Food banks across the country are seeing longer lines and new faces.  Demand and need are up, but corporate and individual donations are waning as Americans become nervous about their financial future. Meanwhile, food prices have yet to fall.

April 1, 2009 has been declared April Food Day by organizers Pigtown*Design and Easy and Elegant Life; a call to action on behalf of the nation’s hungry.  A plea to donate what you can, in any amount you can; even if it’s only a dollar.

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While kidney stones are generally considered to be an adult problem, many hospitals are seeing an uptick of pediatric cases. In 2005, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia saw less than a dozen cases of kidney stones the entire year; now they see as many as five a week.

The most prominent symptom of kidney stones is extreme pain.

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How? The National Wildlife Federation has partnered with KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization that:

“empowers communities to build playgrounds….We passionately believe that play has purpose, and that unstructured play in particular helps make children happier, fitter, smarter, more socially adept and creative.”

KaBOOM! lists playgrounds, parks, and other community “playspaces” on their website, and is campaigning to add another 100,000 in 100 days.

Join the NWF team and for every playspace you enter, the National Wildlife Federation will earn a $1 donation.

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Thank goodness for the GoodGuide- an online database that determines, ranks, and scores the impacts of the products we purchase, for us. The GoodGuide rates cleansers, personal care products, toys, and now over 5,000 of the food products we eat.  Another 20,000 food products are slated to be added within the next month.

These food products have been painstakingly researched over the last two years, ranked and explained in a way that is accessible to the common consumer, and make it possible for parents to evaluate at a glance which foods are acceptable for their children to eat- and which foods most decidedly are not.

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Which is why I was so extremely irritated to learn from the New York Times that 70 percent of American antibiotics are given to healthy livestock, contributing to the rise of these resistant strains in our food supply. 

“Five out of 90 samples of retail pork in Louisiana tested positive for MRSA — an antibiotic-resistant staph infection — according to a peer-reviewed study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology last year….Research by Peter Davies of the University of Minnesota suggests that 25 percent to 39 percent of American hogs carry MRSA.”

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With three kids in three different schools, I am buried in paper; the running joke in our household is that I have more homework than my kids do.  Easily three-quarters of what comes home goes straight into the recycling bin.  Multiply that by over 5000 children in our school district and the mind boggles. 

Isn’t there a better way to get information to parents?

One Pennsylvania school thinks so.  Liberty elementary school in Harrisburg now sends school papers electronically through a free website on Shutterfly.  Nearly 90% of the parents at that school opted for the online version- the remainder still preferring paper or lacking home internet access.

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The good folks at the Environmental Working Group recently released an updated Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, the go-to source for which fruits and vegetables carry the most and least pesticides. 

As budgets tighten and some families begin to prioritize their organic options, this list can be invaluable in helping to evaluate the healthiest choices: choosing organic for the produce designated as the “Dirty Dozen” can reduce pesticide exposure by nearly 80 percent.

So, what’s new about the Dirty Dozen? 

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The first was Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which redefined the way I look at food and moved me to live a more sustainable lifestyle. The second, Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, opened my eyes to the importance of unstructured nature play on the human psyche.  The third was Rick Van Noy’s A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids with Nature through the Seasons.

While Last Child in the Woods is broad, an issue-based philosophical and intellectual work, A Natural Sense of Wonder is a personal compilation of essays touchingly recounting one father’s attempts to cultivate a love of nature in his children.  An essay, Van Noy says, “is an attempt.  This book is a collection of essays about our attempts to get outside.”

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“While 95 per cent of parents have read to their children at some point, only five per cent of those polled read to their children during the day. More than one in ten said they read every couple of weeks or less, and five per cent could not remember the last time they shared a book.”

The 97% of dads who did not read to their children claimed that they could not find time due to work commitments and being too tired. 89% of the moms polled did read to their children, but half admitted that they were distracted by cleaning, cooking, and other household chores.

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Toy shopping can be pretty hit or miss.  There’s no telling what the kids will love and what will be tossed into the toy box vortex, never to be seen or played with again.  Many’s the time I’ve bought a toy that I thought was pretty cool- a month later, I’m the only one still playing with it.

To make things more painful, I also like to shop for toys that are educational and made of natural materials.  These sorts of playthings can be quite expensive, and it hurts to see them unused and unloved, or simply too quickly outgrown. It would definitely be nice to give these toys a trial run to see if the kids like them before plunking down the cash.

Enter rentAtoy.com!  Like Netflix for toys, rentAtoy.com allows you to rent toys every month and return them when you’re done.  Shipping is free both ways and there are no late fees.

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If your child watches more than two hours of television a day, his or her risk for asthma is doubled, according to a study published in the journal Thorax.

The UK study monitored over 3,000 children from birth until nearly twelve years old.  Beginning at the age of 3 and a half, researchers questioned parents annually on television viewing habits and symptoms of wheezing. 

Those children who watched more than two hours of television a day were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with asthma at age 12 than those children who watched less, prompting the researchers to suggest that “breathing patterns associated with sedentary behavior could lead to developmental changes in the lungs and wheezing illnesses in children“.

