High Fructose Corn Syrup: How Do you Feed Carbohydrate Junkies?

My 3 year old grandson has refused meat products since he was old enough to eat from a spoon. He came into the world with a very discerning sense of smell. Nothing passes his lips before it has gone through his little smell test.

"No, that's yucky. That's too floppy. That's too spinach."

Today, I bought carrot juice. The expensive kind. I have become very worried about the fact that MD's are saying that high fructose corn syrup has been linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and skin cancer. It seems that this sweetner is cheaper than cane sugar. It always boils down to money. He is very fair and loves outside and the sun.  So how do you feed a child who refuses all fruit, vegetables and meat of all kinds? What do you feed a 3 year old who drinks milk, juices, cool aid, apple juice, iced tea, and pediasure? He only eats baby pasta and odoodles of noodles.  Have you ever seen those tiny flecks of parsley in the soup mix packet? Well he picks out those almost microscopic specks of green. "No spinach." He is so picky that he only consumes the foods that the body makes into sugar. This means that the child lives on sugar.

High Fructose Corn Poison

I have often told my daughter that Mickey D's should stop lying about there being meat in Chicken Nuggets, because that is the only thing that resembles meat that he will eat. They pass his smell test. How is that possible? Do additives mask the smell of meat or is the meat absent.

He is extremely asthmatic and takes a melt in your mouth singulair daily. Singulair is said to cause hallucinations and violent rages. I'd say that the sweet little boy can go there. He also takes albuterol and pulmicort when in serious distress, which is almost all the time. He is lying in his little bed right now with the nebulizer running. Sometimes I think that the noise of it soothes the little beastie inside and puts him to sleep. Okay, that was wishful thinking. Too much Gogurt today. He may even be allergic. Sugar. Sugar. And milk makes phlegm? Even orange juice is said to make phlegm. He doesn't like orange juice anyway.
"Its too orange. Check and Check."
He couldn't do the walk yesterday. He is too heavy to carry. He is not fat. He is solid. His saving grace is that he likes Nick Jr. and will dance all night to the many songs, if you let him. Tonight he ate dinosaur shaped pieces of what  was supposed to be chicken. This was a turning point. Now it seems like there will be a fitful night of sleep ahead.  Okay, I will stop now. I am scaring myself.

I have been doing a lot of reading about the corn syrup, sugar, the drugs and asthma. 

Does a Healthy School Lunch Affect a Child's Behavior or Learning?

Tossed Salad anyone?

My daughter is 42. When she was in school I insisted on a boxed lunch. Why? I wanted to make sure she got a good meal. I did not trust what she would be fed in school. We did not qualify for free or reduced lunch and I could not see paying for the garbage they feed the children. She did not agree with me. She did not think it was cool to carry a lunch box, even if all the other kids wanted her lunch. She had a cool lunch box. I filled it with really good food that she traded for the lunches made in school. The other children really appreciated the food I made her. In the middle school, her principal even commented on how good her lunches looked and smelled. By middle school she was selling her carefully prepared meals for money. What can I say? She was very enterprising. 

The average American
school lunch?

When I attended Dwight Morrow high school in Englewood, New Jersey, there was a collection of round ladies wearing hair nets behind the petition separating the kitchen from the lunch pick up area. The smells that filled the cafeteria were very much like the ones from home. When one selected mashed potatoes, one knew they were going to eat mashed potatoes. Macaroni and cheese was made with real cheese, eggs and butter. It was good. Turkey squares were the favorite of all us all. I think they were served on Thursdays, especially near Thanksgiving. We looked forward to them. There were real green vegetables. Of course, we knew that some of the vegetables came from a can, but they were still palatable and made by ladies who waved to you from the kitchen. It was a balanced meal based on the FDA's basic food groups.

Spinach w/turkey bacon, mushrooms

There has been a lot of coverage given to school lunches in the news today. Perhaps it is because of the interest shown to the subject by our First Lady, Michelle Obama. She and Rachel Ray teamed up to visit schools and made an effort to revamp school lunch regulations.  Jane Black of All We Can Eat wrote, "More than 500 chefs gathered at the White House today to join Michelle Obama's newest effort to fight childhood obesity, Chefs Move To Schools."

Public domain image:
http://www.wpclipart.com/food/Food_Pyramid.png.html

Across the country parents and communities are talking about school lunches. For years, educators and medical professionals have agreed that a lunch laden with carbohydrates do nothing to stimulate a child's brain activity. Included in this blog are Dr. Oz's Shopping suggestions. The human body turns everything on the school lunch plate above into sugar. The styrofoam plate is also a problem if the macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes are served hot. The tray is also not biodegradable. It will sit around on the landfill for 100 years, maybe even forever. Some schools are beginning to go green, but until the trays are piling up in front of our doors, some people will never listen. These trays have no recyclable value. Why are we continually giving students mixed messages? We can't talk Green Team in one breath and serve them unhealthy meals on styrofoam trays while we speak. No one wants the used trays. They are totally NOT recyclable. Why are companies still making them? If the schools stop using them, there would no longer be a market for them. So why, you ask are our children still being served globs of carbohydrates on them? Ask your local Board of Education.

