19 years ago when I became pregnant with my daughter Dakota, I allowed my MD to scare me into eating fish. He, along with many books at that time, insisted I would not get enough protein for me and the baby, and would endanger my growing child. Out of fear, I continued to eat our scaly and clawed friends. So if you are pregnant and worried about a shortage of protein, don’t be.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed that women who ate fish just twice a week had blood mercury concentrations that were seven times higher than those who don’t. It’s pretty amazing, BUT just one can of tuna per week is 30 percent over the EPA cutoff for safety levels. YIKES.

Plant foods like flax seeds and walnuts contain the EFA (Essential Fatty Acids) that we need without causing any harm.

Eat these protein sources (whole grains, beans, any nuts (preferably organic) - peanuts, cashews, almonds, macadamia can be used to make buttter and milk. Brown rice, a plethora of legumes, tofu, soy products, veggie burgers and pups can actually build stronger bones (2003 USDA study) than women who eat meat.

Did you know that…? There is no other species besides us humans, that would drink another species milk. Breastfeeding for babies is the best way.

A Harvard Medical School analysis study found that countries with low calcium intake (300mg a day) had a lower incidence and indication of osteoporosis that those of us in high calcium consumptive countries. What the bleep should we drink?

Isn’t this hot and necessary? Director Oliver Stone will direct a 30 second TV spot against the Iraq war for MoveON.org Let the media buy be hot and heavy!

Singer Sheryl Crow and Laurie David (wife of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm Creator Larry David) had some chilly communication with Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove at a recent White House dinner on their ‘Stop Global Warming College Tour’.

When the ladies asked Rove to take a “fresh look” at global warming, a small fire was stoked. Crow placed her hand on his arm to calm him down, and the dialogue went:
Rove: Don’t touch me.
Crowe : You can’t speak to us like that, you work for us.
Rove: I work for the American People!
Crowe : We are the American people!
Touche.

I am on my way to Toronto Yoga Conference and looking forward to reconnecting with some teachers and friends like Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Monica Voss and Todd Norian that I haven’t seen in a long time. Also joyfully anticipating meeting up with seasoned and new students as we bring YogaKids Tools for Schools into new classrooms across Canada and teach the ABC’s of YogaKids.

When I am not doing yoga, traveling, sleeping, teaching or relating, I’m generally reading, researching, devising and thinking about new ideas and ways to share yoga with children and adults to make our lives calmer and meaningful.

I wanted to share with you the latest book by one of the most profound living authors today. She is doing what my husband Don and I have talked about for 2 decades but couldn’t or wouldn’t commit to. Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life have changed each of her family members’ lives and hopefully will impact many of ours.

Back to the land, just like many of us crusaded for and lived in the 60’s. The time is now. Make your contribution on whatever level possible - the spectrum of possibilities is huge. Even just having a veggie burger, instead of a 1/4 pounder at Burger King, or saying no to any foods with dyes in their ingredients is a start.

“It’s about trying to eat in a way that makes sense for our bodies and our species,” says Kingsolver, one of my favorite American idols and authors. “The worst thing we can do is raise helpless offspring. Our society is doing that. We’ve convinced ourselves that being able to manage a website is more important than knowing how to grow food or cook it.”

Did you know that “a hamburger from a fast-food chain took more than a dollar’s worth of gasoline to make, so how could it cost only 99 cents? Because we we as taxpayers are paying for it. We must pay attention to the politics of food. The farm bill give enormous subsidies to the growers of corn and soybeans. That’s why junk food is cheap. Vegetables shouldn’t be more expensive.”

Please contact your local, state and federal legislators and let’s get subsidies, grants, and contributions that support our planet; organic farmers, green cars, less consumerism, happier, healthier children and food on tables all over the earth. We can do it. Together.

We all want our children (and ourselves) to be happy, healthy and wholesome.

I hope that you will continue to find tips on our blog to guide your children in their everyday lives to make positive choices in school and at home.

Instill in them an understanding of healthy choices in lifestyle and food, and do the same for yourself. Remember when we are stressed, our kids are stressed. As parents, we ARE our children’s first teachers, the ones that they will emulate and copy. So take care of yourself. Children model our behaviors. Give them role models that make you a star.

Teach them to take care of themselves, each other and our precious planet. Don’t litter. Always find a trash bin or have a small bag in your car for refuse. Did you know that if you throw an aluminum can into the trash instead of the recycling bin, it takes around another 80-100 years to decompose?

Isn’t that one more reason not to drink from cans or buy pop?

Did you know that carbonated, bubbly beverages can wreak havoc on our bodies’ systems. Their main three ingredients:

1. Phosphoric acid interferes with the absorption of calcium which is so important for nurturing our children’s bones and impedes digestion since it neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
2. Sugar increases the chances of high blood pressure and cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
3. Aspartame is known to have 92 detrimental side effects including brain tumors, diabetes, emotional disorders, epilepsy and autism.
4. Caffeine brings on the jitters and makes us all ’snap’ easier, as well as invokes insomnia, depletes the body of vitamins and minerals, and interferes with the body’s ability to use calcium, which can lead to osteoporosis and can soften the teeth and bones.

So, what’s a parent to do? DRINK WATER and ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO DRINK WATER AS FREQUENTLY AS POSSIBLE.

Instill and install H₂O as their beverage of choice. Years ago when I took a son’s friend out to dinner and ordered water as our beverage for the table, Richie stunned me when he said, “I don’t like water. It tastes nasty”. I had never thought of water even having a taste. “How about some juice?”, I asked. “Nope. I only drink pop. It’s the only thing I like.”

Please be cautioned by canned and processed juices, which can contain many of the detriments of soda. Yet, fresh juices are life enhancing.

Fresh squeezed is best. Buy an electric juicer or the old fashioned, hand-held kind for orange, lemon or grapefruit juices. It you are lucky enough to have a juice bar in your neighborhood, take your children there instead of fast food junkie huts.

Let them see, smell and take part in where real food really comes from and how easy and fun it is to make it yourself. They’ll see their food with the living technicolors of the rainbow without artificial dyes and disease provoking colorings. Teach your children how to juice anything from strawberries to carrots, oranges to bananas to make delicious and nutritious juices, smoothies and truly healthy popsicles as summer surely approaches. Of course, they must be supervised when using any kind of appliances, but they will feel healthy and proud when they prepare their own.

Soda is one of the main reasons, nutritionally speaking, why many people suffer health problems. Aside from the negative effects of the soda itself, drinking a lot of soda is likely to leave you with little appetite for vegetables, protein and other food that you and your children need.