Spend less time with TV, video games, and computer games!!

Importance of Screen time and health

Did you know that kids who watch TV a lot are risking a lifetime of health problems? It’s a proven fact: too much screen time (watching TV, playing on the computer, and playing video games) is associated with:

■ Violent behavior.

■ Poorer school performance.

■ Lower reading scores.

■ Sleep pattern disturbances.

■ Overweight.

■ Consumption of junk food.

■ Bad habits later in life (like tobacco and alcohol abuse).

Join millions of others and check out what else life has to offer! What can kids do instead?

The sky’s the limit.!!

Get active. Get imaginative. Get social!

■ Walk the dog.  ■ Read a book.

■ Take a hike.  ■ Throw a ball.

■ Run a half mile.  ■ Visit a friend.

■ Climb a hill.  ■ Put on a show.

■ Play a game.  ■ Draw a picture.

■ Visit a park.  ■ Have a conversation.

■ Ride a bike.  ■ Smell the roses

Parents: Why Spending less time is more Time

Do your children a favor: turn off the TV, the video game, and the computer game. Time staring at those screens is called screen time, and it’s bad for kids’ health and behavior. Kids who spend less time in front of a screen also:

• Do better in school.
• Read more.
• Sleep better.
• Eat healthier foods.
• Weigh less.
• Are less prone to violence, early sexual activity, and smoking.

Paediatricians say:

• No screen time for children younger than 2.
• No TVs in bedrooms.
• Limit screen time to one to two hours a day.
• Keep an eye on what your kids watch

How to get started
 

1. Keep track. Be aware of what you watch and why. Fill out our log sheet with your children.

2.  Consider a week without screen time.

3.  Make the commitment as a family.

4.  Plan for things you’d like to do and post your list on the TV. For ideas, see some of the 101 screen-free activities at www.screentime.org.

5.  Pay special attention to times when you most depend on screen time and make alternate plans for them.

6.  At the end of the week, talk about the benefi ts of limiting screen time. Then set your own TV-turnoff times, like one day a week or during meals.

7.  Remember, it takes a long time to change habits. Whatever works to reduce screen time is a positive step.

Tips for reducing screen time at home

• Put your TV in a place where it isn’t the center of attention.
• Turn off the TV during meal times.
• Don’t use screen time as a reward or punishment.
• Don’t use screen time as a babysitter

How much screen time does your family get?

Screen time is the time spent in front of the TV or playing video games or computer games. Screen time means not moving around. But our bodies need movement to be healthy.

Keep your family healthy. Keep track of your screen time for one week with our screen time log.

Make a copy of the sheet for each member of the family. Make it a fun game to see who has the least screen time. Try to decrease your totals over time.

And remember, change doesn’t happen quickly. Any reduction in screen time is good for your family.

Healthy habits

■ No more than an hour of screen time each day.

■ An hour of activity each day.

■ Healthy snacks—fi ve servings of fruit and vegetables daily.

■ Getting up to move or stretch during screen time. Screen-time alternatives

■ Playing with friends.

■ Walking the dog.

■ Inventing a game.

■ Reading and writing

Screen-time alternative

■ Playing with friends.

■ Walking the dog.

■ Inventing a game.

■ Reading and writing.becher.com

Kids: cool things to do

There are lots of ways to have fun besides watching TV or playing video games or computer games.

Take a look!

·         Paint or draw a picture.

·         Write a story.

·         Make sock puppets and put on a show.

·         Make up a new board or card game and try it out with family or friends.

·         Create a drum set from household containers.

·         Organize a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt.

·         Bike, skate, Frisbee, swing, swim, or go to the pa

·         Read a book.

·         Read a book to someone else.

For more ideas, check out some of the ideas from the list of 101 screen-free activities at www.screentime.org.

Teachers and leaders: fun activities

Set an example! You can help families become less dependent on screen activities for entertainment.

Set the stage

• Read books with kids (see the resource list).
• Talk about what kids enjoy besides screen time.
• Use math class to fill out our log of screen time and graph the results.
• Involve parents: Have each family member fill out the log and compare results.
• Have children make collages or drawings of favourite activities that don’t involve screen time. 
• Encourage children to hang the finished artwork on or near the TV at home. 
• Write a newsletter article and send hand-outs to parents.
• Order materials from the Centre for Screen-Time Awareness (www.screentime.org).
• Gather colleagues to help organize events for your school or organization (see next page for ideas).
• Declare your organization or school screen-free for a week or more. Put up posters or make a display with hand-outs from the Centre for Screen-Time Awareness.

