Pasta is a great food to give to your baby. There are so many different shapes, which can be a great learning tool. It is always good to discover that foods that look different can taste the same. The other great thing about pasta is all the different foods you can choose as your pasta topper. Some examples are avocado sauce, lentils, tomato sauce, ground up cashews, homous, nut and seed butters, meat sauce, and the list goes on and on.

Giving grains to baby isn’t one of my main concerns at first, however, these foods are still important and once your baby is being offered different protein sources and fruits and vegetables, I tend to offer some grains. As mentioned above pasta can be a great learning experience for your baby’s journey into eating solid food. 

This baby did very well eating pasta.  The first time it was offered, you could really see him learning how to pick it up and get it into his mouth. I often find that parents breathe a sigh of relief when a food like this is offered. It’s a very tangible step toward able to offer a full “meal” to their little one.

As for what type of pasta to go for, I recommend choosing a single grain pasta, without rice in it if you are still going with gluten free grains. If you have moved past just gluten free grains then I look for pasta that is naturally higher in fibre, but still contains minimal ingredients, making it less of a “processed” food.

On a safety note, if you are offering spaghetti or spaghetti-like noodles, it is important that you cut them into a smaller size to help prevent your baby choking on those long noodles.

Wondering how your baby is doing on their journey of starting solids? Contact Jill, Nurture The Future’s Registered Dietitian at nf.nutrition@gmail.com

These gluten free and vegan "pancakes" are a filling breakfast item that are kid approved. They contain no added sugar. Loaded with fruit try serving them with nut butter and jam (look for jam with no added sugar). If there are leftovers, store them in the fridge in an airtight container.

1.5 Cups     Unsweetened almond milk
1 tsp            Vanilla (Gluten free if needed)
2 Tbsp         Canola oil
2 Tbsp         Flax seeds, ground mixed with 1/4 cup of hot water
1                  Banana, mashed
1 Cup          Gluten Free flour (Cloud 9 works well)
1 Cup          Oats (Gluten free if needed)
1/2 tsp        Xanthan gum
1 tsp            Baking soda
1 tsp            Baking powder
2 tsp            Cinnamon
2 Cups     Blueberries, raspberries, sliced strawberries (frozen or fresh is                      fine)


1. In a large bowl mash banana.
2. Add in almond milk, vanilla, canola oil and flax seeds mixed with water.
3. Add in gluten free flour, oats, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
4. Mix together and add water if mixture is too thick.
5. Add in fruit.
6. Drop about 1/8 cup of batter into pre-warmed frying pan and fry both sides. Continue until all of the mix is used.

1 package   Organic Soft Tofu
1/2 Cup      Canned coconut milk
1/2 Cup       Tomato Sauce
3 Tbsp         Nutritional Yeast
2 Tbsp         Cornstarch
1 Tbsp         Tahini
1/4 tsp         Tumeric powder
1/4 tsp         Black pepper
1 tsp             Cumin
1 tsp             Curry powder
1 tsp             Herb de provence
1 Cup            Leeks, chopped
1 block          Organic Firm Tofu
1/2 Cup         Red Pepper, diced
1/2 Cup         Zucchini, grated
1/2 Cup         Potato, diced
3 Cloves        Garlic, minced

1. Preheat oven to 400F
2. In a food processor, puree soft tofu, coconut milk, tomato sauce, nutritional yeast, cornstarch, tahini, tumeric, and     
    black pepper.
3. Heat skillet on medium. Add leeks and cook until beginning to brown.
4. Add garlic.
5. Boil potatoes until slightly soft.
6. Add potatoes, pepper, zucchini, herb de provence, cumin, crumbled tofu and curry powder.
7. Combine tofu mixtures.
8. Pour into pie plate.
9. Bake for 20 minutes. 
10. Run knife around edges. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Looking for more school-friendly tofu dishes? Contact Jill, Nurture The Future's Registered Dietitian at nf.nutrition@gmail.com 

I was asked by Genestra to try some supplements and see what I think. This is what I found. As you may or may not know, before becoming a dietitian, I worked in many health food stores with herbs and supplements. This has always been a passion and interest of mine and I use the knowledge I picked up to work with my clients, providing them with up-to-date and unbiased information on different supplements and brands.

Genestra has been around for over 27 years, and it’s parent organization Seroyal have been around for over 28 years. Seroyal has in-house medical advisors (read more  here- these include Naturopathic Physicians).

Seroyal does 3rd party testing, and this is something I always suggest looking for when choosing a supplement. According to my contact at the company, they use “reputable, accredited, 3rd party contract analytical laboratory partners such as Merieux Nutrisciences (Silliker), Eurofins, and Convance to perform independent testing on their products prior to their release for distribution. Each batch of the products is tested for purity and potency to verify label claim and ensure safety and effectiveness of the product.”

