Environmental Concerns Not Even A Topic of Discussion at ADA Conference?

I took EGirl to the dentist last week right before school started, to get the shining of the pearly-whites out of the way before life got more hectic. My dentist and I chatted once again about the topics that intrigue me: the safety of fluoride (whether in water or toothpaste) and the possibility of a link to bone cancer in boys (see this Eugene Weekly review of the issue from 2005 for a great overview of the controversy); sealants and whether BPA leaching out of them is a health concern; and mercury fillings' wastewater as an environmental hazard. My dentist is pretty comfortable with these topics, well-read, and open to discussion. She didn't come down definitively on any of the issues (hot button topics that need more research in all cases). We both were pretty middle of the road in terms of seeing a true need for cavity prevention (literal British teeth in our family), but she did comment that the ADA conference, which she recently attended, didn't address any of my questions. She suggested I write the ADA to tell them to at least put these issues on the docket for their next round. Even if these topics turn out to be non-issues, you'd think dentists would want to discuss fully how to allay their patients' fears given the level of BPA press alone this year.

So, thanks for the suggestion, doc! Done and done. If y'all want to follow suit, here's my letter:

ADA
American Dental Association
211 East Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611-2678

To Whom it May Concern:

I recently took my child to the dentist and had a number of questions for my dental health provider. Apparently, none of my questions were addressed at the last ADA conference (which she'd just attended). I would like to outline my areas of interest in the hope that the ADA will be able to discuss and continue to study these issues within your professional community. I am aware that the ADAs official positions on fluoride and BPA are on the ADA.org website, but in both cases the ADA acknowledges that more research needs to be done to determine if a health concern exists. Please continue to discuss these topics and to inform the public about updated studies of the safety of these chemicals.

1.Fluoride

With regard to fluoridation of water, as the ADA states on its website, there is a controversy regarding a possible link between fluoride supplementation and bone cancer in boys (my dentist mentioned that this was a "hot topic" in Sweden at the moment and that the issue seems to arise cyclically).

While reading up on the issue, I came across the following additional environmental concerns about fluoride: 1)that the type of fluoride used in municipal water treatment may have persistent organic pollutants bound to it (because "most is industrial waste: sodium
fluoride, sodium fluorosilicate and fluorosilicic acid from phosphate fertilizer, glass, steel and aluminum production. Unlike organic fluorine, these compounds come with pollutant hitchhikers that get a free ride into public water supplies." (via ScienceDaily) and 2)even the levels of fluoride considered safe for humans may be affecting marine organisms.

Regarding the possibility of a bone cancer link, the ADA in 2006 put out a press release noting that it "will require scientific confirmation to confirm or refute the findings." I wonder if there's been any more recent research on this topic? What about the other areas of concern ie the ingestion of persistent organic pollutants and the effects of fluoride on marine life?

2.Sealants

Regarding the BPA in sealants, some research seems to indicate that it may be soluble in saliva at high levels during or immediately after application. (In the March 2006 Journal of the
American Dental Association, researchers tested 14 volunteers immediately after sealant application and found that patients who received Delton Light Cure (LC) Opaque brand absorbed about 110 micrograms of BPA, 20 times that absorbed by recipients of another brand, Helioseal F (5.5 micrograms). Delton Light Cure (LC) leached amounts similar to those that caused developmental toxicity in rodent studies and, at 42.8 parts per billion (ppb), are higher than the
highest amount found in canned food, 38 ppb.... ") Is there an alternative to BPA-based sealants that is effective and safe? I tend to try to avoid potentially toxic chemicals (like endocrine disruptors) even if the jury's still out because I have young children with developing bodies. If I am getting rid of a baby bottle that may or may not leach minute amounts of BPA, I certainly want to avoid a massive ingestion of BPA during the application of a tooth sealant.

