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As a parent, it’s easy to slip into shaming your child. It can happen so easily, as you blurt out what you are thinking:
“Do you really want to go out looking like that?”
“You let your teammates down during that game.”
“Why can’t you get good grades like your sister?”
“Why do you hang out at home all the time instead of going out like other kids?”
“Why are you crying? It’s not that bad.”
As we blurt out such things, we usually don’t think of them as shaming. We think of them as something that might help our child recognize a problem — and perhaps motivate them to change. We think of them as constructive criticism.
The problem is that there is a fine line between criticism and shaming — and shaming is a bad idea. Here’s why:
To prevent shaming, we need to stop and think before we speak. There are two things you should always ask yourself if you are about to criticize your child:
Be really honest with yourself about the answers, especially to the second question. If the answer to either one is no, then it’s not something to criticize, end of story. Don’t take the risk of shaming or hurting your relationship with your child — and don’t waste your time or energy.
If the answer to both is yes, then ask yourself these questions:
Criticizing a child in public may be important, especially if they have been rude or hurtful to someone, or done something that could be unsafe. But outside of those circumstances, public criticism is shaming. It also may not be a great idea to criticize when a child is already upset, or when they are in a situation where they need to keep their composure or not be distracted; that’s less about shaming and more about being kind and effective.
If a child really doesn’t want to change a behavior, then you are going to have to think of a different way of managing it than just pointing it out. Which leads to the last and most important question:
The answer to that is most likely going to be yes.
We do best as parents when we take the time to understand why our children do what they do — and find collaborative, supportive ways to help them make safe, kind, and healthy choices. As parents, our words have power; as much as we can, we need to use that power for good.
Follow me on Twitter @drClaire
The post Think hard before shaming children appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.
The media is using a variety of tactics to restrict your access to the truth from websites like mine, including NewsGuard, a self-appointed internet watchdog that sells a browser plugin to rate websites on nine criteria of credibility and transparency. Before I delve further into NewsGuard and its underlying agenda, it's important to look at who funds it.
NewsGuard received much of its startup funds from Publicis Groupe, a giant global communications group with divisions that brand imaging, design of digital business platforms, media relations and health care.
Publicis Groupe's health subsidiary, Publicis Health, names Lilly, Abbot, Roche, Amgen, Genentech, Celgene, Gilead, Biogen, Astra Zeneca, Sanofi, Bayer and other Big Pharma giants as clients, which gives you an idea of where its loyalties lie.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has also awarded Publicis Media a healthy piece of business, and the communications group responded by creating a custom "platformGSK" to run the drug giant's media business.
In October 2018, following a five-month review, GSK sent its $1.5 billion media account to Publicis, which beat out other media agencies vying for the account, including Omnicom's PHD and WPP's Group M.1
According to FiercePharma, with the creation of the "platformGSK" model, the partnership gave "Publicis Media responsibility for all offline and digital paid media strategy and planning in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. In the U.S., that includes DTC [direct to consumer] pharma work."2 Further, the news outlet reported:
"Publicis Groupe client lead Laurent Ezekiel said the agency is 'excited to partner with them to establish a transformative client-agency relationship that will enable GSK to deliver on its ambition to become the best data-driven marketer in the industry.'"3
In January 2020, GSK awarded Publicis Media with even more business, handing over the former Pfizer Consumer Healthcare brands to Publicis. The move was decided without a review and will add Advil, Centrum, Caltrate and other Pfizer brands to platformGSK, worth an estimated $400 million. GSK holds a 68% stake in the joint venture.
"GSK has already announced its plans to spin off the joint venture within three years and list it as standalone company on the U.K. exchange as GSK Consumer Healthcare, leaving the pharma giant to focus on medicines and vaccines," FiercePharma reported.4
Meanwhile, Publicis also handles other Big Pharma media accounts, including Novartis. In August 2019, Publicis created NovartisONE2 to manage the pharma giant's global media account worth $600 million.5
While Publicis has been busy solidifying its strong ties with Big Pharma, it was also the lead investor among a group of 18 that helped make NewsGuard a reality.
