September 24
A calorie is not just a calorie to me when…my child’s health is at risk from it. A father once brougt his confirmed to be insulin resistant, overweight, 12 year old to see me upon his pediatritian’s advice. Although his boy was already on the precipice of full blown diabetes at the age of 12, the dad felt that he couldn’t expect his son to follow too much of the nutiritonal advice (he lived on white flour and white rice proucts and was advised to integrate more proteins, veggies and fats) because that wasn’t much fun for a kid.
I think somehow there is this misconception that kids can afford to eat a lot of junk because, after all, they’re just kids. Whenever I do seminars for schools, I title my talk “But, My Kids Are Thin”, and address exactly that myth. Although the lack may not show up until they are in their fragile fifties, turns out it really matters what thery are building their body out of in those early years, especially that they get enough of the right stuff in.
Unfortunately, the processed starchy carbs and sugar create cravings for more of the same and in many cases end up actually displacing the healthy foods. I still find that if you can eat enough of the right foods, especially early in the day, it makes it a heck of a lot easier to eat less of the junky stuff. It is much more compromising to our health to be lacking the foods that our bodies need to be rebuilding itself than to throw a little junk on top of an already decent diet. And besides, putting in seems less depriving than taking out.