Healthy eating for children

The biggest difference between healthy eating for children and healthy eating for you is the serving size.

As obvious as this sounds, let me ask you this...

How many times has your younger child complained, "It's not fair, he gets more?"

Kids can be competitive. Always keeping an eye out for what a sibling gets. Or the younger one may just want to be like his/her older sibling. They want to do everything the older child does.

When it comes to portion sizes, a smaller body just doesn't need the same amount of food. The excess energy of calories would be stored as fat.

Healthy eating for youngsters still includes the three components of food: protein, carbohydrates and fat. These three provide the vitamins, minerals calories and trace nutrients that they have to grow and play.

The protein should be from high quality sources. Go to your local farmers market for your best savings on eggs, meat and poultry. Seek out the producers that use no chemical pesticides, no antibiotics and no hormones. Even better would be to buy organic if available.

Pesticides used on the farmland, get ingested by the animals. These get deposited in the animal’s tissues. And for cows, the drugs and chemicals eventually make their way into the milk.

Carbohydrates and fat have both been given a bad rap. I say this because both are needed for optimal health. Yet, many diets limit these without understanding their importance.

Carbohydrates will provide energy, nutrients and fiber. With Carbohydrate, the important thing to know is the differences in carbohydrates.

You have carbohydrates that digest quickly. These release a quick and quick amount of sugar into the blood stream. This sugar then demands insulin.

A diet high in these "simple" carbohydrates puts a strain on insulin production. Eventually this strain can cause one of 2 situations.

The pancreas becomes exhausted and apathetic. This results in not enough insulin.

The cells become resistant to the ever present high levels of insulin. Which means more and more insulin is needed to get any response.

This provides an explanation to the increase in diabetes among children.

When figuring out what is a simple carbohydrate or a complex carbohydrate you can look it up on the internet? Without going that route, let's simplify it. This is done by looking at how much sugar is in the food. Then, check out how quickly the carbohydrates present would get became sugar.

Here are some examples of carbohydrate that quickly digest...      

• White bread, including enriched white bread

• Fruit drinks

• Chewing gum

• Soda pop

• Candy and candy bars

• Ice cream/deserts

• Pasta from white flour

• Chips

Good carbohydrates are complex in their structure and they have fiber. They take longer to digest. Consequently, you feel full longer. Here are some examples...

• Fruits and vegetables
• Juice not from concentrate and with pulp intact
• Beans
• Whole grain breads and pastas

Fats even have been given tons of attention in recent years. Children shouldn't be placed on a coffee fat diet. Challenge any one that suggests it. It is just not healthy eating for children to limit fat and their nutrients. Instead specialize in the source or sort of fat as contained during a diet .

Fats contain essential fatty acids. They are called essential because (1) you need them and (2) they must be obtained from your diet because you cannot produce them.

I stated that the problem with fat is with the type of fat. Hydrogenated fats should be avoided. This includes Crisco(R) or shortening for baking. Hydrogenated fats are devoid of nutrients. The heavy processing has destroyed the fatty acids. This can cause a craving for fats because the nutrients have not been obtained.

Instead, use organic cold-pressed safflower oil for lower heat cooking. For salads, use organic cold-pressed olive oil.

Healthy eating for youngsters is reinforced once you set an honest example. If you avoid vegetables, then it might be harder to elucidate the necessity to your kids.

If you want to mentally strengthen your children, be sure to attract them to vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have considered the brains of 1,500 children and adolescents ages 8 to 24. The result was that children who lacked steel performed poorly in mental exercises and tests compared to others.

Science says on the basis of the evidence that the steel in the body eventually accumulates in the cells. Steel is very important for mental and physical performance. For example, the proper physical quantity of steel plays a vital role in logical and rational matters.

Extra amounts of steel are found in green leafy vegetables including spinach, branch cabbage and salad tops. This research was conducted by University Professor Dr. Bart Larson. They suggest that the child be given full steel foods or iron supplements until the child reaches the age of 20 years. More than two-thirds of people worldwide have recorded a shortage of steel.

Whether it is a baby or a lack of dried steel, it can cause symptoms such as headaches, weakness, dizziness, pale skin and chest pain. Steel plays an important role in the formation of red blood cells, and these cells carry oxygen throughout the body.

Children need 8 milligrams of steel daily, while adolescents reaching the age of puberty need 11 milligrams of steel. But strangely, girls need 15 milligrams of steel because of the lack of steel at certain days.

Dr. Larson's research suggests that steel accumulates in brain cells, and if not, it can lead to many mental disorders, as well as affect memory, memory and logical issues.