Archive for December, 2011
December 8th, 2011
A Healthy Serving for Kids
“If you won’t eat it as an adult, why should Children?”
Words from the Coach
Here at the home field of Team4orce, we often ask the question, if we are so very concerned with our own diets and well being, and we love the children in our lives, then why can’t we make some changes in their eating habits and how they look at food? True, convenience, the hectic schedules and the numerous activities and academic responsibilities all factor into a formula that shows the difficulty of creating consistently healthy meal plans for families. It’s true that there is some change that is going to have to happen, cultural change that has been imbedded into us for generations, but where and when will it start if it doesn’t start in your home. Be honest with children and let them know about the food they eat, and how good food taste just as good as the junk food and comfort foods, except its more functional and it makes you feel a whole lot better. We don’t have to create social monsters, food snobs, just educated little people, much like how we would want our child to read good books, the classics.
Its starts with the adults, so think about this and make some notes, create those goals and then make that change. The articles we are looking at below are focused on the Paleo diet, or the Primal Diet. That is not the only style of eating, so vegans, juicers, zone eaters, as well as moderately healthy eaters, please don’t rise up and dunk on us! This blog is a front row ticket to the learning about good food seminar (part I/think about it)! Learn about what food is good and why, what it does to your body and your child’s body, and then where to find deals on these foods.
The Game Plan
Below is some a little information, both from two separate blogs that are highly credible and informative.
Paleo Diet For Kids
by Tricia Ballad
Nearly 20 percent of American children are obese, according to statistics published by Centers For Disease Control And Prevention. Even more are overweight, with a Body Mass Index higher than normal but not high enough to be considered obese. The best way to help your child lose weight is to teach them to eat a variety of nutritious, low-fat foods and to get enough exercise.
The Paleo Diet
The concept behind the Paleo Diet is that you should eat the foods that your ancestors consumed. In prehistoric times, humans were hunter-gatherers. They may have eaten a variety of vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, lean meats and seafood. Cereal grains and dairy products did not enter the human diet in large quantities until humans developed agriculture. The Paleo Diet is a modern attempt to mimic what we researchers have surmised about the hunter-gatherer diet.
Eliminating Dairy, Grains And Legumes
The Paleo Diet demands the elimination of two food groups: dairy and grains. This could lead to serious nutritional deficiencies, and places the Paleo Diet squarely within the realm of the fad diet. One sign of a fad diet is that it requires the total elimination of fat, sugar or carbohydrates such as dairy and grains, according to KidsHealth.org.
Calcium
According to a study published in the “European Journal of Clinical Nutrition,” 50 percent of the individuals studies could not complete three weeks on the Paleo Diet. Those who did stick to it lost 50 percent of their blood calcium levels.
Your child’s calcium requirements change as he grows. Children between the ages of four and eight need 800mg of calcium per day. Children between nine and 18 years old need 1300mg of calcium per day, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. While it is not advisable for you to put your child on the Paleo Diet, if you do, be sure that your child gets enough calcium from other foods besides dairy products or from supplements.
Before You Begin
Always discuss any significant change in diet with your child’s pediatrician. He is your best source for up to date information and guidance on your child’s specific nutritional needs. He will help you design a specific program that meets your child’s nutritional needs while helping her achieve a healthier weight. He may recommend supplements to ensure that your child gets enough calcium and other nutrients that may be missing due to the elimination of dairy and grains on the Paleo Diet.
Transitioning To The Paleo Diet
Depending on your child’s age and temperament, he may resist making significant changes to his diet. If your child is in school and responsible for making his own food choices, you will have to make sure he understands and accepts the Paleo Diet. Encourage him to become involved in meal planning and preparation, and offer plenty of information on the benefits of healthy foods. Go slowly, and give your child’s tastes a chance to change. In time he will begin to appreciate the flavor of simple foods.
The Paleo Diet and Children
Dear Readers,
Today’s Paleo Diet Q & A focuses on use of the diet for children.
Q: Thanks for all of the hard work your team puts into this. I’ve been receiving the e-mail blog for quite some time, have read both Paleo Diet and Paleo Diet for Athletes books, and subscribe to a Yahoo Paleo blog as well. I thoroughly enjoy reading the information sent to me every few days including the archives.
One concern I do have is that the bulk of the information seems to be targeted toward adults. More specifically adults with health problems that have already occurred and are in many cases not being addressed or cured by “traditional” medical practices. As the kids grow I feel it is important to develop proper dietary habits now, not when they are older and dealing with the after effects of poor health.
In my personal case I have a young son who has had issues with asthma. We have sought medical help but my mind keeps coming back to the Paleo Diet. Is there more detailed information available to address the issues of babies, young children and some of the issues they deal with as they mature?
Again, thanks for the great job.
Murray
A: Hi Murray,
The subject of pregnancy, young children, and The Paleo Diet was discussed in Volume 5 Issue 24 of our newsletter, The Paleo Diet Update. Here is the full text of that article:
Pregnancy, Young Children, and the Paleo Diet
by Loren Cordain, Ph.D.