The ADA's public statement on Bisphenol-A concludes that "any concern about potential BPA exposure from dental composites or sealants is unwarranted at this time. When compared with all other sources of BPA, these dental materials pose significantly lower exposure concerns." While it seems that the aforementioned study might contradict that statement, I am no scientist (just a concerned mother). So I am thrilled to read that "the ADA is a professional association of dentists who remain committed to the public’s oral health. As such, we strongly support additional research into human exposure to BPA and any health effects it may cause." Could you update me as to the status of the BPA research the ADA's aware of? Is the ADA continuing with an internal dialogue on this matter?

3. Mercury Pollution

It's my understanding that research has shown mercury amalgalm fillings to be safe for humans -- but it sounds like the wastewater leaving dentists' offices may be polluting our water supply.

"Mercury is a large component of dental fillings, but it is not believed to pose immediate health risks in that form. When exposed to sulfate-reducing bacteria, however, mercury undergoes a chemical change and becomes methylated, making it a potent, ingestible neurotoxin. While the major source of neurotoxic mercury comes from coal-fired electric power plants, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at Urbana-Champaign say mercury entering drain
water from dental clinics and offices is also a source. "We found the highest levels of methyl mercury ever reported in any environmental water sample," said Karl Rockne, associate professor of environmental engineering at UIC and corresponding author of the study that appeared online March 12 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology." (via EurekaAlert)

What is the ADA's stance on this topic? Is there any safe alternative to mercury-based fillings? How might dentists mitigate the environmental pollution associated with drain water?

Thank you very much. I am not trying to be alarmist about any of these topics, and your website does a good job of addressing the ADA's stance on both fluoride and BPA. I'd just love to see further study and conversation about all of these topics.

Best,

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Back to School: Eco-Friendly Clothes Shopping

It's not rocket science, but it's worth noting that children are tough on their clothes. They get 'em dirty constantly and grow like weeds. Not to mention the tiny divas who will only wear that one glitter-purple leotard for 17 consecutive weeks (while grandma begs for her to wear the smocked heirloom in despair). So while thinking about back to school shopping, don't forget the ease and thrift of the secondhand store.

If you're traveling, you may want to keep your eyes peeled for gems like the children's consignment store I hit up in Healdsburg while visiting family at Preston Vineyards. We got all of EGirl's back to school clothes (she got to do the old thumbs up, thumbs down, and her brother got to play in a rockin' toy area). Her brother is awash in hand me downs so we didn't need to buy him a thing. If you don't live near a thrift store, don't forget EBay, freecycle, craigslist, and yard sales.

I figure if we get everything possible secondhand, we can (more often) afford to shell out the big bucks for fair-trade, organic, sustainable duds when we've got a gap in the system. It's always much easier on the planet to reuse (energy and materials use to create anything new, no matter how sustainable), and this way, you can feel good about your once-in-a-blue-moon extravagances.

Either way (thrift store or hand me downs), don't forget as you are clearing the closet to make way for bigger clothes to make sure you find a good home for the old ones. Whether you give them to family or friends or sell them, those tiny duds can be used and used until they fall apart! And even then someone might be able to upcycle the scraps into something cute.

Now to find myself some good consignment stores....

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Get Those Yellow Flags Off The Lawn!

Ah, spring. The hydrangeas are budding back to life, the groundcover in our stretch of Rock Creek Park behind the dog park is afire with Spring Beauty and Lesser Celandine. Our community garden has a burgeoning crop of arugula and tender lettuce shoots setting forth. Our cherry tree is about to bloom! The kids are crawling all over the playground and picking everything in sight on our walk home from school. Skipping, picking 'onions' and teeny-tiny little white and purple flowers from the middle of a sea of...yellow pesticide application flags. Cr*p.

Honey? You have to get off that grass right now! There are chemicals all over it. Put the tiny flowers down now, ok, honey? We have to go wash your hands. Sigh. I know my kid shouldn't be walking on the front lawn of our neighbors' apartment buildings, much less harvesting weeds from their green space. But I do wish that more landlords and homeowners would follow in the footsteps of the National Mall and head down the organic lawn path.

