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Learning A Few Healthy Eating Tips For Kids From Health Experts

It can be really hard for some parents to get their kids to eat healthy. It is one big challenge, especially when the kids start going to school and they see the variety of tasty junk foods that their classmates consume. But with careful planning and creativity, you can effectively maintain your child's good diet even if there are all sorts of temptations around them. You just have to be very resourceful and learn from health experts about a few healthy eating tips for kids.

First, add more nutritious ingredients to their favorite recipes. Identify the different ingredients your little ones should be consuming regularly to support their development and see how you can obviously or discreetly incorporate them into their favorite dishes. Serve everything in portions. This will prevent overeating. This will also serve as their measurement.

Additionally, create a healthy snack station in your fridge and pantry, especially if your kids already know how to rummage through the fridge and pantry for food. Get rid of anything that you don't want your kids to consume. Leaving them only with healthy options will prevent them from straying from the good path. Get creative with food presentation. Young people can easily get bored if they're served the same selection frequently, but if you make their meals and snacks interesting in appearance, they're not likely to complain that their options are often limited.

Always check food blogs for kids. Don't tire in looking for new healthy recipes to try for your children. Make the Internet your food preparation go-to; it is abundant with recipes intended to promote healthy eating for young eaters. Don't ever use junk food as reward, treat or bribe. Avoid making that association to maintain your children's positive mindset about good and healthy food. Don't force your kids to clean their plate, because at times, doing this can override their physical intuitions and may lead to the unhealthy habit of overeating. Also, this can make meal times less pleasant for the little ones which will make them even more reluctant to eat the next time.

Lastly, ask your kids about their favorite meal. Involve them in food selection and even food preparation. Giving them some power over what they eat can actually encourage them to uphold healthy eating. In addition to that, children are naturally curious, so if you include them in these processes, and have them taste and smell ingredients, you can feed their curiosity.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9635241

Learning the Art of Living Well

Living well through diet, exercise and lifestyle changes enables us to live empowered lives. It actively enhances our health to function at an optimal level.

In order for you to reach your goal of optimal health, start by having a plan, starting small and doing an activity that you love everyday. It could dancing, walking and swimming or any other physical activity that you have fun doing. Getting enough sleep and relaxation vital too. Relaxation techniques such as yoga and deep breathing really help to rejuvenate the body. Also, we all need to be motivated in order to make our lifestyle changes more permanent.

The High Raw Diet

Eating a healthy diet that consists of fresh raw vegetables, greens and fruits as well as some cooked whole food helps to provide optimal nourishment for your body both in the short and long-term. Raw food is food that is not heated beyond 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Raw food is full of life, energy from the sun, enzymes, phytonutrients, antioxidants needed by the body to function at the optimal levels. This helps decrease the risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke etc. Raw food also helps to enhance digestion and elimination of waste from the body.

The high raw diet is a diet made up of mostly greens, vegetables and fruit as well as whole cooked food which goes a long way in providing the body with essential nutrients, enzymes, minerals and fiber. Including organic grass-fed meat in your diet can help provide the body with the necessary nutrients for great health long-term.

Exercise

Exercise, quite simply, is physical activity that enhances physical fitness. There are a lot of benefits associated with regular exercise such as reducing the risk of diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Exercise also increases oxygen and blood supply to the muscles and organs of the body. It reduces bad cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) and increases good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol). Exercise is also known to be a mood enhancer because it helps to reduce depression and anxiety These are just some of the many benefits of exercising on a regular basis. It's always good to follow an exercise regime to enhance your overall health and well-being.

Try to follow an exercise regime that is best for you and will result in your enhanced overall health and well-being.

There is a lot of scientific research on exercise and how it can directly affect your health. These studies can help you learn how to apply the information in your life order to reach your goal of optimal health. Learning how to enhance your physical fitness with physical activity is crucial for long-term success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9644697

Tenderness at a Child's Rebuke

AS I read a story to my son during his bedtime routine, I received a sharp albeit respectful rebuke. All I had said was the street, "Riverbank Close." It did happen to be "Riverbank Rise," so he simply said, "Riverbank Rise!" to which I said, "Yes, that's what I said," not thinking. "No," he said, "you said Riverbank Close!" "Yes," I said, having given it further thought, "you're right, I did get it wrong." There was no gloating in him as he heard me say that, just the body language of thankfulness that he had been heard.

I stood corrected. I granted him the fact that he was right and promptly acknowledged it.

There have been times when, as a father, I would have said, "Now, that's enough of that, remember who is Dad (i.e. the boss... and the boss is never wrong)!" Times when my pride has risen up and demanded 'respect'.

