Best books to read to kids under six Image Credit: Shutterstock

Aside from keeping your children fed, clean and safe, one of the most important things you can do is read aloud to them and the earlier you start, the better. A 2014 American Academy of Pediatrics study states that reading to infants is actually an essential part of their primary care.

The paper, published in Pediatrics, says, Regularly reading with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development and strengthens parent-child relationships at a critical time in child development, which in turn builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that last a lifetime.

The quality and quantity of book reading in early infancy can predict the size of a childs vocabulary, and reading as a child has even been linked to higher income jobs and more professional roles in adulthood.

But wont I feel strange reading to a two-week-old who keeps falling asleep, you ask? What happens if my six-month gnaws off the corner of the book? And, how do I get my toddler to sit still? Experts say you dont need to worry about that.

In fact, research shows that if you allow your baby to safely explore books yes, even with their mouth or let your toddler skip through the pages, you teach them that reading is a safe, fun and positive experience.

Here are the best types of book to enjoy with your child from when theyre babies, to toddlerhood and beyond:

06 months

We begin developing the language skills required for reading when we are just babies, Jemma Gadher, speech and language therapist at The Developing Child Centre in Dubai, explains. When you read to your baby, his or her brain is rapidly learning the rules of language that are necessary for reading, and speaking.

At this age, dont worry too much about what youre reading. While babies may not understand what youre saying, theyll love the connection and may reward you with a smile or an excited kick.

Your baby might want to grab or bite the book and, as long as its safe, touching is encouraged. If your little one starts to cry, look away, arch his or her back, or close his or her eyes, take a break.

Nada Iskandar, KG1 teacher and year leader at Dubai International Academy, explains that babies are drawn to shapes and big pictures. Their colour vision is usually developed by four months so include books with vibrant pictures. Board books are great because theyre easy to handle. Look for books that have lift-the-flaps, mirrors or pop-ups. The more interactive they are, the more interested your baby is likely to be.

712 months

Offer babies simple stories with colourful pictures. Repeated rhymes can encourage language and memory development, with some babies recognising characters, pictures and stories, and even starting to mouth along.

From 12 months old, start asking more complicated questions like, Where do you see the sun? and see if your toddler gestures. Toddlers may start requesting their favourite stories now.

12 years

If your toddler runs away when you read, dont take it personally. Kids need to move around at this age. Keep reading, and your toddler will reconnect when theyre ready. Adopt a playful attitude by asking your toddler to act like a character, or get in on the action yourself.

Ask him or her to label objects using simple sounds or words, like woof! for a dog, or give them some responsibility by getting them to turn the pages. Asking them what is happening (who is carrying the watermelon?) helps build language and thinking skills. If your toddler can talk, pause before saying a favourite line and see if they can fill the gap.

23 years

At this stage you can ask more challenging questions, like What do you think the girl in the book should do?, or try to connect the book with your childs life.

By three, your child may start reading to you based on pictures. Toddlers love repetition, so dont be put off if they keep requesting the same book.

The Developing Child Centres Jemma says that books that include a clear beginning, middle and end are great. You might notice symbolic understanding developing, where kids begin to understand other representations of an item, for example, a doll representing a baby.

46 years

At this age children have usually developed a theory of mind understanding that they are autonomous beings and therefore others are too, says Louise Edensor, senior lecturer in media and education and campus programme coordinator for the International Foundation programme at Middlesex University. This means they can understand deception in stories, so they will follow a tale that perhaps offers the reader something that the characters dont know.

Traditionally, this is the age that many children embark on that exciting adventure of learning to read themselves. But what happens if your child is not reading by the age of six?

Comprehension skills are usually in full gear now, so some children are ready for more words and fewer pictures, KG1 teacher Nada says.

Having said that, its all about knowing what works best for your child. There are many milestones in the pre-reading stages that children should reach before actually beginning to learn to read. Phonological awareness and comprehension stand at the forefront of these skills. Some children flourish at the expected age of around five or six. Needless to say, some children just may not be ready. If you make reading fun, theyll keep at it. Thats the main thing.

Read more from Baby & Child:

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The best books to read with children at every age - Gulf News

If you are purchasing hand sanitizer to keep your hands clean and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, avoid purchasing products that contain methanol, a type of wood alcohol that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin.

In recent weeks, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified several products that contain methanol. According to a press release issued on June 19, nine hand sanitizers manufactured by Eskbiochem SA de CV, were found to contain methanol.

