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Vegan Nutrition Guide for Kids: Part 4 - CALCIUM! Vegan Nutrition Guide for Kids: Part 4 - CALCIUM! So how much calcium do young kids need? (RDA) ✨0-6 months: 200mg (AI) ✨ 7-12 months: 260mg (AI) ✨ 1-3 years: 700mg ✨ 4-8 years: 1,000 mg Note that during the infancy stage, a child meets all their calcium needs through breastmilk or formula. (RDA amount source: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-HealthProfessional/) What are some examples of vegan foods with Calcium? Here are just a few: beans, peas, lentils, almonds, tahini, oranges, seaweed, broccoli, kale, chia and flaxseeds, soy foods like tofu and tempeh, and some grains like amaranth and teff.
 While calcium can technically be found in plant-based vegan foods, the easiest way to ensure a kid’s calcium needs are met are through a combination of both calcium-rich foods like the ones I mentioned and calcium-fortified foods. Examples of calcium fortified foods include dairy free yogurts and fortified plant-based milks. For example, the @so_delicious coconut yogurt I showed has 360mg calcium per serving. And the @oatly oatgurt I showed has 220mg calcium per serving. @ripplefoods pea milk for kids has 455 mg calcium per serving. And @silk original soy milk has 450 mg calcium per serving. LET’S BUST A MYTH! People often think spinach is a good source of calcium, but it’s not entirely. That’s because certain vegetables are high in oxalates. Oxalates can bind to calcium in your gut, making it more difficult for your body to absorb calcium. This also applies to iron as well. This doesn’t mean oxalate-rich foods like spinach are bad - it just means you shouldn’t rely on them for your child’s calcium or iron needs. But it’s good for other nutrients!
Happy #VeganFoodie Friday! Here’s Episode 24 of Happy #VeganFoodie Friday! Here’s Episode 24 of ✨Vegan Toddler Reacts✨ This time, your nephew Beyond tried vegan “egg” salad w/ @moonshotsnacks crackers. 👩🏽‍🍳 In a bowl, I mixed together: ✨ 1 block extra firm tofu (drained and patted dry) ✨ Tahini (for adults, you can do vegan mayo - I just prefer tahini for babies b/c of its nutritional profile) ✨ Mustard ✨ Scallions (I prefer celery, but all I had was scallions growing in my garden) ✨ Fortified Nutritional yeast ✨ Indian Black salt (also known as Kala Namak - this is important if you want an “egg” flavor) ✨ Celery salt ✨ Turmeric ✨ Black pepper ✨ Lemon juice Thassit! Mix well and spread on to bread to make a sandwich or crackers for a tasty snack. 🤎 Fun Fact 1: The @MoonshotSnacks crackers I used are a climate friendly + Black woman-founded brand. We interviewed the founder @juliaecollins for our @Beautyandimpact Podcast about how they're tackling climate change with regenerative agriculture and learned a lot! 🤎 Fun Fact 2: My sister @jasminepennamma and I are launching our vegan skin health company @heyhotjupiter soon and we gained so much insight from Julia about the importance of understanding the full carbon footprint of your company or products to make the best sustainability choices. Do you have any recipe requests for Beyond’s next Reaction video? 😋
How to make a healthy vegan yogurt bowl for babies How to make a healthy vegan yogurt bowl for babies & toddlers 😋 🥄 Step 1: First up, pour in a vegan yogurt made from plant-based sources, like peas, oats, soy, coconut, cashews, or almonds. Try picking one one with plenty of protein, live and active cultures, and little to no added sugar. 🥄 Step 2: Add your kiddo’s favorite fruits. I’m doing a mix of berries for fiber, antioxidants, and Vitamin C for a healthy immune system. 🥄 Step 3. Add some Omega 3-rich seeds. I’m doing hemp seeds, a complete protein and great source of essential nutrients like copper, fiber, selenium, zinc, Omega 6 fatty acids, Omega 3 ALA fatty acids, and vitamins A and B6. 🥄 Step 4: Drizzle on a seed or nut butter to add an extra dose of protein and healthy fats. Remember, babies & toddlers need a lot of fat in their diet to support their growth and brain function. I’m doing almond butter. And that’s it! This is how you build a healthy vegan yogurt bowl for your baby or toddler filled with nutrients to support their growth, brain function, immune systems, and more. ✨ NOTES: At home, we use @kitehillfoods plain unsweetened plant-based yogurt, made with almond and soy. We get the one that’s 12g of protein per adult serving (but for Beyond of course, his serving size is smaller than than an adult, so it’s more like 4-6g per serving for a child). At school, we pack @oatly plain oatgurt. It’s made from oats, which is perfect for kids with nut allergies or who attend daycares and early education schools that have nut-free policies!