From my garden

We must all become involved in keeping the earth green and clean. Every school should have an environmental club or class that focuses on the effort to save the planet. Every child should and every parent must protest the use of styrofoam lunch trays for school lunches. It is bad enough that the food served on them is processed to the point that it no longer has any nutritional value. What ever happened to the old adage, "you are what you eat." Think on that for a second or two. Is there no wonder that today's children seem to have more and varied behavioral problems. There are people all over the country who are making the effort to get it right. That is behavior that we should emulate. It is time the New Jersey State Department of Education started to understand why New Jersey has been nicknamed the "GARDEN STATE." More of that fresh produce must begin make its way into the daily lunches in our cafeterias. We must use every strategy at our disposal to support our children as they endeavor to close the Achievement GAP so prevalent in today's educational system.


 New Jersey Nutrition and Wellness

• School Breakfast Program
• After School Snack Program
• National School Lunch Program
• New Jersey School Nutrition/Wellness Policy
• Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station
• Food Guide Pyramid: ChooseMyPlate.go
• Jersey Fresh: New Jersey Department of Agriculture

What are folks saying about School Lunches?

• The Economics of a Healthy School Meal
• Kids Heart Felt Health
• 30 Ideas for School Lunches: Sandwiches and Munchies
• School Lunches and Snacks
• Teachers Vs. Childhood Obesity
• Recess Before Lunch
• School Nutrition Association
• Jersey Fresh: New Jersey Department of Agriculture

Success Stories: They got it right

• CHOICE: Citizens for Healthy Options in Children's Education
• Tray Talk: New Salad Bar Offers California Students 18 Feet of Fresh Choices
• Success Stories: Waste Free Lunches
• USDA: Food and Nutrition service success stories 
• School Lunch Success in Austin, Texas: The Official "Whole Foods Market" blog.

STYRENE: Increase your knowledge of this potentially dangerous product on which your child's food is served daily.

• Styrene
• Earth Resource Foundation
• Waste Reduction: The Facts About Styrofoam
• Styrofoam Products
• Bad Things About Styrofoam
• Bad Things About Styrofoam Trays and What you can do To Eliminate Them
• One Mom's Battle Against Styrofoam lunch Trays
• Portland students push district to abandon styrofoam lunch trays
• The Story of Styrofoam Trays and What you can do To Eliminate Them
• A Possible solution for ridding the world of styrofoam?
• The Dangers of Polystyrene
• Joint the Fight Against the use of Polystyrene in food service

Alternatives to Styrofoam

• PrimeWare - Leading Manufacturer of Eco-Friendly, Biodegradable and Recyclable Tableware
• Go-Green Sugar Cane 100% Compostable
• Tree Cycle Recycled Paper
• Oceansgreen: Biodegradable, Disposable
• Ithaca Natural Resource
• Sustainable design for Living Branch
• Go Green 100% Compostable
• Green Choice
• The Corn Starch Lunch Tray
• The Bamboo Lunch Tray
• Sustainable Food Service Trays - Biodegradable
• And then there is paper...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This is the first in a series of gardens that I will feature on this blog. Last week I had occasion to visit a friend. We had spoken about her gardens prior to this. I remember when she moved into this house. There was no garden. The previous owners did not have any type of flowers or shrubbery. This beautifully groomed area makes a really nice place to sit and sip a mint julip or a vintage merlot. The fence was installed to increase privacy from the street. The shrubbery planted along the fence creates even more privacy,  makes for a fine breezeway and sound barrier. It is not easy to grow roses. They require a lot of attention. A lot of love and cultivation has nurtured these roses that have been trained to grow on this open cast iron gazebo. The cast iron dinette set compliments the area making a great place to have a meal on cool afternoons.

We settled in another beautiful area of her yard that I chose not to photograph. It was a time of day when the rear yard was shaded and I did not wish to reveal the location. My good friend is enjoying her yard. She has now decided to stay in the area instead of leaving for some far away pastoral part of the country. She has created a  beautiful outdoor living space that has caused her to fall in love with the place she has chosen to live. Gardening therapy has calmed the need to fly south that very often influences us to pick up and leave a town. We sipped merlot and spoke of the times when I worked and the times when she will no longer work. All in all, it was a great day.