And how just would that have been had that happened? How many times have we cut our children off simply because they were right, yet we couldn't accept their letting us know? How many times has pride won the order of the day, only for the children to have to wear the sting of injustice again? Sure, it's happened to us all and, if we're parents, we've all probably executed those same injustices.

A parent engages in powerful parenting when they overturn power structures in the execution of justice against themselves to advance truth; to say we're sorry when we ought to be; to give the benefit of the doubt; to elevate truth above our 'right' to misuse our power.

In the situation above, how could it be fair other than to acknowledge he was right and I was wrong? It cost nothing to be honest, and in being honest I was able to express my gratitude for having been corrected.

Children learn justice best through their experience of it in their own homes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9845104

Kids and Teens - Learning to Cook

Kids need to learn to cook. Cooking is a skill that should be a part of every child's learning. Cooking with kids can get messy, and often time consuming, but it is for a good cause. Cooking with children can help them learn many new skills, such as:

• preparing tasty food they enjoy making and eating 
• following directions as they cook with you 
• learning to use kitchen tools correctly 
• practicing safety and proper food handling methods 
• learning how to shop for food 
• practicing good table manners

There are many reasons why some children don't learn important cooking skills. Sometimes parents don't like to cook and their children can sense it. Then they may feel that cooking is not a big deal, but it is! Many schools have left foods and nutrition classes out of the curriculum. So what's a parent to do to encourage their child to cook and learn more about food and the part it plays in one's life? They could help their child by:

• watching TV cooking shows 
• finding information in books or other sources 
• encouraging him/her to "help" in the kitchen

Kids get kitchen-savvy through different food experiences. As with many other skills, 

practice improves their work.

Why do kids like to cook and work in the kitchen?

It's fun! Mixing, sifting, and stirring appeals to most children. The fun part continues through the eating process. The clean-up? Perhaps not so much, but this is also an important job.

To be creative! Working with food is a chance to show off their creative side. This can be in the way they combine foods or start to find rhythm in following a recipe and working with others.

To impress their friends! Showing off kitchen skills when cooking for or with friends is very self-satisfying.

Knowing how to cook and being comfortable in working in the kitchen is an important skill. Even young children can learn to wash lettuce, stir the batter, set the table. They can begin to build their own cookbook of favorite recipes and can learn more about their own tastes and abilities.

Action plan for today: Talk about favorite foods the child likes. (Emphasize fruits and vegetables). See how many they can name beginning with A, B, C, etc. Have him/her draw pictures of their favorite food.

Involving children in food preparation activities not only helps children learn to cook but provides them with many other learning experiences.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9699927

10 Healthy Snack Ideas Every Student Should Know!

Foods and Diet That Improve Memory Power

Memory is the ability to store, retain and recall instances, experiences and information. This memory can be affected by many factors like age, fatigue, lack of a proper diet, stress or lack of sleep. In some cases, poor memory can be a symptom of a major disease like brain disease, tumor, brain injury, stroke or Alzheimer's.

Memory can be short term or long term. Short term memory is a recall for a span of few seconds to a minute and has limited capacity. Long term memory can retain larger information for an unlimited period of time. Memory involves communication between the brain's networks of neurons. The stages of memory foundation and maintenance are in the following steps:

Acquisition: When new information enters the brain, one needs to pay attention and focus in order to remember it.

Consolidation: If one focuses on the new information, the hippocampus signals to store the information as long term memory.

Retrieval: The brain has to activate the same pattern of nerve cells which is used to store it when one needs to recall the information.

There are different ways to improve poor memory like stress reduction, physical fitness and diet for poor memory. Our brain is complex and to increase the ability to remember one needs to exercise the brain. Learning new skills keeps the brain engaged and is an effective way to improve the memory. Yoga is also said to reduce stress, improve one's concentration and memory. Getting a good sleep is required for memory consolidation. Insomnia will leave you tired and make you unable to concentrate on anything. Smokers have the risk of constriction of arteries that deliver oxygen to the brain.

Certain food intake improves the memory significantly and one should take this diet for poor memory. Foods that improve memory are as follows:

1. Vitamins B6/Vitamin B12: Both of these vitamins are important for the body and play an important role in the functioning of the brain and the memory. Deficiency of these vitamins can decrease the functioning of the brain and cause poor memory. Foods which are rich in vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 are: walnuts, eggs, shrimp, sunflower seeds, soy beans, citrus fruits, spinach and asparagus.

