If your child is a picky eater, don’t lose hope! It can be extremely frustrating when your child only wants to eat junk foods. Don’t worry. There are ways you can help make healthy foods your kid’s top choices. Here are some simple strategies that you can use to overcome the picky eater:

• Involve your kids in food-related activities. Get them involved in shopping, gardening, food preparation, menu planning and cooking.
• Be patient and persistent. Understand that it’s normal for most kids to react unfavorably (maybe even disgust) when they’re offered new foods. If our kids reject a food we serve, we make them take a “No thank you bite”. Many times they realize that they enjoy the food after taking the one bite. Don’t give up. Many kids won’t come around to accepting a food until they taste it 8 or more times.
• Be prepared. When kids get hungry, have healthy snacks ready. Cut up fruit or vegetables and make them easily accessible in the fridge. Our kids love our homemade salsas for dipping veggies. Make your own trail mixes with various combinations of nuts, seeds and dried fruit. Keep them out for easy snacking.
• Starve the appetite for junk food and it will diminish. The best way to stop cravings for junk foods is to cut them out completely. The more healthy food you eat, the more you’ll enjoy it. And junk foods will begin to taste strange and be less desireable.
• Be flexible and creative. We go with the flow. Our youngest daughter, Gabrielle, is our pickiest eater. She bucks against almost everything. She struggles with salads, which is one of our main staples. So we add her green leafy vegetables to other things she loves. We make her fruit smoothies with the Vitamix, and add in generous portions of raw baby spinach. It blends in nicely and results in a smooth and creamy shake. She loves them and ends up eating more than she would have eating a regular salad.
• Avoid hypocrisy. Be a positive role model for healthy eating. Live a healthy lifestyle. Your kids will probably learn more by watching you than by what you say.

If you’re just getting started on the pursuit of superior health, you may need to start by cleaning house. Please let me know if you have any other strategies that may be helpful… I’d love to hear them and share them.

Our center’s mission is to promote superior health through natural therapy. And it’s amazing how powerful natural therapies can be… with the right knowledge backing it up.

Many of my clients have serious complaints that can be corrected rather quickly. In many cases our clients need to rely on our professional expertise to solve the problem. Sometimes it’s a matter of a series of adjustments or trigger point massage therapy. Sometimes it involves a course of laser therapy.

In other cases it’s just a matter of making changes to their lifestyle. This could involve tweaking an exercise program and eliminating harmful exercises. It could mean getting more sleep. It could mean learning how to activate the core muscles (which we teach in our center). It may involve learning how to better manage stress.

In the cases involving complaints in the lower extremities (the feet, ankles, knees, and/or hips), many times the solution can be found in proper support and balance.

I’ve found that excessive pronation is one of the most common problems that’s at the core of many lower extremity complaints. Excessive pronation is a condition where the medial arch of the foot is not doing it’s job in supporting the foot. It begins to drop too far upon weight bearing.

This means that every time you step down, the medial arch drops too far. This causes a cascade of problems working their way up the chain of joints. Foot problems have been shown to cause problems all the way into the spine and up even to the jaw.

Excessive pronation, poor support, and disturbed balance can cause these common problems:

• foot pain
• plantar fasciitis
• bunions
• hammer toes
• ankle pain or instability
• shin splints
• sciatica and piriformis syndrome
• knee pain
• hip or sacroiliac pain
• poor posture
• back pain

If you have any of the previous problems, please schedule an evaluation to have your feet checked by me or someone at our office. It only takes about 5 minutes to do a thorough evaluation, which could possibly uncover a problem that has an easy fix.

This small investment of your time could save you incredible amounts of pain and suffering. And if your lower extremity problem is interfering with your activities, we may be able to help you get back to enjoying an active lifestyle again.

In cases of excessive pronation or instability, I will almost always recommend these two things:

1. Start using custom-fit arch support

The ones you can buy at the neighborhood pharmacy, can add a little padding but don’t support the arches properly. We fit people for the custom-fit arch supports right in the office. I use a specific balance test during the fitting process to make sure it’s the perfect fit for your specific arch size. The arch support I prescribe is an excellent product by a company called Symmetry. It provides support for all three of the arches of the foot, while remaining flexible to allow the foot to move normally. The style of arch support is determined by the use. For example, athletic shoes and dress shoes require different styles. They even make a style that accommodates sensitive feet. I’ve been using Symmetry arch supports for around 7 years now. I’ve found them to be inexpensive, very durable and comfortable… and they do the job very well.

2. Start wearing a good motion control shoe

The motion control shoe I recommend is the 1123 by New Balance. You can check them out online. It’s an excellent shoe that provides motion control, stability and cushioning. It’s a bit expensive, but it is very durable. I’ve heard that it can last twice as long as the typical running shoe. I just bought my first pair this week, so I don’t know first hand yet.

Focusing on body support and balance is a wise investment of your time and money and could save you a great deal of pain and suffering. Taking care of your problem now may enable you to get back to enjoying an active lifestyle again. Even if you don’t have any substantial pain, you may have a significant problem developing. If you suspect that you have a problem with support or body balance, give us a call today.

