Tina Turbin » Family

Autism-Vaccine Author Defends His Research

Tina Turbin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 06:00:09 +0000

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who published a study in 1998 about the possible link between autism and vaccines which was subsequently questioned and discredited by the medical community, has defended his work in an interview on CNN.

Dr. Wakefield’s work has been discredited over the past several years, and ten of the eleven doctors who were involved in the study have removed their names from it. The Sunday Times reports that Dr. Wakefield “changed and misreported results” in his research, according to “confidential” medical documents and interviews with witnesses.

Dr. Wakefield’s study was published in February 1998 in The Lancet medical journal, causing widespread concern among parents that the MMR vaccine—for measles, mumps, and rubella—was linked to autism. According to The Sunday Times, the impact of the article was “extraordinary,” with vaccination rates decreasing from 92% to less than 80%, while “herd immunity” from measles occurs when 95% of the population has been vaccinated.

After a British journalist, Brian Deer, published the results of his investigation calling Wakefield’s study an “elaborate fraud,” Wakefield denied these allegations as false in an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Wakefield continues to stand by his findings, saying that the results have been replicated in studies in five other countries and that Deer has received financial support from a pharmaceutical company. Check out the link below to see the interview yourself.

CNN Video Clip

Tina Turbin

www.DannyTheDragon.com

b.a.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs – Valentine’s Day Recipe

Tina Turbin — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 07:00:50 +0000

Below is a little teaser of a recipe from a soon to be released book, Gluten Free Cookies by Luane Kohnke. You will have an opportunity to read the review of many tested recipes we will be doing out of her book over the next two months. So check back soon!

Enjoy and Happy Valentines Day, Tina

Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup potato starch
2 1/2 tablespoons tapioca flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons almond flour
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

Makes 48 to 60 cookies

I developed this recipe for my friend Gail. She was diagnosed with celiac disease late in life, and really missed her sweets. She told me that these cookies reminded her of the sugar cookies her grandmother made.

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, sift together brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Whisk in almond flour. Set aside.

2. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar. Set mixer speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and egg. Beat until well combined, about 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Divide dough into quarters, and wrap each quarter in plastic wrap or wax paper. Chill for 1 to 2 hours, or overnight.

3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment.

4. Roll dough, one quarter at a time, between sheets of wax paper, to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with heart-shaped cookie cutter, dipping cookie cutter in brown rice flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour to aid cutting.

5. Place cookies on prepared cookie sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. If dough becomes too soft to reroll easily, return it to the refrigerator or place it in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes, until it is firm enough to reroll. Sprinkle cookies with granulated sugar, demerara sugar, or gluten-free sanding sugar.

6. Bake until edges are pale golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes.

7. Transfer cookies, still on parchment, to wire racks to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Recipe taken from Gluten-Free Cookies by Luane Kohnke
(978-1-4162-0623-1; $18.95; Pub date: March 2011; Sellers Publishing; 50+ full-color photos, Hardcover)

Author Bio:

Luane Kohnke has been an accomplished gourmet cookie baker for more than 20 years. Her love for cookie baking began when she was nine years old, living on her family’s farm in Wisconsin, and she developed an interest in gluten-free baking about 15 years ago. Luane lives in New York City. For more information, visit www.luanekohnke.com.

Tina Turbin
www.TinaTurbin.com

Author Connie Sarros Acknowledges Tina Turbin

Tina Turbin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:00:46 +0000

Congratulations to Tina Turbin!

Some people accomplish extraordinary things. When they do, it’s nice to recognize them and applaud them for their accomplishments. Tina Turbin is one of those people. She’s well known by many of you because of her involvement in the celiac community.

Who is Tina Turbin?

Tina is an activist in two main fields: 1) She actively works to make improvements in children’s literacy and education, and 2) She works diligently to raise awareness about celiac disease. She speaks regularly on these topics on national radio shows and writes articles and columns for a wide variety of publications and websites. You can learn more about Tina at http://TinaTurbin.com.

Why the “Congratulations!”?

Tina wrote the award-winning children’s picture book Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy. iSTORYTIME (the iPhone App Developer for Dreamworks) has recently signed to turn the DVD of this book into a children’s book app. This production is unique because its the first of its kind to have sign-language interpretation added for the deaf to assist this under-served population.

Imagination Publishing Group President Alan Wayne said, “I’m pleased to say that this is the first of many apps to be created through iStorytime for the Danny the Dragon series.” Profits from the sales of the Danny the Dragon DVD are donated to the Blossom Montessori School for the Deaf. Learn more about her books, DVD, and what she does to help celiacs at her website.

Congratulations Tina!