Happy Back-to-School Month 🙃 It’s EPISODE 5 o Happy Back-to-School Month 🙃 It’s EPISODE 5 of Spillin’ the Green Tea! Here’s the 🍵 on why many crayons aren’t vegan or sustainable. You know that addictive smell of Crayola? What you’re smelling is beef fat. In order to give crayons their signature scent and consistency, Crayola and many other crayon brands add stearic acid derived from beef tallow (beef fat). You should also know many crayons have paraffin wax, a by-product of petroleum that does not biodegrade which means your crayons can live forever in a landfill if not recycled properly. Crayola refuses to share their entire ingredients list, citing it as a trade secret. On their FB page, they confirmed a variety of their products contain animal derived ingredients, but would not reveal what exactly since it’s proprietary. Sigh. Next time you wanna buy some crayons, try Googling “vegan crayons” and try the ones made from vegetables! I found some for Beyond and he loves coloring with them! If you think brands like @crayola should be more transparent, be sure to leave them comments about how you feel! Companies won’t change their ways if their customers don’t speak up 💚 One day, hopefully they will listen + act. 🙏🏽
Vegan Nutrition Guide for Kids: Part 3 - VITAMIN A Vegan Nutrition Guide for Kids: Part 3 - VITAMIN A. So how much Vitamin A do young kids need? (RDA) ✨ 0-6 months: 400 mcg ✨ 7-12 months: 500 mcg ✨ 1-3 years: 300 mcg ✨ 4-8 years: 400 mcg (RDA Source: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/) Note that during infancy, a child will meet their Vitamin A needs through breastmilk or formula. Once weaned off of breastmilk or formula, they’ll need to get Vitamin A through the foods they consume. What are some examples of vegan foods with VITAMIN A? Here are just a few: orange sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash, carrots, spinach, dried apricots, kale, cantaloupe, spring greens, red peppers, and more. An easy way to remember Vitamin A foods is to think in terms of colors. Just remember orange, yellow, and dark green vegetables. LET’S BUST A MYTH! In case you’ve heard that plant-based sources of Vitamin A are not as good as animal sources, let me reassure you that’s not factual. Our bodies do not require the consumption of animals to meet our Vitamin A needs. As long as your kid eats enough plant-based provitamin A, which includes the phytochemical beta-carotene, then their bodies will make enough active vitamin A to meet meet their needs and thrive. PS. A daily multi-vitamin that has vitamin A in it can also help, esp since it’s never a guarantee that a kid will eat what you feed them.
Not all families have equal access to nature, and Not all families have equal access to nature, and policymakers need to address this inequity. Here are 5 Ways Exploring Nature Boosts Health & Wellness for Toddlers. 1. It helps manage stress. In nature, toddlers can run, hop, skip, jump, roll, climb, and shout, which reduces tension, anxiety, and restlessness. 2. It stimulates their brain and imagination. Nature provides countless opportunities for exploration, creativity, problem-solving, and STEM education. It engages all their senses and increases their knowledge of the natural world. 3. It promotes good physical health. By exploring outdoors, toddlers engage in physical activity and exercise, which builds stronger bodies. 4. It teaches them to care for the environment. It’s important to instill eco-conscious habits at a young age. If we want our kids to learn to protect the planet, they must first learn to love it. Letting them connect with nature will help them develop a deep love for earth. 5. It makes them resilient. Interacting with nature sparks their curiosity by making them think, question, and make hypotheses. As toddlers take risks, try, fail, and repeat, they gain resilience and confidence. In the United States, communities of color are 3x more likely to live in nature deprived areas, and not by choice. Unequal access to nature is one example of how environmental and racial injustice are connected. Given how important nature is to a child’s health & wellness, policymakers need to prioritize protecting the environment and ensuring equal access to outdoor spaces for ALL American kids.