2. Antioxidants/Vitamin C: The role of anti oxidants is to eliminate the harmful free radicals from our body. Anti oxidants are required by the body for the flow of oxygen to the brains and the overall health benefits. Some of the foods rich in anti oxidants are: water melons, carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, pomegranates, blueberries, sweet potatoes and green tea. These foods improve memory and should be included in the diet regularly.

3. Omega 3: Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid needed for proper functioning of the brain. It cannot be produced by the body, so one needs to consume foods that are rich in omega 3 fatty acid. Nuts, flaxseeds and fishes like salmon and tuna are known to be sources of Omega 3.

4. Whole grains: Whole grains are healthy and beneficial for promoting long term memory. Whole wheat pasta and whole wheat breads are preferred over white breads. Other sources are oatmeal, whole grain products.

Consumption of this diet for poor memory helps your brain to function properly and increases the memory. Be sure to include these foods that improve memory in your diet everyday! Herbal supplements like Brain O Brain capsule is an ultimate food supplement that helps in enhancing memory power and learning capacity.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5895801

Memory Enhancing Foods - Diets That Improve Memory

Memory is an activity which is related to our mind. In this activity there is recalling of information that you have experienced or learned. Memory can be of short term or long term. In short term memories your mind stores information for few seconds or for few minutes. In long term memory, you retain information for long time.

We must always work in the direction to improve memories. There are some basic things, which are very helpful in improving the memories in addition to exercising your brain.

1. Be attentive always. 

2. Acquire information which adds to your learning style. 

3. Involve as many senses as possible to improve memory. 

4. Relate information to what you know. 

5. Organize information 

6. Understand and be able to interpret complex problem. 

7. Rehear the information and over-learn it. 

8. Be motivated and always keep a positive attitude.

Food also plays an important role in enhancing your memory. There are some important foods which are responsible for improving your memory. These foods are having the qualities of memory boosting and they are with high nutrients. These foods will definitely improve your brain and memory.

1. Eat More Fish - Fatty fish are rich in omega-3 fats and it is very helpful in enhancing your memory. It is having the qualities to reduce the inflammation of the cell which is responsible for decline in memory. Fatty fish like sardines and salmon are excellent source of boosting memory as they are the source of Omega-3 oils. You must eat at least 3 servings of fish in a week for improving your memory.

2. Eat more and more vegetables to improve your memory.

Dark leafy vegetables - You must have at least a cup of dark leafy vegetables. You can take these vegetables after cooking or boiling but don't overcook as it will take away its vitamins and nutrients.

Spinach - Spinach is very effective in improving memory as it contains high content of folic acid.

Onions - Long term memory can be improved by taking onion regularly as it contain fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid.

3. Berries are also responsible for improving memories. Both blueberries and strawberries are responsible for improving memories. Blueberries in addition to improving of memory protect us from other disease also like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Whereas strawberry is responsible for improving long term memory.

Other fruits and vegetables are also effective for improving memories like tomatoes, oranges, apples, peaches, grapes etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5721004

Values Are Caught and Not Taught

According to some people, values are caught not taught. It means that values or behaviors are learned from the people who practice them, instead of being told. We catch these values by seeing them lived by example. The values that we actually live are caught rather than merely taught.

Factors affecting values formation of a person include:

Home

Parents have the greatest influence on a person's life. From the moment that we were born, they became our role models.When we toss values out for our children, we should keep in mind that these values must be sound and well-thought. Usually what happens at home shapes a person's values and traits. For example, if at home the children have a high respect for their parents, then outside, those children might have a high respect for authority too. Whereas, when at home the parents are always fighting and arguing with each other, the tendency is children will become bully when they are outside. Thus, children caught either positive or negative values without even taught.

School

Schools are usually seen as more than just knowledge providers. They are required to teach students honesty, fairness and equality inside the classroom despite diveristy of culture. But this is easier said than done because teaching morals to students involves more than just cognitive (knowledge) level.

According to Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains, there are three realms of educational activities:

• Cognitive: mental skills - knowledge
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas - attitude or self
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills - behavioral skills

Skills in the cognitive domain revolve around knowledge, comprehension, and critical thinking on a particular topic. The affective domain typically targets the awareness and growth in attitudes, emotion, and feelings; and the psychomotor domain focuses on change and/or development in behavior and/or skills.

Often than not, we focus a lot on the knowledge aspect of character. The cognitive level is also important, but in the field of education, teachers should focus on how to help the learners consistently put values into action by:

• showing a good example to them,
• living what they preach, and
• doing what they talk.

