Pro: “So how much sugar do powdered chocolate mixes add to milk? About 17 grams per serving. To put that in perspective, a cup of apple juice has 26 grams of sugar and a 12-ounce can of Coke has 39 grams.”

Con: “I don’t recommend that kids drink chocolate milk in schools,” says Bauer, because the added sugar provides unnecessary extra calories when so many kids are already struggling with their weight and unhealthy eating. (Joy Bauer, RD, nutrition and health expert for the Today show and Everyday Health.)

A recent study confirmed parents are uncomfortable discussing weight with their children.  No other topic, not drugs, sex or alcohol made them more uncomfortable.  Clearly, we don’t want our children developing a complex about their body, so how do we talk about weight?

This week TomAto TomatOh! presents opinions from both sides of the fence about saturated fat.

“Jack Spratt could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean. And so between the two them, they licked the platter clean.” You might be surprised to find out what some experts are saying about low-fat these days.

I set out to examine “the clean plate  rule” this week, but stopped dead in my tracks when Mama B. LeDish forwarded word of an expert discouraging us from telling our little girls they are pretty.  According to Lisa Bloom, author of a new book, Think: Straight Talk For Women To Stay Smart In A Dumbed-Down World, talking to our little girls about their appearance is sending them the wrong message. She has a point, but I’m not so sure…

I see parents give their children artificial sweeteners. I avoid giving my toddlers products containing them, yet I allowed myself one diet soda almost every day while pregnant. So when I set out to search the internet to find both sides of the story about serving artificial sweeteners to children, I wasn’t expecting to come up empty handed! Gulp!

This week, TomAto, TomatOH! presents opinions from both sides of the sugar war. And a little something to lighten your mood…

The BBC reports that researchers from University College London analyzed 12,000 children born between 2000 and 2001. The 3-year-olds studied were 34 percent more likely to be overweight if their grandparents cared for them full time.  What happens when other family members aren’t on the same nutrition page?

We’ve been taught since we were young that fluoride is the key to healthy teeth.  Just when you thought you had dotted all your “i’s” and crossed all your “t’s,” the experts are telling us to put the brakes on fluoride efforts.

We hope that this information will help you navigate through the grocery store isles with a healthy dose of information…