Whole Foods Nutrition

It is no secret that well nourished children learn better, behave better, and feel better about themselves.  Here are some tips to pack your child a nutritious lunch that won’t come home in his back pack.

When packing your child’s lunch, remember that children are often rushed at lunch time and that the school eating environment is full of distractions. The best lunches contain a variety of kid approved nutrient dense choices that are easy to eat.

Involve your child in making lunch. Ask him if he would like his sandwich in a pita or on bread, if he would like trail mix or yogurt for a snack.  Get children to help make sandwiches, fill containers or portion out foods. The more pride and ownership your child feels over his lunch, the more likely he is to eat it.

Your child may not get the chance to get through everything you pack her for lunch so providing her with a variety of nutrient dense choices can give you peace of mind if something comes home uneaten. Instead of a whole sandwich, try a half a sandwich with a variety of snacky foods like cheese and crackers, veggies with a favorite dip, some melon cubes, some yogurt and some strawberries. If you bake try making mini whole grain muffins or homemade bars. Make a big batch then individually wrap them and put them in the freezer for easy grabbing.

 Foods that are high in protein and contain some fat keep kids full and will help them concentrate into the afternoon.  Pack sandwiches or wraps with protein. Think leftover lean meats, spreads like hummus, fish or cheese.  Trail mixes and nut butters are terrific snacks as they provide a mix of protein and fat and are great sources of lasting energy.

Remember that children will often happily eat the same snacks for months.  If there are fruits and vegetables that your child loves, pack them up.  If your child doesn’t usually eat the carrots you give him at home, he likely won’t eat them at school either.  Try fresh fruit skewers, veggies with a favourite dip, apple slices with cinnamon.  Remember to keep veggies and fruit easy to eat. It can take a long time to peel a stubborn orange.

Are your kids asking for sports drinks during activities? Drinks like Gatorade and Powerade start to make an appearance at kids sporting events as the weather heats up.

Sports drinks contain sugar and electrolytes and are formulated to keep blood sugar levels up and electrolytes replenished during intense, prolonged physical activity.  Meals and snacks and plenty of water will keep most children fueled up during regular sports like a soccer or softball practice.

On Game day, make sure you have water and nutritious, easy to grab snacks available. Water is all the fluid your child needs to keep hydrated if he is engaged in regular community sport. Snacks like cheese and crackers, fruit, yogurt, nuts and raisins give kids energy and provide valuable nutrition while replenishing electrolytes lost through sweat.

Save sports drinks for tournament day or a cross country race. If your child is engaged in endurance activities where he is active for over an hour, he may benefit from a sports drink to keep him fueled. Be careful not to confuse sports drinks with energy drinks which can contain large amounts of caffeine and can be dehydrating. An alternate to a commercial sports drink is to make your own out of 100 % fruit juice, mixed with water and a pinch of salt.

Acne isn’t caused by junk food but it can be aggravated by it. Greasy foods, salty foods, sugary foods and alcohol certainly do not help the body to reduce inflammation or tame the growth of bacteria in plugged follicles.

A nutrient dense diet can help your body’s immune system reduce inflammation and can help you experience clearer skin.

• Adequate omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids help reduce inflammation. 
• Zinc supports immune function and wound healing.
• Vitamins, C and E and the trace mineral selenium can help the body scavenge free radicals produced by the inflammatory process.  
• Vitamin A is thought to play a role in the production of the skin’s oil.
• B vitamins help hormonal regulation and also play a role in keeping skin healthy.

Get a good dose of all of these nutrients by enjoying a diet rich in dark coloured veggies and fruit, whole grains, fatty fish like salmon, raw nuts and seeds and low fat dairy.

If you are struggling to eat well, a multivitamin will help you meet your vitamins and mineral needs. If you suspect that a certain food aggravates your acne, try eliminating it from your diet for a few weeks and see if there is a difference in your acne symptoms.

Beware of ready to eat lunch items marketed to children. They are often loaded with sugar, fat and salt. Get kids to help you stock the freezer with homemade snacks. There are lots of easy recipes out there for granola bars or energy balls that are much healthier than store bought options. If you don’t have the time to make your own, choose commercial products with the most whole ingredients, and the least sugar, fat and salt. Trying to choose healthy commercial products can be frustrating. Nutrition facts tables tell us a lot, but the devil is in the details of the ingredient list.

• Choose foods with short ingredient lists with words you understand.
• Make sure that the first 3 ingredients are nutritious. Ingredients are listed by weight so the first 3 usually make up the bulk of the product.
• Choose foods that have no more than one type of sugar in them. Manufacturers sometimes use two or three different types of sweeteners so that each one shows up lower down the ingredient list. If these three sweeteners were put together, they may well have been first on the ingredient list.
• Avoid snack foods that have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats in them. A food labelled “Trans Fat Free” may still have up to .2 grams of trans fats in each serving. One serving for snack and a few servings for lunch and suddenly your child may have a significant amount of trans fats in her diet that day.
• Use the nutrition facts table to compare products and choose foods lower in salt. A cracker with “25% less salt” may still have more salt than another brand of cracker.

For more information about nutrient claims and labels, start by taking this tour offered by health Canada: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/label-etiquet/nutrition/index-eng.php

If you want to learn more about the nitty gritty details of labelling, these labelling guidelines are very interesting:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/guide/ch7ae.shtml#tab7-5

Small stomachs and rushed lunches mean snacks can be very important sources of nutrition in your child’s day.  Maximize your child’s nutrition each day by packing a variety of small nutritious snacks.  

 Remember that children’s growing bodies makes their snacking needs  different than adults.  For adults, a vegetable or a fruit is the perfect snack. For us, such a snack delivers a lot of vitamins and minerals without a lot of calories.  But children with small stomachs are limited to how much they can eat at one sitting and snacks can be an important source of energy, protein, vitamins and minerals that provide the building blocks for their growth and development.

