If you spent your life shunning fruits and vegetables, you might want to seriously reassess that stanch on healthy foods before becoming pregnant. According to British researchers, a mother's diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding directly affects the child's risk of obesity, elevated cholesterol, and blood sugar levels for the rest of their life.

In the study, researchers fed one group of rats a diet of donuts, muffins, cookies, chips and sweets while they were pregnant and nursing their young. Another group was fed a regular, healthy diet. When comparing the two groups, researchers found the babies from the junk food momma rats had higher levels of cholesterol, triglycerides,glucose, and insulin and were fatter through adolescence and adulthood that the rats born of mothers who ate healthily.

And while it's true that rats aren't human (although some humans can be rats!) according to Neil Stickland, the study's co-author, "Humans share a number of fundamental biological systems with rats, so there is good reason to assume the effects we see in rats may be repeated in humans. Our research certainly tallies with epidemiological studies linking children's weight to that of their parents."

Does this mean pregnant woman stress over a couple chocolate chip cookies and an occasional hamburger? Of course not! But knowing the constant craving for deep fried Snickers bars isn't exactly doing the wee one any favors might be the push needed to choose a juicy orange or calcium-building serving of yogurt instead.

I've never been much of a fan of reality TV. Putting ordinary people (who are always prettier or meaner or whinier than anyone person I've ever met) in weird circumstances to show what happens just isn't entertaining to me. I've got kids, I deal with weird circumstances ALL DAY LONG!

Apparently, I'm not the only one who isn't crazy about at least one reality TV show. The Washington D.C. based nonprofit group Zero to Three is upset with the new NBC television series "Baby Borrowers". The group's spokesperson told Page Six, "We're concerned about the fact that these babies are being separated from their parents and placed with strangers. On the first episode, the babies were separated for about 12 hours and were clearly in distress. Typically they will cry and cling and search for their parents, which they were doing. They should be with someone they've had the opportunity to get to know."

I'm all for educating teens on child care getting rid of the notion that parenting is one big ball of baby powdery fun, but there ARE better ways than dumping a baby off with complete strangers for a television show. Working at a childcare center, volunteering at a church nursery or preschool, or even babysitting are all good ways to get a small idea of what life as a parent is like.

There is no way I'd ever, ever, ever have agreed to let my babies be on a television show like this, even with a nanny stationed nearby in case she's needed. What exactly is going on with our society that makes babies fair game for a reality series, anyway?

Diplomats in Geneva recently set new limits on the amount of certain kinds of bacteria allowable in baby formula as well as the level of natural toxins in some types of nuts. They also tackled the amount of gluten permissible in products labeled 'gluten-free.' The safety standards will apply to all internationally shipped foods.

The outcome of the standards is to hopefully affect hygiene practices and therefore reduce the amount of contamination of two kinds of bacteria in powdered formulas which have been known to cause illness and death in infants. Foods labeled gluten-free would not be able to contain more than 20 milligrams of gluten per kilogram, nor could they contain wheat, rye, barley or oats. Regulations were also set for the amounts of aflotoxins in almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios. Aflotoxins are known carcinogens in lab animals.

Over 170 countries claim membership to The Codex Alimentarius Commission responsible for making these decision, which also includes the European Union. Other topics for consideration are frozen foods, flavoring, tomatoes (no surprise there given the United States' recent issues with them) and mineral water.

I'm one of those moms that cares a lot about the food my family eats. Even as food costs rise, we've cut back in other areas in our budget so that we can continue to buy organic and locally grown meat and produce.

But by far, the most important thing I do to ensure that my family eats healthy, well-balanced meals is to COOK. That is why I found myself particularly peeved as I read a Time Magazine cover story entitled "How America's Children Packed on the Pounds."

In summing up the answer to the dilemma presented in the cover story title, the author describes "a long multifront war" on childhood obesity as such: "Parents are fighting it in the home....... Policymakers are fighting it as they study the growing body of research..... Doctors are fighting it as they deal daily with the ills associated with childhood obesity. And perhaps most important, teachers, mentors, and public role models are fighting it as they help kids navigate a culture that fosters fat but idealizes thin....".

Teachers, mentors, and public role models are the most important front in this war??!! I have a serious problem with the assigned hierarchy. In fact, this mentality, which inevitably leads to millions of wasted tax dollars, makes my blood boil!