As of March 2018, Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, the "media entrepreneurs" behind NewsGuard, had raised $6 million to launch the company, which was slated to "address the fake news crisis by hiring dozens of trained journalists as analysts to review the 7,500 news and information websites most accessed and shared in the United States … These sites account for 98% of the news articles read and shared in the English language online in the United States."6
Once installed on your browser, NewsGuard assigns a color coded "Nutrition Label" to sites, rating them green or red in a process they said would be "completely transparent and accountable."7 While first launching in the U.S., NewsGuard expanded internationally, launching in the U.K. in 2019 and rating more than 200 websites.
The startup created controversy in January 2019 after giving Mail Online — the most read news website in the U.K. — a failing grade, stating it failed to uphold even basic standards of accuracy or accountability.
Following backlash and apparent "discussions" with a Daily Mail executive, NewsGuard changed the rating to green, stating the site "generally maintains basic standards of accuracy and accountability" and said they were wrong.8
It was an early indication of what can go wrong when you trust a conflicted startup company to dictate what's truth and what's not. In January 2020, NewsGuard announced it would adopt a subscription service in the U.K. and will start charging for the service.9
At the same time, NewsGuard issued a notice to subscribers in the U.S. with an offer to sign up early for $1.95 a month to "help keep NewsGuard free for the hundreds of libraries and schools that use NewsGuard."10
In other words, NewsGuard is setting itself up as the self-appointed global arbiter of what information is "trustworthy" — based on nine, self-described "credibility and transparency" factors — not only for information viewed for pay on private electronic devices, but also for information accessible for free in public libraries and schools.
Librarians will even provide instructions to patrons on how to install the NewsGuard extension on their personal computers, tablets and cell phones. If you install the plugin on your computer or cellphone, it will display its rating next to Google, Bing and other web searches as well as on articles displayed on social media. What are the nine criteria NewsGuard is using to "protect" you from fake news?11
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Does not repeatedly publish false content (22 points) |
Gathers and presents information responsibly (18 points) |
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Regularly corrects or clarifies errors (12.5 points) |
Handles the difference between news and opinion responsibly (12.5 points) |
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Avoids deceptive headlines (10 points) |
Website discloses ownership and financing (7.5 points) |
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Clearly labels advertising (7.5 points) |
Reveals who's in charge, including possible conflicts of interest (5 points) |
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The site provides the names of content creators, along with either contact or biographical information (5 points) |
A score lower than 60 points gets a red rating, while higher scores get more favorable results, which is intended to provide readers with a "signal if a website is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda or knowingly publishes falsehoods or propaganda."12
These icons are meant to influence readers, instructing them to disregard content with cautionary colors and cautions. While the warnings may be enough to prevent someone from clicking these links, I believe the true intent is to bury this content entirely from search results and social media feeds.
It is very likely Google, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms will use these ratings to lower the visibility of content — making nonconformist views disappear entirely.
It's ironic, too, that NewsGuard is citing the importance of transparency in verifying independent online news outlets and vetting online media for conflicts of interest. But who is going to verify the credibility and transparency of the verifiers, i.e., NewsGuard?
On NewsGuard's United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form D filed March 5, 2018, there is an option for disclosing the size of its revenue, but that box was checked, "Decline to disclose."13 That's far from the 100% transparency they're expecting from others.
NewsGuard also claims a Rule 506(b) exemption, which among its benefits allows for an unlimited amount of money to be raised from an unlimited number of accredited investors.14 In doing some digging of our own, it appears NewsGuard is backed by companies that are presently involved in, or have been in the past, advertising and marketing of pharmaceutical products, cigarettes and unhealthy junk food to kids.