It's EPISODE 20 of "What My Vegan Toddler Eats in It's EPISODE 20 of "What My Vegan Toddler Eats in A Day!” Check out what your nephew Beyond ate 😋 This is what a full day of eating looks like for a plant-based vegan toddler: AGE: 18 months old MENU: ✨Breakfast: Strawberry Explosion! Strawberry almond yogurt w/ hemp seeds, strawberry French toast, and sliced fruit. ✨ Morning snack: Cherry, berry, and kale smoothie with pumpkin seed butter and ground flax seeds (+ I added a liquid multi-vitamin drop with vitamin b12 and a liquid Omega DHA/EPA drop) ✨ Lunch: Black bean taquito, corn & kale salad, and guacamole ✨ Afternoon snack: DIY Watermelon Popsicle (I posted the recipe for this) ✨ Dinner: Mushroom risotto, peas & carrots, and curried chickpeas. ✨ Beverage: Breastfeeding 2x a day, pea milk 2x a day, and lots of water Which of these would you make for yourself? #healthykidsfood
I tested out an induction cooktop after learning a I tested out an induction cooktop after learning about how much more environmentally and family-friendly it is than gas stoves. You can learn more at cookingelectric.org (🔗 in bio + stories), but here’s what I’ve concluded after trying it out! #NowWereCookingPartner 1. It makes cooking (and cleanup) lightning fast. ⚡️ With #induction, heat is transferred directly to your cookware, not the surface of the cooktop. So food heats up and water boils faster than on commercial cooktops. And since there are no burners, it’s easier to wipe down. 2. It’s more environmentally friendly than a gas stove. 🌎 Induction uses less energy and releases fewer emissions than gas stoves which is a great thing to teach an eco-conscious kid. 3. It’s safer for my toddler, who is constantly trying to reach my countertops. 🔥 Since induction heats the cookware directly, your hand won’t get burned if you touch the cooktop or counter. It also shuts off automatically when cookware is removed and cools down quickly, which means no accidents will happen from leaving the burner on by mistake. 4. It’s healthier for my family because of the air quality. 😷 Gas stoves can produce a range of health-damaging pollutants that are released indoors. Studies have even shown that kids living in homes with gas stoves have a higher risk of being diagnosed with asthma. 5. Induction is the only cooking method that allows for extreme precision and control to cook meals to perfection. 👩🏽‍🍳 You can control the temperature more precisely than gas or electric. With my 1-year-old son Beyond being the ultimate vegan foodie, he expects excellence from his mama and induction cooking delivers 😆 What kind of cooktop do you have? Gas, conventional electric, or induction? #NowWereCooking #CookingWithMagnets
Work smarter not harder🥰 If you’re eating nut Work smarter not harder🥰 If you’re eating nutritious, plant-based vegan meals, then your baby, toddler, and/or older kiddos can have the same. It makes meal planning so much easier. Cook one meal for the whole fam. Then deconstruct that meal in a way your little one can easily eat it. For example, we made black bean rolled tacos and salad. I had 2 rolled tacos with guacamole & chipotle aioli on top + a large helping of salad. Beyond had 1 rolled taco sliced in half to make it easier for him. Plus I put some guacamole on the side (in case he didn’t want it). Then I gave him some of the salad. As the saying goes. Feed two birds with one scone. 🫶🏽 ✨ FUN FACT! Did you know in France they usually don’t even have kids menus at restaurants? It is fairly common to order a small plate for a kid and then share other things from the parent's plate. For very small kids, just sharing works 💚🇫🇷
Vegan Nutrition Guide for Kids: Part 2 - IRON 101 Vegan Nutrition Guide for Kids: Part 2 - IRON 101 🌱 So how much iron do young kids need? (RDA): TAKE A LOOK AT THIS CHART AND SCREENSHOT THIS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE ✨ 0-6 months: 0.27 mg ✨ 7-12 months: 11 mg ✨ 1-3 years: 7mg ✨4-8 years: 10mg (Iron RDA Source: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/) Most newborns have iron reserves for the first 4-6 months of life. By age 6 months, they need an external source of iron apart from breast milk. Breast milk is phenomenal, but low in iron. Around 6 months, their iron needs can be met by introducing iron-rich + fortified foods or liquid iron drops. 🌱 What are some examples of vegan foods with iron? Here are just a few: chickpeas, tofu, lentils, beans, tempeh, leafy greens, dried fruit, legume pasta, bread, almond butter, canned tomatoes, fortified foods and more. 🌱 And finally, Here are some tips for Increasing iron absorption: TIP 1: Eating vitamin C-rich food with your iron-rich food can increase iron absorption by 2-4x! You could even squeeze lime or lemon juice to an iron-rich dish to add some Vit-C to it. TIP 2: Calcium competes with iron for absorption. So try eating calcium heavy foods, like fortified plant milks, separately from your iron rich foods. For example, instead of serving plant milk with a meal, offer it as a snack in between meals. Are you ready for Part 3?! 🍓👦🏾
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Ashley Renne