Try a screen-free week 

Have a contest. Which individual or group can spend the least time with a screen for a week or a month? Offer prizes, but make sure they aren’t high-sugar or high-fat foods!

Organize a special evening at which parents, older children, and community members teach fun, screen-free activities, such as knitting, chess, or salsa dancing, and serve healthy snacks.

Set up a “slumber party” in an unusual location (such as the library) for one night and tell stories to the group, play board games, or do other non-screen activities.

Use the “More reading, less TV” idea from the Center for Screen-Time Awareness. Bring an old TV into the classroom. Assign books to read. For every book read, fi ll out a slip of paper and tape it to the old TV. Eventually the TV is buried under the “books.”

Join forces

Enlist allies to help encourage children to have more time for being active, creating, and interacting by spending less time with entertainment screens. Here are some possible allies:

·         School personnel (teachers, nurses, food service workers).

• ·         PTA members.
• ·         Preschool teachers.
• ·         Parks and recreation department staff.
• ·         YMCA and/or community centre staff.
• ·         Sports leagues.
• ·         Libraries.
• ·         Health care agencies and providers.
• ·         Faith community.
• ·         Child advocacy and service agencies.
•  

Example of Books for classroom reading

Fix-it Board Book

By David McPhail,Dutton Juvenile, 2002; ages 2–6

Theme: TV breaks, and reading turns out to be more fun.

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV

By Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain,Random House Books for Young Readers, 1984; ages 4–8

Theme: Mom puts her foot down; kids need to play!

Turn off the TV (Mama Rex and T Series)

By Rachel Vail and Steve Bjorkman,Rebound by Sagebrush, 2003; ages 4–8

Theme: Mama Rex fi gures out what to do when the power goes. 

Box-Head Boy

By Christine M. Winn and David Walsh,Fairview Press, 1996; ages 4–8

Theme:Denny’s head turns into a TV until he remembers real life and decides to spend his time there instead.

Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair

By Patricia Polacco, Philomel, 1996; ages 6–10

Theme: Aunt Chip teaches a town to read after they’d given it up for TV.

Facts about screen time and its effect on kids

Thousands of studies support the idea that kids are healthier and better adjusted and perform better in school when they don’t get too much time watching TV or playing video games and computer games, which we call “screen time.”

Studies have linked excessive television viewing (and sometimes video games) with :

• ·         Poor performance in school, especially in language and reading.
• ·         Less imaginative ability.
• ·         Problems focusing.
• ·         Sleep pattern disturbances.
• ·         Excess weight.
• ·         Poor planning and judgment.
• ·         Tendency to resort to violence to
• ·         solve problems.

Screen time and weight gain

• Each hour of TV viewing by school-age kids is associated with 167 additional calories.
• Just one hour of TV viewing daily is associated with higher consumption of fast food,sweets, chips, and pizza.
• Two or more hours of TV viewing daily is associated with significant likelihood of overweight among 3-year-olds.
• Children with TV in their bedrooms snack more than those without.

Screen time and violence

• Children typically witness 10,000 acts of violence on TV each year.
• 61 percent of TV shows include violence.
• Heavy TV watching at age 4 correlates with bullying behaviour between ages 6 and 11.
• Early grade school children exposed to TV violence were more violent adults 15 years later.

Screen time and school

• Middle school children who watched more television, movies, and video games did worse in school than those who watched less.

•  Third graders with a bedroom TV scored seven to nine points lower on standardized tests than those without a bedroom TV.

Screen time and sleep

·          

      Television viewing among infants and children is associated with irregular sleep schedules.

·         Teens watching more than three hours of TV per day are more likely to have sleep problems in early adulthood.

For tips, tools, and information about the benefit of reducing screen time, check out these resources.

Web sites

Kaiser Permanente

www.kp.org/tvturnoff

Center for Screen-Time Awareness (formerly TV-Turnoff Network)

www.screentime.org

OHSU’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital

www.doernbecher.com

American Academy of Pediatrics

www.aap.org/healthtopics/mediause.cfm

National Institute on Media and the Family

www.mediafamily.org

Center on Media and Child Health

www.cmch.tv/

University of Washington (Active Bodies, Active Minds Project)

www.waabam.org

Adult books

The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids

By Dimitri A. Christakis and Frederick J. Zimmerman, Rodale Books, 2006

The Plug-in Drug

By Marie Winn,Penguin, 25th anniversary edition, 2002

Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don’t Think and What We Can Do About It

By Jane M. Healy,Simon & Schuster, 1999

Consuming Kids

By Susan Linn, Anchor, 2005

Books for kids

Fix-it Board Book

By David McPhail,Dutton Juvenile, 2002; ages 2–6

Theme: TV breaks, and reading turns out to be more fun.