A child's food preferences, habits, and his/her relationship with food are determined at HOME. Teachers, mentors, and public role models (whatever that means) can do precious little once the mold is set.

If America thinks that real solutions to childhood obesity lie in government campaigns such as the $125 million "VERB" campaign aimed at preteens and featuring Miley Cyrus, they are either grossly naive or, more likely, in serious denial. The campaign's budget was eventually slashed, which Time Magazine described as the government "dropping the ball."

Actually, parents are the ones "dropping the ball." We don't need another million-dollar government study to figure out that childhood obesity increased at about the same time that the once sacred family meal became optional and even non-existent in some homes.

If your child is a latch-key kid who heats up his dinner in the microwave or if eating take-out in the car on the way to soccer practice has replaced good food and conversation around the family table, you may have a genuinely good reason for your family's meal arrangements. And that's fine by me.

My problem is not with your particular arrangement (to each his own), but rather with our national denial. We blame McDonalds, school lunches, commercials, video games, the government -- the list goes on.

To combat childhood obesity, kids don't need government funded celebrity campaigns or mentors as much as they need parents who take the time to plan and cook nutritious meals that family members are expected to attend.

Why do we insist on complicating things so much? It's the family meal, stupid.

For more information about Rachel, visit her website at www.rachelcamposduffy.com.

Would you use the new milk jug? Or, are you wedded to the cardboard cartons of what is soon to be the past? I remember when I was a kid and we got milk delivered to our house every week in a glass bottle. Nothing tasted more refreshing. By the time I was a teen those days were gone and we got cartons. Now, those cartons are being replaced by something less expensive to produce and more environmentally sound.

Sound good? It is. Still, the new concept has some consumers fuming, or at least perplexed. The problem with the new milk jug is that it SPILLS. Kids drink more milk than anybody, and this new design, being favored by places like Wal-Mart and Costco, which is becoming more available by the day, is not easy to use.

Kids have trouble pouring anyway, but the new milk jug, so foreign in its design to many, makes that simple task more manageable. Some sellers have taken it upon themselves to educate consumers on the how-to, to make pouring from the jug easier. Folks still are a little unnerved by the square shape of the jug--and they're not convinced the same old milk is in there. I had the same problem with Parmalat. Now I love it, but it was hard getting used to it at first.

What about you? Had any experience with the new milk? And???

This chilling incident luckily had a (mostly) happy ending. A fourteen-year-old girl was attacked by a bear during a bike race in Alaska but was saved by her 911 phone call. The teenager, who remains unnamed as of press-time, was participating in a 24-hour long mountain bike race in Anchorage when she was mauled.

The girl was able to make a call to 911, wherein all she was able to say was the word "bear." She later underwent surgery at a local hospital. Experts say the bear was probably a sow grizzly, and some speculate it was the same bear that went after two joggers earlier thew past week.

Dispatchers called the girl back as part of regular procedure, and another biker heard the ringing and went onto the darkened trail to investigate, discovering the teenager. Another biker remained with her until help arrived, despite the knowledge of the bear attack. Although little information has been released about the teen's condition, Police Lieutenant. Paul Honeman said the girl was in a fight for her life.

Grizzly pic by Ber'Zophus.

If you are reading this, chances are you are least somewhat Internet savvy. I would also venture to guess that you are familiar with common Internet acronyms like LOL, IMHO, BRB, and the ever-popular WTF. If not, perhaps you work for the Division of Motor Vehicles in North Carolina. Those guys may be first in flight, but they are apparently the last to know that when you put the letters W, T and F together, they convey a rather inappropriate message for a license plate.

A few months after they began making WTF plates, someone finally clued them in., That someone was a 60-year-old teacher from Fayetteville who complained about her plate after her teenage grandchildren told her what it meant. Not only are there about 10,000 WTF'ers driving around the state, that letter combination was also used on the DMV's own Website as a sample personalized plate (it has since been removed).

Now that they know about it, state officials are happy to replace the plates free of charge for anyone who would rather not drive around displaying that particular acronym on their vehicles. For those who choose their keep the plates: LOL!

The perpetrators of the horrifying and and heartbreaking case of Baby Grace discovered to be the blonde toddler's own mother and stepfather a mere seven months ago, are in the headlines again.

