Every parent wants to give their child the very best start in life. Yet how many parents stop to think about how something as simple as food can affect their child’s learning, development, behaviour, education and ultimately, their life chances? The bottom line is this: the brain needs the right nutrients to function properly.
Private medical care or enrolment in the best private school may be unattainable for many parents, but putting nutritious meals on the table is something that every parent has control over. And changing just one aspect of children’s lives – what they put into their mouth – can make a real impact.
Changing children’s diets may not transform a little terror into a little angel, or turn an average student into a young Einstein, but feeding young minds with the right nutrients is likely to play a role in improving concentration, behaviour and academic performance. As for the flip side, a diet of refined and processed junk will likely fuel a short attention span, challenging behaviour and poor grades at school.
Of course, the perennial sticking point for parents is how to get their kids to eat healthy fare without turning mealtimes into a battleground. After all, a regime that forces kids kicking and screaming into an unrealistic regime of celery sticks and hummus just isn’t going to happen. When it comes to what we feed children perhaps its time to start thinking outside the box. By changing some simple ingredients, or the way food is cooked, even the ‘unhealthiest’ meal can be transformed into smart food. With a little imagination, fish & chips, pizza and even the dreaded chicken nugget can be saved.
And it doesn’t have to be complicated either. Research clearly demonstrates that something as simple as breakfast can have a direct impact on a child’s ability to perform at school. Yet many children are packed off to school on an empty stomach only to stock up on confectionary en route…often with dire consequences in the classroom. Rather than rely on highly refined and sugary cereals, a better option is to offer ‘slow-releasing’ energy foods such as porridge with fruit and finely chopped or ground nuts or eggs with wholemeal or rye bread toast.
Whilst the valiant efforts of Jamie and Norah may have raised the bar a little when it comes to school dinners the reality is that a majority of children take a packed lunch to school anyway. And, on the whole, these are often unhealthier than what the dinner lady’s doling up. In a world of Turkey Twizzlers, this is worrying stuff.
Again, a little imagination can go a long way when it comes to what goes into the average packed lunch box. Key themes underpinning a healthy kid’s lunch-box should be to include some fresh fruit & veg and to provide them with foods that help to sustain even energy levels and concentration – something to see them through double math’s in the afternoon. But just as importantly, it needs to be something that kids will enjoy and won’t get them beaten up in the playground…
Ideas for inclusion into a healthy lunch box might include home-made pizza slices crammed with veggies and decent quality cheese or tinned fish, a wholemeal pitta stuffed full with an array of colourful shredded veggies and chunks of free-range chicken, oven-baked sweet potato wedges and guacamole, and fruit kebabs or a fresh fruit puree with natural yoghurt.
Any combination of the above would mean an end to the excess of refined carbohydrates, added sugars, hydrogenated and trans fats, high salt and artificial additives that typify so many children’s diets. Offering more in the way of fresh fruit and veg, slow-releasing complex carbohydrates, and healthy protein sources is a recipe that should help to maintain even energy levels and concentration – especially if some omega-3 fatty acids from oily fish can find there way in there too.
Hopefully healthy fare that your kids will pester you for!