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV

By Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain,Random House Books for Young Readers, 1984; ages 4–8

Theme: Mom puts her foot down; kids need to play!

Turn off the TV (Mama Rex and T Series)

By Rachel Vail and Steve Bjorkman,Rebound by Sagebrush, 2003; ages 4–8

Theme: Mama Rex fi gures out what to do when the power goes. 

Box-Head Boy

By Christine M. Winn and David Walsh,Fairview Press, 1996; ages 4–8

Theme:Denny’s head turns into a TV until he remembers real life and decides to spend his time there instead.

Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair

By Patricia Polacco, Philomel, 1996; ages 6–10

Theme: Aunt Chip teaches a town to read after they’d given it up for TV.

Information and Sources

• American Academy of Paediatrics
• Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
• Developmental Psychology
• Kaiser Family Foundation
• Paediatrics
• Public Health Nutrition
• ©2007 Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest

To download a PDF Handout of this document for reproduction and Screen time log sheet, go to www.kp.org/tvturnoff.

Please copy, share, and distribute this hand-out! Thank You!!
 

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Why you shoud never add Milk and Sugar in you Tea? Like the chinese

In the Ancient time the practice of drinking tea began in China as a prescription medication and was very valuable and scarce in china that ancient Emperor even gave royal decree that only royalties is entitled to have tea.(Now you know why tea is so important to the Chinese people)

Today you can find tea everywhere around the world from powder to tea leave and Tea Based product. Beside that Tea is second only to water in worldwide consumption.

According to numerous health studies that have been done , the nutrient that we receive by the practice of continuously drinking tea reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and control high blood pressure as tea help regulate blood pressure by improving blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax.

Studies also found that tea can reduce the risk of diseases such as Parkinson's, but also to improve memory.( Japanese studies found that Japanese people who practice the green tea have a better memory on average than those who rarely drank tea.)

And why you shouldn't add Milk in your tea?

FACT:

This is because researchers at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin, Germany, in January 9th Tuesday, 2007 found out that even thou tea can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke but only if milk is not added to the brew as milk eliminates the protective effect against cardiovascular disease.

“The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr. Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital.

“If you want to drink tea to have the beneficial health effects you have to drink it without milk. That is clearly shown by our experiments,” she told Reuters.

Dr. Mario Lorenz, who helped a study in Berlin, says that the benefits of 'tea' that is important is to increase the ability of arteries to work with a more relaxed and blood flow.
Stangl and her team discovered that proteins called caseins in milk decrease the amount of compounds in tea known as catechins which increase its protection against heart disease.

They believe their findings, which are reported in the European Heart Journal, could explain why countries such as Britain, where tea is regularly consumed with milk, have not shown a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke from drinking tea. The researchers compared the health effects of drinking boiled water and tea with and without milk on 16 healthy women. Using ultrasound, they measured the function of an artery in the forearm before and two hours after drinking tea.

Black tea significantly improved blood flow compared to drinking water but adding milk blunted the effect of the tea.

“We found that, whereas drinking tea significantly increased the ability of the artery to relax and expand to accommodate increased blood flow compared with drinking water, the addition of milk completely prevents the biological effect,” said Dr. Mario Lorenz, a molecular biologist and co-author of the study.

Tests on rats produced similar results. When rodents were exposed to black tea they produced more nitric oxide which promotes dilation of blood vessels. But adding milk blocked the effect.

Tea has also been shown to have a protective effect against cancer so the findings could have further implications.

“Since milk appears to modify the biological activities of tea ingredients, it is likely that the anti-tumor effects of tea could be affected as well,” said Stangl. “I think it is essential that we re-examine the association between tea consumption and cancer protection, to see if that is the case,” she added.

Minor reason why you shouldn't add sugar to you tea.

According to the study of Pr. Christine Wu of the University of Illinois, the content of polyphenols in tea can reduce the bacteria in the mouth that cause cavities and gum infection. Indirectly, it can also reduce bad breath. However it will not work if you like to drink tea added sugar, milk or any preservatives.