With the growing popularity of the Paleo Diet, we’ve received questions about adapting this diet for pregnancy, particularly with regard to the low fat aspect of the diet. Others are also asking for more information about adapting the Paleo Diet to the growth and nutritional needs of infants and young children. With a little modification, the Paleo Diet can meet these needs, help children escape the growing childhood obesity problem, build life-long eating habits to lower the risk of disease, and generate healthful, vital longevity. Here are some recommendations for using the Paleo Diet to optimize nutrition during pregnancy, infancy and childhood.
What about pregnancy?
Due to the metabolic changes that occur in the liver during pregnancy, women cannot tolerate protein levels as high as they normally could. This has been documented in both the anthropological and clinical literature. To accommodate this, higher fat meats, higher fat vegetables, and more carbs can be included in the Paleo Diet during pregnancy than most people eating the typical Paleo Diet will need.
Numerous studies have shown that fetal and infant cognitive development requires sufficient omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and nursing. Our ancestors got most of their dietary fat from leaner meat, which was a richer source of monounsaturated and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, than the meat from feedlot animals today. The Paleo Diet is high in mono-unsaturated fats, such as olive oil, and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats from fish. It also avoids feedlot meat to increase the omega-3 in our diet, and enhance the omega-6/omega-3 ratio to more closely resemble the healthful diet of our ancestors.
What about infancy (the first two years of a child’s life)?
Hunter-gatherer children were typically introduced to solid food later than what is considered normal in the Western world. Studies of five hunter-gatherer societies (Kung, Ache, Inuit, Australian Aborigines, and Hadza) have revealed the average age of weaning to be 2.9 years. Hence, the early nutrition of hunter-gatherer infants is highly dependent upon mother’s milk. Because hunter-gatherers typically consumed a diet higher in omega-3 fatty acids, mother’s milk likely would also have been higher in omega-3 fatty acids than milk from the typical nursing Western mother. This difference is important in light of the studies indicating the importance of sufficient omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and nursing for cognitive development. For the Western mother, weaning at age 3 is impractical, but weaning should be delayed as long as possible (preferrably at least 1-1.5 years). After weaning, I recommend that infants be given a formula th at is enriched with both docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA). Infants should not be given eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in the form of fish oil because it competes with AA metabolism and can result in impaired motor development and growth.
Human milk contains very little iron, but infants are born with iron stores sufficient to last 9-12 months. Pediatricians typically recommend that infants’ first solid foods be iron-fortified cereals. Commercial baby foods, such as beef, pork, or chicken, are a better alternative to this. Hunter-gatherer mothers introduced their infants to solid foods by thoroughly chewing meat, marrow, nuts, seeds, fruits, etc. If you do give cereal to your infant, I recommend rice and not either wheat or oats.
Virtually all pediatricians recommend that cow’s milk and other dairy products, such as yogurt, cheese, etc., be excluded from infant diets during their first year. Early exposure to dairy products has been implicated in increased risk of a number of autoimmune diseases, particularly type 1 diabetes.
What about when solid foods are introduced?
When switching to solid foods, I recommend focusing upon the same basic food types that I recommend for adults, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meats and seafood. There is evidence that the children’s livers are less able to deal with high levels of protein (~30-40 % total energy). Hence, higher fat meats and fish should not necessarily be restricted to the same extent as with adults because this will help balance the protein levels. Higher fat plant foods, such as nuts and avocados, and healthful oils are also useful, but monitor for nut allergies. Omega-3 enriched eggs should be the egg of choice, and they are a source of DHA.
I don’t advocate completely restricting processed food from children because eating involves behavioral issues. The best way to get a child to eat junk food is to completely forbid it. In our house, we serve typical Paleo foods in every meal. We stock very little processed food, so if our children are hungry, their choices are primarily healthy foods. We don’t allow unlimited access to TV, computers or electronic games, but we do encourage outdoor play. For active children, I don’t think that certain high glycemic load foods may be harmful. We do not restrict dried fruit, such as raisins and dates, and we encourage them to eat bananas, yams and sweet potatoes.
Source: The Paleo Diet & Live Strong
The Pre Game Speech
Team4orce definitely believes in balance, on the field of play, in the weight room, in the box, outdoors or inside on the mat. Even more important, is the balance in our lives, as this equilibrium strikes the right chord that harmonizes our own personal orchestra, the mind-body-spirit-connection.
If you eat healthy, but are always stressed out, no balance, no good! If you run miles and miles, and get no rest or relaxation, and eat horribly, no balance, no good! If you exercise at the gym or train for a sport, but have no time to exercise your mind, no balance, no good! You get the idea ladies and gentlemen? You’re going to be burnt out and have very little progress and most likely some set backs.
There is an Indian belief that everyone is a house of four rooms: a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual room. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not complete.
–Rumer Godden–House of Four Rooms
So skip the intense stress sessions for the holidays, enjoy life, get those good habits going now, and make it happen! Don’t use the month of December to stretch and prep for the old New Year’s Resolution, get it going now!!! Lets head to the film room and get motivated.
The Film Room
