Ron’s Wanderings

One of the topics that I seem to come back to over and over is that of how we are feeding the children today. What sort of nutrition and weight loss program are they on? Why do we have this idea that the way to a child’s heart is to feed them foods that aren’t healthy?

I know, this all started years ago before anyone even thought about what sugar, fats and acids would do to their bodies. We’re still feeding the children poorly today because it was what we learned from our parents and grandparents.

But now we know better. So, I’d like to offer some tips on what we can do to provide children with healthy, balanced diets — and, hopefully, help some parents and grandparents to win the battle of child nutrition.

The first tip — and this is a biggie — is to start feeding the good foods before they start school. The younger they start to eat good food, the faster they’ll acquire the tastes for healthy food. If they’ve already started school, don’t think it’s too late — it is NOT too late to begin to help them be healthy and strong.

Availability

If you only buy foods that are healthy, the children (and you) can only pick their favorite foods from among the healthy choices.

Offer Tasty Choices

We often offer good fruits like apples, bananas, grapes and oranges. However, many children enjoy peaches, tangerines, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, pears, plums, watermelons and pineapples. You can always add fruits such as these to healthy, whole grain breakfast cereals. Instead of offering your child toast made from enriched or bleached white flour, offer 100% whole wheat bread. If your child is a big fan of pancakes, always serve whole grain pancakes. Remember, most all breads are made of wheat — you need to select the ones that say 100% Whole Wheat!

Sometimes vegetables can be something that children will turn away — but if you put a good, wholesome margarine on them (pick one without any trans fats), they become more enjoyable. And, don’t forget raw veggies as munchies. Make a good low-fat yogurt dip and they’ll love them — there’s a lot of fun in eating with their fingers.

Make the food look good

Remember that we’re competing against the bright “fun meal” advertising. There are constant ads on TV for unhealthy foods that contain too much salt, trans fats and sugar. When presenting foods to kids, we have to do some advertising too. Children of a pre-school age adore food that is shaped into something, for example a face, snowman, or teddy bear. The big food giants do it with their fun meals so why shouldn’t we? Wholegrain pancakes may be shaped like a face by using fruit pieces to make the eyes, nose and mouth. Why not serve corn on the cob like a rocket? 100% whole wheat toast can be shaped as well. Use your artistic skills.

Disguises

Want to bake a cake? How about a carrot cake made with Splenda? Maybe a nice batch of chocolate chip cookies made with whole wheat flower and dark chocolate chips. There are lots of good recipes that you can find online. If you use dried fruit as a snack, use it sparingly — there’s lots of sugar in them — but the fiber is good.

Vitamins

To ensure that your child is receiving the necessary amount of vitamins and minerals, give them an approved multivitamin/mineral supplement that is safe for children. (By the way, the Body Balance product that I recommend is a great one — see below to get a free two-week supply.) A balanced diet offering good nutrition is still important. Don’t think that a dose of vitamins will offset a poor diet — it won’t.

If you can, start good eating habits early. If you have to undo some already ingrained bad habits, do it with gentle persuasion — make the mealtimes fun — and sit down with the children at mealtimes so they can see that you’re eating the same way as they are.
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Got questions?

Contact me at: http://www.ronrink.com

My email and phone number are at that site. Feel free to contact me. I’m here to help you with your health, nutrition and fitness goals.

Have a healthy and nutritious day!

Shanti,

Ron

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 10:09 am and is filed under Nutrition and Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.