7 Simple Things to Keep Kids Healthy

Childhood is one of the most crucial times of development and growth. So when I see a trend like unicorn food, I tend to wonder what we are doing to our kids. For the uninformed, the trend is to decorate food with colorful dyes or colored sprinkles or marshmallows to give it a whimsical look. This could happen to a cupcake, a drink or a piece of toast. Children would be better served if we put more effort into making nutritious food more appealing.  

 In children’s growing years, poor nutrition often leads to common, but preventable health concerns from ear infections and runny noses to headaches and allergies. In addition to physical ailments, poor nutrition can contribute to neurological, developmental and behavioral issues, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).^{1, 2} Studies have also associated a poor diet with limiting intelligence and overall poor school performance. ^{3, 4}  

 A nutrient-dense, plant-rich diet in childhood paves the way to continued good health. Eating this way will ensure that your children grow up at a healthy weight, with an appreciation and a taste for healthier foods, and the ability to participate in exercise. This type of diet is superior, and provides the foundation that allows children to grow up to be healthy adults.

 Consider the following when looking to optimize your child’s health:

Get Creative, Reasonably

Feeding children sugary foods adapts their taste buds to prefer excessive levels of sweetness, and reduces their ability to appreciate the natural sweetness of fresh fruit.  Instead, get creative when it comes to healthy foods.  If your child turns away from green smoothies because of the color, put the drink in a non-transparent cup with a lid and a straw so they don’t see the color before they start drinking. Use a vegetable garden to entice trying new foods by having a section where your child can choose what they want to plant. Don’t have the property for a garden? Take them to a pick your own farm where they can see how foods are grown and even pick the vegetables and fruits.   

I always say to make salad your main meal. That works for adults, and some kids, too, but many children enjoy eating their salad in a different way. Shred lettuce, cabbage and carrots and place into half of a whole grain pita pocket with a healthy dressing and some tomatoes. Or try serving the individual elements of a salad cut-up by offering carrots, cucumber and peppers or radishes with a hummus or thick salsa for lunch. Finish with sliced apples and nut butter or a raw date, nut and seed bar for dessert.

Try a Different Nut Butter

In a nut shell, peanuts aren’t quite as healthful  as other nuts. Peanuts are legumes rather than tree nuts, and since they don’t taste good raw, practically all are roasted. The problem with roasting is that it results in nutrient loss and formation of acrylamide, a potentially harmful compound also formed in fried or roasted starchy vegetables.⁵ A better choice is to use  raw cashew butter or raw almond butter more often, and peanut butter less often. You can also mix these raw nut butters into the peanut butter if that is preferred. Make sure to read labels and avoid added palm oil, salt, and sugar in nut butters.

 Serve both Raw and Cooked Vegetables

A superior diet includes both raw and cooked vegetables. The levels of some nutrients are higher in raw veggies (such as vitamin C), but others are made more available by cooking (such as beta carotene). The protective compounds in cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts and radishes), and Allium vegetables (such as onions, garlic, leeks, shallots and scallions) are more efficiently acquired when the vegetables are raw or only slightly cooked, whereas the lycopene in tomatoes is much more bioavailable once they have been cooked.

Chew or Chop Food Thoroughly Before Cooking

While all vegetables contain protective micronutrients and phytochemicals, some vegetables release more helpful compounds if broken down by chewing, chopping or blending. For example, when the plant cell walls of cruciferous vegetables are broken down, a chemical reaction produces isothiocyanates, compounds which have powerful anticancer effects and been shown to detoxify and remove carcinogens.⁶ Allium vegetables produce elements known as organosulfur compounds in a similar fashion, with an enzyme called alliinase, when their cell walls are broken down.⁷ These enzymes are deactivated by heat, so if the vegetables will be served cooked, make sure to chop them finely first.

Choose the Right Multivitamin

Of course, a healthful diet is the best protection against disease. In addition to vitamins and minerals, a diet of natural plant foods provides thousands of phytochemicals, plant compounds that offer many health benefits, including protection against many chronic diseases. But children don’t necessarily eat optimally every day, and we cannot be sure that we are getting optimal amounts of every nutrient every day.  The problem is most supplements contain harmful ingredients, especially folic acid.  Look for one that is free of artificial colors and sweeteners, and does NOT contain vitamin A, beta-carotene, or folic acid. Supplemental vitamin A, beta-carotene and synthetic folic acid are linked to an increase in the risk of cancers.^{8, 9} Avoid any multivitamin that contains these potentially harmful elements.

Make Health a Regular Topic of Family Discussions

It’s important that children understand that what they eat and how much they exercise has an impact on how healthy they are. Make a point to have family dinners and involve kids in meal prep. Have them help you plan meals that incorporate a wide variety of healthy food. Get their input on the healthy foods they like, and be mindful to stock it. Be a nutritional role model. Your kids aren’t going to listen to your advice about health if you are a junk-food-eating couch potato. Illustrate good health for them. Exercise regularly, eat healthfully and don’t snack between meals. They take their cues from watching you. Remove unhealthy choices from your home. When your children open the refrigerator what is it that they see? Stock fresh fruit and vegetables that are already clean and cut. You may not be able to control their choices outside your house, but you can make your home a junk-free zone.   

Get Others Onboard

A supportive community is so important. Have a healthy dish party in your area or host a healthy potluck for one or two friends and their children. Allowing your child to see other people committed to eating healthfully and seeing other children eating healthy foods is valuable. It helps to counter the temptation of the latest fad food that shows up in the lunchbox of the kid next to them in the school cafeteria. And finally, reward good behavior with activities and experiences and healthy nutritarian desserts.  Health food can be made to be delicious and fun for any special occasion.

1. Wiles NJ, Northstone K, Emmett P, et al: 'Junk food' diet and childhood behavioural problems: results from the ALSPAC cohort. Eur J Clin Nutr 2009;63:491-498.
2. Howard AL, Robinson M, Smith GJ, et al: ADHD is associated with a "Western" dietary pattern in adolescents. J Atten Disord 2011;15:403-411.
3. Purtell KM, Gershoff ET: Fast Food Consumption and Academic Growth in Late Childhood. Clin Pediatr (Phila) 2014.
4. Smithers LG, Golley RK, Mittinty MN, et al: Dietary patterns at 6, 15 and 24 months of age are associated with IQ at 8 years of age. Eur J Epidemiol 2012;27:525-535.
5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Survey Data on Acrylamide in Food: Individual Food Products [http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/ChemicalContaminants/ucm053549.htm]
6. Higdon J, Drake VJ: Cruciferous Vegetables. In An Evidence-based Approach to Phytochemicals and Other Dietary Factors 2nd edition: Thieme; 2013
7. Powolny A, Singh S: Multitargeted prevention and therapy of cancer by diallyl trisulfide and related Allium vegetable-derived organosulfur compounds. Cancer Lett 2008;269:305-314.
8. Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud C: Meta-regression analyses, meta-analyses, and trial sequential analyses of the effects of supplementation with beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E singly or in different combinations on all-cause mortality: do we have evidence for lack of harm? PLoS One 2013;8:e74558.
9. Baggott JE, Oster RA, Tamura T: Meta-analysis of cancer risk in folic acid supplementation trials. Cancer Epidemiol 2011.