Live an adventurously green life

Posted on 12 Nov 202012 Nov 2020
REVIEW: EC30 Eco-Friendly Home Cleaning and Body Care Products

Blog, Green Living, Sustainable Products

REVIEW: EC30 Eco-Friendly Home Cleaning and Body Care Products

This post is sponsored by EC30. All opinions are my own. The cleaning industry generates a lot of long-lasting waste. These days household products come wrapped in plastic, toxins, and extra ingredients we don’t even need. Wouldn’t it be great if you could buy cleaning and body care products wrapped in eco-friendly packaging that won’t

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Posted on 3 Jun 20204 Jun 2020
5 Black-Owned Vegan Food Brands to Put in Your Kitchen

Blog, Vegan Food

5 Black-Owned Vegan Food Brands to Put in Your Kitchen

Here are a few Black vegan food brands to add to your kitchen!  

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Posted on 15 Mar 202015 Mar 2020
9 Anti Viral Foods That Boost Immunity

Blog, Vegan Food, Vegan Lifestyle

9 Anti Viral Foods That Boost Immunity

Here is a list of 9 immune-boosting, anti-viral foods that I incorporate regularly into my plant-based meals. 

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Posted on 27 Jan 202027 Jan 2020
Best Barbados Eco Travel Guide: Sustainable and Vegan Friendly Things to Do and Eat

Blog, Caribbean, Destinations, Hotels, Sustainable Tourism, Travel Guides, Travel Tips, Vegan Food, Vegan Lifestyle

Best Barbados Eco Travel Guide: Sustainable and Vegan Friendly Things to Do and Eat

What is there to experience in Barbados for sustainable, vegan, and/or nature loving travelers? Here’s the best eco-friendly travel guide to the island. 

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Posted on 21 Jan 202014 Feb 2020
5 Vegan-Friendly Ways to Avoid Mosquito Bites While Traveling

Blog, Travel Tips, Vegan Lifestyle

5 Vegan-Friendly Ways to Avoid Mosquito Bites While Traveling

Vegan-friendly ways to prevent mosquito bites. 

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Posted on 19 Nov 201919 Nov 2019
Sustainable Fashion Diary – Cleveland Ohio

Beauty & Style, Blog, Green Living, Vegan Fashion

Sustainable Fashion Diary – Cleveland Ohio

Renting clothing is one of my favorite sustainable approaches to fashion. Here’s what I rented during my Cleveland vacation. 

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Posted on 14 Nov 201914 Nov 2019
10 Ways to Create a Sustainable Organic Garden

Blog, Green Living

10 Ways to Create a Sustainable Organic Garden

How do you grow a garden filled with flowers, fruits, and vegetables that’s organic, sustainable, and eco-friendly? Here are 10 ways to create an eco garden. 

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Posted on 22 Oct 20194 Nov 2019
Is Camel Riding Ethical? | Sustainable Travel in Egypt

Animal Activism, Blog, Destinations, Middle East, Opinion, Sustainable Tourism

Is Camel Riding Ethical? | Sustainable Travel in Egypt

Is camel riding ethical? In Egypt I witnessed cruel working conditions for camels, horses and donkeys. Here are my thoughts. 

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Posted on 1 Oct 20191 Oct 2019
58 Fall Fruits and Vegetables to Try This Autumn

Vegan Food

58 Fall Fruits and Vegetables to Try This Autumn

What fruits and vegetables are grown during the fall season? Here’s the full list! 

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Posted on 16 Sep 201917 Sep 2019
Self-Driving Electric Cars Don’t Exist | It Can Wait Pledge

Blog, Opinion, Smart Tech

Self-Driving Electric Cars Don’t Exist | It Can Wait Pledge

Distracted driving is outdated. Whatever it is, it can wait. Here are 5 ways to prevent distractions from happening!  

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