Great nutrition for kids

Guest post from Charlotte Ingram, Naturopath at TLC Birth & Beyond

Get in the habit of turning over the packet!

'My child eats pretty well'.  This is something I hear quite often in the clinic.

As I take a case history and diet diary during a consultation, I'm often confronted with a 'standard Australian diet'.  Typically it looks like this...

breakfast: cereal/toast

lunch: sandwich

dinner: pasta

snacks: fruit/yoghurt/rice crackers

Much of the diet tends to come from processed carbohydrates, typically laden with artificial sweeteners, colours and preservatives; which are often implicated in the health issues my clients are coming to see me for. 

The flip side to this is that the kids fill up on these foods, to the exclusion of fresh fruit and vegetables. 

Check the labels on the packaged products you buy. Even something seemingly benign like rice crackers can contain flavour enhancers, anti caking agents and more.

Take this common brand of rice crackers found in the supermarket. It's easy to be fooled by the packaging on the front:

- Not fried

- Made with rice bran oil

- Palm oil free

• -Gluten free

Sounds pretty healthy right?

Turn over the to check the label, and it's a different story- 

Ingredients

Rice Flour, Rice Bran Oil, Maltodextrin, Salt, Sugar, Soy Sauce Powder (Maltodextrin, Salt, Soy Bean Oil), Flavour Enhancers (627, 631), Antioxidant (307), Anticaking Agent (341).

Compare this to plain Sakata rice crackers:

Ingredients

Rice (97%), Vegetable Oil, Salt 

These additives are implicated in all sorts of issues ranging from asthma, migraines and fatigue, to insomnia and rashes.

I've seen kids with rashes and poor sleep that have resolved with a few simple changes, one of which was cleaning up their diet and removing any food items containing these additives.

I love working with families to help improve overall health, and with 3 kids of my own, am passionate about easy to implement diet and lifestyle changes. Often it's about making smart food switches, from one brand, to another that doesn't contain any nasties. 

I help link my clients in with local bulk buying groups, and frequently post bargain food buys and recipes on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/charlotteingramnaturopath/ to help get the most out of your grocery budget.