Is it OK to give kids caffeine?

>> joy's diet s.o.s., answers to your daily diet dilemmas. joy bauer is here to discuss everything from when it's okay to give your kids food that contain caffeine to how to best avoid boredom eating. she's the author of "the joy fit club ." good morning.

>> good morning.

>> our first caller is on the phone, linda from woodlands, texas. good morning, what's your question for joy?

>> good morning. is it okay to occasionally feed our children food that includes coffee or alcohol, for example, coffee ice cream , or sauces, including white or red wine ?

>> so it's going to depend on how old your kids are, how sensitive their bodies are, and whether or not they're taking certain medications that could trigger a negative response. in that case you could certainly talk with your pharmacists. but in general, when it comes to coffee flavored foods, the caffeine content varies tremendously. when it comes to the coffee flavored candies, it's really an insignificant amount of cough even if and that's going to be totally fine. in case you're wondering, coffee cake , actually has no coffee in it. it's only named that because you're supposed to eat a slice when you have a cup of coffee . when it comes to coffee ice cream , it's a whole other story. one cup will range in caffeine from 50 to 90 milligrams. that's like drinking half to three quarters of a cup. i would say if your kids are young i would lay off the coffee ice cream . when it comes to wine in sauces, if you're serving them to your kids, the longer you simmer the sauce, the more alcohol you'll boil off. so ideally you want to simmer it for at least 30 minutes . or, just swap out the wine for low sodium broth and then you just play it safe. i hope that helps.

>> thank you.

>> thank you so much. i don't know if wine is better than low sodium broth.

>> you're an adult so you can actually add extra wine.

>> let's get to our next caller, laura in michigan. good morning. what's your question for joy?

>> hi. i'm really struggling with boredom feeting and getting up in the night and eating and i also have an intense potato chip /peanut weakness. and i was wondering if you have any suggestions to combat this or healthy, low calorie alternatives?

>> first you have good taste. potato chips and peanuts. the first line of defense is to get the potato chips and peanuts completely out of your house. i feel like you put yourself at an unfair disadvantage when they're front and center. and next, i think this is a really cool strategy that was offered up from one of the joy fit club members. i think it's going to work great for you. you're going to create a bag of distractions. so that means you're going to take a bag and fill it with note cards that list activities that you can do during the day, or during the evening, that will distract you from eating. so for example, it may say e-mail three friends. or brush and floss your teeth. or read a chapter of a book. or sip a caffeine free cup of tea . but the idea is when you have that urge to nibble in between meals you reach into the bag of distractions, you read the activity, you do it and by the time you're done with that activity there's a really good chance the impulse to eat will subside.

>> all right. laura, hope that answers your question. i recently gave up peanut butter .

>> it's hard.

>> we have a viewer e-mail. carolyn in new york. she writes i've been hearing a lot about the maca root and all of its amazing health benefits . what exactly is it and is there any truth to these claims?

>> maca is getting huge buzz right now. basically it's a radish family, it's a root and grows in south america . and they're selling it now in pill form or powder form that you can add into juice or smoothie or even oatmeal. there's a handful of trials that show that it may, in fact, help to -- enhance your sex drive . and also, companies and websites are touting that it can help alleviate menopause symptoms or increase your exercise endurance, even build muscle growth and also there's one other thing, offer some cancer benefits. but, you have to take all of this with a grain of salt. because to date there's not any sound scene tifric backing that would cause me to advise people to use it as an actual health treatment. there's really not a downside, so if you do want to try it at the very least you're probably going to get a shot of fiber.

>> speaking of fiber. our last one, lois in new york wondered which bread choice is better, slice of whole wheat bread or multigrain bread?

>> great question. although they both sound incredibly healthy there could be refined flour mixed in. so your absolute best solution is to look for on that label, 100% whole wheat or 100% whole grain and then you are guaranteed that every single flour in that loaf is whole grain and totally good for you.