Astro Findings
Getting a child to eat healthy food can be a monumental challenge for any parent. However, studies show that all of the haggling, arguing, and hassle is actually worth the effort as a healthy diet leads to enhanced academic performance in school. In fact, malnourished children often struggle in school because they are more likely to miss school, score lower on standardized tests, and repeat grades. Worse, bad eating habits can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes, that not only affect academic performance but a student?s ability to participate in extracurricular activities.
When you follow the chain of negative events, starting with bad nutrition, it is easy to see how a child?s academic career can suffer. For example, bad nutrition leads to a weakened immune system, which leads to increased doctor visits and missed school days. Missing school makes it harder for students to maintain their grades or keep up with lessons. Even if a student can keep up, bad nutrition can interfere with their ability to accept and digest information. Too much sugar, for instance, can cause attention deficit disorder-like symptoms and chronic headaches, making learning nearly impossible.
These particular nutrition problems usually arise when kids are left in charge of preparing their own breakfast and lunch. If they don?t skip meals all together, they usually are making poor food choices. Out of convenience, kids are drawn to processed foods that are high in sugar, sodium and fat. This brand of malnutrition is particularly insidious because health, growth and cognitive problems may not be noticed until a serious issue has developed.
The simple act of eating breakfast can make a world of difference in warding off many of these health problems. According to the Dairy Council of California, ?A nutritious breakfast provides approximately one-fourth of the recommended dietary allowances for key nutrients such as protein, vitamin A, vitamin B6, calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc.? This explains why schools offering breakfast service have seen such major improvements in their students? overall health, attitude and performance.
However, breakfast is just one of the many ways parents can ensure their kids get a healthy start. Following are some additional suggestions for teaching your children healthy eating habits.
5 Tips to Better Student Nutrition:
1. Don?t make the mistake of offering a wide variety of packaged snack items; rather offer a few healthy snacks like fresh fruits, trail mix, or cheese.
2. Make sure the school offers healthy options for lunch and snack; otherwise pack your child?s lunch.
3. Bring your kids to the grocery store to help choose their favorite foods.
4. Limit their intake of high-sugar drinks including fruit-flavored drinks such as punch, soda and even 100% fruit juice.
5. Let your kids help prepare a healthy meal; they?ll have a great time learning to eat nutritiously.
Dana Matas is a staff writer for Schools K-12. Dana has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on important issues. For more information visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com
Still wondering what is the best healthy eating recipes for children? All the tips you’ll ever need about healthy eating recipes for children can be found at healthy eating recipes for children
Tags: healthy eating recipes for children
Posted in Food Plants · June 1st, 2010 · Comments (0)
Whole foods means complete foods, where nothing has been stripped away from the whole food product. Whole foods, such as whole wheat still have all of the vital, life-giving nutrients left in it. Anytime we eat the whole food vs. the incomplete food we are providing ourselves a wonderful service because we are literally providing our body with life. When we eat an incomplete food, such as white bread, pretzels, bagels, Bisquick and Aunt Jemima waffle and pancake mix we are feeding our body empty calories. Empty calories not only deprive us of the life nutrient that is within the whole food but empty calories create needless weight gain.
Whole Wheat is loaded with fiber, which means that eating four to five servings of whole wheat foods each day assures for proper elimination, especially if we are eating raw fruits and vegetables along with it. White wheat products do exactly the opposite, which creates an excellent environment for toxins to accumulate. If we aren’t eliminating the foods we are eating from our system then where are they going? They are building up inside our body and that is what toxic overload syndrome is. When we aren’t eliminating properly we feel tired, sluggish, run down, jittery, anxious, flatulent, bloated, and basically we just don’t feel that great. Eventually, if we don’t change the way we are eating, we become plagued with disease.
Young healthy bodies may not notice how white wheat products may affect them – in fact, it may take twenty or thirty years for your body to begin to reject a poor daily diet but it will happen sooner than later. The symptoms that I mention above is how the body rejects the foods it is receiving. Our bodies cannot keep taking the constant beating that the busy American lifestyle has put on it. After so much abuse it will begin to reject a poor daily diet through symptoms of toxic overload.
Numerous studies suggest that eating whole grains contributes to better health, and helps protect against cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. The fiber content in eating whole wheat products helps us to get rid of toxic buildup through proper elimination. Substantial scientific evidence indicates that whole wheat products reduce cancer risk. The key cancer-fighting agents in whole grains are dietary fiber.
The advantages of eating whole wheat products over white wheat products are too numerous to mention, but the nutritional value alone in whole wheat is rather eye-opening to say the least. Let’s take a look at some of the nutrients found in whole wheat flours. Understand that all of the nutrients mentioned below have been stripped away from all-purpose white flours.
There are so many different ways you can prepare whole wheat flour products. From donuts and bagels to heart-healthy waffles and pancakes to dumplings for chicken soup. You will notice a substantial difference in the way you feel and look just by changing over from a white wheat diet to a whole wheat diet. No matter which way you cut it, the benefits of eating whole wheat provides us with a longer, healthier life!
Still wondering what is the best healthy eating recipes for children? All the tips you’ll ever need about healthy eating recipes for children can be found at healthy eating recipes for children
Tags: healthy eating recipes for children
Posted in Food Plants · June 1st, 2010 · Comments (0)