WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Cleaning Out Your Brain

“Contrary to the current dogma, therefore, what is referred to as Alzheimer’s disease is actually a protective response to, specifically, three different processes: inflammation, suboptimal levels of nutrients and other synapse-supporting molecules, and toxic exposures.”

                                              --Dale Bredesen, MD, The End of Alzheimer’s

You probably take a shower or a bath every day.  If you live in the tropics, like me, you may bathe 2 or 3 times a day.  A shower always makes you feel fresh and recharged.

What about your brain?  Did you ever think about what you can do to keep it clean, fresh, and recharged?

“Deep sleep is like a power cleanse for the brain,” according to Lisa Genova, neuroscientist and author of Still Alice, from a TED talk in April 2017.  Dale Bredesen, MD, author of The End of Alzheimer’s, also believes in the power of adequate sleep for protecting brain health. 

Getting a good night’s sleep is important.  It certainly tops the list of my favorite activities!  On the infrequent nights when I can’t turn off my brain and I get only a few hours of sleep, I just don’t function well the next day. What we do know is that while we sleep, our brain does its housekeeping work.  Those who do not get enough sleep also are at higher risk for being at an unhealthy weight.d

Here are 5 tips for good sleep hygiene:

1. Have a regular bedtime most of the time. 
2. An hour before bedtime, power down yourself.  Turn down lights and turn off media.  Use this special quiet time to read or listen to music.
3. Do not keep your cell phone right next to your bed.  Keep it at least 10 feet away from your head, and ideally, in another room.  This is especially important for kids. 
4. Eat dinner at least 4 hours before sleep. Eating a meal right before sleep will interfere with sleep and prevent your brain from doing its housekeeping work. 
5. Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep (adults).  Kids need more. 

With love and gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Is Plant-Based Eating Good for Kids?

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined.  If beef is your idea of "real food for real people" you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."  

                                                                                     --Neal Barnard, MD

When I work with an adult with uncontrolled diabetes, I start by asking how many medications they take daily.  The answer is almost always ten or more.  Patients with diabetes are told, “once on insulin, always on insulin.”  They are prescribed medications for diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.  They may also be taking meds for neuropathy, depression and sleep.  One way we use to gauge success in reversing diabetes is when the individual can reduce or eliminate prescription medicines because they no longer need them.

Doctors are well trained in writing prescriptions and treating diseases.  Doctors are not trained in using food as medicine to reverse diseases. 

Lentil vegetable soup

The evidence is clear:  a whole food plant-based way of eating is key to good health and reversing diseases such as diabetes.  

Is a plant-based lifestyle healthy for kids?  Absolutely yes!! Is fruit good for kids?  Are vegetables good for kids? Whole grains?  Legumes?  Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes are good for everyone! Besides being an ideal way to eat, plant-based eating is also the most ethical way to eat.  On behalf of people, planet, and prosperity, parents should consider the future health of their children by learning about the cruelty inflicted on animals raised for food on factory farms.  Watch "Forks Over Knives" or "What the Health". Kids eating chicken McNuggets, burgers, and dairy products are more susceptible to asthma, gastrointestinal issues, cancer, skin problems, sleep apnea, heart disease, and obesity.    

I have yet to meet a parent who wants their kids to grow up and develop diabetes.  Let's stop the hemorrhaging and insanity caused by the consumption of inflammatory foods like meat and chicken.  Did you know the average American will eat about 222 pounds of red meat and poultry in 2018?  

For delicious recipes and inspiration, check out what Chef Charity Morgan is cooking. She became a vegan chef when her husband, a player for the Tennessee Titans football team, gave up eating meat and became a vegan.  Now half the team is vegan.  Click here to go to Chef Charity's website.  

A must-read book for parents is Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book, Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right.

As an advocate for children's health, I strongly believe in the whole food plant-based lifestyle and its ability to prevent and reverse diseases.  Take a look at the resources I have included in this article and then talk with your family.  Together, we can improve the health - and lives - of America's children. 

With love and gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: Literacy Matters

"Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice.  And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones.  Literacy will be dead and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well."  

                                                                  --Margaret Atwood 

Learning to read and spell are basic skills.  We have a responsibility to ensure that all kids learn these skills.

According to The Learning Alliance, in the U.S. only 36% of kids are reading proficiently by the end of third grade.  The consequence is that fourth graders who are not reading at grade level are likely to become our country’s lowest income, least skilled, least productive, and most costly citizens.  I would add that they will also become our least healthy citizens.

I believe that literacy is directly related to health literacy.  Not being able to read is a factor in whether or not an individual will enjoy a lifelong passion for learning.   

In every Growing Healthy Kids cooking class, we bring a dry erase board and a big bag of colorful dry erase markers.  The kids are charged with writing and decorating the day’s menu board.  The rule is that everything must be spelled correctly by the end of the class. Kids flinch and make faces about the rule but it matters.  Eating fruits and vegetables matter.  Knowing how to spell them correctly does too.

Spelling has always been one of my “things”.  I joke that I was an editor in another life because of my passion for the written word.  When I write, my goal is that the finished document will have perfect spelling, grammar, and punctuation.  Growing up in California, my elementary school teachers emphasized spelling lessons. Class assignments were returned to students with corrections duly noted with the teacher’s red pencil circled around the offending misspelled word.  I am so grateful to my teachers and my parents for ensuring that I learned to read and spell.

Writing is a basic skill that must be learned early in life and practiced all of our lives. Spellcheck and autocorrect are not substitutes for the basic skill that comes from learning how to spell correctly.  Kids now expect their computers to make the corrections for them.  I see the results in every class we teach as kids struggle with spelling ingredients and reading food labels.

While health literacy is key to the mission of Growing Healthy Kids, so is knowing how to spell A-P-P-L-E.  

Have a blessed Fourth of July!

With love and gratitude,

Nancy Heinrich, MPH

Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.