Society

Aside from the parents and teachers, values of the people also might become affected by the people around them like their peers, relatives, neighbors, and others. Whatever the environment generally accepts, people think of it as right even though sometimes it is wrong.

Media

The media also provides a great influence in shaping up a person's values and traits. From the telenovelas, to celebrities, to music icons, people tend to copy what their idols are doing. In this case, people are not taught but rather caught the values portrayed on TV.

People often say that character is developed when it is both caught and taught. It would flourish best when we accurately teach the skills needed to put values into action. Yet, these skills must also be lived. They need to be part of our everyday life because if we merely talk about the values that we have, without enacting them, most likely, values are caught and not taught.

Thus, values cannot just be taught in a formal sense because the application of these sets of values for one to personally adopt must be acquired or caught through modeled and observed behaviors outside of oneself.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8688600

Memory: Discover the Missing Component of Recall

Memory is everything; without our memory we have nothing. We must have an ability to recall information in order to learn and develop. Today brain research has uncovered fascinating discoveries relating to memory, yet we have only just begun to understand this mystery of the mind.

Most researchers focus on the brain and how the different parts are related to memory. This understanding is very important if we are ever going to truly understand ourselves. I find neuroscience to be a fascinating subject that has helped shape my understanding of the human condition however I don't want to look at the brain in regards to memory.

I instead want to focus on the mind and how it utilizes information in regards to our memory. I want to share my theory on how the two different minds (conscious and subconscious) work together to provide us with the ability of recall.

Most people know about short and long-term memory; and how these two systems work together to give us the ability of recall. I believe there is a third type of memory that I call temporary memory that helps fill in the gap between short and long-term memory. I want to go over each of the three types, show you how they work, and explain how the two minds are related.

Before we can remember something we must first take in the information to be stored. Our DNA does contain some information but for this topic I will be focused on information we have obtained from outside sources; meaning our five senses.

Everything we experience in life is the result of information coming in through our five senses. Without these senses we would have no experience of the world or have any information to be processed into memory. This incoming information is first sent to the subconscious mind.

The reason the subconscious gets the information first is because it's the survival mind and is much faster at processing information. We need it this way to allow us to react to events that involve an immediate threat to us such as being attacked or touching a hot stove.

After the subconscious mind determines if any action is needed or not; it sends a small amount of the information to the conscious mind were it becomes what we call our conscious awareness. We are only aware of a small part of what is going on around us. This is why two people can have the same experience yet have two different views of what happened.

The thing to keep in mind is just because the information is not consciously known doesn't mean it's lost. This information is still sitting there inside your head just waiting to be used. At the same time this information is not yet a part of your long-term memory. All this incoming information is stored in what I call temporary memory and is controlled by the subconscious mind.

If information is stored in temporary memory; how do we get it to become long-term memory? My theory is the subconscious mind processes this information and converts it to long-term memory when we sleep, specifically REM sleep. To me this is one of the reasons we have dreams. Dreams are nothing more than us becoming consciously aware of temporary memory being converted to long-term memory.

One way the subconscious processes information to be converted to long-term memory is by using emotional "tags". This means if an event has caused us to feel a strong emotion it gets linked to that emotion. When this information is converted to long-term memory it is arranged in such a way as to be easy to recall. In other words the more emotion involved the more the memory will be put at the "front of the line" and information with no emotions will be move to the back. This makes it easier to recall emotional events which are important when it comes to survival. This is why the subconscious is in control of this system.

Just because the conscious mind does not have direct control over this information, it can access it through a process of requesting information from the subconscious. When the conscious mind requests information the subconscious first looks in this temporary memory because it is smaller, easier to process, and most likely to be more relevant. If it can't find it in temporary memory then it will expand the search to long-term memory which can take longer to find because of the massive size of long-term memory.

That's why you can be trying to think of something and then forget about it, but later the answer will just pop into your head for no reason. Your subconscious continues to search without any conscious awareness of what is going on.

The subconscious also uses the information in temporary memory to influence our decisions and actions. This influence is the basis of subliminal programing and can be very powerful if used correctly. Subliminal programing doesn't turn people into walking zombies but can have a real effect on a person's conscious thought process.

As you can see the subconscious mind is very involved with our memory by working with both temporary and long-term memory. The concept of using temporary memory to hold information before being converted to long-term memory is a wonderful system that allows us to utilize information as its being taken in. The problem is temporary memory is a fixed size and this causes problems.

Have you noticed how you get mentally tired if you don't get proper sleep? A lack of sleep causes the temporary memory to become full which can lead to issues with being able to recall the information we want. Sleep is so important in maintaining a strong memory.

