Tarika Ahuja and Neeti Sarin suggest three things mothers need to exclude from or include in a child's diet
A mother is like an alchemist in the kitchen, always on the lookout to build her child’s immunity, strength and bone health by the choices she makes daily. These choices either compliment or hamper her child’s cells, tissues and organ growth.
Three to include in diet
nFeed your child whole grains everyday: Most children don’t have the habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and many mothers don’t tend to realise it much as they replace the same with milk. Therefore, whole-grains become vital in at least two meals daily. Not many know, but whole-grains contain the goodness of energy-giving carbohydrates, which nourishes children’s body and mind helping them to take on their hectic mornings. These include whole brown rice, barley, millet (foxtail millet, banyard millet, black millet, finger millet) and amaranth. Cracked grains like wheat dalia, barley dalia and steel cut oats are also important. These contain essential vitamins, minerals and fibre that help digest the food better.
Consuming beans and lentils.
Who doesn’t love rajma chawalIJ These kidney shaped beans help in the proper functioning of the kidneys. lentils and beans stabilise blood sugar, support heart health, provide healthy protein and energy for the body and mind. Their consumption is also essential for one to two meals a day. To make the menu interesting and appetizing, you can serve hummus, dips, bean burgers, etc.
Adding more leafy vegetables and salads.
It is a task to feed children vegetables, let alone salads. But a consistent effort from parents ensure wonders of lifetime benefits for your child’s immunity. One successful way of implementing this habit is by making food art. Children love colors, stories, and adventures. They will relish salads more if the dressing is creamy and slightly sweet such as lemony peanut butter dressing or creamy tahini dressing. A good variety of salads support a good digestion and ensures circulation.
Things to exclude from diet
Avoid white sugar: World over research suggests that white sugar is slow poison and contributes to inflammation, acidic blood quality and lifestyle diseases. Replace commercial white sugar with jaggery, dates, organic unprocessed raw sugar (not brown sugar). White sugar is highly acidic.
Avoid chemical-laden foods: No matter how appetizing they seem, packet foods like chips, quick noodles, commercial pickles, processed cheese and commercial preservative filled peanut butter are loaded with chemicals that weaken the immune function of your kid in the long run.
Reduce the intake of dairy: Avoiding commercial dairy may be a tad difficult initially, but, if we follow a simple rule of making just a few changes every week, no changes are essentially that difficult. Commercial modern cows are injected with hormones to produce more milk and antibiotics for better hygiene and health. These chemicals go into the milk of the cow which is further processed with chemicals to make many packaged cheeses and other dairy products. Commercial dairy is mucus forming, filled with chemicals and preservatives that hinder absorption of nutrients, clog the gut and weaken the digestion for your child.
Applying the above key pointers require two things. First, smart shopping skills. Second, improving your own cooking skills. Taking cooking classes and workshops with holistic nutritionists and practitioners goes a long way in understanding how to prepare the right food for your child. A presumption is that a child won't eat healthy food but he won't eat bland food or sans interesting textures, colors, either. The trick is to know how to combine certain ingredients that satiate their hunger and even leaves a taste for it behind.
The writer is holistic nutritionist, parenting coach and author of the accredited book “Beautiful Children: The Parent's Essential Guide for Raising Strong, Balanced, Healthy Children. Neeti Sarin, Founder, Tiffin’s Etc., company catering nutritious food to schools