Child Nutrition

Sugar - a deadly Metabolic Poison

No sane parent would deliberately give their child heart disease or cancer. Yet this is exactly what most parents do by feeding their children disease-causing foods like sugar, white flour, milk, ice cream, cookies, candy, cakes, fruit juices, sodas, pizza, breakfast cereals, french fries and salt. These so-called "foods" are causing measurable problems in children as young as age 3.

Center stage in a healthy diet should be fresh vegetables. We are accustomed to viewing vegetables as a side dish, but they should be the main attraction. Fresh, organic, unprocessed whole vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds along with the good fats and small amounts of clean animal protein comprise a healthy diet, whether you are an adult or a child.

Children are known for not wanting to eat their vegetables. Yet I have found this is often a myth if tasty, fresh vegetables are served with delicious oils. One toddler I knew thought a raw carrot was a great treat, and many children enjoy attractively made salads. Vegetable juices, with a little apple added for sweetness, have also been a hit with kids.

The gluten grains, wheat, rye, barley, spelt and kamut, should be avoided since a large percentage of the population is now allergic to gluten.

High-quality supplementation is a must. At minimum your child should be taking our children's multi.
Sugar -- a Deadly Metabolic Poison
. . . get it out of your child's life!

No parent should allow their children to eat refined sugar in any form!

I imagine when they read this parents will groan and feel this is "unrealistic," when there is such a pervasive belief in our culture that candy, cookies and ice cream are harmless treats for little ones.

Please read my article Sugar is Killing Our Children to become forcefully disabused of the notion that sugar is harmless. It is a deadly metabolic poison which should be outlawed! You may be going against the cultural grain, but once you to wake up to how very dangerous sugar is, I hope you will become part of a vanguard of warriors to get sugar out of children's lives!

Getting children off sugar can be a challenge. A natural palate finds refined sugar much too sweet and is well satisfied by sugars in fruits and vegetables. But our kids have jaded palates and many are addicted to sugar. You can use stevia instead of sugar as a sweetener, but this is tricky because it keeps the taste for excessive sweetness alive.

To wean your child away from sugar, you may find our l-glutamine product helpful. Also make sure they're getting plenty of the good fats and plenty of vitamin C.
Cut Out that Fruit Juice
. . . it's a make-believe food!

Real foods come in forms that nature provides, and nature does not provide fruit juices. High in sugar and low in nutrients, fruit juices are bad for adults and disastrous for children.

Eating whole fruits is quite different because you are getting the fibrous part of the fruit as well as its juice. This slows down the entry of sugar from the fruit into your bloodstream. With extracted juice, however, you get a sudden jolt of sugar that creates major disturbances in insulin balance as well as other hormones, minerals and neurotransmitters.

In short, drinking fruit juice throws the body into biochemical chaos. These imbalances lead to depressed immunity and a higher risk of infections, ADHD, allergies and other problems.

What to give your child instead? For infants, it should be mother's milk until the age of one or two (in some cultures, children continue to breastfeed to the age of 3 and more). After weaning, pure water and freshly prepared, organic vegetable juices are the best choices.

We recommend using a VitaMix to make your juices. The VitaMix is an extremely high-powered blender, not a juice extractor, so fiber is preserved. You can add a little apple to your vegetable drinks for sweetness, however even with the VitaMix, fruit juices are not recommended, because you will be getting to much sugar.
Children Need Supplements Too!

. . . a good diet is not enough

For various reasons I've enumerated elsewhere, a good diet alone is not enough these days to maintain health. Our toxic world increases our need for nutrients at the very time the supply from our food is down due to depleted soils and other factors.

Children need to be taking a good multi, and we have a new children's chewable multi that fits the bill. Unlike most children's multis, which are junk vitamins loaded with sugar, our children's multi is made with the same kind of high-quality ingredients used in our adult formula. A very small amount of natural unrefined sugar and flavor is added, so you'll have no problem getting your child to take them -- in fact, they'll probably consider them treats.

This supplement is suitable for children over the age of four or as soon as the child can be instructed to chew rather than swallow the tablet whole. However even infants can take half a tablet at a time if it is pulverized into a powder and mixed with juice or food.

Your child may need additional supplements depending on his or her particular health situation. Please call our office to speak with one of our consultants to devise an individualized supplement program.