Healthy Kids : Help Them Eat Smart and Stay Active--for Life!

As a comment on a previous reviewer's observation about soy substitutes for dairy products; I have found plenty of vegan non-dairy subs (no casein) - they are becoming more and more available as demand for them increases. Also, there are subs made from other products (rice, oat, almond, etc) that contain NO casein. Going completely dairy-free has cleared up allergies, acne, and weight problems at our house. It's worth my time to search out the right subs.

While they are many excellent resources for adults on how to eat right, exercise, control weight, and avoid harmful substances to reduce the risk of disease or reverse the effects of disease already experienced, little is said about children. This publishing focus reflects a national obsession with helping adults while assuming kids will be all right. Not true!

We are in the midst of a terrible tragedy in terms of undermining children's health before they are even through their full physical development. Ms. Henner deserves a huge thanks for taking this subject on, and doing a fine job with it!

The data are clear. Children of five often have unhealthy cholesterol levels. Childhood obesity and many related diseases such as diabetes are on the rise. ADD and depression are soaring. Allergy-related problems are often chronic by age six. Many of these problems will stay the same or get worse in adult years. For example, those who are obese while young will usually be obese as adults. That increases the risk for many diseases, especially diabetes and heart problems. The causes relate to eating the wrong foods, too little exercise, and parents doing a poor job of offsetting social influences (like advertising to kids, vending machines for candy at school, and supersize meals at fast food restaurants) in these areas. If your kids are having a lot of ear infections, are tired all the time, are grumpy or hyper alternatively, have asthma, or are overweight, this book will probably help you make changes that will enable your child to improve.

If you want a quick overview of the problems and the solutions, Dr. Peter S. Waldstein's foreword captures the key points.

While many books on subjects like this rant about the problem but provide little guidance, Healthy Kids is a happy exception. There's lots of practical advice about what food to buy and prepare at home, what to do when eating out, how to improve the food at school, ways to increase exercise, and suggestions about getting rid of and avoiding toxins. The book contains over 100 healthy recipes for foods that kids like, that can substitute for traditional, unhealthy ways of preparing the same or similar foods.

I was particularly impressed by the detailed advice related to each age group through college. The book begins by pointing out that 85 percent of children today don't get enough breast milk for proper brain development. Human breast milk has six times the fatty acids critical for brain development that cow's milk has. And cow's milk can cause allergies for some that lead to respiratory and ear infections.

My only complaints about the book were that it did not take a look at how blood type affects different youngsters; usually ignored the differences between what girls and boys need; argued for separating and combining different foods without making a case for why that was a good idea; and did not have a section on drinking enough water.

The sections on why to avoid sugar, white flour, the wrong fats, hormones, caffeine, beef, dairy products, and other artificial chemicals were very well done. The related sections on how to avoid them were even better!

Ms. Henner is ready to be your success coach in this important area. As she points out, your child's pediatrition got almost no training in these areas and probably won't make the right suggestions relating to diet and exercise. Even if you have a pediatrition who does provide good advice on what to do, she or he won't know much about how to help make the changes.

After you finish this excellent book and place it where you make your grocery shopping lists, I suggest that you think about how you can improve your children's emotional health, too. How many hugs and kisses did they each get today? How many kind words did you share?

Let's put an end to unnecessary suffering by our children!