Raising Smarter Children

There’s a lot of controversy over whether your child needs vitamins.  Many doctors say your child gets everything they need from their food.  Yet, high quality food is hard to come by in our fast lane life.

Consider this: 

• 24 million Americans have diabetes
• there is a frightening type 2 diabetes epidemic in kids
• the processed foods your child eats comes from a factory, not nature
• young girls develop years earlier than they did 50 years ago – and that may well be due to the hormones and steroids in the meat they eat, which pass into their bodies
• check the label on packaged foods your kids eat – hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat keeps it on the shelf for years (is this really good for your child’s health)?  (Hydrogenated fat is scientifically altered – literally blasted with hydrogen to turn the liquid fat into a solid).  It increases bad cholesterol and increases the risk of heart disease by more than 23% according to most experts.  And, oh yes, all those crackers, chips, cake mixes, and nearly every other packaged food with hydrogenated fat insures inflammation in your child’s body (and yours too by the way).  This information is via The England Journal of Medicine which says that trans fat “is more dangerous to health that any food contaminant.”

Besides this, most foods are full of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and steroids.  Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it? 

In addition, many kids snub their vegges, so there is no way your child is going to get the servings on the food pyramid.

It gets worse…every single hour of T.V. your child watches increases their risk of developing obesity by 2% and the frightening facts go on…

So we have a nation of overweight kids, who eat fast food and sugar nearly every day, and we wonder if there’s something we can do to negate the damage.

The facts are that our soil is depleted and the nutrients simply don’t pass into the food.  Our water quality is so bad there’s not much more to say, and worse yet, fruits and vegetables are sprayed with tons of pesticides – what a yummy diet for your child.

While I know this is all a bit scary there are a few things you can do to raise a smarter child and a healthier child, plus consider whether to supplement with vitamins.

1. Reduce T.V. by just one hour per week and studies say it could cut the number of overweight teens by almost a third

2.  Get your child outside playing – not only is this good exercise, even 15 minutes a day in the sun increases the vitamin D – needed for bone growth and a whole lot more

3. Nix most of the sugar and find out where it hides- take a look a just one can of soda, or even some of those trendy bottled juices – saying non-fat?  Hello!  Too much sugar turns into fat in your body -we all know the dangers of sugar by now. (Wait for another post on artificial sweeteners – they are even worse).

While grams and tablespoons are not precisely the same do this:  there are about 12.6 grams of granulated sugar in a tablespoon according to wikipedia.

So, get out an empty glass in the morning.  Add all the grams of sugar your child eats in everything – bread, cereal, soda, crackers, chips, peanut butter, jelly, candy, etc.,  and put the same amount of white, chlorine bleached sugar into that glass – by the tablespoonful. 

Now, show that to your child.  I wonder if you’d want to drink that much sugar. 

4. I know it’s pricey, but you’ll save the money later on the medical bills.  Try and eat organic folks.  No pesticides, no hormones and steroids to make the cows gain 3 pounds per day, no antibiotics in the chickens to help make your child antibiotic resistant…think about your child’s health – your family’s health…

Aren’t the few extra dollars worth your child’s well-being – you’re well-being?

5. O.K.  Last but not least – if you’re thinking consciously about this – you’ve got to be pretty sure that your child doesn’t get all the nutrition needed, in just the right amounts, even by the “pyramid” standards – so you might just want to consider giving high quality vitamins to your child – even just to be on the safe side.  And when I say high quality, I don’t mean the cheapest vitamins you can find – those have fillers and binders to hold those tablets together (yet another bad thing for your body).

Maybe I should turn this into a health blog – sometimes I wonder.  The very basics of raising smarter children start with good health…

Until next post, remember, every child is smart in their own way – as long as you’re keeping your child healthy in the process,

Warmly,

Pat Wyman

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