There is a strong
likelihood that children who routinely and consistently display
these behaviors maintain a poor diet. Consequently, it is almost
certain that improved nutrition can help alleviate the intensity
and/or frequency of some of these behaviors in young children.
According to
Carol Simontacchi in her article in the "Health and Nature
Journal":
The average
child eats less than two servings of both fruits and vegetable per
day, and a quarter of these is in the form of French fries.
The average
child is deficient in magnesium, zinc, chromium, iron, vitamin B
complex, vitamin C, and other trace elements. Each of these nutrients
has an influence on the brain.
Do you ever
find yourself giving in to your child's cravings for the latest
snack to hit the stores? Sugary variations on traditional yogurt,
frosted pop-tarts, sugar-coated breakfast cereals, and other junk
foods have become popular and convenient meal time and snack time
choices, and have been dubbed, "pseudo-foods".
Pseudo-foods,
according to nutritionist Carol Simontacchi, are those that are
processed to the point that they are almost completely devoid of
nutrition. Unfortunately, many families and child care providers,
in an effort to please children and to minimize the workload, routinely
serve these pseudo-foods at home and at child care centers: pizza,
french fries, chicken nuggets, potato chips, canned soups, frozen
dinners, lunchmeat, and packaged snack items, to name a few. These
pseudo-foods, when eaten regularly and over time, have a serious
negative effect on children's and adult's brain functioning, which
often leads to the less than desirable behaviors in children mentioned
above.
If you suspect
that a child's adverse behaviors may have to do with poor nutrition,
there are ways to "undo" the harm that has been done to
the child's brain functioning from pseudo-foods.
First, pseudo-foods
must be eliminated completely from the child's diet in very severe
behavioral cases, and strictly limited for others.
Introduce
healthy snack and meal choices over and over again. Often it takes
many tries of a new food for a child to accept and enjoy it.
Replace unhealthy
choices with similar healthful choices: Substitute whole grain
bread for white bread; apple butter instead of jelly, butter rather
than margarine.
Adopt a more
natural way of eating. Choose and buy foods that are minimally
processed.
Gradually
wean children off processed or "pseudo-foods" while
more healthful choices are introduced.
Eat a variety
of healthy foods with your child. Don't
drink soda and tell him to have milk. Don't eat candy bars for
a snack and expect she'll choose fruit.
Now more than
ever, the food choices we make for our children can have a substantial
impact on their overall health, well-being, and ability to succeed.
Parents and providers alike have a responsibility to offer and encourage
children to make healthful food choices early so that the benefits
can last throughout the child's life.
