Stocking Your Cupboards With Healthy Stuff

Do you want you and your kids to get super-healthy? Throw out all of the crap in your fridge that is not good for you and the kids and replace it with healthy stuff.

Here is an idea of what should be on your new grocery list –
• Irish steel-cut oats. Oats do contain some gluten, but for most people they are quite tolerable and they are okay to have during a cleanse.

• Mixed-grain hot cereals. Be sure they’re gluten- and sugar-free—and this means no honey or maple syrup

• Rice cakes. Stay away from the ones with too much sodium or funky flavorings (like sour cream and onion rice cakes!)

• Flax crackers

• Gluten-free bread. There are many delicious alternatives to the usual bread you buy. Try some sprouted breads, as they are easier to digest and are less processed.

• Sweet potatoes, yams

• Grains: brown or wild rice, millet, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, corn.

• Nuts: almonds, walnuts, cashews, soy nuts, macadamia nuts, filberts, etc.

• Seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, hemp, flax. Flaxseeds must be freshly ground rather than eaten whole, otherwise you won't get full nutritional benefit.

• Nut or seed butters: almond butter, tahini, cashew butter, peanut butter (all unsweetened))

• Beans and legumes: black beans, lentils, chickpeas, lima beans, adzuki beans, black-eyed peas and fava beans. Dried ones are best

• Vegetables: kale, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, eggplant, collard greens, squash of all kinds, tomatoes, etc.

• Mushrooms

• Salad: arugula, radicchio, endive, mixed greens, peppers, avocado, tomato, radish,

• Fruits: apples, raspberries, cherries, peaches, blueberries, goji berries; frozen fruits for smoothies

• Citrus and exotic fruits lemons, limes, and unsweetened pomegranate juice for sparkling-water cocktails

• Herbal teas such as mint, chamomile and fennel.

• Nondairy milk, such as rice, almond, hemp, or soy milk (unsweetened)

• Healthy sweeteners: xylitol, agave nectar, and stevia for smoothies, milks, cereals and baked goods.

• Extra-virgin olive oil, expeller-pressed organic canola, high-oleic versions of sunflower and safflower oils, walnut oil, and flaxseed oil (the last is good to pour over things like salad or baked yam, but not to cook with).

• Seasonings: garlic, ginger, tamari; Himalayan crystal or Celtic sea salt. Regular table salt is bleached and stripped of minerals

• Flours to cook or bake with: bean, pea, soy, potato, buckwheat, tapioca, nut and seed, arrowroot, and rice. There are also prepackaged flour mixes that cater to the gluten-free shopper.

• Popcorn

• Corn chips

• Guacamole

• Hummus

• Frozen spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower to throw into smoothies . . . you won’t even taste it!

• Vegetarian stock for cooking

Try some prepared foods from health food stores. They are often very tasty and nutritious too.

Parenting Tips
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How to Raise Emotionally Intelligent Kids

Intelligent kids are one thing but they will not get anywhere in life if they are not emotionally intelligent as well. There are four criterions for measuring the emotional intelligence of any child.
• Criteria number one is the ability to identify emotions. This means that you are able to identify how others around you must feel.

• The second criterion knows how to generate an emotion and also reason with emotions that come up.

• The third criteria are to know how to understand complex emotions and how they transform from one stage another.

• The fourth is the skill of manning one's emotions so that decisions and behaviors are not based on them. These are social skills that no child should be without.
Part of this is establishing emotional security in the child when it is very young. You need to nurture the baby when he or she is very young. The first two years have to do with language development and this is the time to develop positive self-talk and also a time to instill how to talk kindly to others. This is the time to make the child feel secure, to relate to him and to nurture positive thoughts and emotions.

The more social interaction your child has the more able he or she will be able to intermingle successfully with others. Emotional well-being is also the ability to get things off the chest. If your child does have a problem let him or her know it is okay and also that it is okay to express their feelings as well. Stuffing feelings down leads to insecure kids, mentally ill kids and kids with anger problems. Many children who are shamed for expressing their feelings tend to be angry, controlling and shame others. They have no idea how to make others feel loved and therefore never get the love they need.

The child learns emotional skills from birth to four years old and after that their emotional make-up may be difficult to develop further. This is why any type of emotional abuse is so hard on a kid. Be aware that if you are not there for your child and communicating in loving way you may be setting up your child for real disaster. If you are a mother with normal instincts then teaching your child to relate to others should be simple; it really is a thing that most emotionally healthy mothers have a gut instinct to do.

Parenting Tips
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