As noted, Publicis, NewsGuard's lead investor, made a name for itself by promoting and strengthening big industries, including tobacco. For instance, Leo Burnett, the ad company famous for creating the Marlboro man ad campaigns that made Marlboro the best-selling cigarette in the world and led to the nicotine addiction of millions, many of whom died from smoking, is also part of Publicis.15,16
Are we to believe that the profit preferences of such entities will have no influence on NewsGuard's ratings of individuals, organizations and companies that criticize the safety or effectiveness of those products? If this conflict of interest and lack of transparency concerns you I urge you to contact NewsGuard now and let your voice be heard. Click on the button below to send NewsGuard a message today.
>>>>> Click Here <<<<<
Overall, it appears NewsGuard is just another big business aimed at keeping the chemical, drug and food industries, as well as mainstream media, intact by discrediting and eliminating unwanted competition, which likely includes yours truly and many others who empower you with information that helps you take control of your health.
Indebted to Big Industry through its funding, it appears that NewsGuard is being positioned as a "competition eradicator" that will allow Publicis and Big Industry to maintain their undisputed reign as shapers of public opinion about health-related issues, including the safety of food, air and water, medical devices and products, prescription drugs and vaccines, as well as public health policies that endorse the use of those products. You can read more on this full-circle plan to censor media truth here.
Some people also use Snopes as their go-to source for online fact-checking, believing it to give the unbiased and credible final word on all those widely circulated stories.
Yet, Snopes engages in massive censorship of natural health and general promotion of industry talking points. What started as a tool to investigate urban legends, hoaxes and folklore has manifested into a self-proclaimed "definitive fact-checking resource" that's taking on topics like whether or not vaccines can cause autism.
Case in point: In their purported fact-checking of a "Full Measure" report17 by award-winning investigative reporter and former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson,18 Snopes simply spewed propaganda, not real facts, in an attempt to discredit the report and the potential vaccines-autism link.
In the end, though, they actually ended up confirming the main point of Attkisson's report. For this, Attkisson wrote, "Snopes gets an 'F' for predictable propaganda in [the] vaccine-autism debate."
It's dangerous to rely on any one source or group of individuals as authorities on truth, as it sets up the path for inevitable censorship. Even under the best circumstances, everyone is subject to their own biases, but in the case of Snopes, it was founded on fabrications from the start.
Snopes was created in 1995 by Barbara and David Mikkelson, who posed as "The San Fernardo Valley Folklore Society" in the beginning in order to gain credibility. Such a society does not exist as a legal entity, according to an investigation by the Daily Mail19 — the same Daily Mail that NewsGuard originally gave a failing ranking, only to later reverse it.
Seventy-three percent believe the proliferation of "fake news" on the internet is a major problem, and only half feel confident that readers can get to the facts by sorting through bias.20 And the fact is, fake news is a real problem.
But it's important to do your own research before believing even "fact checked" sources like Snopes or "Internet Trust Tools" like NewsGuard, which are in fact backed and supported by industry giants.
Many people enjoy eating berries and they are certainly good for you. Berries are low in calories, high in fiber and contain vitamins C and E, folic acid, calcium, selenium, alpha and beta carotene and lutein. Better yet, their phytochemicals contain valuable polyphenols and flavonoids including anthocyanins and ellagitannins.1
Anthocyanin is a natural pigment in fruits and vegetables that has been shown in studies to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and contain anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.2 It also has been found to aid in the treatment of certain types of cancer and diabetes.
Still, when it comes to eating fruit, Americans often choose apples, pears, bananas, melons, citrus fruits and grapes over anthocyanin-rich berries. When they do consume berries, they often limit themselves to blackberries, black raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, red raspberries and strawberries.3
In Scandinavia, it is a different story. There, people often enjoy lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.), an evergreen shrub also called cowberry, foxberry and mountain/rock cranberry.