Thank you Cynthia South for sharing
 your merlot, your company and your
beautiful yard.

American Pastoral,  
Pastoral Retreat Art Poster Print by Steven Harvey, 37x28,
Windowsill Whimsy, Gardening & Horticultural Therapy Projects for Small Spaces
Horticulture Therapy Methods: Making Connections in Health Care, Human Service, And Community Programs (Haworth Series in Therapy & Human Development Through Horticulture)
Projects for Horticultural Therapy Programs

Public Gardening on City Lots



Norman Gainey gardens on
City Land in a spot that has been
used over 30 years.



Meet Norman Gainey. He is one of the people that keeps this city lot growing green things. He plants cabbage, corn, tomatoes, squash,  stringbeans, cucumbers and many other vegetables. He is southern born like me and has been tending this public gardening spot with several other men for many years. The plot of land behind him has been a City gardening spot since I moved here when I was 16 years old. I tried to get a photo of him working, but it was impossible. He always came back to a pose for the camera. I promised him that I would return at intervals during the summer in order to document how his garden grows. Norman says the hardest thing to take is when passersby raid the garden removing the tender young vegetables before they ripen. The garden is located on a busy corner on the bus route. People have been known to pick a shopping bag full of vegetables while waiting for the bus on the corner. I guess that is one of the draw backs of a public garden. The unwelcome harvesting  has not stopped Mr. Gainey and his friends from coming back every year to plant again.

Do you have any empty lots near you?. The City allows this planting because it is a sure thing that garbage is never going to collect on this spot.

The Money Tree: Preserving the Southern Magnolia

I was 12 years old when my Mom and Dad returned from a hunting trip in the woods south of us. They were carrying a small shrub wrapped in a wet blanket. It was spring and the ground was soft, black and ripe for planting. It was Saturday and I wondered why they had risen so early in the morning and disappeared with the old red mule. I sat on the back porch and watched as they gingerly unraveled the tender plant from the wet blanket. A hole had alread been dug in the yard. I had noticed my dad throwing in any manner of scraps. The dirt appeared newly churned as they produced a tender green shrub with bright shiny green leaves. They were almost ceremonial as they planted the little tree. As time passed the tree grew and flourished. It was always cared for with such rigor. The giant white fragrant blossoms lasted well into winter. The bright red seeds on the pod attracted many different types of birds.

I was a grown woman when I learned why the little tree was so special to my parents. My Mother became very ill and I drove over 500 miles to North Carolina every weekend to spend time with her.  In the summer of '89' I noticed she had a small tree very much like one I watched them plant when I was 12. It was planted in the yard in back of her trailor. When I questioned her about it, she told me that it was a magnolia. Our very large plantation style house had long since been burned to the ground. The tiny tree that I watched them plant when I was 12 was in full blown. The blossoms were so fragrant that the area smelled like sweet perfume.

     "It is a money tree." She explained when she noticed me eyeing the little tree. "And that one is yours."

She had actually collected the bright red seeds from the adult tree and raised the young seedling herself.

She explained that we were having a really hard time financially when they found the older tree growing in the forest.  They brought it home because they had been told that it was a good luck tree and brought prosperity to those who cared for it. It remains a matter of opinion whether or not it worked for my parents. We dug up the little seedling together. It was wrapped in an old wet towel and placed in a bucket with a little water on the bottom. I was instructed to plant it outdoors as soon as possible.

Back home in NJ, I did as I had been told. When winter came that year I was worried about my little tree. It was covered in snow and leaning to one side. I called my father and asked his advice.

"Is the tree green? Are the leaves bright and shiny?" I explained that I could not tell. "Go outside and look."

The leaves were green and shiny.

"The tree will be fine. Cold won't hurt it." My father was right. The tree is still going strong and when the seed pods are removed it does blossom deep into winter. The kids love picking out the bright red seeds and playing with them. We have used them in art projects, but they mostly serve to attract some beautiful birds to the yard. Sometimes there are blossoms when snow is on the ground. The only time the leaves are not shiny is when the landscaper gets too close to it with the lime as he sweetens the lawn. It needs a good helping of hollytone in the spring. Broken and damaged branches must be removed. The branches grow close to the ground so some had to be removed because it made a safe haven for small animals with whom I did not enjoy sharing my yard. As for it being a bringer of prosperity, who knows. I am not rich, but I have also never been as poor as in the old days on the farm.

Magnolias: A Gardener's Guide

Magnolia Grandiflora - Southern Magnolia

Leonard Messel Magnolia Tree - Outdoors or Bonsai

Ann Star Magnolia Tree - Outdoors or Bonsai - Fragrant

Purple Lily Magnolia Tree Five Gallon

Deciduous Saucer Magnolia Tree "Jane" Five Gallon