A friend of mine recently asked about resources for greening her lawn, both literally and ecologically. While our home has a cherry tree and a bricked-in patio, not a vast green lawn, a thread on DC Urban Gardeners recently suggested the following resources: SafeLawns.org and Pogo Organics. You can also read about efforts to stop pesticide use more broadly at Beyond Pesticides.

See you down at the Mall to tiptoe through the (chemical-free) tulips! (Don't worry, we only pick weeds....)

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Baby Speaks Canine?

Our four year old child is an invaluable baby translator. Na-na-na-na bah-bah-bah-bah da-da-da-da. What did he say, girl? He said he wants some more blueberries, Mom. Most of the time, her suggestions keep the smaller child happy, and since said baby can't be bothered with sign language any more than with the pesky gutteral talking business, she's our best bet. Lately, though? I've been wondering if both children speak canine. Where is Temple Grandin when I need her?

On a rotating basis for the last, oh, fifteen months, my children and pet have succeeded in cracking open the depths of my slumber and testing my mettle in the wee hours. Let me note up front, this is no CIO debate. I have no desire to wake the sleep demons in the universe. I'm just noting the uncanny frequency with which the children and animule seem to be able to tag-team the adults in our household.

For example, last week, the baby woke up in agony about 2-3 times a night for the first couple days. Extra bottles and snuggling for him, agony and sand in the eyelids for me. What did I find when staggering down the stairs at 6am with selfsame chirpy child? Dog vomit. Nothing like a slimy pool of hurl between the toes in the morning. I swear, I saw the baby try to high-five the animal.

Then, mid-week? Our girl began waking. Bad dream? Check. In the morning? Shredded diaper fished out of the trash and harvested of pungent, potential snacks (talk about reuse). Aaaaigh! Later in the week? Sore throat, coughing, general need to snuggle and test-drive the adult pillows in the Parent Bed in the pre-dawn. In the am? Homemade honey-wheat bread crumbs marking the spot where critical fodder for lunchbox PB&J's once sat. Aaaaigh.

Again, is this animal receiving midnight messages? Do he and the children have this worked out in advance? Is it a non-verbal, pre-human language? Are both camps simply smelling the weakness of the adults in response to sleep deprivation? Maybe it's my imagination that they seem to have an elaborate baton-passing system to determine who's going to torture me next.

This is, after all, the dog who got couvade when I had morning sickness with my first child, the dog who triggered waves of competitive vomiting between the two of us when I was, horrifyingly, working from home and trapped in his proximity during my daughter's pregnancy. This is also the dog who, if the children are blissfully both in good health and sleeping soundly without disruption through the night, inevitably begins to either whine frantically or dry-heave at the back door.

He's always been much more than a dog; he sits in our glider upright with his muzzle tossed back to one side like a grandfather dozing in his rocker. And our daughter certainly considers herself kin to the animal; when she was about two she memorably announced: "I'm a little bit Baby, a little bit Big Girl, and a little bit Lab." In the end, I think, that's the piece that matters. They're closer than most. Whatever it is they speak--whatever the common currency for my torture--it's a shared language, a sibling-like mind-meld of loyalty and love. And that, of course, speaks volumes about the importance of the furry one in our family life, vomit or no.



Originally posted at DC Metro Moms. Photo courtesy of SXC.
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Lovely Lunches

Lynn from OrganicMania asked me to reminisce about my halcyon Berkeley food days after her posts about school lunch reform got me musing about times past. Thanks for the opportunity to guest post!

...In my students' minds, the crisp lettuce in the field we skipped through on our journey was just as fascinating as the computers that awaited amidst the stacks of books at our local library. It was 1998, and most of the young men and women loping past the garden had no access to computers at all (many had just arrived in the country). But it was the vegetables that held their attention. On a field trip off-campus with an English Language Learner class, I couldn't help but marvel at the audible excitement and interest over the garden and its teen gardeners. Teacher Patti Rathwell got her students into King's school kitchen routinely, brought food into the class to illustrate everyday concepts, and the students' families brought in delicacies representing cuisines from all over the world to mark special celebrations. Speaking over a dozen languages, the premium form of communication among our students was laughter, gesture, and the anticipation of flavor.

