Feeding Young Kids Healthy Food vs Processed Food
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Tips To Feed Your Kids Healthy Food
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, we answer a question about feeding young kids healthy food vs processed food for lunch at school.
This was an older question from #AskLiveLeanTV Ep. 008.
Here’s today’s viewer question:
Kelly Marie on Facebook asks: Working in the school system with kids who have special needs, I’ve noticed a trend in children’s lunch boxes of packaged and sugary foods. Can you tell us what these foods that are full of chemicals, additives, and sugar do to the body, other than weight gain, especially to children? Please talk about feeding young kids healthy food vs processed food.
Okay, let’s talk about what many parents are packing for their kid’s lunch at school.
Typical lunch box foods include:
- Chocolate Milk
- Fruit Roll Ups
- Crackers
- Lunchables
- Candy
- Bologna Sandwiches
- Juice Boxes
These are all processed foods that require little to no preparation.
This is beneficial to parents because they can quickly add them to their child’s lunch box, before sending them off to school.
When you go to Costco, just walk down the aisles, and you’ll see a large percentage of these foods are processed.
Even if the nutrition label says, “100 calorie” packs, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthy for your kids.
Now let’s answer your question.
We’re Not Specialists In Kid’s Nutrition, But…
This isn’t one of my areas of expertise, as I’m not a specialist in how children react to certain foods.
But from what I’ve read, ADD, i.e. attention deficit disorder, may be triggered by chemicals, preservatives, and excess sugar and artificial sweeteners found in processed foods.
When parents or the school system feeds kids too much of this processed food, it may be one of the causes of why they are acting out.
Excessive amounts of processed foods may also be affecting the brain, learning abilities, and obviously unhealthy weight gain.
So if you are a parent, we know it’s tough creating healthy lunches, because we’re also parents of two young kids.
Just be aware of the power food has in your kids development.
Then simply do the best you can to not continuously add excessive amounts of processed foods to your kid’s lunch box.
Remember, the goal is to continuously get better, not perfect.
The Lunch Box Movement Has Started
It’s time to be another spark in the lunch box movement.
A lot of parents are now putting more care and attention into what they are adding to their children’s lunch boxes.
So don’t feel like you are alone in this.
Every single parent that pushes for this, and tries to give their child a healthier lunch, is one more parent in the right direction.
Even Though You May Feel:
- overwhelmed with other tasks
- you’re the only one who cares about your kid’s health
- every one else feeds their kids processed food, so why shouldn’t you
It doesn’t mean you should just accept the status quo, even if you are the only one out of hundreds of parents.
Be the one to be different.
But don’t take this the wrong way.
Our Goal Is Not To Be 100% Strict With Our Kid’s Nutrition
Speaking personally, our goal is not to become the type of parents who raise perfect kid’s, that never eat sugar or processed food.
We’re not perfectionists, so that’s not the kind of life we’re striving for.
Rather than trying to be 100% in control of what our kid’s eat at all times, our goal is to do our best in providing our kids with healthy food while they are in our home.
When our kids play at another parent’s house, we won’t be scolding Kyla and Cody on what they can and can’t eat there.
But when they are in our home, we’re going to do our best to feed them healthy whole foods, the majority of the time.
Find Ways To Make Kid’s Food With Healthy Ingredients
For example, when it comes to popsicles, we can educate our kids by showing them how to make great tasting popsicles.
It can be as easy as blending fruit with water, then freezing it.
This is a much better option than just buying unhealthy popsicle’s filled with processed sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other chemicals and artificial sweeteners.
When You Get Excited About Healthy Eating, Your Kid Will Follow
If you get excited about healthy food, your kids may automatically get excited too because they feed off of your vibes.
If your vibe gives off that healthy food isn’t good and junk food is really good, then of course your kids are going to be that way as well.
Try to train your kids from a young age that too much junk food is gross, unhealthy, and detrimental to your body.
When you do this, your kids will have a higher probability of growing up believing that healthy food tastes better and will make you feel better.
This Also Works With Your Dog
In the past, we even tricked our dog Bruno into eating carrots, sweet potatoes, and even lettuce.
For example, I’d put a piece of lettuce down and Bruno would look at.
He’d eventually cautiously chew it and spit it out.
Then I’d pick it up and pretend to eat it.
When he sees me do this, I’ll then give the lettuce back to him, and he’ll eat it.
After doing this a few times, it conditions him to associate lettuce with being a treat, so he gets excited to eat it.
Just like dogs, kids are also in tune with this.
Feeding your kids healthy food also has a lot to do with the creative parenting techniques.
Bottom Line On Feeding Young Kids
When it comes to kid’s eating excessive amounts of processed food, there are more potential negative side effects than just weight gain.
You can also have issues with your internal organs with your liver and kidneys.
These organs may have to function differently to process the excessive amounts of sugar and processed fat.
It can also create a negative relationship and mindset towards food as it is setting your kids up for a lifetime of struggles with weight loss and poor sleep patterns.
There are so many reasons not to overfed your kids processed food.
This is just our personal opinions on feeding young kids healthy food vs processed food.
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Question For You:
- As a kid, what did your parents put in your school lunches?
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
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