Your kids are what they eat
All children can be taught to be healthy eaters. The best time to start is when they are infants. But even older children, with the proper encouragement and motivation, can learn to eat and enjoy healthy food. All parents want the optimum for their...
All children can be taught to be healthy eaters. The best time to start is when they are infants. But even older children, with the proper encouragement and motivation, can learn to eat and enjoy healthy food.
All parents want the optimum for their children, and will often go to the metaphorical ends of the earth to get it for them. Yet, despite this instinctive desire to give the best that life can offer to our offspring, many parents let them down when it comes to that most basic provision of all: food.
Such dereliction of duty may stem from ignorance, apathy, or simply caving in to a child's powerful craving for all things unhealthy. But whatever the reason, by failing to provide children with a healthy diet packed with essential nutrients right from the word go, parents are not giving them the best start in life.
In a bid to help parents, nutritional therapist Deborah Colson and nutrition and health expert Patrick Holford have written a book called Optimum Nutrition For Your Child.
The book details good and bad foods, outlines the ideal diet for a child and how you can boost IQ and memory, and explains strategies which will help even the faddiest children eat healthy produce.
If asked about a healthy diet, most parents would repeat the "five portions of fruit and veg a day" mantra that experts say is the key to good eating. But Ms Colson warns that there's much more to it than that - and five a day is the very least that parents should be aiming for in their child's diet.
"Five fruit and veg a day would be the very least," she says.
The basic principle for a healthy diet is that children should consume the right carbohydrates, fats and proteins - the macronutrients - to build and fuel them, plus vital vitamins and minerals - the micronutrients - that keep their body running smoothly.
And then there's the anti-nutrients - refined sugar, damaged fats and chemical food additives - that can damage the good work of the nutrients, and should be avoided.
Carbohydrates are found in foods such as fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, beans and lentils, good fats are in nuts, seeds and oily fish, and proteins can be found in foods like meat, fish, eggs, beans and lentils, and dairy products.
As well as ensuring kids get all the nutrients they need, parents should also choose less obvious, more sophisticated foods for them, such as wholewheat spaghetti instead of refined white spaghetti, as foods can lose most of their nutritional value in the refining process.
"Children will go for unhealthy foods if left to their own devices, but it's a parent's job to steer them towards all the right things in life, and that includes food," says Ms Colson.
She warns that the health consequences for children who eat the wrong foods can be severe, including problems like poor immunity, allergies, asthma and eczema. A poor diet can even affect their life expectancy.
On the other hand, many studies have shown that as well as improving health, eating the right foods can increase intelligence, attention, concentration, problem-solving, emotional response, mood and physical coordination.
"Giving them the right foods makes a massive difference to their health and behaviour. The difference in learning is also enormous, and if you bring in the right changes you get results very quickly."
And as for childhood obesity, Ms Colson stresses: "The drive over obesity is all about eating less, but it should be that kids have to eat better quality food. They need to eat more of that."
On the "bad food" side, Ms Colson warns that there's no nutritional value in sugar, or in trans-fats, which can be found in baked goods with a long shelf-life, and the book contains a list of the 10 worst additives. However, Ms Colson points out that "some additives aren't so bad", and are actually anti-oxidants.
She says: "The safest thing to do is not to buy anything in a packet or jar, but that's not practical either. But if you have to buy them, choose better brands, and hopefully ones that are additive-free."
She adds: "I understand that it's one thing to know what children should eat, but it's another to actually get it inside them and we've put some practical ideas on how to get children to eat the right food in the book."
Childcare guru Gina Ford's new book, Feeding Made Easy, also gives tips on how to get fussy children to eat properly. These include:
• Serving small portions on a larger plate and gradually increasing the portion size.
• If a child refuses a food, don't get upset or lecture. Just quietly remove the plate and try again another day.
• Keep mealtimes short, and don't let them turn into a battle.
• From the age of about four, let children serve themselves from dishes on the table.
Any parent who's concerned about whether their child is getting enough nutrition should keep a food diary, which will make it easier to work out what may be causing any problems.
A variety of different foods from an early age is the key to long-term healthy eating habits.
While many toddlers and children will go through a fussy phase of eating at some stage, if they've been weaned on home-made meals the problems of only eating commercially-made food will rarely occur.
Parents should make sure children stick to regular meal and snack times, allowing two hours between meals and snacks, and not giving large drinks just before meals.
In her book, Ms Ford also gives advice on shopping lists and meal plans, suggests how to make cooking and eating easy and fun, and provides simple recipes.
She warns: "There's a massive amount of information out there for busy parents, but it's presented in too complex a way. Parents do want to feed their kids healthily, but sometimes there's so much information out there written by professionals for professionals that it frightens them away."
Many parents are frightened about salt, for example, but the message to parents is simply to read labels, says Ms Ford.
"I think parents should have more accessible information on how to read food labels properly, and actual examples of daily meal plans showing how to ensure children are getting a healthy diet that's not overloaded with salt or sugar.
