Vicki Guercia Caruana - Brain Food: Recipes for Success for School, Sports, and Life

Brain Food

Recipes for Success in School, Sports, and Life

VICKI GUERCIA CARUANA and KELLY GUERCIA HAMMER

Copyright 2007 by Vicki Guercia Caruana and Kelly Guercia Hammer

First M. Evans edition 2007

This M. Evans paperback edition of Brain Food (Recipes for Success in School, Sports, and Life) is an original publication. It is published by arrangement with the author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by M. Evans

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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Estover Road

Plymouth PL6 7PY

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Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Caruana, Vicki.

Brain food : recipes for success in school, sports, and life / Vicki Guercia Caruana and Kelly Guercia Hammer.1st m. evans ed.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59077-100-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10:1-59077-100-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. ChildrenNutrition. 2. School childrenFood. 3. Diet therapy for children. 4. Cookery. I. Hammer, Kelly Guercia, 1970-. II. Title.

RJ206.C37 2007

641.5'622dc22

2007002754

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

To my grandmother, Rose Guercia,

who taught me that food is more than sustenance

its family. (V.G.C.)

To my parents, Charles and Eileen Guercia,

who believed and taught me the importance

of living everything in moderation. (K.G.H.)

Contents

, by Douglas S. Kalman

Foreword

Have You Ever Noticed that when you eat a balanced, healthy meal that instead of feeling lethargic or out of it, you feel much more alert and ready to go? Some would say that we eat to fuel our bodiesthis includes our brains. Fueling the brain properly with the right nutrients can make the difference between achieving optimal brain development or mental impairment.

Mom always told us to eat breakfast. More than likely she told you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Not only can breakfast be delicious, but it can help a child obtain better scores on his or her school tests (compared with those who skip breakfast) and improve overall cognitive development. There is no great secret ingredient to Brain Food, just great knowledge, intimate experience, clinical research, and the applied practice of what this book teaches with our own children.

To understand how to eat nutrient-dense foods that are lower in overall calories, reduced in free sugars and salt is a great gift we as parents should share with our children. These days its up to parents to take responsibility to teach children how to eat for optimal health, performance, and enjoyment rather than let television or the Internet influence the daily menu. Children follow and mimic what they see done from people they consider mentors (even if they dont admit it). Thus, how you eat, what kind of exercise you do, even the types of clothes you wear will have and make an impression on your children and those around you. Lead by example! Its a great way to be the best teacher for your children.

Acknowledgments

Without The Following people in my life, this book would not be in your hands. Our mother was a huge part of the inception of this idea. Having worked as a school lunch lady for seventeen years, she shared with me the inside scoop about what goes on in schools at lunchtime. It benefited me as a teacher and later as a parent sending my children off to school. Her insights were the driving force behind this book, and Im glad she knew it was going to be a reality before she passed away. I would also like to thank my sister and coauthor, Kelly Hammer, whose expertise and well-balanced approach to family nutrition opened my eyes to truths about nutrition that remained hidden to me until she shed light on them. Her philosophies that everything should be done in moderation and that nutrition should be customized to the needs of the consumer are the obvious underpinnings of this book. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the wholehearted support and insights of our editor, P. J. Dempsey, at M. Evans and Company who ran with this idea in both a professional and enthusiastic manner. (V.C.)

I would like to acknowledge and thank my husband, Stanley, and my children, Jacob and Abigail, for their constant love and support throughout the making of this book. Also, a big thank you goes to Leigh Ayling, a dear friend of mine and a second mom to my children during the past year. Without my sister, Vicki Caruana, this book would have never become a reality. Her insight into the needs of children from the perspective of a teacher and mother is what brought to life the concept of Brain Food. To everyone at M. Evans and Company, particularly P. J. Dempsey, our editor, thank you for all your hard work and creativity in making Brain Food a success. (K.H.)

Introduction

Balance. Its all about living a well-balanced life. Society tosses and turns us from one extreme to the other, when all we really need to live successful, productive, healthy, and happy lives is moderation. As parents we are always on the hunt for something that can give our children an edge in life. At the same time we are on a desperate search for simplicity and harmony in our homes. So much of what our children encounter and experience seems completely out of our control, so if there is something we can control, we should. What and how our children eat is very much within our control. Were the ones who buy the food, after all! When we eat right, we are more likely to feel right and do right.

There is a direct connection between what we eat and how well we learn. We already know the effect some foods have on our childrens behavior, but the effect they have on their ability to learn is not as commonly understood. So many children struggle to get all they can out of their educational experiences, and there are contributing factors to that difficulty. When ruling out possible culprits, its important to equally consider their diets. From before birth, brain development is dependent on nutritional intake. A fetus will generally take what he needs from his mothers body in the form of nutrients, even if that means depleting her reserves. But once a child is born, healthy eating is not automatic. Parents must intentionally supply what growing children need to develop both physically and mentally.