Lingonberries offer the same health benefits as other anthocyanin-rich berries and more. For example, due to their reported antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, lingonberries traditionally have been used in the treatment of gonorrhea, dysuria, diarrhea and periodontitis.4 Research also found lingonberries may reduce cardiovascular disease risks.5
In a doctoral dissertation study presented at the University of Helsinki,6 lingonberry juice was found to have positive effects on blood pressure, vascular function and inflammatory markers in rats with high blood pressure. Lingonberry juice significantly lowered high blood pressure and prevented the "expression of genes associated with low- grade inflammation in the aorta," Sci News reported.7
Lingonberry juice with a greater concentration of polyphenols also improved the function of blood vessels that were impaired and restored them to the level seen with healthy blood vessels. What were the actions that caused the apparent improvements? This is what study author Anne Kivimäki hypothesized:
“Underlying the effect is probably the reduction of low-grade inflammation as well as mechanisms related to the renin-angiotensin system, a central regulator of blood pressure, and the availability of nitric oxide, a local endothelial vasodilating factor.”8
Kivimäki wrote:9
"After lingonberry juice treatment, serum levels of both angiotensin II and alkaline phosphatase were lower than in the control groups. Possible anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic effects were present due to the reduced gene expression of cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2), monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, p-selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1.
… The lingonberry treatment lowered gene expression of COX2 in the aorta, and increased COX2 protein expression in the kidney cortex macula densa, possibly indicating that inducible COX2 had been inhibited whereas the important constitutive COX2 was maintained by lingonberry treatment.
Molecular docking studies conducted with flavonoid structures indicated that kaempferol may exert inhibitory effects on COX2 … Furthermore, lingonberry possesses anti-inflammatory properties, which may well contribute to its ability to reduce blood pressure and improve vascular function."
Anthocyanins have been associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular and coronary heart disease thanks to their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and lipid-lowering effects.10
Studies with humans have shown that polyphenol-rich food like berries reduce oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, low density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation and high plasma glucose while helping to optimize total cholesterol.11 Still, the effects of anthocyanins on blood pressure have been less clear, and the lingonberry study, with positive results that appeared to surface quickly, is encouraging:12
"The established high blood pressure of spontaneously hypertensive rats became lowered during an eight-week treatment with lingonberry juice …
(T)he endothelium-dependent relaxation of mesenteric arteries was enhanced after eight weeks’ treatment. Positive effects of lingonberry juice on inflammatory markers were observed …
In summary, in an experimental model of hypertension, long- term treatment with lingonberry juice was able to lower blood pressure and improve vascular function."
Many people develop high blood pressure and vasculitis as they age, and nutrition can be an important key to the management of these conditions. Millions could benefit from the improved blood pressure, vascular function and inflammatory markers seen in Kivimäki's research beyond those with high blood pressure.
Other conditions that may benefit from lingonberry consumption include diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, functional disturbances in blood vessels related to low-grade inflammation13 and conditions caused by smoking.14
In addition to reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, anthocyanins such as those found in lingonberries have been reported to "reduce TNF-α induced upregulation of inflammatory mediators in human microvascular endothelial cells," according to a study in Nutrition Reviews.15
TNF, or tumor necrosis factor, is a protein in the human body that causes inflammation and is suppressed in treating some autoimmune conditions and cancers.16
As Kivimäki mentioned earlier, the reduction of nitric oxide seen in her study likely exerts some of the anti-inflammatory effects, since nitric oxide can lead to increased vascular permeability, the formation of a strong oxidizing agent called peroxynitrite and inflammatory cytokines.17
Lingonberries have other impressive properties. It has been known for a while that they can prevent diet-induced obesity, but the reason for the weight effects has been unclear. In a 2016 study published in the journal Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, researchers sought to understand the effect of lingonberries on weight, inflammation and gut microbiota using mice fed high fat (HF) diets.18
"Our results show that supplementation with lingonberries to an HF diet prevents low-grade inflammation and is associated with significant changes of the microbiota composition. Notably, the anti-inflammatory properties of lingonberries seem to be independent of effects on body weight gain."