It is always easier to stay well than to get well.

Healthy Sports Drink

• 3 C spring water or filtered water
• 1 C orange Juice
• Juice from 1 lemon or lime
• 1/8 tsp Himalayan salt or sea salt
• 1 T organic apple cider vinegar (optional)
• 1 tsp agave nectar or raw organic honey (optional)

1. Mix well and chill

This drink provides a great way to beat the heat and stay hydrated especially while exercising. I’ve been using this recipe for years. It’s simple and tastes great. One 8 oz serving has around 40 calories and 75 mg of sodium, as well as a variety of other nutrients.

This drink provides a well-balanced and all-natural alternative to the typical sports drink. By using this recipe you can avoid refined sugars and artificial colors found in most marketed sports drinks. The optional apple cider vinegar and agave nectar or honey give additional health benefits and adds a nice sweet and tangy flavor. Try different kinds and combinations of juice. I like grape and apple juices mixed. For a fresh twist, try mango and passion juices.

Be creative and enjoy!

This past weekend my family and I travelled to a little-known park called Ricketts Glen. It’s a Pennsylvania state park located in the Endless Mountain Region, which is in the Northeast part of the state just west of the Poconos. It’s well worth the three-hour drive from the Philadelphia area. We consider it to be one of the hidden treasures in Pennsylvania.

The park is located on Red Rock Mountain. The region is covered by a majestic forrest that conceals the Glens Natural Area and twenty-three beautiful waterfalls. They range in height from 11′ to 94′ high and are absolutely breathtaking. And to see them all, you’ll definitely get quite a workout. A difficult hiking trail called the “Falls Trail” calls out to you as it offers a close up view of all but one of the falls.

It was our fourth time visiting the park and we decided to “push it” a little this time since our kids were a bit older and stronger. We took the shortest route looping through the Falls Trail, which was approximately 4 miles long. We started at around 10:00 AM, and finished four and one-half hours later! Joshua, our three-year-old toughed it out until the last mile at which point he was hoisted up on to my shoulders for an easy ride home.

It’s great when exercise fits right into enjoyable activities, like hiking. While we were enjoying the wonderful surroundings, we didn’t even realize we were burning up between 300-500 calories per hour! Of course, everyone felt it the next day or two.

Later we had to prepare for our campfire by gathering and chopping wood. More exercise camouflaged as fun! After dinner, we got together with another family and organized an exciting game of “capture the flag”. We set up the field in and around the woods surrounding the cabins and used brooms as flags. More exercise in the form of running, chasing, and sneaking through the woods. Laura had even got into the fray and secretly snuck all the way into “enemy” territory unnoticed.

Rest came later as everyone sat around the campfire and shared stories of the days events. We were blessed with beautiful weather and a clear sky that gave way to a host of twinkling stars. It was our kids’ first realization that our sky is literally filled with stars from horizon to horizon. They were amazed.

The next day we “relaxed” more at the lake. Our family spent the day wrestling on the beach, playing football, and running in and out of the cold water. The day finished again with preparations for dinner and the campfire and another round of “capture the flag”.

Overall we had a full weekend. Our trip to Rickets Glen State Park was filled with wonder, laughter, togetherness and lots of physical activity. Overall, it wasn’t the most relaxing trip… but it was good.

Chocolate “Mousse” Dessert

• 1 C soy milk beverage
• 1 C pitted dates
• 2 T cocoa powder
• 2 T carob powder
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1/2 C raw, unsalted cashews or macadamia nuts

1. Mix all ingredients in Vitamix or other food processor and blend until creamy.
2. If your blender has difficulty with the nuts or dates, soak them in water or soy milk for several hours prior to processing.
3. Chill for at least an hour prior to serving.

This is an absolutely delicious dessert that will have people begging for more and kids fighting over who can lick out the bowl. People won’t believe this desser has all wholesome ingredients, with no processed sugar and no dairy.

It is good solo or topped with fresh fruit. Try peanuts, almonds or walnuts for a different twist. If you want a vanilla “mousse”, simply eliminate the cocoa and carob, double the vanilla extract, and use vanilla soy milk.

Be creative and enjoy!

Your body parts are linked together by muscles and joints. Joints are the anatomical part of the body where two bones are fitted together. They are joined by tough ligaments, lined with cartilage, embraced by muscles, surrounded by a capsule and filled with synovial fluid for lubrication. They’re an amazingly designed and useful part of our bodies. Without them we wouldn’t be able to get around very well!

However, in our less-than-perfect and stressful world, our joints frequently take a pounding. Joints can be injured by sudden and severe stresses (slips, falls, or accidents) or by smaller continual forces (repetitive motions, improper posture, or overexertion). Either way, when joint function is impaired, you have problems.

The term joint dysfunction describes a joint condition that involves reduced motion, abnormal muscle tone, inflammation, calcium buildup, and scar tissue. Some more well known joint dysfunctions have names like “tennis elbow”, “frozen shoulder”, “carpal tunnel syndrome”, and “runner’s knee”.

