Helping Your Children Create A Healthy Diet

Healthy Ways of Feeding Children

In my own private medical practice, I work with adults to achieve weight loss through the HCG Diet program.  Many of my patients are parents and often ask for advice on how to best feed their children.  Having two little boys of my own, I have worked hard on creating methods to get nutrient dense food into their diets.

Although I would never prescribe Intermittent Fasting for children, I find that often times they naturally do it on their own. I see this on the weekends with my 7 and 9 year old, they get busy playing in the morning and it is often 11am or noon when they finally ask for food.  I find that many kids naturally benefit from an over night fasting period without rigid time constraints.

Tips for Creating Healthy Choices for your Children

Children in developed nations surely will not starve when food is available in the house.  Maybe the food is not on the kids “favorite” list, but if hunger really strikes they will go for something that is in the house.  If a child has surplus fat stores then he/she also has a lot of stored fuel (fat) sitting on their body.

I recommend having a home stocked with healthy choices for your child to eat. If your child is old enough they can even prepare many foods on their own.  I like to keep carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks and cucumber slices on the low shelf in my fridge for my kids to freely graze on.  I highly recommend getting into the habit of offering your children whole foods and minimizing foods that come in packages or that are processed.  I also think it is nice to have the kids help with food preparation and clean up.

I suggest reading labels to start. I would strongly urge all parents to avoid sugary cereals. Starting the day with a bowl full of carbs and sugar over time will set the stage for insulin resistance. Insulin resistance and pre-diabetes is becoming more common in children.  This is 100% due to a diet high in processed foods, as well as, more screen time and inactivity.

The best drink for children is water, water, water!!!  It is hard to believe that 1/3^rd of the sugar kids consume is in the form of soft drinks, fruit juice and sports drinks. Save these for the very special occasion.  I let my kids have soda if it is offered at a birthday party where everyone else is having it and occasionally on an airplane, otherwise they drink water when they are thirsty.

Fruit can be a great snack for children and I would recommend keeping low-sugar fruits in the house.  Examples of low sugar fruits are peaches, blueberries, strawberries, nectarines, apples and oranges. I tend to keep high sugar fruits such as banana, grapes, pineapple and mango for special times.

Make it a challenge to see how many things you can eat throughout the day that do not come in a package.  I love getting my kids involved in making sauces, dressings and even special treats.

Foods to Keep in Your Home that are Kid Friendly

Here are some things we keep in our home that I tend to offer my kids. These foods also comprise their lunches most days.

• Carrot sticks
• Celery Sticks
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Sweet peppers
• Cucumber slices
• Jicama sticks
• Raw nuts
• Raw broccoli with a home-made dip
• Ezekiel sprouted breads
• Organic, eggs
• Edamame (organic, non-GMO)
• Organic, low sugar yogurt
• Soup
• Almond butter
• Organic Cottage cheese
• Air popped popcorn
• Low sugar fruits
• Seaweed sheets

Help your children to stay in balance now in a culture which urges us to continuously over consume!  Packages snacks, cookies, candies and cake are entirely appropriate on a special occasion but surely not for every day!

Categories: Body Composition, Food Information, General Wellness, Meal Prep and Recipes, Mindful Eating, Weight Loss