In 1998, I was a student teacher from UC Berkeley's MUSE Program apprenticed to two classrooms at Martin Luther King Middle School. The nascent Edible Schoolyard program, started in 1996 by a collaboration between Chez Panisse and the school (via the Chez Panisse Foundation), was thriving by the time I landed at King. As I recall, the kids called it the "Peace Garden" and every one of the kids I taught, from middle school second language learners ranging from 6th to 8th grade, to the 8th graders in my humanities class, was itching to get their hands dirty. You could almost see the infusion of energy into the crops. These kids were fascinated with what their peers were creating, with their bare hands and brains. They longed to be outdoors, to work with the soil. But even more, they longed to be in the kitchen, chopping and slicing and mixing and...eating! I've never seen such a worthwhile channeling of teen squirm in all my life.

I've been thinking about the Edible Schoolyard recently, as I face the reality of public school lunches here in DC for my daughter and her friends. I'm heartened by the fact that Berkeley, and other schools like Wisconsin's Appleton Central Alternative School (ACAS), have adopted programs harnessing the power of delicious and satisfying food to improve not just health but performance. Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, by Ann Cooper and Lisa Holmes, is a riveting book that chronicles success stories like the Edible Schoolyard and Appleton's ACAS, while giving parents concrete suggestions: healthy recipes and contact info for organizations working to effect change in lunch programs.

One school that's crafted a school environment rich in healthy food and a focus on physical education is Appleton's ACAS (which banned vending machines and instituted fruit-and-vegetable rich breakfasts and lunches). Appleton has quantifiably documented the impact of providing "nonchemiccally processed foods that are low in fat, salt, and sugar, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables." Improvements seen include: more focused on-task behavior, increased cognitive development, fewer health concerns, fewer discipline problems, better attendance, and better nutrition outside of school.

Wouldn't it be great if all of our schoolchildren (many of whom rely on school breakfast and lunch programs as their primary source of nutrition) got a side of nutrition education and sustainable agriculture with their salad bar lunch?

Where to look for more info about transforming your own school? Check out the following organizations for ideas.

• The Center for EcoLiteracy
• Lunch Lessons
• Better School Food
• Food Change
• Farm to School

*photo courtesy of Dawn Allynn at sxc (see more of Dawn's work here.)

I'm a guest writer for OrganicMania today -- go check it out!
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Sandbagged

OK, this totally falls in the category of things that ought to be easier to do. I'm talking about buying safe sand for our kids' sandboxes.

I've heard before that there are dangerous types of sandbox sand, in fact, I've successfully bought washed river sand before because it's supposed to be safer (you know, the smaller bags of sand, the ones that cost 4x as much, and get snapped up in the first day they're put out?). But we had a few fabulous sunny days last week, and my kids are now addicted to being out on our patio playing in the 'box, so I thought I would run in quickly and grab some fresh sand before the waves of Asian Tiger mosquitos hit. It's early, right? It's not like I am trying in August so I should have a stab at a couple of the 14 bag-supply due to hit the DC area. After hitting up one hardware store and two garden supply stores, I am left with a resounding sense of frustration and it's not that I didn't let my fingers do the walking.

Can anyone please tell me why it is acceptable to have this warning label on a product labeled Play Sand? Marketed to children?

