.......Children who eat with their parents...... have more self-esteem and better   brain development..... ....says Tomas Paus, a Canadian neuroscientist who with his colleagues is charting the changes that take place  in the adolescent brain through brain scans and interviews of 600 volunteers aged 12 to 18 in the Saguenay region of Quebec..... ......SELF ESTEEM IS ABOUT..... BEING YOUR TRUE SELF THAT   YOU CAME IN THIS LIFE-TRAVEL WITH  CREATOR'S DESIGN AND TO PARTAKE YOUR FRUITS OF OWN kARm FROM YOUR PREVIOUS MILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF LIFE-TRAVELS.... .........as is proved in the following famous quotes on self esteem.... "Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly." ~ St. Francis De Sales "Listen to your heart above all other voices." ~ Marta Kagan "Be yourself. There is something that you can do better than any other. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that." ~ Unknown Author "Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." ~ Judy Garland THE HUMAN BRAIN/MIND FROM WHERE SELF ESTEEM COMES FROM IS AFFECTED BY PARENTAL AND SOCIETAL CARE   The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, or skull.  The cerebral cortex is a structure within the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It constitutes the outermost layer of the cerebrum. In preserved brains, it has a grey color, hence the name "grey matter". Grey matter is formed by neurons and their unmyelinated fibers, whereas the white matter below the grey matter of the cortex is formed predominantly by myelinated axons interconnecting different regions of the central nervous system. The human brain has been estimated to contain 50–100 billion  neurons, of which about 10 billion are cortical pyramidal cells/a>.. These cells pass signals to each other via approximately 100 trillion  synaptic connections.   In spite of the fact that it is protected by the thick bones of the skull, suspended in cerebrospinal fluid, and isolated from the bloodstream by the blood-brain barrier, the delicate nature of the human brain makes it susceptible to many types of damage and disease. The most common forms of physical damage are closed head injuries such as a blow to the head, a stroke, or poisoning by a wide variety of chemicals that can act as neurotoxins. Infection of the brain is rare because of the barriers that protect it, but is very serious when it occurs. More common are genetically based diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and many others. A number of psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and depression, are widely thought to be caused at least partially by brain dysfunctions, although the nature of such brain anomalies is not well understood. Please click here to keep on reading about BRAIN to understand today's scientific research news story..... PVAF is publishing today's  news story...a pure scientific research on.... HOW AS PARENTS AND COMMUNITY YOU.... can affect the growth, progress and prosperity of your children....who are YOUR future and future of the humanity....Use of this KNOWELEDGE is the only thing that will work in life to MAKE YOUR TOMORROW HAPPIER THAN TODAY..... Please click on the next line to read about this exciting scientific research on brain development of children and consequently children's entire personality through parents being with children at meals, study time, recreation time and the time children really needs parents for any reason what so ever.....including how not being with kids to guide their growth can even result in obesity and ill health through bad eating habits....

Matt Bonsall and Stephanie Small of Ottawa, Ontario Canada  sit down for dinner this week with their daughters, Nettie, 7, and Daisy, 10. Chewing over the benefits of family meals Children who eat with their parents have more self-esteem and  better brain development..... .....some scientists say, (From: Canadian The Globe and Mail: Saturday, Sep. 12, 2009: Anne McIlroy) As evidence mounts that eating as a family can protect children from all sorts of harm, experts say the bonding and connectedness that comes with regular family meals may positively influence the brain development of kids. Studies have found that by adolescence, the more often a family eats together the less likely children are to smoke, use alcohol and drugs, suffer from an eating disorder or consider suicide. Family meals have also been linked to higher self-esteem and better performance at school. There isn't a cause-and-effect relationship. Still, the correlations are strong enough for researchers to say regular family meals offer a protective effect. Now, they want to find out why. “A lot of kids are not getting the environment their brains require for their development. I am talking the physiology of the brain and connections,” says Gabor Maté, a Vancouver physician, and co-author of Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers , which he wrote with developmental psychologist Gordon Neufeld. But could regular family meals really affect brain development? The idea makes sense, says Tomas Paus, a Canadian neuroscientist who is charting the changes that take place in the adolescent brain. He and his colleagues have taken brain scans and interviewed 600 volunteers aged 12 to 18 in the Saguenay region of Quebec. They found that in adolescent boys, the volume of white matter in their brain increases by 25 per cent over those years. White matter connects different parts of the brain together and the rapid growth appears to be mediated by testosterone. In girls, the changes are less dramatic, about a 5-per-cent increase in white matter. The changes bolster the notion that adolescence is a time of integration for the brain. There are also more subtle alterations occurring in the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in impulse control and reasoning. Dr. Paus and his colleagues are also looking at the impact of “positive youth development” on the brain, assessing what they call the five Cs: connectedness with friends and families, character, caring, competence and confidence. Family interaction – including time around the dinner table – can help build all five Cs, says Dr. Paus, who will be moving back to Canada from Britain in January to take a position at the University of Toronto. And it is very likely, he says, that