Which Foods Are Important for a Baby?

A baby grows fast in the first year of life. A healthy infant will gain about 5 to 7 ounces a week from birth to six months and 3 to 5 ounces a week for the second six months, according to MayoClinic.com. By the time your baby is a year old, she will have tripled her birth weight. With that kind of growth rate, nutrition is important. A well-balanced diet for a baby should include protein, carbohydrates and fats as well as vitamins and minerals.

Breast feeding is the best source of nourishment for newborns, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. Breast milk is easily digested, contains all of the nutrients a baby needs and helps protect your baby from infectious diseases. Breast milk contains lactose – a milk sugar – fat and proteins called casein and whey, as well as the vitamins and minerals your baby needs.

By the time your baby is about six months old, her digestive system is ready for solid foods. Cooked cereal is often the first food doctors recommend, and of the grains, rice is the least likely to cause allergies, according to Britain’s National Health Service. Oatmeal is another good cereal choice, as is barley. Other starchy foods such as mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes or yams can provide carbohydrates.

Fruits and vegetables are good sources of vitamins, minerals and fiber. Bananas are easy for a baby to chew, even without teeth, and can be mashed with a fork. Cooked apples, peaches and pears are also soft and easily digested. Pureed carrots, peas, green beans and squash provide variety as well as nutrition. As your baby becomes used to eating solid foods, you can offer cooked spears of broccoli or cauliflower, green beans and carrots. Diced cooked vegetables and diced soft fruits are other ways to serve fruits and vegetables.

Protein is important for strong muscles and other body tissues. Cooked pureed meats such as chicken, beef, turkey and lamb provide amino acids, vitamin B12 and minerals such as iron to your baby. Eggs can be served soft boiled or scrambled, or hard-boiled eggs can but cut into small pieces or mashed. Cottage cheese is another protein food that is high in calcium and easy for babies to eat. Cooked pureed or mashed beans also add protein to the diet.

The exact foods you feed your baby are less important than ensuring you offer a wide variety; a healthy diet should contain many different foods to ensure your baby gets all the nutrients she needs. It is best to avoid foods that are highly sweetened or salted, and foods with little nutrition such as soft drinks or sweets. Some foods increase the risk of choking, so raw carrot sticks, grapes, cherry tomatoes, popcorn and sausage should not be on the menu until your baby is older.

Article reviewed by J. Betherman Last updated on: Apr 25, 2012

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Which Has More Antioxidants: Peaches or Cherries?

 Since the 1990s, when news about antioxidants and their health benefits began to spread to the general public, the claims regarding antioxidant benefits have ranged from preventing the common cold to curing cancer. Although many of these claims have yet to be scientifically proven, antioxidant-rich fruits like cherries and peaches may help boost your immune system and stave off certain diseases. Although cherries appear to have higher overall antioxidant levels, both cherries and peaches contain antioxidant compounds that may have important benefits for your health.

Unstable molecules called free radicals can damage the DNA in your cells and make harmful low-density lipoprotein cholesterol more likely to stick to your artery walls. This, in turn, can lead to plaque buildup and narrowed arteries. Antioxidants are substances that fight these free radicals and prevent damage. People who eat fewer antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables may have an increased risk for developing chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, as well as decreases in cognitive function as they age.

There may be thousands of different antioxidant substances, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. The best known are in the vitamin category, including vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene. Other categories include minerals, carotenoids -- a common group of naturally occurring pigments in red, yellow, orange and dark-green fruits and vegetables -- and polyphenols. Polyphenols are the most abundant antioxidants in your diet, 10 times higher than your vitamin C intake and 100 times higher than intakes of vitamin E and carotenoids, according to a 2004 study in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition." The primary sources of polyphenols are fruits and fruit juices.

Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, helped develop the ORAC method to determine the amount of antioxidants a food item has. The ORAC method, which stands for oxygen radical absorbance capacity, measures the capacity of a food to counteract the free radicals your body generates when you engage in ordinary daily activities like breathing, eating and exercising, as well as when you're exposed to pollution or ultraviolet rays. If a food is rich in antioxidants, it scores an ORAC rating of 1000 per 100 grams or above.

There are over 100 different species of cherries, the smallest members of the stone fruit family rosaceae. The most important are the sweet cherry and the sour, or tart cherry. Cherries contain vitamins A, B, C, E and K, as well as carotenoids and polyphenols. Tart cherries contain a much higher level of total polyphenols than their sweeter cousins, according to a 2010 report in the journal "Molecules." USDA scientists analyzed the antioxidant levels in over 100 different foods and published the results in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" in June 2004. Although the study didn't include tart cherries, sweet cherries ranked 15th in the amount of overall antioxidant capacity among the foods tested, with an ORAC rating of 4873.

Peaches are also a member of the rosaceae family and are rich sources of vitamins A, B1, B2 and vitamin C. Like cherries, peaches are good sources of carotenoids and polyphenols. The same USDA study in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" from 2004 found that peaches had an ORAC rating of 1826. While well below that of cherries, the rating still qualifies the peach as an antioxidant-rich food due to having a score above 1000 per 100 grams. A report in the February 2000 issue of "The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" showed that the antioxidants in peaches were able to inhibit the effects of harmful low-density lipoprotein cholesterol that can lead to chronic disease.

Article reviewed by Brigitte Espinet Last updated on: Mar 6, 2012

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Which Kind of Egg Is the Healthiest?

Eggs have essentially the same nutritional elements, unless the chickens eat special formulas that change their eggs' composition. Chickens that roam free and eat a variety of bugs and plants produce eggs with slight changes in nutritional make-up. Chickens used for egg or poultry production cannot be fed hormones. All eggs are healthy, but if you want to consume less cholesterol, raise your omega-3 fatty acid intake or eat organic, look for eggs with these benefits.

Organic eggs come from chickens that are fed certified organic feed. These chickens are supposed to range free outdoors, but labeling eggs as organic doesn't guarantee this. While feeding chickens organic food might produce healthier birds, it doesn't necessarily create healthier eggs, according to registered dietitian Monica Reinagel.

Chickens that are allowed to roam free and eat plants and bugs produce different eggs than chickens kept in cages or in hen houses and fed commercial chicken feed. Free-range chickens produce eggs with higher amounts of beta-carotene, vitamin D, E, and omega-3 fatty acids, all of which are found in the yolk. Free-range birds generally spend some time outdoors during the day but are often brought in at night for their safety. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture only certifies as free-range those chickens used for meat, not those used as egg-layers.

Feeding chickens grains with added nutrients can change the composition of their eggs. Chickens that eat feed containing extra omega-3 fatty acids -- essential fatty acids that are difficult to get in your diet -- produce eggs with a higher omega-3 fatty acid count. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils and possibly flax seed aid in brain and retinal development and might also improve immune function and help prevent heart disease by decreasing the risk of atherosclerosis. The omega-3 fatty acids accumulate in the yolks. Special feed can also raise the vitamin E content of chicken eggs.

Different colored eggs might look pretty, but blue, brown and other colors of eggshell don't have any more nutritional value than plain white. The type of chicken the egg comes from influences shell color; eggs from different varieties of chickens all have the same basic nutritional value.

If you're watching your cholesterol, look for eggs labeled as low-cholesterol. These eggs must be at least 25 percent lower in cholesterol than the cholesterol found in a standard egg yolk, according to the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The total amount of cholesterol in eggs is lower than previously thought, 185 milligrams rather than 213 milligrams per standard egg, according to Ken Anderson, a poultry science professor at North Carolina State University.

Article reviewed by Connie Bye Last updated on: Aug 1, 2012

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