When planning snacks for your child, aim for two food groups in each snack. For example, yogurt and berries or nuts and raisins. Also plan snacks with protein. Protein helps keep children feeling full so they can concentrate on their lessons.

Don’t be discouraged if a snack you packed comes home uneaten.  Your child’s hunger may differ from day-to-day and throughout the day. It is better for your child to have a little something extra in his lunch bag than to be distracted by hunger. Knowing that there is enough food and eating enough during the school day also helps kids learn healthy eating habits. Children who don’t have enough to eat in their school day may come home ravenous and gorge after school, spoiling their appetite for dinner. Children who always feel there is enough food and who are supported to choose how much or how little to eat are more likely to grow into healthy weight adults with a positive outlook on food and eating.  

Try to avoid buying granola bars or ready made snack packs. They are usually high in salt and sugar.  Whole foods make the best snacks for kids.  Here are some great snack ideas that help kids concentrate into the afternoon: 

• Whole grain crackers with nut butter
• Apple slices with cinnamon
• Leftover chicken drumstick
• Veggie sticks with hummus
• Skewers of cooked meat or tofu and cubes of cheese
• Raw nut and dried fruit mix
• Plain yogurt with frozen berries

School lunches are an important source of nutrition in your child’s day. Lunches with a lot of variety and nutrient dense choices help your child get the most nutrition out of an often rushed and distracting meal.

The best way to ensure that the lunch you pack your child will get eaten is to involve him in its creation.  Give your child a variety of choices and ideas before the week starts and get him to help you make a shopping list. Lay out food choices the night before and help him make a wrap or a pita sandwich, choose vegetables and fruits that he’d like to take, and select from a variety of snacks. The more pride your child has in his lunch, the more likely he is to eat it. 

Remember that every child has different energy needs. Your child’s energy needs will also vary from day to day and over time.  During growth spurts, he may feel hungrier and want more to eat. It’s a good idea to send ‘extra’ snack foods that won’t spoil (such as nuts and/or dried fruit) for your child to munch if hungry, or save for another day if not.

Below is a checklist to help you choose healthy options for lunches:

• Vegetables and fruit: Full of essential vitamins, minerals and fibre. Send several small servings with your child each day. For example, offer baby carrots, sweet red peppers or zucchini strips and serve with a yogurt or zesty dip. Offer melon balls or blueberries for easy snacking.

•  Whole grain products like breads, pasta, rice and other grains are another source of essential vitamins, minerals and fibre. Make their favourite sandwich using whole grain bread or a whole grain wrap or pita.

• Milk and alternatives like soy milk, yogurt or cheese are essential bone builders for children. Offer your child different types of yogurts and cheeses – there is a huge variety to choose from. Freeze a container of milk or soy milk to act as an ice pack to keep cold foods cold in his lunch bag.

• Meat and Alternatives like lean meat, fish, poultry, dried peas and beans, lentils, tofu, nuts, peanut butter, seeds and eggs provide protein that keeps your child feeling full which helps him concentrate into the afternoon. Trail mix with raw nuts and seeds is a popular snack. Bean dips like hummus and refried beans make a great dip for veggies or whole grain pitas.

Still need more info? The Community Nutritionist Council of BC has a great handout with lots of suggestions for school lunches http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/health/lunches_to_go.pdf

Homemade popsicles are a great way to cool down on a hot summer day and they don’t have to be loaded with sugar to be delicious. In fact, homemade popsicles can be a great example of wholesome, easy, kid friendly fare.

Start with 100% fruit juices or yogurt as a base and add pureed or chunky fruit.  Fruit is an important source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and yogurt provides bone building minerals essential for growing children.

Experiment with adding ground seeds such as flax or chia and with adding whole or ground nuts or even dried fruit. Try making extra of your favorite smoothie recipe and freezing it into popsicles.

Here are a few scrumptious and nutritious popsicle combinations to get you started.

Whole fruit blends:

Pulse whole fruit and fresh lime juice in the food processor, then freeze into popsicles. Try blended strawberries, raspberries, mango, kiwi or melon mixed with a splash of lime juice.

Smoothie blends:

If you are blending it smooth before you freeze it, you can put almost anything in a smoothie popsicle. Here are a couple of my favorites:

• Pineapple juice, strawberries, banana
• Orange juice, blueberries, yogurt, ground flax seeds

Yogurt pops:

Yogurt makes a great base for a popsicle. Try:

• Yogurt, blueberries and a dash of maple syrup
• Yogurt, pineapple juice, pineapple chunks and shredded coconut
• Yogurt, cinnamon, banana chunks and almond chunks

If you are a breastfeeding mom, you may have noticed your baby’s need to feed is ramping up these days. Babies meet their fluid needs in the summer by breastfeeding more often, sometimes for shorter periods of time. Choosing to feed more frequently and for less time, is your baby’s way of staying hydrated. By feeding this way, your baby gets more of your front milk which is slightly lower in fat and calories, providing her with the extra fluid she needs in the heat and the right amount of energy to grow.

Until babies are six months old and eating solid foods, they don’t need any water. In fact, it is possible for infants to drink too much water and suffer “water intoxication,” a serious condition that occurs when the electrolytes in the blood become so diluted that the body doesn’t function properly.  Feed your baby breastmilk or formula when she shows signs of hunger or thirst, and stop when she shows signs of fullness.  If your baby is eating some solid foods, she can have small amounts of water in a cup as well as breastmilk or formula.

For more information about breastfeeding, check out Jack Newman’s  website http://www.drjacknewman.com/default.asp