brains of youngsters who rank high in the five Cs will develop in a healthy manner. “That would also mean potentially less psychiatric problems.” As schools and extracurricular activities begin in earnest after the summer break, many parents feel stretched, and sometimes guilty if they miss dinner or breakfast, or both. Studies are inconclusive as to whether both parents in a two-parent family should ideally be present, or if it matters that a meal was at a fast-food restaurant and not at home. Is one meal, for example, more important than another? Does the age of the child factor in? Jayne Fulkerson, a psychologist at the University of Minnesota, has started an in-depth study monitoring parents eating with their toddlers in an effort to learn more. She says a family meal doesn't have to be a pot roast. Breakfast counts. So do picnics at the soccer pitch, such as the pizza Stephanie Small and Matt Bonsall shared earlier this week with their daughters, Nettie, 7, and Daisy, 10. The girls had soccer four nights a week all summer, so the Ottawa family had supper together early, at 5:30 p.m. Ms. Small and her husband run their own business, Bonsall Communications, and life can be hectic, especially now that school has started again. But she says they enjoy eating together, and she and her husband often share both breakfast and supper with their daughters. “We don't do it because I think it is good for them. We just like to do it,” she says. In the best instances, family mealtimes offer a brief but consistent check-in during which parents can talk to their adolescents about the decisions they are facing, like what to wear to the dance, how to use spending money, or what topic to choose for a school project. This gives the chance for kids to practice important reasoning skills, says Marla Eisenberg, assistant professor of Adolescent Health and Medicine at the University of Minnesota. It might be that parents who eat regularly with their children may learn earlier about trouble at school or with friends, Dr. Eisenberg says. Dr. Eisenberg notes that in the teenage years, kids are developing their capacity for higher-order thinking, decision making and impulse control. “One thing parents can do to help in this process is allow adolescents the room to ‘practice' making meaningful decisions – the thinking is that this will help strengthen these neurological pathways earlier.” ...........Share with friends...... AND NOW READ More kids show poor eating, exercise and lifestyle habits A new study finds about three-quarters of Canadian children consume junk food as much as twice a week.... a number that hasn't improved since a similar report in 1998 (From Canadian Globe and Mail: Wednesday, September 09, 2009) A growing number of children are adopting unhealthy eating, exercise and other lifestyle habits, according to a new report, fuelling fears young Canadians will have a shorter average lifespan than their parents. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario released a report yesterday that compares the heart health of children across the province to those of a similar national survey conducted more than 10 years ago. It found that fewer children are eating an adequate amount of fresh produce or maintaining physical activity during the winter months compared with the previous report. About three-quarters of children are consuming junk food as much as twice a week, and about 25 per cent of kids eat it more than three times a week, rates that have not improved since the last report was published in 1998. “This is extremely disturbing given the rising tide of [being] overweight and obesity among Canadian children,” said Marco Di Buono, director of research for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. The economic downturn may be exacerbating the problems. The survey found that nearly 25 per cent of families usually avoid buying staple foods, including meat, fresh produce and dairy, because of the high cost. Another 48 per cent of families said they occasionally avoid such items because of the price. There was one positive change noted in the latest survey: About half of children ate whole grain bread and cereals, compared with 33 per cent in 1998. Nearly 2,000 parents of children aged 6 to 12 were questioned for the survey. One major drawback to the findings is that the new report compares Ontario data with national statistics, which has the potential to skew the results. Still, many health experts agree that children across the country face a dramatically higher risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems because of factors such as poor diet and lack of exercise. A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in July found that risk factors for cardiovascular disease – such as high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes – rose as much as 260 per cent among Canadians aged 12 to 34 during a 10-year period that ended in 2005. “This has now become a critical health issue,” Dr. Di Buono said. One of the major reasons health experts are so concerned about unhealthy eating or exercise habits among children is that such patterns seem to have become ingrained in society, which has serious implications for the health of current and future generations. For instance, many Canadian children spend many hours a week in front of a computer or television, a lifestyle habit that is linked to obesity and other health-related problems. It has also become harder for parents to navigate grocery stores and the myriad of health claims made by food manufacturers. As a result, many families eat prepared or processed meals that are often high in fat, calories or sodium. Dr. Di Buono said that while it's important “not to vilify” the food industry, parents should read labels and watch for items that have little nutritional value. Another aspect of that problem is the fact many parents are convinced their kids will refuse to eat many fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods, he said. “I think by and large there's a misperception that kids are finicky and difficult eaters,” he said. “Certainly it takes a child a lot longer to come around and adopt healthy behaviour … [but] they need to keep trying.” .............Share with friends...........................Share with friends................

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