As much as we try as parents to balance children’s diets for optimal health, restrictive diets prove difficult for most children to comply with. The key is to be ready with nutritious, delicious, and convenient foods and snacks that kids will actually eat. I’ll provide you with some simple strategies that can help you, help your children maintain a better balance of health and energy during the fall and winter months.
Have you noticed your children seem to be healthier during the summer months?
In summer, kids are more active and spend more time outdoors soaking up sunshine and enjoying lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Even children who have been labeled with learning difficulties or attention issues seem to do better in summer, when play time and sunshine is plentiful.
There are a number of reasons why this may be true, but in this article I will focus on the importance of nutrition in the big picture. I’ll provide you with some simple strategies that can help you, help your children maintain a better balance of health and energy during the fall and winter months.
As much as we try as parents to balance children’s diets for optimal health, restrictive diets prove difficult for most children to comply with. The key is to be ready with nutritious, delicious, and convenient foods and snacks that kids will actually eat.
Processed sugar, artificial flavors or colors or preservatives, and refined carbohydrates such as processed “white” cereals have all been shown to correlate with poor cognitive performance in children, and they also negatively affect blood sugar balance in children. Therefore, it’s important to reduce or avoid these “junk foods” and problematic ingredients in order to help boost your children’s immunity and support their brain function.
I offer the following simple recommendations which can provide some key components of health and immunity:
Nutritional shakes: shakes are a great way to provide your children with a tasty treat that can also be very balanced and healthy. It’s important to make sure that any powder you use has low allergy potential and contains beneficial ingredients.
EPA / DHA Supplementation: adding beneficial fatty acids and Omegas to your children’s diet has numerous benefits including improving cognitive functioning and focus, helping with any food allergies, and boosting immunity.
Vitamin D3 Supplementation: Vitamin D has been shown to support a healthy immune response and is particularly important for those of us who live in Oregon, where we don’t get nearly enough sunlight during the fall and winter months.
I would love to share more about the basic building blocks of health and immunity for children and adults. Please call to schedule your consultation, to assure the health of your whole family this winter!
Until next time,
Dr. Tanya Hudson