"Many parents feel that if they're not a cordon bleu cook, or can't afford all the latest superfoods, that they're possibly failing their children nutritionally.
"I really believe that we have to get back to basics and present information on feeding families in a more concise, down-to-earth manner."
All parents want the optimum for their children, and will often go to the metaphorical ends of the earth to get it for them. Yet, despite this instinctive desire to give the best that life can offer to our offspring, many parents let them down when it comes to that most basic provision of all: food.
Such dereliction of duty may stem from ignorance, apathy, or simply caving in to a child's powerful craving for all things unhealthy. But whatever the reason, by failing to provide children with a healthy diet packed with essential nutrients right from the word go, parents are not giving them the best start in life.
In a bid to help parents, nutritional therapist Deborah Colson and nutrition and health expert Patrick Holford have written a book called Optimum Nutrition For Your Child.
The book details good and bad foods, outlines the ideal diet for a child and how you can boost IQ and memory, and explains strategies which will help even the faddiest children eat healthy produce.
If asked about a healthy diet, most parents would repeat the "five portions of fruit and veg a day" mantra that experts say is the key to good eating. But Ms Colson warns that there's much more to it than that - and five a day is the very least that parents should be aiming for in their child's diet.
"Five fruit and veg a day would be the very least," she says.
The basic principle for a healthy diet is that children should consume the right carbohydrates, fats and proteins - the macronutrients - to build and fuel them, plus vital vitamins and minerals - the micronutrients - that keep their body running smoothly.
And then there's the anti-nutrients - refined sugar, damaged fats and chemical food additives - that can damage the good work of the nutrients, and should be avoided.
Carbohydrates are found in foods such as fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, beans and lentils, good fats are in nuts, seeds and oily fish, and proteins can be found in foods like meat, fish, eggs, beans and lentils, and dairy products.
As well as ensuring kids get all the nutrients they need, parents should also choose less obvious, more sophisticated foods for them, such as wholewheat spaghetti instead of refined white spaghetti, as foods can lose most of their nutritional value in the refining process.
"Children will go for unhealthy foods if left to their own devices, but it's a parent's job to steer them towards all the right things in life, and that includes food," says Ms Colson.
She warns that the health consequences for children who eat the wrong foods can be severe, including problems like poor immunity, allergies, asthma and eczema. A poor diet can even affect their life expectancy.
On the other hand, many studies have shown that as well as improving health, eating the right foods can increase intelligence, attention, concentration, problem-solving, emotional response, mood and physical coordination.
"Giving them the right foods makes a massive difference to their health and behaviour. The difference in learning is also enormous, and if you bring in the right changes you get results very quickly."
And as for childhood obesity, Ms Colson stresses: "The drive over obesity is all about eating less, but it should be that kids have to eat better quality food. They need to eat more of that."
On the "bad food" side, Ms Colson warns that there's no nutritional value in sugar, or in trans-fats, which can be found in baked goods with a long shelf-life, and the book contains a list of the 10 worst additives. However, Ms Colson points out that "some additives aren't so bad", and are actually anti-oxidants.
She says: "The safest thing to do is not to buy anything in a packet or jar, but that's not practical either. But if you have to buy them, choose better brands, and hopefully ones that are additive-free."
She adds: "I understand that it's one thing to know what children should eat, but it's another to actually get it inside them and we've put some practical ideas on how to get children to eat the right food in the book."
Childcare guru Gina Ford's new book, Feeding Made Easy, also gives tips on how to get fussy children to eat properly. These include:
• Serving small portions on a larger plate and gradually increasing the portion size.
• If a child refuses a food, don't get upset or lecture. Just quietly remove the plate and try again another day.
• Keep mealtimes short, and don't let them turn into a battle.
• From the age of about four, let children serve themselves from dishes on the table.
Any parent who's concerned about whether their child is getting enough nutrition should keep a food diary, which will make it easier to work out what may be causing any problems.
A variety of different foods from an early age is the key to long-term healthy eating habits.
While many toddlers and children will go through a fussy phase of eating at some stage, if they've been weaned on home-made meals the problems of only eating commercially-made food will rarely occur.
Parents should make sure children stick to regular meal and snack times, allowing two hours between meals and snacks, and not giving large drinks just before meals.
In her book, Ms Ford also gives advice on shopping lists and meal plans, suggests how to make cooking and eating easy and fun, and provides simple recipes.
She warns: "There's a massive amount of information out there for busy parents, but it's presented in too complex a way. Parents do want to feed their kids healthily, but sometimes there's so much information out there written by professionals for professionals that it frightens them away."
Many parents are frightened about salt, for example, but the message to parents is simply to read labels, says Ms Ford.
"I think parents should have more accessible information on how to read food labels properly, and actual examples of daily meal plans showing how to ensure children are getting a healthy diet that's not overloaded with salt or sugar.
"Many parents feel that if they're not a cordon bleu cook, or can't afford all the latest superfoods, that they're possibly failing their children nutritionally.
"I really believe that we have to get back to basics and present information on feeding families in a more concise, down-to-earth manner."