Raising a Whole Food Child in a Processed Food World
Next Page>> By Colleen Huber, NaturopathyworksDuring at least some of their childhood, you've probably watchedyour son or daughter notice "the grass is definitely greenerelsewhere." One of the biggest challenges to your family'shealth...
...y lifestyle is your child's perception that other peopleare privileged simply because they eat differently. The parents' strategic awareness and preparation for a child'sfascination with the Standard American Diet (SAD) is paramount.Adults also fall into conforming to SAD just because so manyother people are doing it. That said, what law states that youmust conform 100 percent to all majority cultural practices,including some of those practices that are kind of dumb, anddefinitely not good for your health?At no time is the parents' advantage greater than in earliestchildhood for understanding the crucial role of food in settingthe course for either chronic disease or a lifetime of goodhealth. At no other time is the parent's advantage greater forestablishing a healthy routine. By the time a child is ready tostart school, he or she is already developing a strong interestin being like their friends and doing what their friends aredoing.Use that head start to your advantage. You care way more aboutthe quality of your child's food for several years, includingpregnancy, before your child begins to feel pulled by theinfluence of those outside your family. Use that time to create a bubble of a near-perfectly healthylifestyle your child will get used to and will associate withhome and family for the rest of his or her life.Changing to a whole-food diet can of course be accomplishedlater, at the expense of tantrums, grumbling and otherexaggerations of angst. The earlier you do it, the easier it canbe.Creatinga RoutineAn easy, healthy routine is your greatest strength, because whenyou begin getting used to buying, preparing and eating wholeorganic foods, and make them the first impulse for mealpreparation, remember you are building a solid dietaryfoundation for your children's diets and fulfilling theirexpectations of healthy good food being a part of their dailylives.If you still don't believe making the transition to whole foodis easy, please take a look at my article on how to cook wholefood from scratch. It will become second nature for them as wellto reach for whole rather than processed foods and to valuethose produced without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, MSG,sweeteners and preservatives.Kids learn from familiarity to appreciate the great energizedfeeling they get from a glass of raw milk, a handful of carrotsticks or a meal with dark leafy greens.If you are just now transitioning to a whole-food diet, let yourchildren fill up on as much whole healthy food as they want. Thepractical advantage of eating whole fresh foods: Kidssubstitute, by their sheer bulk, the chemicals and denaturedfood derivatives that we might otherwise eat.My suggestions for starting your kids off on the right foot:1. The earlier you start the easier and the more effective yourefforts.Breast-fed kids have huge lifetime health advantages overformula-fed babies. You will never again have the opportunity tomake such a strong health impact in such a short amount of time,and for less effort and expense than formula feeding. Even ifcircumstances only allow you to breastfeed your child for ashort time, the advantages are enormous and will manifestthroughout your child's life.2. The first solid foods a child eats should be whole foods,like cooked squash, carrot, broccoli and other vegetables,avocado, banana and watermelon.Snacks and meals for toddlers and preschoolers should beentirely whole foods. Their beverage is water, and that's it,until you find a raw milk source. And even then, the mainbeverage is water. Toddlers do not need to know that things likepasta and ice cream exist.Parents who exclaim, "But how can I feed them healthy food whenmacaroni and cheese is the only thing that they'll eat?" havestarted off with the wrong items in the kitchen, and are goingto have to endure some tantrums to establish a better way ofeating. This will be made easier if you keep the television awayfrom them.3. TV teaches a processed food and pharmaceutical lifestyle.The messages you're striving to keep your child away from aredelivered continually:Eat out, or open a package to getyour ready-made food.Pour yourself a glass of coloredliquid.Your life is just not happy until you take apill.If you have to de-program what the TV is telling your kids, youwon't be able to compete. Nobody can! TV is so flashy andpersuasive that you'll be like Sisyphus always having to rollhis rock back up the hill.Either get rid of the TV or keep it in a room that alwaysremains locked, to be viewed together only occasionally (whenyou want to watch an age-appropriate movie or program withthem). Kids raised without TV are easily spotted by theirteachers: They're the ones with good focus and lengthy attentionspans.Some families who decide against TV after their kids are alreadyhooked can resolve this issue any number of ways:Oneday, the TV becomes mysteriously "broken," and parents justdon't get around to buying a new one.The TV has to make wayfor some new bookshelves and ends up on a high shelf in thegarage. Anybody who wants to watch it has to go stand next tothe car to do so. Suddenly, the flashiness loses a lot of itsgrip on your children's minds.Lookfor the rest of Colleen's list in the next eHealthy News YouCan Use.Colleen Huber is a wife, mother and student at Southwest Collegeof Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Ariz., where she is trainingto be a naturopathic physician. Her original research on themechanism of migraines has appeared in Lancet and HeadacheQuarterly, and was reported in The Washington Post.Her double-blind placebo-controlled research in homeopathy hasappeared in Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy,European Journal of Classical Homeopathy, and Homeopathy Today.Her Web site Naturopathyworks introduces naturopathic medicineto the layperson and provides references to the abundant medicalliterature demonstrating that natural medicine does work. NextPage>> Dr. Mercola's Comment: Future naturopathic doctor and mother Colleen Huber has writtenan awesome piece that describes the diligent work it takes toraise a young child in a healthy environment among manytemptations and distractions.About the only area Colleen didn't cover in her comprehensivearticle is an important one when you're transitioning your childinto better health habits: Get them moving away from the couchto the playground. In fact, running or jumping -- instead ofswimming and biking -- may be the best way for your kids tostrengthen their bones.
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