After supplementation with lingonberries, the mice lost weight and the size of their livers diminished.19
"After 11 weeks, the mice receiving HF diet supplemented with Lingon1 weighed 39±3.9 g, which was significantly lower (p=0.0003) compared to the control group receiving HF diet without berries (46±2.2 g) … The average mass of the livers in group Lingon1 was significantly reduced compared to the control."
Gut micrbiota was altered by the lingonberries, report the researchers.20
"At genus level, 14 bacterial taxa differed significantly between the control and lingonberry groups … The increase of Bacteroidetes in the lingonberry groups was to a large extent caused by increased relative abundance of bacteria belonging to an unclassified genus in the S24-7 family.
The genus Parabacteriodes was also significantly increased in the Lingon1 and Lingon2 (13%) groups compared to the control group (3%). Furthermore, the genus Akkermansia, belonging to the Verrucomicrobia phylum, was significantly increased in both lingonberry groups compared to the control … and Akkermansia was also significantly higher in the Lingon2 group (20%) compared to the Lingon1 group (16%) …
The comparison of functional pathways … revealed an enrichment of genes belonging to pathways related to metabolism in the Lingon-groups, and an enrichment of genes involved in transport and motility in the control group …
In agreement with a previous study, we show that supplementation with lingonberries prevents HF diet– induced weight gain, increased liver weight, body fat accumulation and elevated plasma levels of glucose and cholesterol …
Both batches of lingonberries altered the gut microbiota composition and were effective in preventing HF- induced low-grade inflammation and endotoxemia, demonstrating that the effects of lingonberries on these parameters are independent of effects on body weight."
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Boosting Antioxidant Profile — Researchers have identified certain antioxidants in lingonberries that may benefit your health. Chief among them include proanthocyanidins (63% to 71%), as well as hydroxycinnamic acid, hydroxybenzoic acids, various flavonols and the before cited anthocyanins.21 One study reports that antioxidants in lingonberry extract may induce apoptosis of human leukemia HL-60 cells in a dose-dependent manner.22 |
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Managing Inflammation — Studies indicate that lingonberries are rich in proanthocyanidins (PAC), compounds that may help fight inflammation. In particular, wild Alaskan lowbush cranberry (a type of lingonberry found in the U.S.) has been found to have twice the PAC content as commercial cranberry.23 |
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Reducing Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) — Lingonberry is related to cranberry, which may give it the same UTI-fighting properties. In a study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers noted that those who drank a combination of lingonberry and cranberry juice had reduced recurrences of urinary tract infections.24 However, note that more extensive trials will be needed to help establish the ability of lingonberry to solely fight UTI without the need for cranberry.25 |
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Managing Weight, Blood Sugar and Insulin — As noted above, lingonberries can help weight control. In a study published in the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, researchers surmised that lingonberry may help reduce weight gain as well as prevent adiposity, hepatic lipid accumulation, alleviated hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, as evidenced by mice test subjects.26 |
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Eliminating Bacteria — The tannins of lingonberry have antimicrobial properties. In one clinical experiment, the tannins helped fight bacterial strains related to oral health.27 |
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Helping Reduce Risk of Cancer — Research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry indicate that procyanidins found in lingonberry may help fight human cervical cancer and colon cancer cells.28 |
Once again, a compound found naturally in food is able to accomplish what harsh drugs are supposed to do — but with much less risk and expense. The many benefits of lingonberries are truly remarkable. However, as with many foods, processing can pose a risk to the natural benefits found in lingonberries. This is what researchers writing in Nutrition Reviews warn:29
"Post-harvest processing, such as pressing, pasteurization, and conventional and vacuum drying, can significantly affect the polyphenol (including anthocyanin) and vitamin content of berries, and therefore their bioactivities and effects on CVD risk factors."
Similar to cranberries, lingonberries are very sour and are often sweetened and eaten as sauce or jam. To enjoy the health benefits of lingonberries without the health risks of added sugar, look for lingonberries without added sugar, such as frozen raw berries that can be added to smoothies or fruit salad.
