From the category archives:

Health+Wellness

New Study Links Commercials in TV (Not Watching TV) to Obesity

This week in Red Pillville, obesity seems to be the featured topic. So when I was perusing articles that I had bookmarked for later reading on Instapaper, the piece entitled, “Commercials Are the Culprit in TV-Obesity Link,” by Tara Parker-Pope on the New York Times Blog caught my attention (you can read the article by [...]

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Mama’s Two Cents on the Big Gulp Issue: Embracing “No”

Red Pill Papa’s Big Gulp post has my brain so completely twitterpated that I simply have to post instead of comment.  I’m Tippi Hedren once again, swatting a swarm of birds flying around my head, but the one that’s gripped my shoulder and is pecking my skull is saying, “No.  No.  No.”  Because I can’t help but [...]

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Will a Big Gulp Tax Make a Dent in Childhood Obesity?

Have you ever thought to compare the current obesity crisis — with soda taking center stage — to the fight against Big Tobacco? Well that is how the author of the following New York  Times article is framing it. Read ”Soda – A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke” here: http://nyti.ms/9ar5mK. Taxing soda could be a good [...]

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The ‘Why’ and ‘Which’ of Organic Produce

This really should be Red Pill Papa’s post since he’s the ‘food guy’ — and he certainly gets credit for introducing us to Amy Nelms of mmmunch.com, who was generous enough to share the great information on which this post is based — but credit given, we’d now like to share with you the best summary [...]

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Making the Food/Mood Connection: For Our Kids and Ourselves

This conversation started here after my unsuccessful attempt to get our esteemed readers to submit some candy-free Valentine ideas (see, that post was good for something).  If you read that post and the comments, you’ll see that one of our readers has already been making the food/mood connection, understanding that sugar and refined carbs are [...]

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Digging Deeper into Skin Deep Products

My husband recently told me about a website he heard about on Howard Stern of all places: Skin Deep, a cosmetic safety database compiled by The Environmental Working Group. The site rates what appears to be an impressive variety of personal care products on a 1-10 scale, the results of which fall into a low, [...]

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Red Pill Readers: How Do You Handle the Springtime Candy Onslaught?

Valentine’s Day and Easter — other than Halloween, nothing rivals these two springtime holidays for sheer terror in the heart of a sugar-averse Red Pill Parent.  My household is by no means ‘clean’ of the offending substance, but I do try to not get carried along by the prevailing cultural insistence that these two holidays represent [...]

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“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” – The Last Lecture

“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” – Randy Pausch Red Pill Parents, it’s late at night, but this was just too good/important/uplifting/moving not to share with you immediately!  I just finished watching this 1 hour 16 minute lecture by Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor who is most famous [...]

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Oh, This Bloody Coke Thing

Consider if you will: a public elementary school has a fundraiser for Juvenile Diabetes.  This school offers reduced-fat and whole wheat items on its lunch menu.   Its students are asked to bring a healthy snack and water to school each day.  Some of its students have the opportunity to earn play money for good [...]

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It’s Time to Fall Out of Love With Cheap

Lately every time I sit down to post I feel like Tippi Hedren in The Birds, frantically swatting away at all the competing topics flying around my head.  But today, there is a very large, very insistent bird on my shoulder with its talons dug in, that’s been pecking away at my cranium like a [...]

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