According to the release, samples of the Lavar Gel and CleanCare No Germ were tested. The Lavar Gel product "contains 81% methanol and no ethyl alcohol," while CleanCare No Germ "contains 28% methanol."

In early July, the organization identified additional hand sanitizer products containing methanol:

Grupo Insoma's Hand Sanitizer Gel Unscented, 70% alcohol)

Transliquid Technologies' Mystic Shield Protection Hand Sanitizer

Soluciones Cosmeticas' Bersih Hand Sanitizer Gel Fragrance Free and Antiseptic Alcohol 70% Topical Solution Hand Sanitizer

Tropicosmeticos' Britz Hand Sanitizer Ethyl Alcohol 70%

"Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers and should not be used due to its toxic effects," said the release. "Consumers who have been exposed to hand sanitizer containing methanol should seek immediate treatment, which is critical for potential reversal of toxic effects of methanol poisoning."

On June 17, the FDA contacted Eskbiochem to recommend that the company remove its hand sanitizer products due to their methanol content, but that action has not yet occurred. A request for comment from the FDA was not returned at that time. Their release did not include information about where these products are currently sold.

The FDA warns that "substantial methanol exposure" can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or even death. Those who are most at risk for these symptoms, according to the FDA, are "young children who accidentally ingest these products" and "adolescents and adults who drink these products as an alcohol (ethanol) substitute."

If you are using hand sanitizer, make sure to use a product that does not contain methanol and contains at least 60% ethanol. However, the FDA recommends that people wash their hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, as opposed to using hand sanitizer.

This story was updated on July 6 to include further recalls.

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FDA warns of 5 more hand sanitizers to avoid, growing list to 14 - Yahoo! Voices

Tafadzwa Zimoyo Senior Lifestyle Writer

Early this week, Government announced that restaurants could now safely resume with limited operations, allowing them to serve sitting customers.

This is an exciting development, especially for many outgoing young people, the single in particular who are lazy to cook after a long hard day at work.

To them, eating out is one way of escaping the cooking and dish-washing routine.

Yanaya workers pose for a photograph at the food bar

Yet, when some people choose to eat out, they go for fast foods (junk foods) which are unhealthy and may result in non-communicable lifestyle diseases such as cancer, blood pressure, strokes and diabetes among others.

Many choose to ignore the fact that eating a balanced diet is fundamental to good health and well-being.

According to a 2017 report by Malabo Montpellier Panel, a group of international agriculture experts, Africa as a continent now has the fastest growing middle class in the world with current trajectories showing they will grow to 1,1 billion by 2060.

Yanaya a healthy lifestyle bar

The agriculture experts point out that over the last few years, big fast food brands like Nandos, Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway all set shop on the continent with the hope of taking advantage of the expanding middle class, who have disposable income and a palate for processed food.

Given that, an obesity epidemic is now unravelling in countries like Zimbabwe, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria.

In the report, the Malabo Montpellier Panel further says: Surprisingly malnutrition and obesity also co-exist in the same households sometimes, with stunted children living alongside overweight adults, who themselves manifest multiple micro-nutrient deficiencies.

Yet, eating healthy has many benefits especially this time when the world is fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Covid-19 has also changed the eating habits of many Zimbabweans.

In an effort to ensure those who prefer eating out maintain a balanced diet, 28 yearold Nyaradzo Dhliwayo, an acclaimed restaurateur has created a company dubbed Yanaya a healthy lifestyle food bar situated at Joina City in Harares central business district.

But how did she come up with such an idea when some women her age are busy with fast life such as chasing trendiest fashion, hairstyles even busy with TikTok (a popular social media application that has made youths go wild)?

Who is she and why did she choose that profession?

The Herald on Saturday Lifestyle, traced the bubbly young entrepreneur and caught up with her at the prestigious food bar Yanaya.

Upon entering, organic fresh designs leave customers thinking the restaurant is an exotic garden. Inside, one can easily buy everything the fresh aroma of ingredients and fruits which she uses to prepare is tempting.

Dhliwayo said her creative work and photography has caught the attention of local and international exhibitions.

Oh well, she is a professional photographer who holds an honours degree in design and photography from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

I have been a vegan for almost two years and vegetarian for three years. I struggled whenever I went out because there were no places that offered good vegetarian meals. I realised getting healthy, nutritious natural tasting food was a struggle not only for myself but many people in Zimbabwe, she says.

