Archive for the ‘Cooking Tips’ category

Organic Baby Food – Reasons Behind Why You Would Make the Switch

January 21st, 2010
Marty Richardson asked:


Most parents shop the baby aisle of their health food or grocery store looking for baby food, see organic baby food and then purchase their preferred brand, or the one they have a coupon for, without giving it another thought. Most of us grew up on regular baby food and we are, more or less, healthy and whole. Having suffered no evident negative effects from commercial varieties, it can’t be that bad, right? However, it’s less about what you grew up with and more about raising a healthy baby in a world where hormones, pesticides and other chemicals in food are the norm. As we are all too aware, today’s world is not the one we grew up in. Do chemicals found in the baby foods really affect your child’s health? Many people mistakenly believe that chemicals in our food are digested and expelled as waste; however, in reality, they get absorbed by the body and accumulate. It is safe to assume that, if it happens in adults it happens in babies, too. When babies who had been fed a diet of regular baby foods were switched to organic baby food, the noticeable levels of pesticides and fertilizers that had been present in their bodies reportedly disappeared. While the adverse effects of chemicals haven’t yet been proven harmful to children, the possibility does exist that they could damage a baby’s internal organs or cause health problems later in life. While changes in your baby may not be noticeable once you have stopped feeding them commercial baby food and shifted to organic, your baby will notice the change.

Unlike adults, babies’ bodies use food for survival and growth. Babies and children eat substantially more food per pound of body weight than adults; they also process food differently. Some studies have found that pesticides and other chemicals have a significantly greater impact on children than adults. While you will notice organic baby food costs more when compared with standard commercial brands, you can reduce the cost without affecting your baby’s health. Various traditionally grown foods, including bananas, broccoli, mangos and sweet peas, contain very low levels of pesticides and are safe for consumption by your baby. Switch to organic baby food for foods containing high levels of pesticides including apples, strawberries and spinach. To save even more, make your own! Buy or grow organic vegetables so that you know what is going into your baby’s system. If you need help with preparation tips or baby food recipes, a simple search on the internet will yield hundreds of options. In our modern day society, children seem to get sicker more often and tend toward obesity. For these reasons alone, it’s a good idea to get your child to start eating healthy food as early as possible. The best way to do that is by feeding them organic food from their first bite of baby produce without the hidden dangers of pesticides. Feeding your child good, wholesome foods will set them up for a long, healthy life with good eating habits.



The Best Baby Food Varieties

January 15th, 2010
Russ Snapper asked:


Babies are the youngest members in the family and yet, demand a lot of attention and care than others, especially when it comes to their food.

Four to six months of age is the time to prepare the baby to take solid food, since milk alone would not suffice to offer all the nutrients needed for the growing baby. This is the time to introduce various tastes to the baby in very small quantities, say, one teaspoon each.

Some babies catch up with the new taste but some, refuse to do. For such babies, it is better to blend the solid food with a familiar taste of milk before offering it to the baby. But the most important fact is that the baby is intelligent enough to decide upon the choice and taste of the food and if one taste or type is most repeatedly offered, the baby gets used to only that taste and refuses to take other types of food. So, it is a good advice to introduce all types of food to babies at this stage, namely, carrots, spinach, and a porridge containing vegetables and proteins that would form a healthy solid food.  

There cannot be an iota of debate over the quality of food that has to be given to the baby. Needless to say, baby food has to be the best, containing high nutritional value and free of toxins. All these can be combined together, if the baby food is made at home.

More over, the baby food that is prepared at home costs nearly a fraction of the price of that purchased readymade from the grocery. Even the most popular brands of baby food may not be as healthy as the food prepared at home. This is due to the fact that the majority of the baby foods add thickening agents and chemically modified starches and even some steroids that dangerously reduce the nutrient level of the food by more than half.

There is the environmental factor also in preparing a baby food at home. Every baby food is packed in a jar, bottle or package that is harmful to the environment, not to mention the disposable diapers. If such things are avoided, we can create a greener atmosphere.

Since the ingredients in a home made baby food are prepared by the parent personally, it ought to be fresh and clean and there cannot be a compromise on that. In fact, preparing baby food at home is not a strenuous task.

Since the immunity of the baby is in its initial stages, they are easily prone to diseases and hence it is the ultimate duty of the parent to take utmost care in maintaining hygienic and healthy atmosphere to the baby. This includes sterilizing all the things that come into contact with the baby. The taste and food given to the baby at this stage greatly influence their health even at their adult stage, which emphasizes the need for a healthy baby food.