Vegetarian and Vegan Diet – Is it Good for Children?

Vegetarian diet (based on avoiding meat) has long been fashionable among many people in the world, and veganism (avoiding any kind of animal product, including dairy products) enjoys a quick growth rate in recent years. Parents who support either way of life sometimes aspire to bring up their children in the same fashion, and both vegetarian diet and veganism often become trendy among teenagers. Questions regarding the nutritional implications for vegetarian and vegan children often come up, and this article attempts to address some of them.

Where Children Eat Like Adults: The Secret of French Children's Nutrition

For many years, people have regarded French eating habits as an enigma – a country where people can devote a lot of time of thought to eating without gaining significant weight. However, in recent years, France has started struggling with obesity and overweight, especially among children, much like other western countries. The popularity of fast-food is constantly on the rise, and child obesity has grown by 17 percent each year.

Online Help for Eating Healthy: The Top Healthy Recipes Websites for Children

Convincing children to eat healthy can be a difficult task: children prefer the instant sweetness or salty taste that often accompanies unhealthy fast-food or candy. Preparing food at home is a highly recommended alternative to eating outside at a restaurant or at fast-food stall, but it still leaves the challenge of preparing food that is both tasty and healthy for children. Several websites offer excellent healthy recipes for kids meals, and in this article we share with you some of our favorites.

Shkuiko – The Japanese Way of Teaching Healthy Nutrition from an Early Age

Japan is often referred to as a country that should serve as example for teaching healthy eating habits, especially to children. To attempt to understand the basic principles that have been guiding the Japanese nutritional philosophy, one has to be familiar with a key term – "Shokuiko". Literally translated as "Health Education", this term emphasizes the need to educate people to eat properly healthy food.

Anlit – providing kids with supplements and more

Children's deficiency in vitamins and minerals can have strong negative impact on their daily functioning and long-term development. Nutritional supplements are intended to providing children with the nutritional elements that they lack.

The Best Nutrition for Raising a Brainy Child

The important role of nutrition in keeping kids healthy has been widely discussed in the medical world. One issue that is sometimes overlooked in this discussion is the contribution of good nutrition, not only to kids' physical development, but also to their cognitive development.

Snacking: How to Deal with Children's Unhealthy Eating Habits

It seems that over-consumption of snacks has never skipped a generation: people who were scolded as children on the subject find themselves fighting their own children over bad eating habits. The problem has grown worse for today's children, however, as researches indicate that the current daily consumption of snacks by children averages on three snacks (totaling about 200 calories), as opposed to a daily average of only one snack among children in the late 1970.

Healthy Bone Development among Children and Adolescents

Bone development is one of the earliest processes that take place in the human body, with long-term effects on the body's health throughout our lives. Therefore, ensuring proper bone development during childhood and adolescence is highly important.

Eating Healthy: How Parents can make it a Habit for their Children

The importance of eating healthy cannot be stressed enough – overweight and other health problems related to sub-optimal nutrition have become a serious issue all over the world. These health issues tend to appear at a very early age, stressing the need for educating children for proper nutrition as a top priority.

Anlit to showcase new probiotic products for children at CPhI Worldwide

Anlit Advanced Nutrition Supplements will present new and innovative probiotic products at CPhI Worldwide, which will take place on 9-11 October, 2012 in Madrid, Spain.

Is veganism good for children?

It’s hard to imagine most kids embracing a strict vegan diet by choice, but according to an article by dietician Timi Gustafson, veganism is becoming a more popular lifestyle among adults - many of whom wish to pass on the no animal product diet to their children. Stricter than traditional vegetarianism, such a diet excludes all animals (including fish) as well as any animal byproducts, such as eggs and dairy.

Fish Oil Reduces Eczema in Newborns

Pregnant women have long known about the positive effects of eating tuna and salmon during pregnancy to leverage the benefits of the Omega-3 fatty acids found in these seafood. Omega-3 is thought to be crucial to the development of certain brain functions in developing fetuses.

 

The advantages of eating these fish, however, have been tempered by a fear of mercury contamination, notably in tuna. Without any exact proof about the effects of either substance on fetuses, women have been left to sort out on their own whether the risks of eating the seafood are worth the benefits.

A new study out of Australia, however, has proven conclusively that women who take omega-3 supplements lower the risk of their infants developing eczema by one-third. The largest of its kind, the study examined 700 pregnant women and found mothers given fish oil capsules were three times less likely than those women who received placebo supplements to pass on eczema to their children.

The scientific hypothesis is that the omega-3 fatty acids are absorbed by the fetal cell membranes and work to reduce the presence leukotriene B4, an inflammatory substance that plays a role in producing eczema.

All mothers want their newborns to have perfect skin, and it’s hard to accept the awful looking and painful dry itchy skin that our infants sometimes develop. Although we all know that what we eat during pregnancy affects our kids, this study offers hard proof for the benefits of fish oil. That is something as parents we can definitely get behind.

Vitamin D supplement linked to fewer stress fractures in teenage girls

A study published earlier this month has conclusively tied the consumption of Vitamin D to fewer stress fractures in teenage girls. This information is crucially important for young woman, who in today’s modern era, are partaking in competitive sports more than ever before and as result are incurring more serious injuries.

Specifically the study found that girls with the highest intake of vitamin D were 52 percent less likely to incur a stress fracture than those grouped with the lowest intake of the vitamin.

Notably, Dr. K Sonneville, one of the lead doctors on the study recommended that young women take a Vitamin D supplement because it is difficult to get the necessary amount solely through food.

Fortunately, Anlit’s supplements provide 400 International Units to help reach young women reach the 600 IU daily intake of Vitamin D recommended by the Institute of Medicine.

