Your children have brought home a mountain of candy from their trick-or-treating. Now what? This is an important time make certain your kids don’t overdo it. While the getting of candy is fun kids will eat it simply because it’s there and not because they feel they have to have it. Kids should be able to enjoy some of their bounty, in moderation, but maybe they can learn a few life lessons along the way. Here are a couple of tips you can do...

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It’s Halloween so the typical studies about candy consumption, etc. are flying all over the place. One that I found particularly interesting was that a pillowcase can hold 48 pounds of candy or something like 1,400 pieces. Now, when I was a kid the older I got the bigger my bag got until, yes, eventually I was using a pillowcase. We were out until 9PM and easily went a mile or so in all directions. We weren’t missing any opportunity to get...

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We’re not the type of family that hands out pencils or lumps of coal for Halloween. We do give out the sweet stuff. Life is to be enjoyed… in moderation. My wife brought home a bag of candy to give out. It has 230 pieces of a variety of mini-candy bars. Each is 5 grams of added sugar. So, it got me thinking. This is probably the same amount of candy a kid would bring home. This brought on another thought, “Would we go to the store and buy...

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When I was a kid ice cream was a real treat because, in all honesty, we couldn’t afford it and my mother didn’t think kids needed sugar all the time. We knew the rule if we wanted ice cream: we had to see an Alaska or Hawaii license plate. I know, that sounds really strange but my mother knew the odds were in her favor. Living in Virginia back in the 80s finding a license plate like that was no small task. If you wanted some ice cream...

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I love my neighbors. They are some of the kindest and most thoughtful people you could ever hope live around you. We watch out for each other and help each other. A day doesn’t guy by when you’re not saying hello to one of them. Every holiday seems to be an opportunity to share in our little cul-de-sac. Our way of saying thank you usually revolves around food in the form of fresh baked bread and treats. Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day...

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Sugarcane workers across Central America are being struck by a mysterious epidemic. In the small town of Chichigalpa, for example, hundreds, if not thousands of mostly male works, have been struck with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and have died. It’s an excruciating and debilitating disease and the number of those diagnosed with it has risen five-fold over the past 20 years. CKD usually goes hand in hand with obesity, diabetes and...

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