Vegetarian Kids

Whether it’s your choice or theirs, raising a vegetarian kid can be full of challenges. This is something I’ve thought about a lot, as a vegetarian (who has been more and less strict about it over the years) with a vegetarian husband and a 1.5-year old. We’ve chosen to offer the kid meat, and although he doesn’t necessarily get a whole lot of it, he likes it. We’ll explain our dietary choices to him when he starts to ask, and we’ll allow him to make his own choices when he’s old enough to understand.

Reporting my story about vegetarian kids for the Los Angeles Times gave me a chance to talk to the experts about all of the issues. As usual, it turns out that food is full of complicated issues, no matter how you slice or dice it.

The story appears  in four parts:
Main story
Social issues
Vegetarian Teens
Nutritional Guidelines for Veggie Kids
And a graphic in the form of a vegetarian food pyramid.

Nobel Memories

Every year, when the announcements come out about the new Nobel Prize winners, I fondly remember my once-in-a-lifetime visit to the Golden Hall. It still ranks as one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I imagine it’s something I will never forget. The food, the drink, the opera, the kids, the science, the romance of Stockholm’s cozy-lit cafes in dark days of December. This career I’ve chosen really isn’t so bad.

The Nobel Banquet at Stockholm's City Hall

Can’t find your keys? Eat fat!

A nutrition opener in Eating Well magazine explains how fat can help you remember.

Walking in Circles

I’ve had a few scary experiences in the back-country. I won’t detail them here (mostly to spare my family the stress!), but this study–about how we really do walk in circles when we’re lost–struck a chord for me.

I think we came from that way...

UPS Surprise

It was like Christmas morning when the UPS guy got out of his truck and actually walked up to MY house and dropped off a cardboard box. Inside were a few copies of my latest graphic novel: “Rescue in Antarctica: An Isabel Soto Geography Adventure,” published by Capstone Press. In this book, which is part of a larger series written only partly by me, Isabel goes on a rescue mission to Antarctica, where she encounters penguins, crevasses, an ice breaker and more!

Fish dying?

Add more fish!

Food Allergies

The cover of the L.A. Times Health section features my story on food allergies, which are on the rise for real but are still far less common than people think they are. Read more
Here (main story),
here (why are food allergies on the rise?),
here (inaccuracy of testing),
and here (find a doc).

Bright Idea

I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me before. With this site, I can keep people posted about my writings without sending a mass e-mail that people may not want anymore to address that may no longer work. This way, I can also keep track of my own clips and links in one place.

I’ll spare everyone (especially myself) the headache of posting links to the many hundreds of stories I’ve already written in my career. But I may periodically link to stories from the past that I particularly liked or want to remember and keep on file.

To begin with, some of my latest work includes:

- A recent story in the L.A. Times presents folic acid’s dark side (Part 1 and Part 2)

- In Prevention Magazine, “Shrug Off Shoulder Pain” (which currently and inexplicably has the wrong byline on it–I’m working on it, aargh) gives advice to older folks, including swimmers like me, about how to protect their shoulders from pain and injury.

Some highlights from my recent 12-stories-per-month habit for Discovery Channel News include:
- A story about basking sharks that got more than 4 million hits–a record for Discovery.
- Controversy about a euthanized jaguar in Arizona.
- “Some City Rats Stray Far From Home” talks about the secret movements of Baltimore’s rat population.
- The oceans aren’t what they used to be.

Until next time!
Emily