Many parents today are finding it more and more difficult to give their children a healthy diet due to the fast food frenzy, mass junk food advertisement, and poor availability of quality nutrient rich foods.

Fast foods like burgers, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, French fries and soft drinks provide the children with diets way too high in salt, fat, trans fatty acids and sugar.  Avoiding white flour products, artificial foods, processed meats and dairy, candy, pop, and other sweets will help to prevent allergies, hyperactivity, and other illnesses in children.

Food health for children has deteriorated over the years.  Some statistics by Dr Joseph Beasley with the USDA show that soft drink consumption rose 182% from 1960 to 1981, food color consumption rose 1006% from 1940 to 1981, and corn syrup consumption rose 209% from 1960 to 1981, while fresh apples dropped 75% from 1910 to 1976.  Also, in 1964 the per capita consumption of soft drinks was 17 gallons and water was 72 gallons, but in 1986, Americans drank 42 gallons of soft drinks, while only consuming 41 gallons of water.

So what do we feed our children to keep them healthy?  We need to get back to the basics, cook our own food and select foods that are whole and unprocessed. 

Some suggestions:

¨    Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  We all need a good breakfast to supply the fuel for physical and mental tasks throughout the day.  Children who like cereals have a healthy choice in the natural food sections of grocery stores.

¨    Can we push protein and greens versus cereal – milk or sugary juices have such negative consequences.

¨    Yogurt or acidophilus and bifidophilus powder in a protein shake with fresh or organic frozen fruit and soy, rice or organic milk is a good start as well.

Pancakes can be made with egg whites, oatmeal or granola, cinnamon and vanilla.  The rule here is 4 egg whites to ˝ cup oats or granola, mix in some cinnamon and vanilla to taste and cook like a pancake.  This is a good snack for later in the day with a nut butter or jam spread.

¨    I like to use Stevia as a sweetener in this recipe and others.  Stevia is a natural plant extract and a little bit goes a long way.

The idea is to provide a balance of protein and complex carbohydrate that will control the blood sugar balance.  A breakfast of eggs and nitrate free meat is fine, if you are not vegetarian.  For the rest of the day, it is important to eat plenty of fresh vegetables with meals and add in your protein either as fish, chicken or turkey, lean red meat, legumes, soy products, nuts and seeds.

Having plenty of healthy snacks for the kids is a good idea as they will learn to choose those kinds of foods like dried and fresh fruits, raw vegetables with a nutritious dip, yogurt, nut butters on rice cakes or whole grain crackers, non-prepared popcorn etc.  Healthy drinks should also be available like soy or rice milk, real fruit juice, and organic milk if they tolerate dairy, and most importantly, purified water.

Dr Spindler can be reached at +1 (303)697-1736, www.myganoexcel.biz/drspindler (for products) , diane@mountainholistic.com , www.mountainholistic.com