That alone inspired her to create space for people who are health conscious to enjoy a meal out.

I have also been to the gym of late and we are given the eating plans. Some did not know where to start from, so it was an opportunity for me to penetrate the market, she explained.

Her goal was simple to redefine what it means to eat well and promote a healthier happy lifestyle.

Ingredients she uses for her meals are 100 percent local produce.

I am passionate about feeding people with nourishing meals made from whole ingredients that have a positive impact on their overall mind, body and health. I am a firm believer in supporting local producers and improving value chains, she added.

According to Dhliwayo, the biggest hurdle for Zimbabwean farmers pertains to post harvest losses, and as such a lot of perishable agricultural produce goes to waste.

This is because our farmers do not have many ready off takers like us who are willing to apply fair conditions when transacting with farmers. We make gourmet sandwiches, burgers, salads, detox smoothies, wraps and juices among others, explained Dhliwayo.

And because of the lockdown, Dhliwayos Yanaya has been delivering orders to those who cannot access the facilities.

An application where customers can buy online and the food is delivered at their doorstep is also available with the creation of a website in progress.

With a menu that is highly nutritional as well as detox benefits, her hope is to see young people change their eating habits.

We serve a niche space for healthy food as part of our mandate to promote healthy living. Though we have tried to narrow down our primary market to healthy lifestyle enthusiasts and those with varying health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, we have discovered there is a growing population that is aware of what they eat and how they live, she said.

Surprisingly their smoothies are a hit with local celebrities who are endorsing the product line. The photographer-cum- restaurateur draws inspiration from her Christian values.

I look up to Christ first for inspiration and guidance, said Dhliwayo.

The talented businesswoman said she loves to eat bun-less burgers, a burger with no bun but a patty with spread sauce over the top added with some onions, lettuce wedge and favourite sauce. She concluded that people should eat healthy every day, especially now in the era of non-communicable diseases.

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Eating healthy with Yanaya - The Zimbabwe Daily

English Style Beans and Toast (Credits: Getty Images)

Beans, beans, good for your heart. The more you eat, the more complete your nutritional profile will be. Thats how that one goes, right?

Its seems thats the way one man was taught the rhyme, after his girlfriend asked the internet for help due to his new beanatarian dietary choice.

In a post to the subreddit on relationship advice, the woman said: My boyfriend told me 3 weeks ago that he has decided to convert to a beanatarian diet. He told me he will from now only only eat different types of beans.

I thought he was joking at first but I have literally seen him eat nothing but beans and multivitamins every day for 3 weeks.

He insists that Almost all nutrients can be derived from beans, and he takes 2 multivitamins a day just in case.

Each day the man would eat different beans and cook them differently to keep things varied. There was no variation, however, on the fact he was eating wall-to-wall beans.

Clearly their relationship was suffering due to arguments about the validity of beanatarianism, but all the people of Reddit (and later Twitter) could do was argue over whether beans would provide you enough nutrition.

If youve ever watched Im A Celeb, youll know how grim and dull a diet of rice and beans appears and this guy is just eating the beans but is it even safe to do so for long periods of time?

Weirdly, the protagonist in this tale isnt the only person whos gone beanatarian, as a runner and filmmaker called Beau Miles ate only 191 tins of beans over 40 days and tracked his progress.

Although Beau was otherwise healthy at the end of the experiment, he did report low energy, irritability, worse performance when running, and random nosebleeds throughout.

Many people across the world live on a diet mostly comprising of rice and beans, and beans are the more nutritious of these two products, so it would be logical to assume that youd be fine going beanatarian.

Beans are considered a superfood and are described by the NHS as acheap, low-fat source of protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Theyre cholesterol and fat-free, have a low glycaemic index so they fill you up, and associated with a reduced risk ofheart diseaseandtype 2 diabetes.

However, while its great to incorporate beans into your diet, there are limits. One serving of beans will count towards your five a day. However, if you eat multiple servings of beans, you will still only have consumed one serving.

This is because they dont have the same variety of vitamins and minerals that other vegetables and fruits do.

Regardless of how good beans are for you, eating any one food without variation will lead to deficiencies somewhere. In the vase of beans, this includes vitamin C and iodine amongst other things.

Jo Ann Hattner, a nutrition consultant at Stanford University School of Medicine told LiveScience: No single vegetable or legume has all nine essential amino acids humans need to build the proteins that make up our muscles.

