Raising Low-Fat Kids in a High-Fat World

How Much Fat Is In Your Children's
Food and Why You Should Care?

Heart disease manifests in adulthood, but the groundwork begins in early childhood. Heart disease, and some types of cancer, are in large part the result of a lifetime, and lifestyle, of eating diets high in certain fats. Rarely do the most health conscious parents know just how much harmful fat they feed their children on a routine basis. Living in a world of high-fat temptations, children today are embarked on a high-fat eating frenzy. How can American parents and grandparents impact the future health of their children and grandchildren?

In her new book, Raising Low-Fat Kids in a High-Fat World (Chronicle Books, April 1997, $14.95), author Judith Shaw, M.A. shows busy, time conscious, and concerned parents how to raise a healthier family through a four-step plan: educate, shop, restock, and cook. This is not a diet book--there is no caloric restriction suggested--instead the book is a culinary philosophy leading to purchasing lower-fat foods for your family and creating a personal pantry of staples, packaged foods and snacks, that will make lower-fat eating easy.

Feeding kids lower-fat means first educating parents. Among other things, Shaw informs us that so-called "low-fat" milk (2%) is really a 30% fat food and explains the difference between "good" fats such as olive oil and "bad" fats such as hydrogenated oils. She also teaches parents how to decode the nutrition labels on packaged foods to expose the true levels of fat in each food.

Shaw takes readers on an eye-opening tour of the supermarket where shopping wisely is crucial to lowering fat. Restocking brings the focus to your refrigerator, freezer, and cabinets, and shows how you can begin to reprovision your kitchen with a wide assortment of good-tasting, lower-fat foods and condiments such as non-fat bean dips, non-fat string cheese, chutneys, salsa, sorbets, and non-fat tortillas.

The final step of this plan demonstrates that lower fat cooking can be as simple as modifying family recipes without eliminating familiar foods (sauté vegetables in nonfat chicken broth instead of butter or delete half the beef in stew and substitute additional potatoes, mushrooms, and greens). And in a surprise move, Shaw demonstrates that serving your family real hamburgers need not be a high-fat meal. Even by implementing only some of Shaw's suggestions, your children's overall fat intake will be successfully lowered. Raising Low-Fat Kids also includes information on:

Low-fat snack foods your children will love
Camouflaged fat—don't be fooled by low-fat pretenders
Lowering fat at restaurants, birthday parties, and celebrations
60 easy low-fat recipes

Shaw proves that good-tasting, healthy food can appeal to children, doesn't have to be hard work, and will put in place a model for healthy eating to accompany your child throughout life.

As Marguerite Kelly, family columnist at The Washington Post, wrote "Parents will bless Judith Shaw for this wonderfully informative, easily understood book on good nutrition and how to live with it. "

Raising Low-Fat Kids in a High-Fat World
Judith Shaw
Chronicle Books
$14.95 / paperback
ISBN: 0-8118-1441-6
Information provided by publisher.