Doctors have taken note of Vitamin D’s growing importance in recent years. Dr. Daniel Green, who has studied stress fractures in adolescent athletes at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York told Reuters Health that,

"Three or four years ago we rarely asked our patients about their vitamin D intake and rarely checked their vitamin D level. Now, that conversation is happening on a daily basis."

Although, the study could not go so far as to conclude that Vitamin D will prevent stress fractures, one thing is now perfectly clear: The benefits of Vitamin D, which were one thought to be ambiguous, are proving to be vital to health of our children. 

Anlit introduces probiotic supplement to prevent ear, throat infections

Anlit's latest development is a probiotic supplement to help prevent sore throats, colds and ear infections in children.

In collaboration with international food ingredient company Frutarom, Anlit's newest product is based on BLIS K12, a probiotic that targets harmful bacteria in the mouth that cause sore throats, ear infections and colds--all conditions that often plague small children.

Researchers have been studying BLIS K12 for the past 30 years. They have shown that children whose bodies naturally contain this strain of probiotic have 50 percent fewer instances of sore throats. In another study among children who are candidates for surgically implanted tubes in their ears to prevent recurring infections, BLIS K12 also appeared to reduce the number of ear infections.

“BLIS K12 is an oral probiotic with excellent safety," says Shai Karlinski, vice president of sales and marketing at Anlit. With ear infections being the most common reason for doctor visits among children, the new supplement is a significant development, Karlinski says.

"Consuming one child-friendly, bear-shaped supplement each day can help prevent common ear infections and sore throats in children," he says.

The new supplement shaped like a bite-size bear, sweetened with a natural sugar substitute and natural vanilla flavor. It is also certified kosher.

Anlit's Sweet Dreams sleep-aid supplement wins award for taste

Anlit's Sweet Dreams dairy-based supplement to help children sleep better won the award for best-tasting finished product at the recent VitaFoods Europe and Finished Product Expo in Geneva.

The Sweet Dreams supplement is shaped like a small teddy bear and tastes like vanilla yogurt. The supplement uses a milk-based derivative called Lactium, developed by French company Ingredia Nutritional.

Lactium was developed based on research showing that babies are calmer after drinking milk. Lactium is a bioactive ingredient that also encourages calmness and has been shown to help children sleep in several clinical studies during the past decade.

"Anlit is very proud of the award. It reflects our mission to become the most innovative dietary supplement company in the industry," says Shai Karlinski, vice president of sales and marketing at Anlit. "This is a good example of Anlit’s ability to create forward-thinking solutions for children, combining health with great taste for results that are sure to be a success in the market.”

The supplement is intended for children between the ages of 1 and 14 who have trouble falling asleep at night. Children often have trouble falling asleep due to stress they have experienced during the day. This leads to a cycle of stress because when children haven't slept enough they are more vulnerable to further stress and anxiety, according to medical research.

The Sweet Dreams supplement is intended to break this cycle. Sweet Dreams is sugar-free and does not contain any artificial colors or preservatives. It is also certified kosher.

Anlit launches Lactium based supplement to help children sleep better

Anlit has partnered with French company Ingredia Nutritional to launch a new supplement designed to help children sleep better at night.

The supplement, Sweet Dreams, uses a milk-based derivative called Lactium developed by Ingredia Nutritional. The supplement, in the shape of a bite-size vanilla-flavored teddy bear, is intended for children between the ages of 1 and 14.

Lactium was developed based on research showing that babies are calmer after drinking milk. Lactium is a bioactive ingredient that also encourages calmness and has been shown to help children sleep in several clinical studies during the past decade.

“Lactium can improve sleep quality and duration” says Alain Baniel, manager of research and development at Ingredia. "This is vital when it comes to children, who need long and restful sleep during their growth period."

Children often have trouble sleeping at night because of stress experienced during the day. This causes a vicious cycle because lack of sleep then contributes to more stress the following day. The Sweet Dreams supplement is meant to break that cycle, reducing stress for both children and their parents.

“Sweet Dreams is an outstanding product in a friendly delivery format designed to cope with sleeping disorders of children,” says Shai Karlinski, vice president of sales and marketing at Anlit.

“Partnering with leading functional ingredients companies worldwide like Ingredia Nutritional, using our propriety child friendly delivery system, is an integral part of our strategy," Karlinski adds.

Anlit will begin marketing the supplement to both retailers and producers of nutritional products.

Like all of Anlit's products for children, Sweet Dreams is free of sugar and preservatives.

Ingredia Nutritional is part of Ingredia S.A., a global market leader in the production of dairy ingredients.

Popular Yomi omega 3 supplement to hit European market

Anlit's Yomi yogurt-based children's omega 3 supplement will soon be sold in Europe. The bear-shaped chewable capsules look like candy and appeal to children, and have been on the Israeli market for some time.

"Our challenge was to create a product with omega 3 that kids would like to eat,” says Shai Karlinski, vice president of marketing for Anlit. “Following the success this supplement received in Israel, we decided to market it also to leading retailers and to dietary supplement and food companies in Europe.”

Omega 3 is very important to children, whose brains are rapidly developing. Not only is omega 3 needed for normal brain development and function, but adequate amounts of omega 3 have been shown to decrease symptoms association with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  About 7% of children around the world have ADHD, many of them in Western countries, where diets often lack sufficient omega 3.

Children often do not like the foods containing higher levels of omega 3, including fish, flax seeds and walnuts.

“Children in particular are sensitive to taste and smell, and don’t necessarily care about eating healthy foods”, explains Karlinski. “With Yomi from Anlit, we can offer parents a delicious yogurt supplement that is bear-designed, contains omega 3 and that kids would love.”

Like all of Anlit's products for children, the supplements do not contain preservatives or artificial flavors and colors and are certified kosher.