Kimberly Trenor, 19, just gave birth to a baby boy fathered by Royce Zeigler II, 25, the same man accused of helping beat her 2-year-old daughter Riley Ann (dubbed "baby Grace" by investigators before the body was identified) to death.

The infant was taken into the custody of Child Protective Services immediately after he was born and Trenor was returned to jail. In spite of both parents initially agreeing to give up their parental rights, Zeigler changed his mind and now wants his parents to raise the child. CPS was in the process of placing the newborn child with some of Trenor's relatives but now the courts will have to decide who will raise the baby boy born into such unfortunate circumstances.

It's hard not to feel sympathy for the members of the extended family. Not only did they lose a darling little girl due to the horrific actions of their own flesh and blood, they might also be denied the right to see this little boy as he grows up.

I'm sure glad I'm not a judge.

How far would you go to help your child have a child? A Michigan mom recently showed the world exactly how far she would go when she gave birth to her daughter's twins.

Crystal Sirignano, 52, gave birth last week to two healthy children, a boy and a girl. Crystal's daughter, Kendra, and her husband Aaron Simpson, struggled with infertility for years before turning to surrogacy. Though they were both hesitant at first, Crystal ended up being a healthy and helpful candidate. She moved from her home in Goodrich, where she owns a fitness center, to Arizona to be near her daughter and struggled with all the usual pregnancy symptoms at an age when pregnancy is the last thing on many women's minds.

"Things are different today,"
I hear ev'ry mother say
Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag
So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak
And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day.

-The Rolling Stones "Mother's Little Helper"

Between the proliferation of kid activities, the increased expectation of parental involvement, and the demands of work AND home, today's mothers are being pulled in more directions than ever before. How are modern mommas getting more hours in their day? It's not a pill like the Rolling Stones sang about.

A study by The National Sleep Foundation found that 65% of mothers regularly drink caffeinated beverages to make it through their day. And we're not talking just a cup or two, Sarah Kripal, mother of two from Lincoln, Nebraska admitted, "I need about four energy drinks, three cups of coffee and a six-pack of soda every day." Lindy Smith, a mom of three says, "I usually drink two to three pots of coffee a day. I am sure this is not good for me, but how do you keep up?"

In spite of research that coffee can reduce inflammation and decrease blood sugar levels, caffeine can trigger migraines, heartburn, gastrointestinal problems and put women at an increased risk of miscarriage. And unlike the original Mother's Little Helper, liquid energy requires no prescription is readily available in various sweetened and foamy forms (vanilla lattes are my weakness!) in nearly every city in the nation, making it easy for busy moms to grab a delicious cup of jet-fuel whenever energy levels sag.

No doubt about it, caffeine is a hard habit to break and current lifestyles make it hard to imagine why we'd even try giving up the one thing that helps us squeeze more hours into a day.

There are few childhood characters that have stood the test of time as well as those on Sesame Street. Kermit Love, creator of one fhe most famous of those characters -- Big Bird -- passed away last week at the age of 91. Though Love's career spanned decades, he's known worldwide for his contribution to the children's show and for his work on Sesame Street's most beloved characters.

Big Bird, as you know, is a towering 8-foot, 6-year-old bird, whose head and neck are controlled from inside the costume by levers. Mr. Love was protective of his creation, according to a NYT article, and the costume got its own seat when they traveled by plane. Because he wanted Big Bird to seem natural and more real to small children, he designed the costume so that stray feathers would fall off during shooting.

Carroll Spinney, who plays both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street talks about his old friend Kermit Love on NPR. In a CNN article, Spinney said of Love, "He looked very much like Santa Claus but was a little bit more like the Grinch."

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal -- surprisingly, a biology major in college -- has signed into law a bill that allows school boards in Louisiana to select materials to be used in science classes in order to critique scientific theories. The law is supposed to be used to promote "open and objective discussion of scientific theories... including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

Given that the law was written and promoted with the help of the Discovery Institute, the Seattle "think" tank that orchestrated the Dover debacle, the point of the law seems clear: to allow school boards to select texts that question evolution -- such as the one produced by the Discovery Institute itself. Unfortunately, this will open school districts to very expensive lawsuits, a la Dover. In Oklahoma, the Governor vetoed a similar law, noting that school districts would suffer from "an explosion of costly and protracted litigation that would have to be defended at taxpayers' expense."