Each of these products does have a NPN. What is an NPN? NPN stands for Natural Product Number. Every product that is in the database includes information regarding the product name, product license holder, the product’s medicinal and non-medicinal ingredients, the product’s dosage form, the recommended use or purpose as well as risk information, including cautions, warnings, contraindications, and known adverse reactions (1).

The products I will be reviewing in this post are: Genestra Magnesium Glycinate Liquid, Genestra Magnesium Complex Liquid and Genestra D-Mulsion 1000.

1)   Genestra Magnesium Glycinate Liquid

This product contains magnesium glycinate (250mg per tablespoon). The recommended dosage is 1 Tbsp 1-2 times per day.

Cost: This product is a bit pricey, depending on how you end up using it. The bottle will last you 15 days if you take 2 Tbsp/day, and 30 days if you take 1 Tbsp/day. This ends up working out to roughly $2.50 a day if you are taking 2 Tbsp and roughly $1.25 a day if you are taking 1 Tbsp a day.

Pro:

·     The dietary reference intake for magnesium for adult males 19-30 is 400mg/day and from 31-50 is 420mg/day. For adult women as well as during lactation it’s 19-30 it’s 310mg/day and from 31-50 it’s 320mg/day. For pregnancy 19-30 it’s 350mg/day and from 31-50 it’s 360mg/day (2).  The amount in this supplement does not exceed these limits, and thus could help boost magnesium intake for these age and life stages.

·      This is a liquid form of Magnesium which helps increase the absorption into the body.

Con:

·      Dose dependent: If you take 2 Tbsp a day, you would be going beyond the 351mg/day dose that can cause diarrhea in some people (5).

·      Personally I found the taste so overly sweet that it was hard to stomach – taking just 1 Tbsp at a time. It might help to water it down so I will try this next time.

2)   Genestra Magnesium Complex Liquid

This product contains magnesium glycinate/citrate/malate (500mg per tablespoon). The recommended dosage is 1 Tbsp 1 time per day.

Cost: Taking 1 Tbsp/ day will cost about $1.55 per day. This bottle will last you 30 days when taking that dose.

Pro:

·      This is a liquid form of Magnesium which helps increase the absorption into the body.

·      Small studies have found that magnesium in the citrate (as well as aspartate, lactate and chloride) form has a better absorption versus those in and oxide or sulfate form (3).

Con:

·      The concern with high doses of magnesium is that some people are prone to diarrhea. This can happen to people when the dose exceeds 351mg per day (5).

·      Although I didn’t find this as overly sweet as the magnesium glycinate liquid, it was still sweet and quite chalky which might be off-putting for some people.

3)   Genestra D-Mulsion 1000

This product contains Vitamin D in the cholecalciferol form (1000IU per drop). The recommended dose is 1 drop per day.

Cost: Taking 1 drop/day will cost about $0.01. This bottle will last you over 3.5 years when taking this dose, however the product might not be good for that long!

Pro:

·      This is a liquid form of Vitamin D which helps increase the absorption into the body.

·      The dropper was quite easy to get one drop to come out of and the taste was not overly sweet.

Con:

·      The dietary reference intake for Vitamin D in both kids age 1 and adults (including pregnancy and lactation) is 600IU (2). Although 1 drop of this product would exceed this amount, I typically recommend 1000IU per day, especially during the winter months when we are not absorbing Vitamin D from the sun.

·      The list of non-medicinal ingredients is much longer than some other Vitamin D drops on the market.

So, where can you buy these products? According to my contact they are available through “licensed healthcare practitioners and from pharmacies with an on-staff pharmacist.” You can also find these products online.

Although I do encourage people to get their nutrients from food sources as much as possible this can be difficult sometimes. In the case of Vitamin D, there are limited food choices. For Magnesium, processing of food can reduce the amount available (3). About 30-40% of the magnesium consumed from food is absorbed by the body (3). Some good food sources of magnesium include: legumes, nuts, seeds, and leafy green vegetables such as spinach (3). Some food sources of Vitamin D include fish such as salmon, tuna and mackerel, with small amounts found in cheese and egg yolks and the D2 form of the vitamin being found in some mushrooms (4).

Have you used these products? What are your thoughts?

Looking for more information about nutrients you are or aren’t getting in your diet? Contact Jill, Nurture The Future’s Registered Dietitian at nf.nutrition@gmail.com 

*The cost is in Canadian dollars. For information about prices in the USA, feel free to contact me.

References:
1 http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/prodnatur/applications/licen-prod/lnhpd-bdpsnh-eng.php
2 http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/alt_formats/hpfb-dgpsa/pdf/nutrition/dri_tables-eng.pdf
3 http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
4 http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/
5 http://www.dietitians.ca/Your-Health/Nutrition-A-Z/Minerals/Food-Sources-of-Magnesium.aspx