"This product contains small amounts of crystalline silica (CAS 148 08-60-7), a common mineral found in natural sands and stones. Excessive inhalation of respirate silica dust may cause cancer and lung disease. Avoid breathing dust. Wear appropriate respirator in dusty areas. First aid: move to fresh air." (emphasis mine)

The Green Guide basically says to keep your kids out of the sandbox (and off the asbestos laden pressure treated wood playsets for that matter). I can't do that. I mean, I survived sitting in the back of my parents' wood-paneled station wagon (the one with the rusted-out bottom floor we used to poke our feet through to run in place, Flintstones-style, at stoplights). So obviously I cannot deprive my children of the basic pleasure of sand. I just want either the sand manufacturers or the various sand-selling establishments in our area to wake up and realize there's a supply and demand issue here with the Safe Sand. (And a shout out to Strosnider's Hardware -- they don't have any safe sand but the manager actually thanked me for raising the issue).

The Berkeley Parents' Network has helpful archives, as always, on the subject, but we're still playing in the maze of tree roots in our former-fish-pond-of-a-sandbox (hey, you have a magnet of a drowning hazard in your backyard, you make lemonade).

Anyone know where to purchase safe sand?

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Dungduggety Mud!

It's been awhile since I visited the Alternative Expletive Project, but it came to mind recently when a mother who curses a blue streak (in front of my kid! BASTion of Indecency!) noted that her (freakishly attuned) child is able to adapt his speech depending on his audience. As in, "Don't step in the (oh wait, grandma is here) dog doo-doo!" That's right, folks, a four year old who is able to decipher not only what's appropriate but to adapt his vernacular based on the context of the situation. Motherflower! I think I may one day enlist him as my speech coach via hidden webcams and tiny microphones. Until then, if it makes you all feel any better, I find this resource mightily entertaining (and so will my 4 year old when I spring some of these on her.... Many thanks to the DC Urban Mom who shared it with the community many years ago.
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YAs of Yesteryear

Irreverent, witty Cliff's notes to nostalgic, forgotten loves. As a former English teacher and total bookworm, I am overfond of this series by Jezebel called

'Fine Lines', the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth.

They've reviewed Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and have a loving interview with Judy Blume here. Island of the Blue Dolphins review? Here. Great stuff -- especially if, like me, you realize that your plan to reread every book before putting it into your precious baby's hands was perhaps a tad optimistic. Read more!

I Heart Fairtrade Chocolate

Soooo...I know where you stand, readers. Most of you are chocolate-desiring, not chocolate-indifferent. But an anonymous commenter way back in November first alerted me to the labor issues swirling in my cup of hot chocolate, and the phrase "child slavery" is really too much for this mama to gloss over.

Via Baby Toolkit, a reminder (or a harbinger of doom, if this is new to you and you care deeply about both sweets and justice) that chocolate comes with a dear cost to African children, some of whom are sold to harvest and process it. Since fair trade chocolate is available, I think this mama's going to have to try to switch us on over. I know it's expensive (I just went to the Dagoba website since I've had their dark chocolate bars mmmmm and thought I'd look into chocolate chips and YIKES, we may have to go for oatmeal raisin every now and again) but I imagine this is one of those issues where once you know, there's no going back. 43% of the cacao beans produced may be tainted by present-day slavery, and the way the supply chain works, all the major chocolate producers' beans are mixed together. Unless we buy fair trade chocolate, odds are that we're supporting unjust labor practices impacting children.

I've gotten Dagoba bar chocolates at Cost Plus World Market (although I don't see them online -- maybe they only have them in their stores) and they are delectable. I know Whole Foods has a selection of fair trade chocolate bars (Green & Black's Maya Gold bar is tasty and fair-trade). Not sure about the chips and cocoa but I will report back if I find good sources. I would love any tips from readers about where to find milk chocolate products (not chips but bars, different candies, etc.) that use fair trade chocolate. It's easy to find dark chocolate bars but the many milk permutations seem elusive. All the fair trade chocolate seems pretty highbrow, I must say, which has its place. But for someone used to lining up double digits of Rolos on a pregnant belly shelf to make, you know, any number of pals, it's just not the same experience to have a nibble of an extra-dark bar with hints of lavender, if you get my drift.

