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Want your kids to get enough calcium? Set a good example and drink milk too
Hey moms, if you want your daughters to grow strong and healthy, serve them milk, and pour a glass for yourself, too! The most available source of calcium in our food supply comes from milk and foods made with milk, so it’s not surprising that those who drink more milk get more calcium.
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Kids & Snacking
Snacking is a very important part of a kid’s day. Growing children often need more food energy than they can easily consume at a single meal. In fact, about 20 percent of a child's energy and nutrients come from snacks.
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Starting the Day off Right
Let’s face it, we’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important  meal of the day, but all too often we not only neglect it for ourselves, but don’t enforce and encourage our kids to eat in the morning
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Eating Properly Can Only Help
Adequate and proper nutrition is important for kids as they grow and develop. It is compounded in sports, when athletic performance becomes increasingly paramount for their success. It is easier for kids to reach for a bag of chips or a can of soda at school...
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What Fuels our Body?
Our bodies are all about energy. And energy provides the fuel our body needs to do work. Since our body is always working, it needs continuous energy.
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"DIET" vs. "DIET"
There's a big difference between a "diet" (i.e. a regimented food plan to help you lose weight), and your diet (i.e. what you consume on a regular basis), and this is a big part of the problem with confusion among all of us.
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Obesity, Are Our Children At Risk?
"That's just baby fat," "so he's a little chunky," "no need
to worry, she'll outgrow it."
Heard these expressions before? I bet you have, probably you
have even stated them. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad
news but statistics reveal that our present generation of
"future" adults is at an alarming risk level
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Starting the Day Off Right
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Let’s face it, we’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but all too often we not only neglect it for ourselves, but don’t enforce and encourage our kids to eat in the morning. And that is not good. According to the American Dietetic Association, research has shown that, among breakfast's other benefits, when students eat breakfast they score better on tests, have fewer absences, are tardy less often, have fewer visits to the nurses’ office, are less likely to be anxious, depressed, or irritable, and have fewer disruptions due to hunger. This makes sense since breakfast mentally and physically "revs" up the body for the day to come after it has essentially fasted for 12 or more hours.
With all that being said, kids’ eating habits become increasingly unhealthy as they enter their teen-age years. According to the American Journal of Health 99% of young respondents say they ate breakfast when they were in the third grade but by the eighth grade only 85% eat breakfast routinely, and it only gets worse from there. A 1996 study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed that adolescents and young adults are more likely to skip breakfast than adults over thirty.
Ideally, a balanced breakfast should give some protein, fat and carbohydrate, as well as important nutrients that kids often miss, such as fiber, vitamin C, folate, iron and calcium, Encourage your kids to sit down at the table before school. You are your child’s most important role model so try to set a good example yourself and have a bowl of cereal or a bagel with cream cheese together. You can even make it fun by having last night’s leftover pizza, pasta, or even chicken cutlets. Understandably, early classes, work, or sports practice can make eating breakfast difficult, but even a quickie on the go, like a cereal bar, squeezy yogurt, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich can make a really big difference. Keep on experimenting until you find what works for you and your kids – just try and make breakfast a priority.
Julie B. Hirsch, PhD
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