Lack of sleep is not the only thing that can cause issues with temporary memory; there is also what environment we find ourselves in.

I skipped over one of the steps in how information is processed because I felt it was too early in the flow of this article. When the subconscious first receives information it looks for any copies of that information in our long-term memory. If it finds an exact copy it will simply reinforce the long-term memory instead of sending it to temporary memory.

This is why we have better recall of something if we can look at the information from different angels or give the information more details. These things cause more copies of the information to be put into temporary memory that will then be converted to long-term memory. If all we do is look at something one way we only reinforce a single long-term memory; and memory is all about the number of links we create. So how is our environment involved in memory?

When you are in an environment you are familiar with you take in more "copy" information because you already have knowledge about what is around you; which causes less information to be stored in your temporary memory. When you are in an unfamiliar environment your temporary memory will fill more rapidly causing you to become mentally fatigued. This is why you feel mentally tired when on vacation or when trying to learn something new.

The final piece of this memory puzzle is of course short-term memory. The conscious mind uses short-term memory to process information it receives. Because of the highly analytically nature of the conscious mind it can only keep track of a very small amount of information. Short-term memory is the only form of memory that is controlled by the conscious mind.

If all of this seems confusing or overwhelming let me offer you a metaphor on how all this works that will make it easier to understand.

Your mind is like an office. Information comes in and first goes to the inbox (temporary memory). From there some of the paper work gets move from the inbox to the desk top (short-term memory).

With any desk top there is very limited space so you must work on just a couple of things at a time. You can move papers back and forth from the desk top to the inbox but can only work with a few things at a time.

Just as with temporary memory an inbox can only hold so much before it becomes a disorganized mess. To keep the inbox from getting too full papers are moved to a filing cabinet (long-term memory). From time to time we do move papers from the filing cabinet to the desk top as we need them (consciously becoming aware of something from long-term memory). However it can be hard and time-consuming in finding just what we are looking for.

I hope this metaphor helps with understanding how the three parts of memory work together to give us this amazing ability of recall. Memory is still a mystery yet we are moving in the right direction.

Jeremy T. Jordan is a dynamic Speaker and Personal Life Coach that specializes in the areas of Success, Happiness, and Fulfillment. 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jeremy_T_Jordan/1082288

Memory techniques - Your secret weapon in the information age | Simon Re...

Video gamers have an advantage in learning

Neuropsychologists of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum let video gamers compete against non-gamers in a learning competition. During the test, the video gamers performed significantly better and showed an increased brain activity in the brain areas that are relevant for learning. Prof Dr Boris Suchan, Sabrina Schenk and Robert Lech report their findings in the journal Behavioural Brain Research.

The weather prediction task

The research team studied 17 volunteers who -- according to their own statement -- played action-based games on the computer or a console for more than 15 hours a week. The control group consisted of 17 volunteers who didn't play video games on a regular basis. Both teams did the so-called weather prediction task, a well-established test to investigate the learning of probabilities. The researchers simultaneously recorded the brain activity of the participants via magnetic resonance imaging.

The participants were shown a combination of three cue cards with different symbols. They should estimate whether the card combination predicted sun or rain and got a feedback if their choice was right or wrong right away. The volunteers gradually learned, on the basis of the feedback, which card combination stands for which weather prediction. The combinations were thereby linked to higher or lower probabilities for sun and rain. After completing the task, the study participants filled out a questionnaire to sample their acquired knowledge about the cue card combinations.

Video gamers better with high uncertainties

The gamers were notably better in combining the cue cards with the weather predictions than the control group. They fared even better with cue card combinations that had a high uncertainty such as a combination that predicted 60 percent rain and 40 percent sunshine.

The analysis of the questionnaire revealed that the gamers had acquired more knowledge about the meaning of the card combinations than the control group. "Our study shows that gamers are better in analysing a situation quickly, to generate new knowledge and to categorise facts -- especially in situations with high uncertainties," says first author Sabrina Schenk.

This kind of learning is linked to an increased activity in the hippocampus, a brain region that plays a key role in learning and memory. "We think that playing video games trains certain brain regions like the hippocampus," says Schenk. "That is not only important for young people, but also for older people; this is because changes in the hippocampus can lead to a decrease in memory performance. Maybe we can treat that with video games in the future."

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Ruhr-University Bochum. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Sabrina Schenk, Robert K. Lech, Boris Suchan. Games people play: How video games improve probabilistic learning. Behavioural Brain Research, 2017; 335: 208 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.08.027