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It’s not just lip service; broccoli and its cruciferous cousins really are good for you. It’s already been demonstrated that vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and kale, when chewed and digested, release chemical compounds that may inhibit the growth of breast cancer and prostate cancer cells.  These same chemicals (diindolylmethane, or DIM) may help to boost immune systems as well.

Cancer research now indicates that compounds extracted from cruciferous greens, when combined with selenium, form a drug that may be safer and more effective than traditional therapy in targeting melanoma, the most severe form of skin cancer.

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“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.”
-Rachel Carson

March is National Woman’s History Month, and this year Rachel Carson is being honored.  Carson, of course, is the scientist who in 1962 wrote Silent Spring, the “classic that launched the environmental movement”, exposing the devastating effects of the chemical DDT on bird populations.  This bestseller led to the banning of DDT, the creation of the Clean Water Act, and the forming of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Those of us who choose to eat organic foods have Rachel Carson to thank for exposing the potential dangers of pesticides.

To celebrate Carson’s legacy, 100 screenings of the newly released movie, “A Sense of Wonder”, will be held nationwide.  This movie chronicles the last year of Carson’s life, as she battled cancer and worked to present her message to Congress and the American public.

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There’s been a lot of scary stories about food lately, from the peanut butter recalls to the discovery of mercury in high fructose corn syrup.  Many parents, myself included, have become more critical about what finds its way onto the dining room table.  And when the kids ask why, well, I tell them.

But how much information is too much?  Many doctors, dieticians, and eating disorder specialists feel that putting too much emphasis on the foods we eat is creating anxiety in children, possibly even setting them up for future eating disorders.  According to the president of the School Nutrition Association,

“We’re driving our kids absolutely crazy…. All the stuff about preservatives and pesticides. All an 8-year-old kid should know is that he or she should eat a variety of colors, and don’t supersize anything but your water jug.”

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Landscaping with native plants, according to Doug Tallamy in his book Bringing Nature Home, is crucial to the diversity and survival of the wildlife within our ecosystem:

“Unless we modify the places we live, work and play to meet not only our own needs but the needs of other species as well, nearly all species of wildlife native to the United States will disappear forever. This is not speculation…. It is playing out across the country and the planet as I write.”

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The UK Telegraph reported yesterday that doctors at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge may have found a “cure” for peanut allergies.

Four boys were given minute amounts of peanut flour mixed with yogurt every day. The amount ingested was then slowly increased over a period of six months.

Prior to the trials, when exposed to just a fraction of the peanut protein found in a single peanut, these boys displayed significant allergic reactions, requiring immediate treatment.  At trial’s end, however, all the children were able to eat between 10 and 12 peanuts.

To maintain their tolerance, the children will have to continue ingesting a small daily amount of peanut protein, either as peanut flour, smooth peanut butter, or five roasted peanuts.

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Here I thought flu season was behind me, but no, apparently flu season is still going strong. 

We all know the best way to get through cold and flu season is a healthy dose of prevention.  Frequently washing your hands, regularly cleaning germ hotspots, and getting enough sleep top the list of preventative tips. 

Also on the list: drinking plenty of water and eating a varied diet.  But exactly what are the best foods to include in that varied diet?  According to MSNBC, we should favor 9 immunity-boosting foods to supercharge our body’s resistance to the flu virus and the common cold.

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Like many eco-minded moms, I recently read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods and came away with a firm belief that human beings need, on a basic, primal level, the therapeutic value of an ongoing relationship with nature.

It appears that the science agrees: studies have concluded that overall health can be predicted by how many green spaces exist in a one-mile or three-mile radius; children with ADHD concentrate better after being in a park than in an urban setting; college students test better when their room offers a view of nature; the elderly live longer when they have ready access to natural settings.

Interestingly, the opposite appears to also hold true.  According to Frances Kuo, a professor at the University of Illinois,

“Humans living in landscapes that lack trees or other natural features undergo patterns of social, psychological and physical breakdown that are strikingly similar to those observed in other animals that have been deprived of their natural habitat. In animals what you see is increased aggression, disrupted parenting patterns, and disrupted social hierarchies.”

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Frankly, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Until I saw a post this weekend at ZRecommends which shares the results of their research into which brands of food processors and blenders contain BPA, PVC, and phthalates.

As a quick refresher: bisphenol-A, or BPA, and phthalates, plasticisers used to soften PVC, are components found in many common plastics.  Studies have linked exposure to BPA and phthalates to hormonal issues such as early puberty and changes in breast tissue, as well as to some cancers.

And while I was well aware of their presence in toys, sippy cups, bottles, food storage containers, and a myriad of other places in the home, it really had never occurred to me that they might also be lurking within the devices I use for food preparation.

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“When we, as consumers, demand the organic supply, farmers and food companies will supply the organic demand. The result? Healthier people and a healthier planet.”

Supply and demand: it really is that simple.

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