BrandAid’s Fab 4 Condiment Guidelines

By Kerry McLeod

The Big Three condiments are founded on all-natural ingredients like tomatoes, mustard seeds and pickles. When you see all kinds of chemical additives you can be certain these varieties have been highly processed. This means most of the nutrition has been replaced by cheap chemical taste-a-likes needed to boost flavor.

Read on for BrandAid’s Condiment Guidelines, and our Best Brands list of Safe Condiments.

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The Juice Box Debate

By Kerry McLeod

When it comes to nutrition, there’s an ongoing debate on whether fruit juice is truly a healthy option for toddlers and young children.

We’ve discovered that most experts agree on this point: 100% fruit juices that are made from all-natural ingredients are healthy choices. But that’s if – AND ONLY IF – the kids are not sucking up too much of it.

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Choosing the Healthiest Yogurt

By Kerry McLeod

To ensure that you make the healthiest yogurt choice, quick-scan the front label and then focus on the ingredients list. You’re then ready to put your trust into our 10 BrandAid Guidelines:

• Look for a short ingredients list.
  
  
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Oatmeal: A Guilt Free Comfort Food

By Kerry McLeod

When we think of comfort foods, we conjure up yummy visions of cheesy macaroni, crispy fried chicken or decadent fudge brownies. The common denominator? They’re often fat-filled foods!

And then there’s oatmeal – a piping-hot bowl can give you that same warm, fuzzy feeling - minus the guilt. When made right, this guiltless pleasure has nutrition experts singing an Ode to Oats because of the wealth of goodness packed inside these tiny grains. Take a look.

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New Year's Resolutions

By Stacy DeBroff

We have an annual family tradition of having 6 other families over (kids and all!) for a New year's celebration--a tradition that started when our kids were infants and has now gone on for 10 years. When the kids were little, we would celebrate New Year's with a apple cider toast around their early bedtimes, and assign every family a room/floor space for the kids to fall asleep in pack n plays, sleeping bags, or beds. Now the kids average 11
years old (mine are 11 and 9), and they stay up for the ball dropping -- running around the hats, streamers, clappers, and mayhem. Everyone brings a couple of hot appetizers, and the grown-ups mingle, laugh, and often we break out games such as charades or pictionary to play with the kids. It's such fun!

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Great Time to Grow Fruit Seeds

Nothing like the warm, sunny days of early summer to transform the seeds from fruits and vegetables that your kids eat into plants that they can tend to and watch grow. My kindergarten son Brooks is an avid collector of all seeds, particularly those of fruit he eats. I have to be cautious when he's around, because suddenly cored apples become scrutinized for errant seeds not saved for our planting projects. Finally this spring, I dedicated a special two square foot section of my garden just for Brooks' sprouting seeds. With delight and a fierce protectiveness, he checks his spot every couple days to see what's coming up. To give those seeds a real head start, below are some helpful tips to launch budding gardeners of your own:

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