’t fit –and a story about a child who poured orange juice over cereal.

Continues below…

Why Kids Ask “Why?” Continued…

The adults had some explanatory and non-explanatory replies ready, so when kids asked about the orange-juice-on-cereal story there were two answers that could be given. The explanatory – he thought it was milk in the pitcher, and a non-explanatory – I like to put milk on my cereal.

The team found big differences in the reactions to the explanatory answers as opposed to the non-explanatory ones.

Just about 30% of the time the children would agree, nod or say “Oh” after getting a true explanation, while just under 13% of the time for the non-explanation.

More than 20% of the time the children re-asked the first question – just 1% of kids who got an explanation did the same.

The samples sizes, like the subjects, were small, so experts can’t generalize the results to all kids. Also missing are the kids’ reactions to the answers they were given.

Early results from another new study of Frazier’s point out that there is such a thing as too much information in the answers we give our kids. There’s an optimal level of detail our children are interested in, just what that level is still needs to be understood.

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Super clean hands were actually shown to hinder the ability to heal because the normal bacteria that live on your skin aren’t there to prevent inflammation after an injury, keeping cuts and grazes from swelling. Could it be that our focus on germ proofing our world might be harming us instead?

This research confirming maternal instincts appears in the online edition of Nature Medicine.

The team from the School of Medicine at the University of California San Diego found that a common species of bacteria known as staphylococci is responsible for blocking a vital step in the cascade of events that bring on inflammation in the body.

Looking at mice and human cells, the team found that the harmless bacteria accomplished this by producing a molecule known as lipoteichoic acid or LTA that acts on keratinocytes, the main types of cells found in the outer layer of your skin.

The LTA seems to keep those keratinocytes in check, preventing them from mounting an overly aggressive inflammatory response to an injury.

Research leader Professor Richard Gallo explains, “The exciting implication of the work is that it provides a molecular basis to understand the hygiene hypothesis and has uncovered elements of the wound repair response that were previously unknown. This may help us devise new therapeutic approaches for inflammatory skin diseases.”

The results of this work offer support for the “hygiene hypothesis” that’s been being floated since 1989, suggesting exposure to germs during early childhood helps protect the body against allergies.

It seems that the millions of bacteria and viruses that enter the body help spur the development of a strong, healthy immune system. There’s even research going on today that suggests the worms living in garden variety dirt might actually help redirect an immune system that’s not working properly. Though they might make you squirm, experts assure us that most worms are harmless to well nourished people.

There are those who blame the current obsession on cleanliness (notice all the anti-bacterial wipes, lotions and soaps out there?) for the upswing in allergies in developed nations.

The rising rates of autoimmune conditions and asthma have also been linked to a failure to expose our young children to normal, everyday dirt, encouraging the immune system to turn inward – on itself.

A spokeswoman for Allergy UK confirms, “Rates of allergy have tripled in the UK in the last decade. One in three people now has some kind of allergy.” They confirm that there’s a growing body of evidence that exposing kids to germs is a good thing, but still more research is needed.

Experts such as Dr. Joel V. Weinstock, the director of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston believe that the immune system at birth is like an unprogrammed computer that needs instruction.

Continues below…

Dirt Is Actually Good For Kids Continued…

And while public health efforts like cleaning up contaminated water and food have saved the lives of many children in poor nations, they’ve also reduced the exposure to organisms that might be good for our young people.

“Children raised in an ultraclean environment,” he says, “are not being exposed to organisms that help them develop appropriate immune regulatory circuits.”

How can you do this in today’s super-sanitized world? Here are five great suggestions to help build the immune system of your children, and maybe your own as well:

1. Let kids play in the dirt.

2. Wash using regular soap, not the antibacterial kind.

3. Keep all vaccines up to date, including your tetanus shots.

4. Get plenty of sleep, drink lots of fluids, eat well and avoid as much stress as possible.

5. Don’t obsess about cleanliness.

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The numbers of adults without enough vitamin D made news a year ago, but experts like Dr. Michal L. Melamed of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine suspect the slide has been going on for more than two decades.

So it isn’t that researchers are surprised by the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in our children, it’s the sheer magnitude of the problem that is the troubling piece of news.

“Several small studies had found a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in specific populations of children, but no one had examined this issue nationwide,” explains study leader Melamed.

Where once in this country bone diseases like rickets, a result of too little vitamin D, were nearly extinct, physicians have diagnosed over 150 new cases of the disease in Philadelphia in 2008, up from zero only three years before.

The researchers believe the reasons for the low levels of vitamin D in children are poor diet and lack of time spent outside in the sun, which makes sense if you consider the lifestyle of most kids today.

Still this nutrient is important for helping the body to metabolize calcium, as well as being involved with immune function, cell proliferation, heart health, even offering protection against diseases like diabetes and cancers like colon, breast and ovarian.

The research involved analyzing over 6,000 subjects, ages 1 to 21 who had supplied data to the Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2004.

The team found that 9% (7.6 million kids nationwide) were vitamin D deficient. Another 61% (50.8 million across the U.S.) were vitamin D insufficient. Low levels were common in girls, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, obese kids or those who drank milk less than one time a week.