Thats why most human cultures, without knowing anything about food chemistry, have developed diets centred on complementary veggies that, together, provide all nine.

Jo Ann warns that subsisting on one food along would initially affect your hair and nails, gradually affecting your lean body mass including your heart and lungs.

She says, Eventually, your heart shrinks so much you die.

Its honestly not worth trying it especially not for some self-serving experiment. Supermarkets have a number of offers on fruit and vegetables to supplement a diet that includes beans and other food groups.

That way you can enjoy the musical fruit every single day without the danger of death.

Do you have a story youd like to share?

Get in touch with us at MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk.

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Excerpt from:
The 'beanatarian' diet: is it good or will you die? - Metro.co.uk

SundayJul5,2020at12:15AM

I am writing to urge you to call on the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA-HHS) to postpone publication of the report by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, so that the federal agencies in charge can have time to address serious allegations by one or more members of this committee about the process that produces the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

These allegations, which recently come to light in a letter submitted by The Nutrition Coalition, detail serious flaws in the process and imply that the very reliability of our federal nutrition recommendations is in question.

With 60 percent of Americans diagnosed with one or more chronic illnesses, conditions that increase the risk for severe outcomes and death from COVID-19, the U.S. now more than ever needs evidence-based advice on how to maintain and restore our metabolic health. The guidelines to date have self-evidently been unable to flatten the curve on the rates of these diet-related diseases.

Please urge USDA-HHS to delay the release of the committee's expert report to provide time to thoroughly investigate these allegations.

Art Davidson, Pittsburgh

Read more:
Letter to the Editor: Dietary committee report should be postponed - The Times

Over the last 40 plus years, fat became, and has remained a controversial food. Back in the 1980s we were told by the government that saturated fat caused heart disease and to avoid it at all costs.

People listened. Most of the world listened. What followed was a steady increase in weight gain, together with a steady decline in overall health. And as a result, North Americans are now fatter and sicker than ever before in history.

In fact, the BBC online published stats showing globally how obesity rates climbed from 875 million in 1980, to 2.1 billion in 2014 with Americans owning the largest share.

How could this happen? If fat is bad, if it makes you fat and fat causes disease, then eliminating it should have resulted in a healthier society. Which, clearly it did not.

There really are only two answers; a) People ignored the governments advice and guidelines and continued eating fats

or b) They did listen and it was bad advice based on bad science. Given the number of fat free, low fat and no fat products that exploded in the 1980s and continued for decades, it's clear now that the advice was wrong.

In addition, governments recommended increasing carbohydrate consumption to the tune of about eight servings per day of breads, cereals, pastas and grains all foods we know cause cause blood sugar to spike and the body to store fat. Not to mention a whole host of digestive issues.

This advice was not only wrong, but damaging to the health of entire populations. And yet our own Canada Food guide is still recommending this level of carbohydrate intake as healthy. Food for thought, no?

Now we all know that fat tastes good and removing it from food also removes the taste. To restore taste, food companies began adding, you guessed it, sugar. Yet another processed carbohydrate thrown into the mix adding fuel to what has become an explosive health crisis.

The good news about all of this is that whatever we have erroneously added over the years, can be removed and replaced with foods that will nourish, support, balance and restore health to our bodies.

Balance. So important in all areas of our lives, especially health. And when we take out nutrients essential to our bodys and brains health and function, like healthy fats, we suffer for it.

As many people have found recently, simply removing bread and sugar go a long way to solving a variety of health issues.

Extend that to all grains and watch even more benefits begin to surface.

Increase fruit and veggie (unprocessed carbs) consumption to replace those depleted vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient stores and feel how a strong immune system feels.

And add in some quality, grass fed proteins and some healthy fats like coconut, olive, or avocado oils, unsalted nuts, all natural nut butters, grass fed butter, eggs, avocado and feel satisfied, energized and watch the weight begin to fall off.

From the moment we were born, the nourishment mother nature provided us is made up of protein, healthy carbs, and yes, fats.

I challenge you today, if your health and weight is not where you'd like it or need it to be, try these suggestions above for one week. I promise youll never go back.

Tania Gustafson is a nutritionist and fitness coach. On the web: fuelignitethrive.com. Email: tania@fuelignitethrive.com. Facebook: 8 Weeks is All it Takes.

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Fats won't make you fat: Put them back in your diet - pentictonherald.ca