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How to Feed your Children
By: Diane Spindler
Many parents today are finding it more and more difficult to give
their children a healthy diet due to the fast food frenzy, mass junk
food advertisement, and poor availability of quality nutrient rich
foods.
Fast foods like burgers, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, french
fries and soft drinks provide the children with diets way too high in
salt, fat, trans fatty acids and sugar. Avoiding white flour products,
artificial foods, processed meats and dairy, candy, pop, and other
sweets will help to prevent allergies, hyperactivity, and other
illnesses in children.
Food health for children has deteriorated over the years. Some
statistics by Dr Joseph Beasley with the USDA show that soft drink
consumption rose 182% from 1960 to 1981, food color consumption rose
1006% from 1940 to 1981, and corn syrup consumption rose 209% from 1960
to 1981, while fresh apples dropped 75% from 1910 to 1976. Also, in
1964 the per capita consumption of soft drinks was 17 gallons and water
was 72 gallons, but in 1986, Americans drank 42 gallons of soft drinks,
while only consuming 41 gallons of water.
So what do we feed our children to keep them healthy? We need to
get back to the basics, cook our own food and select foods that are
whole and unprocessed. Some suggestions:
¨ Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We all need a
good breakfast to supply the fuel for physical and mental tasks
throughout the day. Children who like cereals have a healthy choice in
the natural food sections of grocery stores.
¨ Yogurt or acidophilus and bifidophilus powder in a protein shake
with fresh or organic frozen fruit and soy, rice or organic milk is a
good start as well.
¨ Pancakes can be made with egg whites, oatmeal or granola, cinnamon
and vanilla. The rule here is 4 egg whites to ½ cup oats or granola,
mix in some cinnamon and vanilla to taste and cook like a pancake. This
is a good snack for later in the day with a nut butter or jam spread.
¨ I like to use Stevia as a sweetener in this recipes and others.
Stevia is a natural plant extract and a little bit goes a long way.
The idea is to provide a balance of protein and complex carbohydrate
that will control the blood sugar balance. A breakfast of eggs and
nitrate free meat is fine, if you are not vegetarian. For the rest of
the day, it is important to eat plenty of fresh vegetables with meals
and add in your protein either as fish, chicken or turkey, lean red
meat, legumes, soy products, nuts and seeds.
Having plenty of healthy snacks for the kids is a good idea as they
will learn to choose those kinds of foods like dried and fresh fruits,
raw vegetables with a nutritious dip, yogurt, nut butters on rice cakes
or whole grain crackers, non-prepared popcorn etc. Healthy drinks
should also be available like soy or rice milk, real fruit juice, and
organic milk if they tolerate dairy, and most importantly, purified
water.
Bio:
Diane Spindler is a board-certified Naturopathic Doctor. Diane
has been practicing her Mountain Holistic Health business for five years
offering Nutrition Consulting and Metabolic Balancing through blood chemistry
analysis, Iridology and Kinesiology. Dr Spindler can be reached at
(303)697-1736.
www.mountainholistic.com
diane@mountainholistic.com
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