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Eating a nutritionally-balanced diet is good advice for children as well as adults. In fact, teaching children to make the right food choices is one of the best tools you can arm them with. Unfortunately, many children today aren’t taught how to make good food choices because their parents don’t know what the ‘right’ food choices are.

 

There’s no denying that the vitamins and minerals children need to grown are found in fruits and vegetables. They’re also found in lean meats and dairy products, foods that children generally pass up when given the choice. Why eat those foods when the world has so many others to offer? 

 

Take a look at food through a child’s eye. What do you see? Pizza, ice cream, corn dogs, hot dogs, French fries, potato chips, sugary fruit drinks, energy drinks, caffeinated soda, cake, cookies, candy, processed portable lunch ‘kits’ and of course, the all-important, readily-available, drive-thru fast food.

 

If you’ve ever taken a look at the food pyramid, you know that these types of foods are represented, but only by a tiny sliver. That means these foods should make up just a fraction of a person’s daily food intake. They shouldn’t be eaten at each meal, and in between, as snacks. But they are, all too often. It’s obvious just by looking at children that many are not eating properly.

 

Not only are the wrong food choices causing children to be dangerously overweight, they’re also the reason why many children are not getting the vitamins and minerals their bodies need to function properly. Of the essential vitamins and minerals the body needs, it is capable of producing just a few on its own. The rest must come from food. 

 

From the first days of life, a child needs Vitamin D. Vitamin D is crucial to the development of healthy, strong teeth and bones. Rickets, a disease thought to be under control, is once again becoming a serious health issue. Its symptoms include bones that are deformed and that are soft and brittle. The skull, for example, is supposed to be thick and hard. One of the first notable signs of rickets is a skull that is thin and soft. If the shape of the head doesn’t form properly, as can happen with Rickets, teeth may not grow in properly. And from there, it’s getting worse. Wrists, ribs, knees, ankles all may experience abnormal growth.

 

Deficiencies in other vitamins may not produce such obvious effects, which is why many parents may not even realize problems exist. Vitamins provide the instructions for all bodily functions including vision, production of red blood cells and growth hormones and proper development of every major system including the immune system, circulatory system and digestive system.

 

If your child’s diet consists of the foods listed above, you need to take immediate action. Try to introduce more vitamin-dense foods into the diet. In the meantime, encourage your child to take a daily vitamin supplement that has been formulated for children. It will provide the nutrients your child needs to develop properly, it’ll taste good, and it’ll be easy to chew or swallow.

Proportionate to their size, children require more of certain vitamins and minerals than adults do. They need more of the B vitamins to help them extract energy out of food and may require a nutritious snack or two between regular meals to give them the proper fuel to grow, learn and play. For strong bones and teeth, they need plenty of calcium.

Girls have a growth spurt around the age of ten and boys around twelve, so this is the time to be especially conscious of their calcium intake. They also require plenty of vitamin D, which helps the body absorb calcium and prevents rickets. Children who don’t spend much time in the sun may need vitamin D supplements. Vitamin K is also necessary for strong bone development.

Plenty of antioxidant-rich vitamin C is also recommended to fight infections and help absorb iron, a lack of which can lead to fatigue and poor concentration. Young, growing children also need plenty of vitamin A and zinc.

Talk to your doctor about supplements if you suspect diet alone will not provide the proper vitamins and minerals for your child. Some infants require iron and fluoride supplements. Kids over two may benefit from a liquid multivitamin squirted in their juice or milk.

There are a variety of chewable multivitamin brands on the market, in all sorts of shapes and flavors, to appeal to the discerning kiddy pallet. Try to stay away from brands that are full of artificial colorings, flavorings and preservatives. Teenagers might be ready for a standard multivitamin.

Check with your physician, nutritionist or holistic practitioner to ensure the doses of the various vitamins and minerals are age-appropriate.

Most experts do agree that:

• As long as you don’t overdose your child on supplements (exceed the RDA for any one vitamin or mineral, a daily dose won’t hurt.

• Some children — like vegetarians, or those with sensitivities to certain foods, for example — might need a daily vitamin/mineral supplement to meet their RDAs.

• Supplements are not a substitute for good food, and they should never be used to justify a poor diet. If your child isn’t eating well, give them a supplement, but also take steps to improve their eating habits.

The bottom line is that if you’re concerned that your child isn’t getting a balanced diet by meeting all the requirements in the Food Guide Pyramid, a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement can’t hurt. Just don’t give your child more than one a day or neglect to focus on good nutrition at the same time.

The Food Guide Pyramid is one manner for Americans to read how to eat healthy. A rainbow of colored, vertical stripes stands for the five food groups plus fats and oils. Here is what the colors stand for:

orange = grains green = vegetables red = fruits yellow = fats and oils blue = milk and dairy products purple = meat, beans, fish, and nuts

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) modified the pyramid in spring 2005 because they wanted to do a more enhanced job of narrating to Americans how to be healthy. The agency later released a special variation for children. On this website you will observe a girl ascending the staircase up the side of the pyramid. That is an example of showing kids how important it is to exercise and be active every day. From another perspective, play a lot! The stairs are also a way of showing that you can make changes in stages to be more healthy. One step at a time, understand?

The Pyramid Speaks to us in several ways. Let us all confront a few of the additional topics this new symbol is trying to pass on:

A person should eat a wide variety of foods. A balanced diet is one that makes use of all the food groups. From another perspective, have foods from every color, every day.

We should eat less of some foods, and extra of others. You can see that the bands for meat and protein are purple and oils are yellow and less pronounced than the other ones. The reason is because you need less of those varieties of foods than your need of fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy foods.

Your family also can see the bands start out fatter and get skinnier as they approach the top side. That is designed to show you that not all foods are made as good as others, even within a fit food group like fruit. Sometimes, apple pie might be in that thin section of the fruit band because it has a lot of added sugar and fat. A whole apple would be turn up in the broad part for you can eat more of those in a fit eating regimen.

We should all make nutrition personal. Through the USDA’s MyPyramid website, families can get personal recommendations about the mix of nutrients they need to have and how much he or she must be eating. There is a children’s’ variation of the website available as well. To understand better way s of applying the food pyramid get access to Super Food Seminars and interviews with Famous Raw Food Authors at http://www.bestdayever.com