Connie Sarros

www.gfbooks.homestead.com

Marriage after Mom-Hood

Tina Turbin — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:58:40 +0000

One of the challenges you’ll face in “life after mom-hood” is with your partner. Divorce among couples with “empty nests” is extremely common. Believe it or not, raising your children has been part of the stable foundation of your relationship, something you two shared in common as a goal. Just as you yourself will need new goals, so will you and your spouse. You two should decide on something to create together, a vision as ambitious as starting the business you always dreamed of or as ordinary as Friday Night Date Night.

Life after mom-hood is something you’ve been looking forward to for some time now, after all. You deserve to make it as rewarding as it was raising your children!

Tina Turbin

Hey, Parents, Turn off the TV!

Tina Turbin — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:42:35 +0000

There are so many reasons to dramatically cut down on television or to cut it out altogether. You’ll find in the end that your children will be much more likely to become avid readers and, as a result, perform better in school and in life. Instead of acting out the drama and degradation on popular TV, your kids will demonstrate the values you seek to pass on to them. You’ll also find your own productivity will increase, and oftentimes, a marriage will be sparked back to life by eliminating television. It may be a challenge at first to get used to your new lifestyle, but soon the benefits will be so rewarding that you’ll be too busy enjoying your higher quality of life that you won’t even think about the absence of television in it.

Tina Turbin

Date Your Spouse to Strengthen Your Marriage

Tina Turbin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:00:21 +0000

Why is that couples report having the most fun with each other when they were dating? I strongly believe this is because when they’re dating, couples are constantly trying different activities together, putting time and effort into spending time together, and are generally creative about the relationship. Naturally, any relationship, marital or not, can get stale when you stop creating things to do together. You don’t necessarily have to plan a romantic island getaway. You can go out for ice cream, design a new kitchen together, or walk the dog together in the evenings and talk. If you were dating your spouse, what would you do with him? Ask yourself this question and go ahead and give it a try!

Tina Turbin

The Importance of Goals in Marriage

Tina Turbin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:58:13 +0000

Make sure that you and your spouse have individual as well as common goals. Just as you personally can feel lost without knowing what your purpose is or having something worthwhile to pursue in life, so can your relationship suffer without goals to strive toward. Name your goals for how much money you’d like to retire with and vacations you’d like to take together, for example. In making these goals, your imagination is the limit!

Tina Turbin

Turn off the TV—Tips for Families

Tina Turbin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:36:39 +0000

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does—television, that is. One of the best decisions I made years ago for myself and for my family was to cut down on television drastically. At first this may seem like a daunting task, but with a few simple tips, parents find it’s much easier than they suspected it would be.

First of all, there is the matter of reducing the amount of TV your family watches to just a few shows a week. In order to do this, I recommend a family meeting to discuss your goals as a family and as individuals. Then take an honest look at what everyone is getting out of television. Everyone will agree that they should watch less TV and spend more time pursuing their own goals. With a meeting like this, your kids and spouse will be much more likely to go along with their new lifestyle of less TV because they’ll understand the reason behind it.

I highly recommend implementing a service such as TiVo ® to help keep TV watching to a minimum. After deciding on the reasons for watching less TV, each family member can decide on a handful of shows to watch together as a family, plus a personal favorite or two, to watch only during designated watching times—Friday nights or Sunday afternoons, for example.

Finally, come up with stimulating alternatives. Take the kids to the library or play board games. Have larger, longer family dinners at the table. Keeping everyone busy will get their minds off this missing element in their lives. I highly recommend using this time to get the kids to strengthen their reading skills and develop a strong interest in reading. Soon you might find that your family—gasp!—may prefer reading over watching TV.

Tina Turbin

More Boomers Are Shopping Online

Tina Turbin — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:34:05 +0000

A trend that has taken off among baby boomers is foregoing malls and shopping centers in favor of online stores. In my busy work as an author, researcher, and humanitarian, as well as a mother, I find that shopping online is an invaluable, convenient tool in saving money and time and in obtaining hard-to-find items. You should give it a try as an alternative or addition to your regular shopping.

Tina Turbin

Pesticides Are Shown to be Linked to ADHD

Tina Turbin — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:24:30 +0000

As a concerned mother and a children’s author who cares very much for families and children, I found the following article to be both appalling and at the same time refreshing to know that such a critical issue is being exposed.

While it has been known that pesticides used for our food and vegetable supply pose a variety of health risks, the fact that these same pesticides are linked to so-called ADHD in children is a truth that every parent needs to know about.

Click here to read the full article. Afterwards, browse through this section of my website for MANY helpful tips, resources and information to improve your family’s and your children’s quality of life.

I hope the above information helps you.

Tina Turbin