The scientific community, naturally, has opposed this legislation. The law will "unleash an assault against scientific integrity, leaving students confused about science and unprepared to excel in a modern workforce," according to Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Biologist PZ Myers offers up a scathing analysis that includes an alternative to the Discovery Institute's materials.

Personally, I think Louisiana has enough to worry about, thanks to Hurricane Katrina, and doesn't need the financial burden of school boards trying to push Intelligent Design into classrooms, but that's just me. Luckily, my kids don't go to school in Louisiana, but I'm sure they'll feel the effects of this for a long time as they end up having to deal with others who were "educated" with the help of the Dover Institute.

Back in the days before Eve Ensler, the word 'vagina' was the verboten V-word. Now, it seems, there is another V-word on the horizon that people -- well, guys -- refuse to discuss, let alone think about: the vasectomy. Women have long-regarded the vasectomy as an easier, safer way toward permanent birth-control. Well, it's semi-permanent, actually, because it is a reversible procedure. Men regard it as little more than butchery. Women could get their tubes tied, the men say. Men could wear a condom, the women say. Men say that would reduce their feeling. Women say, well, tough!

But what about the vasectomy, really? Modern medicine would say it is a simpler and safer procedure than tubal ligation. It's also cheaper. There's also a new non-scalpel version on the market (my husband says don't even think of mentioning the words 'scalpel' and 'penis' in the same sentence; it turns him green). The result of unwanted pregnancy after a vasectomy is also low at 1 in 1,000.

It's also a procedure no one is really using. Why? Well, there is the obvious concern that my husband put so well. Then there are the myths that having a vasectomy reduces testosterone, etc. that still float around us like so much hot air. There's also the fear of having a needle stuck in one's weewee, which has been replaced by jet-powered anesthesia.

What about your family? Once you reached the optimal number of children (or no children!) what method of birth control did you or are you employing? Was vasectomy an option, or was it verboten?

Pic by Marshall Astor-Food Pornographer.

We all know the perils of kids and computers -- I don't mean that whole thing about how sexual predators find kids online, I'm talking about things like kids buying term papers on the web or skipping actual research for school projects by deferring to the not-always-accurate entries at Wikipedia. The Internet is an incredibly useful way to connect with people and find information, but new research is showing that too much web surfing may be changing the way our brains work.

In a long essay in the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly, Nicholas Carr looks at how Google is making us stupid. He talks about a phenomena that is familiar to many of us who spend long hours online: we've lost our ability to read, to lose ourselves in text. "My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski."

Scientists and theorists are looking at how this kind of virtual jet skiing is changing our brains, moving us from readers who follow the sense of long, complex sentences to decoders who "power browse" for information only. Because our brains -- even our adult brains -- are plastic and malleable, this constant skimming may be rewiring the way we think.

As parents, it seems important that we are aware of this, for a couple of reasons. We all know how important it is to read to our pre-literate kids, but once they are old enough to read on their own we may slack off. But the new findings about the Internet and reading offer one more reason to push traditional books on our kids -- and on ourselves as well. Because while it's easy to skim a blog post for information, there is great value in real books, with long sentences and complex ideas. We just need to keep our brains in shape for that kind of reading.

A teen girl in Kansas has found herself in a waking nightmare, charged with rape of a thirteen-year-old boy. The girl, who wishes to remain anonymous, was fourteen at the time of the alleged crime and she claims she was the one violated, not the other way around.

She tells a local news channel that she and three friends were spending a Saturday night together, watching movies and just hanging out. When two of her friends left the room, she says the thirteen year old boy forced himself on her. About a month later, she visited her school counselor to talk about what happened. "I wanted help because it was my first time and I was scared," she says.

The counselor went to the police and here's where things get even more messed up: the cops charged the girl with rape and criminal sodomy. No, it wasn't a paperwork error. Under Kansas law, sex with anyone under the age of fourteen is considered rape, even if it is consensual. Obviously the boy consented to the sex, but because he was under fourteen and the girl was over fourteen, he was raped.

The girl is telling her story because she wants people to know what is happening to her. Her lawyer, Sean Shores, is so outraged that he is defending her free of charge. "She went to her counselor, she asked for help, reached out for help and the message they sent her was--she should have kept her mouth shut," says Shores.

The message I am getting here is that common sense is dead. And buried in a steel box in the center of the earth. Let's hope they can dig it up before this girl's trial begins next month.