Teach them while you can

All of our kids are out of house now, so when I read a headline like this - Five ways to get your children to eat fruits and vegetables Health News Digest - it makes me nostalgic for those days when we could chide our kids to eat more baby carrots or salad." Why?" they would ask. Because I work for a produce publication, that's why! Now they are on their own. Maybe I should have tried some of these tactics, from the article:

1. FUN - the key to getting your children to eat more vegetables is to make the process fun. Even at the grocery store in the produce section, create alight atmosphere as you select fruits and vegetables to put in your cart. Creating games on the way to your desired result adds some levity to the serious subject of fruits, vegetables and daily requirements.

2. INFORM - our children love to know what part of their bodies benefit from eating specific healthy foods. When we offer our two year her flax oil on a teaspoon, she always points to her forehead and says, "This is good for my brain!"

3. TASTY - your have to ensure the vegetables provided taste great on a sensitive child's palate. By providing yummy dips of melted cheese or hummus, etc you are more likely to get little Johnny to keep coming back for more.

4. EARN - give your child some type of age appropriate reward for eating all their vegetables. Children enjoy the challenge set by parents and equally the thrill of receiving an award for completing tasks.

5. VARIETY - it is the spice of life! There are loads of varieties of potatoes, apples, tomatoes, etc. By presenting new kinds of any particular vegetable or fruit, you give the little ones a chance to develop their own likes and dislikes. This approach also forces you outside your comfort zone by making you try new vegetables or fruits each week.



More headlines today.....

Government needs to look at all programs Newssun Letter to Editor

The "E verify" program, if used fully, could ferret out most all of the illegal workers, which I suspect could be close to 20 million jobs that are lost to our citizens. This could re-employ millions of American laid off workers. Many American industries refuse to hire American workers claiming "over educated for the job." Many engineers in American industries were laid off in the early 1980s by the aircraft, auto, etc., industries. They were replaced with foreign engineers from India, China and nations of low



Brasher: Local food makes sense, as long as logistics do Des Moines Register

"Relocalizing the food supply, shrinking the distance that food travels, isn't in and of itself going to achieve these goals of sustainability that we're after," said James McWilliams, an agriculture historian at Texas State University.He pointed to studies such as one done in Europe that found that fuel consumption for catching cod could be reduced significantly by switching to nets that produced less drag on the boats. It's also more efficient in some cases to eat imported meat from grass-fed livestock than domestic grain-based products.Does it make sense, McWilliams said, for water-short cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas to import water to create their own food?


Climate change bill is introduced Chemical News

HOUSE ENERGY & COMMERCE Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and energy subcommittee Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released their much-awaited draft climate-change bill last week. The 648-page draft will be the basis for hammering out conflicting congressional perspectives on greenhouse gas reductions in the months ahead. The draft bill provides incentives for a wide range of energy-related technologies—renewable energy, carbon capture and sequestration, clean fuels and vehicles, electricity transmission, energy efficiency, and green jobs. At the draft's heart, however, are reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.The bill would cut CO₂ emissions to 3% below 2005 levels by 2012, 20% by 2020, and 83% by 2050. It would cover electric utilities, chemical and oil companies, and other industrial sources that are responsible for 85% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. It dodges the thorny issue of whether some pollution allowances should be initially given away free to high-CO₂-emitting industries, saying the issue will be addressed in upcoming House discussions..The draft blocks EPA from regulating CO₂ under the Clean Air Act, which the agency is now considering.

U.S, Europe vow to cooperate in climate change China View


There's a method to saving money on groceries The Sacramento Bee

Supermarkets carry about 40,000 different items. But a typical family spends nearly all of its annual grocery budget on a tiny fraction of those – less than 200 items. Many experts recommend keeping a notebook or spreadsheet of different stores' prices on the items you buy most – even if it's only your top 10 or 20. That will help you figure out what store is the best value for you – and also help you figure out whether a "sale" item is really a good deal.


FBI links long haul truckers, serial killings LAT

The FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truckers are responsible for the slayings of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near highways over the last three decades.Federal authorities first made the connection about five years ago while helping police link a trucker to a string of unsolved killings along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and several other states. After that, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to track suspicious slayings and suspect truckers. A computer database maintained by the FBI has grown to include information on more than 500 female crime victims, most of whom were killed and their bodies discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations along popular trucking routes crisscrossing the U.S.The database also has information on scores of truckers who've been charged with killings or rapes committed near highways or who are suspects in such crimes, officials said. Authorities said they do not have statistics on whether driving trucks ranks high on the list of occupations of known serial killers.