May we be able to find something truly sweet (and just) for our loves this Valentine's Day. Read more!

'Llowance Lowdown

On the off chance that my recent research can get your family's child cash conversation kick-started, here goes:

1)Many people recommend an allowance of a buck per year of age, something large enough that a child can purchase tangible items of interest and can also benefit from saving money. She and she alone should decide how to use this money. She can spend, save, or share it -- and will benefit from hearing your beliefs -- but she must be empowered to make her own choices. To make it worth her while to save, pay her an exorbitant interest rate (at least 6%, steep but allows the money to grow visibly in child time) once a month, a la The First National Bank of Dad, a great book on teaching kids about finances that also provided the next point of advice.

2)Distance allowance from parental dollar hostage-taking from the get-go. It is tempting to threaten to take it away and effectively banning linking the allowance to behavior is important. That would be boring. And kids should have to participate in household tasks as part of a family team effort. Choosing not to do chores (ie I don't need that stinking allowance) shouldn't be an option.

3)Optional jobs offered as extra money-makers should be just that, optional, above-and-beyond jobs she can opt to do to earn extra $ above and beyond her allowance. These tasks will come as a set; just like there are parts of your employment you dislike but do anyways, she can't pick and choose from the xtra joblist. It's all or nothing. {I got this idea from Michelle Singletary -- I totally love her column The Color of Money and was reading her archives last week while on the hunt for books for my 10-year old entrepreneurial cousin (this and this look promising).}

4)Any ideas your kid comes up with that save your family money should go directly into her pocket, ie if she finds us a $1 off coupon for her favorite yogurt drinks, give her the dollar. This idea comes directly from my maternal grandfather. I totally loved when he did this for me as a kid. I still clip coupons.

Here's hoping that lots of discussion about money will help our kids have a healthy relationship with cash -- respect for the power of money to do good, to make our lives easier, and to provide freedom of choice and freedom from want.

Also, this via Green as A Thistle: by all means save, but only with a figurative piggy bank -- hoarding coins is bad for the environment. Think about that when you are fuming about the person in front of you in line (me?!) fishing around for exact change. Read more!

Not for Nibbling

Deck the halls with boughs of holly mistletoe Boston ferns...

So, after our 1 year old wolfed down a leaf off our lipstick plant this morning, I called poison control (love them! love my operator's calm, calm voice and subsequent willingness to talk about every single plant in our house) for some plant 911 411. Turns out the plant in question was safe, mainly because I did some serious houseplant purging five years ago in preparation for kid one. Gotta love the pre-kid frenzy. Anyhoo, I thought I would share what I (re)learned with y'all.

Safe plants: spider plants, Christmas cacti, aloe (may cause stomach upset), poinsettias (despite causing stomach upset, these actually get an undeserved bad rap for being toxic), Boston ferns, African violets, and hibiscus, among others.

Lethal plants: holly, mistletoe, rhododendrons, philodendrons (including pothos and calla lilies), peace lilies, delphinium, foxglove, lantana, and lupines, among others.

Check out these guides to poisonous houseplants and make sure you have those blecch face stickers on your phones with the poison control phone #s on them.

Lucky for us I gave away and/or hung up our dangerous plants years ago. I probably even could have told you yesterday that lily of the valley, nightshade and belladonna were bad news. But I am newly reminded of the need to be aware of all our plants (in our tiny front yard, we have yew bushes, azaleas, a cherry tree, and vinca vines -- all fatal if ingested! -- and hydrangeas, which can cause serious illness and vomiting. We're hoping for the cessation of constant mouthing by spring).

Before I leave the flora front, houseplants can also do remarkable double duty as air purifiers -- some of the best are also poisonous (pothos) but some aren't (spider plants, Gerber daisies). Check out this guide to plants that can clean up your indoor air.

And for goodness' sake, lose the mistletoe. Read more!

SpaghettiNOs

BPA in plastic? Check. Sippy cups? Pacifiers? Toys? Check. Head exploding, but check.

