I'm back again. Okay we have covered the importance of protein and whole grains. Now we are going to talk about the "v" word; it is the most important and the hardest to condense so bare with me. At the end of this series I'm going to write a summary, meal suggestions, and how to combine these foods.
Vegetables provide many of the vitamins and minerals ours kids need for good health, and they provide fiber to get rid of the toxins that we have talked about. Vegetables also contain many antioxidants which are extremely important but to explain how they are important, I first need to explain what free radicals are.
Free radicals are a natural by-product of the body's process of turning food into energy. Excess free radicals are a problem because they attack the body itself, damaging key cellular molecules such as DNA. Cells with damaged DNA may be more prone to developing cancer. Free radical activity has also been linked to premature aging, heart disease, arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and more. An excess of free radicals can be caused by stress, infections, eating fried foods, environmental pollutants, and more. It is impossible to avoid many of these things, so most of us are producing far too many free radicals for the normal body processes to cope with. This is where antioxidants come into to play; they help the body to get rid of the extra free radicals and protect our cells.
You might be thinking, "...but what does this have to do with helping my child learn". I'm almost there. The brain is very vulnerable to free radical damage because its turn over rate of cells (die-off and replacement) is almost zero, unlike that of our other organs. So, we really need these cells to be protected because they aren't replaced. Remember, antioxidants help the body get rid of the extra free radicals and protect our cells.
Fruits and vegetables are our best source of antioxidants. Our children need three servings of vegetables daily. To get three servings in, we just have 1 serving at lunch, and 2 servings at dinner. Lunch is usually a raw vegetable like carrots, broccoli, celery, sugar snap peas, belle peppers, or salad. At dinnertime we usually just have a double serving of one veggie like sweet potatoes, salad, cooked broccoli, asparagus, or squash. I know it's not easy, but teaching them to eat vegetables while they're young, will have a lasting impact on their lives. What we teach them now not only benefits them now, but might just be what prevents them from suffering with disease later in life.
One way that will help get our children to eat vegetables is eating them ourselves. They can follow our example. Think of creative ways to get them to eat vegetables. Educate them on the importance of eating their veggies. If this is new to your children, I wouldn't be afraid to offer incentives like stickers, extra time doing this or that, etc... I know some may disagree, but I have tried this, and it works. I also have my kids eat at least half of their veggies before the rest of their food that way I don't hear, "I'm too full". I grind up veggies in my chopper and then "sneak" them into other foods like any tomato based sauce, meatloaf, hamburgers, soups or anywhere else you feel it would work.
Check out this statistic: "People who consumed two or more vegetables per day had a 35 to 40 percent decrease in the decline in thinking ability over six years. That's the equivalent of being five years younger in age."
If you have any questions or would like to set up a consultation, email me at askmichelleabouthealth@yahoo.com
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