Warning:

Drinking Tea during the morning and afternoon is good for your health and it reduce sleepiness in the daytime. But avoid drinking tea /too much tea before bed time as it contain stimulants (caffeine) that act will cause difficulty in sleeping.

Dont drink tea that are too hot or to cold tea.Too hot will cause a problem to your digestions system.Too cold will cause phlegm.

Do not drink tea with any medication because the tea can change the contents of the medicines you need to take (said Chinese Herbalist)Fact to support

Dont soak your tea too long as it not only changed the nutritional content of tea and cause bitter taste , but also endanger the health of your digestive tract. Tea, which is too thick also gives a bad effect, because it encourage the production of gastric acid which can hurt your stomach


Reference Material:

Milk Eliminates Cardiovascular Health Benefits Of Tea, Researchers Warn
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070108191523.htm

Studies force new view on biology, Nutritional Action of Flavonoids by David Stauth-Linus Pauling Institute

Health effects of tea

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The truth on organic and non organic foods

(HealthDay News) -- Food that beckons from the organic aisles of grocery stores may not be any better for you than what lines the rest of supermarket shelves.

According to a British review of studies done over the past 50 years, organic and conventionally produced foods have about the same nutrient content, suggesting that neither is better in terms of health benefits.

"We did not find any important differences in nutrient content between organically and conventionally produced foods," said study author Alan Dangour, a registered public health nutritionist with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Nonetheless, the researchers noted, organic foods continue to grow in popularity. In the United Kingdom, the market share for organic foods increased 22 percent from 2005 to 2007, they said.

Likewise, the market for organic foods in the United States has grown at about a 20 percent rate each year since 1990, reaching $13.8 billion in consumer sales in 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association. That represents 2.5 percent of total food sales in the country, the trade group noted.

"As a registered dietitian, it is good to see that a systematic review of the literature supports what has long been believed -- that the nutritional content of traditionally grown foods and organic foods are comparable," said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis and past president of the American Dietetic Association. "This report provides confirmation for consumers that if they choose conventionally grown foods or organic foods they will be meeting their nutritional needs."

The review zeroed in on 162 studies that dealt with the nutrient content of foods. Only 55 were of what the researchers considered to be "satisfactory quality" -- a strong indicator that, overall, the science on the subject is not up to snuff.

They found no noted differences between conventional and organic crops with regard to vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, potassium, zinc and copper content. Organic crops did have higher levels of phosphorus, and conventionally produced crops had higher levels of nitrogen.

No differences in nutrient content were indicated in the livestock studies, according to the review.

The Oregon-based Organic Center, which promotes organic food, conducted a similar review of the literature, said Charles Benbrook, chief scientist for the Center. That study yielded results similar to those in the British study, but it also found higher levels of healthy antioxidants and polyphenols in organic foods.

"Given that some of the most significant differences favoring organic foods were for key antioxidant nutrients that most Americans do not get enough of on most days, we concluded that the consumption of organic fruits and vegetables, in particular, offered significant health benefits, roughly equivalent to an additional serving of a moderately nutrient dense fruit or vegetable on an average day," Benbrook said.

And there's another aspect to the organic vs. conventional food debate, said Sheah Rarback, director of nutrition at the Mailman Center for Child Development at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

"You have to also look at what you're not getting" with organic foods, she said. "Maybe it's not a big difference nutritionally, but conventional products may have more pesticides."

And that's a particularly important issue for children, she said.

"We know that young children are getting the nutrition, whatever choice they make, but we also have to look at the pesticide issue," Rarback said. "A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that children eating conventionally grown fruit had pesticide residue in their urine, which decreased after just five days on an organic diet."

The production of organic food is subject to a variety of regulations, including those that govern the use of pesticides and other chemicals in fruits and vegetables and the use of medicines in animals, the authors of the review noted in their study, which will be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Rarback indicated that the ability to get solid research on organic versus conventionally produced products is hampered by variations in the production process.

"There are so many variables," she said. "Where is something grown? Where is it shipped from? How long was it on the truck? There are going to be variables in terms of nutrition just from production methods."

SOURCES: Alan Dangour, registered public health nutritionist, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Connie Diekman, M.Ed, R.D., L.D., director, university nutrition, Washington University, St. Louis, and past president, American Dietetic Association; Sheah Rarback, R.D., director, nutrition, Mailman Center for Child Development, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami; Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., chief scientist, The Organic Center, Enterprise, Oregon; September 2009 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

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