Childrens Good Start

 
When we see our children we see the promise of a future yet to be lived. They start out as these beautiful little “bundles of joy” and slowly they grow (at least at the beginning) into people with their own unique personalities, attitude, style, goals and abilities.

As parents (or caregivers), we are encouraged to plan for their future. For many of us that means financial and educational plans, but what about planning for their good health? As all of us have aged, we have realized some of the errors we made along the way. Many of us feel the aches and pains (literally) of poor nutritional choices made as children and teens only once those years are long behind us. When we are young, nutrition can be viewed as akin to a savings account – depositing good nutrition now yields long-term benefit as we age.

The primary foundation for this plan is the foods we eat, and the ones we don’t. Healthy eating in childhood and adolescence is important for proper growth and development and to prevent adverse health conditions. Everyone’s body requires carbohydrates (including fiber), fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals to maintain healthy organs, bones, muscles and nerves, and to produce hormones and chemicals that are necessary for the proper function of their organs.

Carbohydrates (carbs) are a type of nutrient found in almost all foods and beverages. They often get a bad rap, especially when it comes to weight gain. But carbohydrates aren’t all bad. Your body uses carbohydrates to function and taking the right carbohydrates offers you numerous health benefits. Most carbohydrates occur naturally in plant-based foods, such as grains. Food manufacturers also add carbohydrates to manufactured and processed foods in the form of starch or added sugar.

There are three main types of carbohydrates:

• Sugar is the simplest form of carbohydrate and occurs naturally in some foods, including fruits, vegetables, milk and milk products. Types of sugar include fruit sugar (fructose), table sugar (sucrose) and milk sugar (lactose).
• Starch is a complex carbohydrate, meaning it is made of many sugar units bonded together. Starch occurs naturally in vegetables, grains, and legumes.
• Fiber also is a complex carbohydrate. It occurs naturally in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Certain specific fibers are classified as prebiotics, the food for probiotics (healthy bacteria)

Fats are another type of nutrient, this one found in many foods. Fats are an essential part of your diet. Fats give you energy, help your body absorb vitamins keep skin and hair healthy, and are a major component of cell membranes and your brain. But not all fats are good. Some are significantly healthier than others. Choosing healthy fats from vegetable sources more often than less healthy types from animal products can help lower your risk for major health problems. Most foods contain a mix of different kinds of fat. There are three main types of fat:

• Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. It’s found in butter, lard, full-fat milk and yogurt, full-fat cheese, and high-fat meat.
• Unsaturated fats tend to be liquid at room temperature. It’s found in vegetable oils, fish and nuts.
• Trans fats form when vegetable oil goes through a process called hydrogenation. This leads the fat to harden and become solid at room temperature.

Generally speaking the fats in a healthy diet consist mainly of unsaturated fats while limiting saturated fats and eliminating trans fats. This will help to maintain cardiovascular health, brain development, control inflammation, and proper blood clotting.
Protein is in every cell in the body. Our bodies need protein from the foods we eat to build and maintain bones, muscles, organs and skin. Protein are in the enzymes that power many reactions and the hemoglobin that carries oxygen in blood. There are over 10,000 different proteins in the human body.
Protein is made from basic building blocks called amino acids. We can’t store amino acids as amino acids so we store protein. Some amino acids our body can make from the food we eat, but there are nine specific amino acids (called essential) we can’t make, so they must come directly from food. Proteins are found in;

• Animal products – meat, poultry, fish and dairy
• Plant products – nuts, seeds, grains and legumes

Proteins from meat and other animal products are complete proteins (they supply all 9 essential amino acids). Most plant proteins are incomplete. You should eat different types of proteins every day to get all of the amino acids your body needs. It is important to get enough dietary protein. We need to eat protein every day, because we don’t store it the way we store fats or carbohydrates. How much you need depends on your age, sex, health, and level of physical activity.

Vitamins and minerals are naturally occurring substances that are essential for the growth and function of the body. Vitamins and minerals are both necessary (in adequate amounts) for normal metabolic reactions in the body.

Starting healthy eating as children can help individuals achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, receive vital nutrients, and reduce the risk of developing numerous health conditions including:

• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cancer
• Obesity
• Osteoporosis
• Kidney failure
• Blindness
• Iron deficiency
• Dental cavities

It is recommended that once children are on solid foods (around age 2) they follow a healthy eating pattern that includes;

• Fruits and vegetables (a variety of both types and colors)
• Whole grain
• Fat-free and low-fat dairy (or dairy substitute) products
• A variety of protein rich foods
• Healthy fats

Additionally, a healthy eating pattern has foods to avoid, including;

• Solid fats (major sources of saturated and trans fatty acids)
• Foods with added sugars (from all sources)
• Sodium (salt)

Unfortunately, most adults did not follow these guidelines when they were young, nor do their children follow them today.

The second foundation of the healthy nutrition plan is supplementation. Many believe that they can get enough of each individual vitamin, mineral, protein, fiber and fat each day just from food to be healthy. Historically when our ancestors lived simpler rural lives and we grew and raised what we ate, this might have been possible. With today’s industrial farming, massive amounts of pollution, food additives, preservatives, artificial ingredients and stress, it’s virtually impossible. Simply eating healthy foods will still leave your child deficient in nutrients that can keep them healthy and ward off disease.

