Healthy Food

By Gabriella Gometra

Studies show that children in the United States consume too many fats and refined carbohydrates. There is definitely a correlation between the American child's diet and the epidemic of childhood obesity. Start your children early by presenting them with healthy food choices. Here are a few tips on things you can do differently. Your mother and your neighbors may think you are strange, but strange is good if you will have healthier children. Also, what is good for the children is also good for the parents.

My first tip to you is to pass on the fruit juices. There is no reason for any child to drink fruit juice. That goes double for any beverage that looks like fruit juice but is not. Water is very good for quenching thirst, and it does not have any sugar or calories. Even if you choose fruit juice that is only natural fruit juice with no added sugars, you are still getting a lot of sugar. Cavities and obesity can still be acquired by natural fruit sugars. Instead of drinking juice, eat the whole fruit. That way you get the fiber, the vitamins, and a feeling of fullness you do not get from a juice drink. For children, be sure to peel and cut the fruit in small thumbnail-size pieces. Grapes should be quartered to avoid a choking hazard. I hope it goes without saying that you would never give a child soft drinks or sodas, tea, coffee or alcoholic drinks. There is no nutritional benefit to these beverages to anyone. I will admit, though, that I permit a fruit juice or a soft drink on special occasions like I would allow dessert on special occasions. A special occasion does not happen every day.

When thinking of snacks to give your children, first offer protein foods, vegetables and fruits. Yogurt, cheese, eggs and peanut butter make great protein snacks. Secondly, I might offer a slice of whole wheat bread or a whole grain cereal. Vegetables like carrots and celery can be sliced thinly into sticks and kept in water in the refrigerator. There may be some leaching of the vitamins, but I feel that is a fair enough exchange for the moist flavor and the convenience. It is too easy to eat something that can be grabbed quickly. For this reason you should be very wary of having convenient foods in your house. The chips, crackers, cookies, and sugary cereals should be kept out of the house or should also be an occasional, but not a daily, food.

My last piece of advice is to be a cook for your family. Cook nearly everything from scratch. When you cook with vegetables, meats and grains you selected yourself, you have a better idea of what is in the food. Frozen dinners and convenience foods are full of all kinds of ingredients that you do not have in your kitchen and that are of dubious value. You will find that you can cook more nutritious food for less money if you are doing it from scratch.

This may have been very difficult advice that I have given you. If you raise your children this way, people may not regard you as normal. Normal for children in the United States may mean being obese and having a mouthful of cavities. Normal for adults in the United States is being obese and having heart disease. Most of these health problems are caused or exacerbated by food and beverage intake that is under your control for your own life and your children's. Help your children get a good start while they are young. Set a good example and make changes to your own diet so you will be healthier now and for years to come.