Now bisphenol-A in cans? Ruh-roh. Wasn't I just talking about how being healthy and sustainable was making me feel like we are living out Little House on the Prairie? Time to make our own soup (good thing I got that stock simmering....) and, well, read this. Read more!

How To Send Your Child a Santa Letter

...for under a buck, the US Postal Service will do it for you. Awwww. Gotta send yours out by December 15th! Thanks to ZRecommends for the lowdown. Read more!

Sleeping Like A Neurologically Impaired Baby: Holy Mackerel! Eat Herring Instead

Well, the experts have been flopping a bit on this issue but the basic gist is that there is mercury in the really healthy deep sea fish that have high levels of beneficial omega-3s in them. And since mercury's particularly damaging for small people, pregnant or nursing women and children have had to closely watch their fish intake. (Which is a bummer, since among other benefits it seems that a high intake of the DHA fatty acids in fish could account for better sleep in infants, no small feat.) There are handy lists of fish to avoid, mercury calculators like those here and here, and lists of fish that are safe to eat. Recently it seemed like the evidence weighed in favoring eating more fish over avoiding it for groups watching mercury exposure, but research showing that it's better to consume fish than not while pregnant may have been funded by -- surprise -- the fish industry. So we're back to the longstanding advice that women of childbearing/nursing age should eat 2 servings/week of fish and limit their consumption to specific species (the fish industry study recommended greater consumption without regard to species). One fish that's been hotly debated because it's a beloved kid sandwich food is tuna, which the research shows you should probably limit no matter the type (albacore vs. light).

Testing of fish oil has shown that most is not contaminated with mercury (your grandmother was right about that cod liver oil!) but since supplements aren't heavily regulated you have to choose brands carefully. American Heart has helpful guidelines on supplementing with fish oil.

In a parallel vein, lots of enviro organizations have lists of what's sustainably fished. This site helpfully lets you track down environmentally conscious restaurants serving sustainably harvested fish. And Environmental Defense has a downloadable pocket reference guide to enviro choices re sustainably fished species. But my favorite is the NRDC guide, which combines the mercury warnings with the sustainability info in their wallet card.

The bottom line? Avoid tuna, shark, tilefish (golden bass or snapper), swordfish, orange roughy, bluefish, and sea bass. Eat as much as you want of catfish, anchovies, clams, crabs, pollock, oysters, wild salmon (not farmed, which has PCBs), sardines, sole, herring, tilapia and trout. Also, try to eat lots of fish high in omega-3s like herring, sardines, oysters and salmon. Check out the lists for further fine-tuning of this advice, and try to eat a variety of the safe fish. Read more!

Saying Yuck Not Such a Bad Idea?

So, since the recent spate of recalls included one for which the toy can morph into a date rape drug, I'm thinking that the folks who suspect a genetic predisposition to food aversion serves an evolutionary purpose can't be far off the mark.... Read more!

Born to Different Sensory Worlds (I Am Salty, You Are Sweet)

"Some mothers and their children may live in different sensory worlds due to differences of taste sensitivity related to genes, age, or both." I so love this line. Apparently some kids are more sensitive to bitter (read: spinach-y) tastes than others, and are predisposed to like sweets. I know this will shock many of you, but it's true, some kids prefer frosting to pimento cheese spread. This may be a childhood sensitivity that those kids grow out of, or experience may trump sensitivity after a certain point. They just don't know yet. On a related note, scientists have also figured out something I've long known -- some people just don't like chocolate. Yup, as I've long maintained, some of us adults have a specific metabolic chemical that makes us "chocolate indifferent" -- much to my mother-in-law's horror, she being of the "chocolate desiring" persuasion. So some of the behavior we see in our kids may be age-related, and some may be part of their basic metabolic make-up. And all of this underscores once again how tricky it is to navigate food issues when your husband-- I mean child--is very different from you. Read more!