You want to be sure to supplement properly. Going the easy way – with a Multi for kids (in a capsule, tablet, chewable, liquid, powder or gummy) is probably not a good idea. Often these are made with tons of sugar, using large doses of low quality nutrients (so they can make nice label claims) or too little of the expensive nutrients (to lower costs) all of which aren’t good for kids. Some vitamins and minerals can be toxic if kids get the wrong form or amount. Unless your child is a picky eater, has an unhealthy diet or an underlying health condition their diet should be providing them with enough of most nutrients. These are some of the ones to top up with:

Vitamins D + K2

With COVID, these two fat soluble vitamins came under intense scrutiny as research found that separately they had great immune health benefits, but together the benefits multiplied greatly.

We used to effortlessly get Vitamin D from sunshine, but now that in Canada we have limited days with full bright sunshine and we now spend the majority of our time (kids included) indoors, it is not possible to get enough vitamin D from exposure. We ALL need to supplement. Conversely vitamin K2 is all but absent from the North American diet (at every age).

The majority of vitamin D’s action is due to its increasing your absorption of calcium. Calcium is (at least in part) responsible for muscle health, heart health, nerve health, bone health, immunity, and is believed to help protect against cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. The problem is that vitamin D increases calcium absorption but doesn’t direct calcium to the places that need it. Unfortunately when calcium is in the wrong place, it can do real damage. If calcium stays in the bloodstream it leads to arteriosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the arteries) which can lead to heart attack and stroke. If it is deposited in the joints it can lead to arthritis. If it is deposited on the wrong part of bones it can lead to spurs. If it is deposited in kidneys or bladder it can lead to stones forming. All of these are places you don’t want calcium.

Then there is vitamin K2 (in the bioavailable MK-7 form). Vitamin K2’s action is also primarily due to calcium. K2 functions by removing calcium from where it doesn’t belong and putting it where it needs to be.

Both vitamin D and K2 are fat-soluble and work together to absorb, metabolize and deposit calcium in your body by activating helpful proteins. While vitamin D improves your calcium absorption, vitamin K2 designates where that calcium can be used. Together D and K2 they are a powerhouse for immune health, heart health, bone health, muscle health and much more. Ideally you want to take them together in one supplement. The best forms to use are certified organic drops. The drops are easy to take and tasteless, and can be used by your whole family from child to grandparent and everyone in between.

Fiber

Let’s face facts – most parents know it’s extremely difficult to get their carb-loving kid (toddler on up) to eat different types of foods with good fiber content such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains instead of “garbage” foods. BUT fiber is vitally important to include in your child’s diet. It can lower cholesterol, prevent diabetes and help move food through your child’s digestive system — promoting healthy bowel function, gut health and protecting against constipation. Some fibers even act as prebiotics helping probiotics do their job.

Fiber works in three ways:

• It increases stool bulk, adds thickness to the stool and forms physiologically-active products by fermentation.
• Increasing stool bulk – these are primary insoluble fibers. They absorb water, add to stool weight and facilitate regular bowel movements and are hardly fermented.
• Decrease fat & sugar absorption – these are primary insoluble fibers. They thicken when mixed with water in the bowel. They can help reduce absorption of fats like cholesterol and slow down absorption of sugars helping prevent blood sugar diseases.
• Prevent cancer & reduce inflammation – these are insoluble fibers. Probiotics feed on these fibers, using them as food and fermenting them. Once fermented, they form short chain fatty acids, while also adding some bulk to the stool. The short chain fatty acids provide energy to the cell lining of the large bowel and have numerous health benefits including anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.

As stated earlier, kids don’t tend to gravitate toward high fibre foods. The good news is they don’t have to. Fiberrific is a full line of high-fiber powders that are tasteless, don’t thicken and can be easily added to almost any soft food or drink WITHOUT THEM KNOWING. Your kids eat and drink what they love while you know the health benefits they are getting.

The requirement for fiber varies with age. Here is a rough idea of the MINIMUM fiber requirements for various age groups (on average we get less than ½ of these amounts daily):

• Children 1 to 3 years: 19 grams of fiber/day.
• Children 4 to 8 years: 25 grams of fiber/day.
• Boys 9 to 13 years: 31 grams of fiber/day.
• Girls 9 to 13 years: 26 grams of fiber/day.
• Boys 14 to 19 years: 38 grams of fiber/day.
• Girls 14 to 19 years: 26 grams of fiber/day.
• Probiotics

Even if your child has never been on antibiotics, they can greatly benefit from a daily quality probiotic. Their gut flora is still developing, helping to define their digestion and their immunity. Supporting gut health through childhood will have much more of an effect than attempting to supplement later in life. Taking regularly will help to prevent tummy problems and help their immune system develop and stay healthy. When they are young, the easiest way to do this is with Fiberrific +Probiotic. It is a soluble powder that is taste-free and won’t thicken. Just add some to any drink or soft food they eat. They won’t know the difference and will be getting all the benefits. Once they are older and able to take capsules, you can move them up to Organic Prebiotic + Probiotic capsules. There are more probiotics in the capsule to help their growing gut microbiome. If your child doesn’t like the capsules, just open them up and mix into smoothies, yogurt, cereal shakes, and the like.

Give your child all the tools they need for a long healthy life. With proper diet and supplementation (along with exercise and sleep) , you can give the foundation of good health to last a long lifetime.