Kids who spent more than 4 hours a day watching TV, using a computer or playing video games were also more likely to lack vitamin D.

The situation is complicated by the fact that vitamin D isn’t naturally a part of many foods. Fish like salmon, tuna, sardines and mackerel as well as cod liver oils are the best sources – though hardly popular favorites.

Beef liver, cheese and egg yolks have a small amount, as do some mushrooms. Fortified foods give us most of the vitamin D we need. Milk, ready to eat breakfast cereals, some brands of orange juice, yogurt or margarine are products allowed to add vitamin D.

Recommendations adopted in 2008 by the American Academy of Pediatrics call for infants, children and teens to take in 400 IU of vitamin D each day in a supplement form.

There are many experts who suggest both children and adults get at least 1,000 IU per day. In the study, children who took a vitamin D supplement were less likely to be deficient, but only a small percentage (4%) of the total study participants were using supplements at the time.

The good news for those of us who want to get more vitamin D is that our own bodies make this vitamin naturally. All you have to do is spend time in the sun, though this ability varies greatly depending on your skin color (lighter skin processes vitamin D more efficiently) and where you’re located on the globe (northern latitudes aren’t as good for vitamin making).

As we age our bodies aren’t able to make vitamin D from sunlight as well as they used to, so older people are just as likely to need supplements as the young.

Continues below…

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Startlingly Low Vitamin D Levels Continued…

And while concern over skin cancer is warranted, and should keep you out of the sun, unprotected, during peak hours; you can still get natural sunlight safely.

Enjoy sunlight during the early morning hours, or later in the afternoon. Remember that covering your skin in sunscreen blocks UVB rays, the precise rays the body uses to change a form of cholesterol in your skin into vitamin D.

If you’re concerned about your child’s (or your own) vitamin D levels, there are tests that can be done to screen for a special form of the vitamin known as 25-hydroxy vitamin D so that you know where you stand. Getting kids to spend more time outside in the fresh air and sunshine is a recommendation of the research that might just help increase vitamin D intake the natural way.

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But when the lie comes from your child, the behavior often sets alarm bells ringing in a parent’s head.

No one wants to raise a liar, but before you demand the truth, look at the age of the child and the reasons experts believe your son or daughter might be telling that fib.

Experts have determined that very young children (2 and 3 year olds) don’t really understand the difference between truth and fiction. The line between imagination and reality is almost totally blurred for this age.

The lies they might tell are self-serving… to get something they won’t, or avoid something they don’t. If you make an issue of it and demand the truth be told you’ll actually accomplish little. Better to focus on the feelings of an injured party or the results of an action than to insist on total honesty at this age.

By preschool age children have a very freewheeling understanding of reality. Sometimes the lies they tell are pure play, sometimes wishful thinking and sometimes part of a fantasy world.

Lying at this age can also be a way of processing new ideas.

Interestingly, preschoolers who lie were found to have higher IQ scores according to research by Angela Crossman, PhD., a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who looked into the subject of children and lying.

By school age kids usually understand the idea of the “white” lie and know how to tell it. They have come to recognize the idea of lying to benefit themselves or someone else and to avoid hurt feelings.

Kids this age often lie because they’re afraid of how disappointed you’d be with the truth or they feel pushed beyond their abilities.

You need to find out what’s behind the lie and take that into consideration moving forward.

When it comes to lying about schoolwork for example, addressing the root cause can resolve the issue just fine. Getting your child extra help to do the work solves the problem and generally removes the need to lie.

When it comes to the tween age group (8 to 12 year olds), these kids are growing up fast, but they still have trouble with the “grey” areas of truth and fiction.

Your child at this age might also start to gloss over things that they used to share quite willingly with you last year.

This is a normal development, part of your tween’s growing maturity. Lies about homework, chores or making their beds aren’t all that uncommon at this age and your best bet is to just express your displeasure rather than demand the truth.

Chronic lying at this age or older requires professional intervention to help the child sort things out. Though in some circumstances it’s merely the sign of a smart kid who’s learned that lying is the easiest to cope or get what they want.

By adolescence, kids realize that lying can sometimes be the easiest way out. Kids at this age lie to protect their fledgling privacy or because they want to feel independent from their parents.

Remember sneaking out at night without your parents knowing? This is the kind of lie typical of these years. Some adolescents may fall into a pattern of repetitive lying, as it appears the easiest way to deal with the demands of everyone around them.

Continues below…

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Find out how you, too, can:

- Have freedom from the pain and irritation of your unsightly moles, warts, or skin tags

- Naturally REMOVE moles, warts, or skin tags at the root without any scarring

- Enjoy having clear skin, free from unsightly and painful moles, warts or skin tags

Read the full private and confidential report here

Why Children Lie And What To Do About It continued

Of course there are those teens that lie to cover up a more serious problem, abuse of drugs or alcohol, and in these cases, professional intervention is needed.

In the end, if you want your child to be honest, you need to be an honest parent.

Even small things matter and give your child the impression that lying is acceptable i.e. no pretending about ages for discounts, no fibs to get out of tickets or dinner invitations. It might not seem like the example your setting is going in, but years down the road, you’ll find that the message about honesty did indeed get through.

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