Raising Smarter Children

Food and kids.  Have you ever wondered how to get them to eat their veggies and the other things that make them healthy?

Three quick tips:  1.  Take them on a field trip to their favorite fast food restaurant.  Make sure the manager brings out the menu of the ingredients in the foods they love. Check out the sugar, fat and calories.  If they happen to like fries, did you know a lot of places put sugar on them to make them brown better?

If you can, visit the kitchen.  Check out the stuff food is fried in?  How is the rest of the food prepared?  Nothing like a wake-up call to make the food and body connection real for your child.

2.  As a doctor who sees very sick children, see if you can make arrangements to have your child "volunteer" to cheer up some sick kids.  Make sure these kids are severely overweight (and it could have been controlled by better food choices) and check the side effects of the obesity epidemic.

Next stop - go and see some kids with type II diabetes.  Ask them about their day, taking their blood sugar and what effect it has on their lives.  Another great wake up call for your child.

Then have a chat about food and health.  Just a short one - but now you have some "reality" to add to the mix.

Finally, if your child is taking a test at school, or at home, eat more protein - things like fish, cheese, lean meats, eggs, etc. so their blood sugar stays more stable and they can concentrate longer.

Sugary snacks leave them hungry for more sugar in about twenty minutes, and brain fog can set in, making it tough to think. 

Think about what’s in the fridge and what things your kids snack on.  After they have taken their field trips, maybe they can make the grocery list for a few days.  See if anything changes - you may be very surprised and happy at what they choose.

Remember, every child is smart in their own way,

Pat Wyman, M.A. and Erin Mavredakis, M.D.