Parenting Tips

As with carbohydrates in recent years, fats have been wrongly accused of being "bad." Too much fat can be a bad thing, but certain kinds of fat are actually good for us and are an important part of a healthy diet.

About Fat

Fats are nutrients in food that the body uses to build nerve tissue (including the brain and nerves) and hormones. The body also uses fat as fuel. If fats eaten aren't burned as energy or used as building blocks, they're stored by the body in fat cells. This is the body's way of thinking ahead: By saving fat for future use, the body plans for times when food might be scarce.

Carbohydrates are the body's most important and readily available source of energy. Even though they've gotten a bad rap lately and are sometimes blamed for obesity, carbs are a necessary part of a healthy diet for both kids and adults.

The two major forms of carbs are:

• simple carbohydrates (or simple sugars): these include fructose, glucose, and lactose, which also are found in nutritious whole fruits
• complex carbohydrates (or starches): found in foods such as starchy vegetables, grains, rice, and breads and cereals

So how, exactly, does the body process carbs and sugar? All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars, which are absorbed into the bloodstream. As the sugar level rises, the pancreas releases the hormone insulin, which is needed to move sugar from the blood into the cells, where the sugar can be used as energy.

It's not clear at what age kids begin to dream, but even toddlers may speak about having dreams — pleasant ones and scary ones. While almost every child has an occasional frightening or upsetting dream, nightmares seem to peak during the preschool years when fear of the dark is common. But older kids (and even adults) have occasional nightmares, too.