Traditional medical care for these problems can involve therapeutic bracing the injured joint, medications for pain and inflammation, muscle relaxers, injections, physical therapy and surgery.

In our practice we take a natural and common sense approach. We use extremity adjusting as an integral part of our wellness programs. Extremity adjustments are a type of joint mobilization similar to spinal adjusting. We use extremity adjusting to care for shoulders, feet, ankles, hips, knees, fingers and wrists. The key in any joint adjustment is to help restore normal motion to joints that have become “locked-up”, “jammed”, or injured. This reduces pain, improves motion, relaxes muscles, reduces nerve interference, and promotes healing.

Extremity adjusting is a safe and very useful natural therapy, and can be an integral part of your wellness program.

Click here for more details on our extremity adjusting techniques.

Creamy Apricot Cashew Salad Dressing

• 1 C Water
• 1/4 C Vinegar, apple cider or white wine
• 1/2 C Cashews, raw unsalted
• 3/4 C Apricots, dried
• Salt to taste

1. Mix all ingredients in Vitamix or other food processor and blend until creamy.
2. If your blender has difficulty with the cashews or the apricots, soak them in water for several hours prior to processing.

This makes a creamy dressing that is sweet, tangy and delicious. Our family loves it mixed into a green leafy salad and tossed with sunflower seeds. Do you want to see your kids go back for seconds on salad? Give it a try! Also good on steamed veggies of all sorts.

Be creative and enjoy!

Looking at my life, I try to live balanced (maybe seen as moderate). I balance time with my wife, my kids, my family and my friends. Balanced doesn’t mean even. At this time in my life, our kids need (and demand) more attention and time. So I give them more time to them than to others. I try to balance exercise and recreation. I try to balance the use of my money, my investments and my giving.

In some ways moderation may be seen to work well. But does it really? In the examples I gave above, I am balancing things that are all good. I try to carefully consider the things that are beneficial, helpful, and healthy for me and for others. What if I decide to “balance” the things in my life with other things that are bad. Would that be wise?

Let’s say I decide to balance my time spent with family, and begin hanging out with drug-dealing terrorists? Is that good use of my time? By no means. What if I choose to use some of my money to support a organization that preaches hate and violence. That would be horrible! Some things are not good in moderation… Is cocaine okay in moderation? How about smoking cigarettes? What about coffee? How about doughnuts? Would you allow your own child even a small bit of something you know would harm him?

As you can see, the concept of “everything in moderation” can fail miserably. It fails if you don’t understand what is good and what is bad. This can be especially true in regard to foods. And on the flip side of the coin, you can even overindulge in things that are good if you’re not careful. So what can you do?

The strategy I use and recommend is fairly simple. It’s called Temperance… abstain from the things you know are bad, and use moderation in the things that are good.

A good, consistent, and balanced life can come about as you learn what things are good and what are bad. In regard to health, you need to learn what things promote superior health. Superior health can only be achieved when superior ideas are applied… and they become superior behaviors.

The wellness strategy of Temperance may seem extreme in our society, but it works.

What’s Protein Anyway?

Protein is an essential nutrient along with carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. Proteins are large molecules that are composed of smaller units called amino acids. Proteins are found in every part of your body… skin, muscles, hair, blood, internal organs, bone, fingernails, nerves etc.

How Much Protein Do You Need?

The recommended daily allowance (RDA) is 0.8 mg/kg body weight. This means that a 120-pound woman needs about 44 grams per day, and a 150-pound male needs about 55 grams per day. It may surprise you that even on a purely vegetarian diet, you can get enough protein easily.

Just look at the mighty elephant, the horse, or the gorilla. They eat virtually no animal protein and are healthy with incredibly strong muscles and bones. Can you get an adequate amount of protein from vegetable sources? Let’s see…

Protein Content In Common Plant-Based Food

• One banana = 1.2 g
• One cup cooked brown rice = 4.7 g
• One corn on the cob = 4.2 g
• One baked potato = 3.9 g
• One cup of pasta = 7.3 g
• Two slices of whole-wheat bread = 4.8 g
• One cup of frozen peas = 9.0 g
• One cup of cooked lentils = 16.0 g
• One cup of tofu = 18.0 g
• One cup frozen broccoli = 5.8 g
• One cup of cooked spinach = 5.4 g

From the above list, it would be easy to come up with a menu that would easily reach the RDA of protein and be low in calories. This way of eating promotes superior health, while keeping you fit and trim.

Meat vs. Veggie - Comparing Sources of Protein

So if you look at the comparison, the broccoli wins the contest. By far. If you do the comparison based on calories, green veggies always win! Incredibly, the veggie also has tons more vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals and antioxidants! On the other hand, the sirloin has more fat.

If you want superior health, you need to make veggies the main part of your food intake. If you want to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight go for the veggies. For a healthy source of protein, I’d recommend veggies over meat any day.

Now, if you were struggling for survival on a deserted island it would be a different story. You would benefit from the high concentration of calories, fat and protein in a lump of meat. I’d advise going for the steak. It just may take some work catching the cow.

For more information, I highly recommend reading Eat to Live, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman to all my patients.