4 Food Groups All Kids Should Eat
September 29, 2011
As parents we tend to obsess about what our kids eat and fret about the lack of green vegetables in their diets. Truth be told, there’s a good reason why junior does not crave steamed broccoli or a raw kale salad, and it’s not the fault of bad parenting. Hooray!
Growing children need nutrient-dense foods, and unlike most of their fully grown relatives, kids need foods that are more calorie dense as well, since they are both growing and constantly moving and playing. In Chinese Medicine, we know that children are born with weak digestive “Qi” (energy) so it makes sense that in their formative years, kids need foods that are easier to digest than brussel sprouts.
Adults (who often have more years under their belts with less than optimal diet and lifestyle) benefit from the cleansing, hydrating properties of green veggies, and usually have slower metabolism but stronger digestion than their young offspring. So while mom and dad and teenagers can stand to eat a plate of greens (and may even crave them) with their protein and fat, young kids don’t need huge portions of vegetables for optimal nutrition.
So what are the best health foods for kids? Glad you asked. You may be surprised!
1. Saturated Fats
Despite the demonizing of this nutrient, kids need saturated fats and cholesterol for proper brain and nervous system development, healthy tissues and cell membranes, optimal immune systems, and strong bones and teeth. Children should eat plenty of whole fat dairy, meat (not necessarily lean), and eggs produced from pasture-raised animals. NOTE: This last phrase is key; animal products from factory raised meat are NOT healthy and should be avoided. This includes meat found in restaurants. Organic is good, but the best option is to seek out local, farm-raised sources near you. Additionally, nuts, avocados and healthy oils like coconut or olive oil are good sources of saturated fat for kids. Traditional fats like lard and tallow, have amazing health benefits when derived from pasture raised animals too.
2. Bone Broth
Homemade broth is rich in vital nutrients that benefit kids far more than a zucchini slice. Bone broth, may sound like a strange food, but it is essentially a staple found in most cultures and used as the base of “mom’s homemade chicken soup”. Bone broth can be easily made from scratch using beef, chicken, fish or other bones. The minerals, gelatin, and glycosaminoglycans in bone broth promote proper development of bone and dental structure, as well as healthy hair, nails and joints. Bone broth can also help with digestive problems, food allergies, and immune health. It is a great medicine food for children’s developing digestive tracts as well as a home remedy for treating the common cold.
3. Cultured Foods
“Cultured” foods have nothing to do with coming from a foreign country or a fancy art gallery, though in the not so recent past, most traditional cuisines always included some cultured foods – from pickled ginger in Japan and Kimchi in korea to sauerkraut in Germany and yogurt in the mediterranean. Cultured foods contain naturally occurring probiotics that provide kids with a wide variety of health benefits by by populating the digestive tract with healthy bacteria. Cultured foods and beverages are allowed to sour or ferment naturally through a process called fermentation which boosts their nutritional value and making your entire meal easier to digest. The taste of culture foods may need to be gradually acquired for some kids, so start slow with full fat yogurt and then move into traditional cultured beverages like kombucha or kefir “sodas” before venturing into sweet gingered carrots, pickles, and more adventures cultured veggies.
4. Seasonal, Local Produce
Now that you know you don’t need to lose sleep over your kid’s lack of green vegetable consumption, lighten up and make veggies fun! While they don’t need to clean their plates, all kids should eat some locally grown, seasonal fruits and veggies daily. In addition to being free of pesticides and other toxins, local organic fruits and veggies have more flavor and nutrients than their grocery equivalents. Take your kids to to the farmer’s market to choose their own fresh produce and let them help prepare it. Better yet, get them involved in a garden project so they can ‘farm’ their own – kids love to taste the fruits of their labor. If farmer’s markets or your own garden are not an option for you, research organic produce and CSA farm boxes for delicious local produce delivered to your door.
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Real Food Forager’s Fat Tuesday
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Comments
Where’s pastured meats?
Hi Tina – I did consider adding a 5th food group to this list, which certainly would have been pastured meats. But when you include plenty of saturated fats from the right sources, undoubtedly this includes pastured meats. For those kids that are picky about meat, eggs from pastured hens and grass dairy still cover both bases. Thanks for reading!
This is a great little reference article to send people to when they say that my kid will whither and die without bread!
There’s a great book, called Deep Nutrition, that calls meat on the bone, organ meats, ferments, and fresh produce the “four pillars of nutrition”. It’s interesting to see how similar inputs have led to slightly different – yet remarkably similar – lists from so many people. Thousands of years of human nutritional knowledge can’t be wrong!
Lauren,
I have been doing a lot of gluten free baking and raw foods cooking with a 7 year old and 3 year old in the house. I can’t tell you how much better we ALL feel from no bread/gluten/wheat products! My 7 year old almost never wants a traditional sandwich in his lunch anymore. And I finally have my head wrapped around how to balance the nutrition part of it, so I no longer feel like we all need our bread. There are so many other ways to get grains and the much easier to digest ones. So, I love this article and can really relate first hand to listening to kids’ clues and not forcing them to eat what they don’t want. They often teach us tons if we are listening closely. Thank you for this.
Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. You didn’t link to the post — I had to search for it. Hope to see you next week! Be sure to visit RealFoodForager.com on Sunday for
Sunday Snippets – your post from Fat Tuesday may be featured there!
realfoodforager.com/2011/10/fat-tuesday-october-4-2011/
If you have grain-free recipes please visit Wednesday night for a grain-free linky carnival in support of my 28 day grain-free challenge starting Wednesday!
Emily,
How do you store your meat bones before you collect enough to make the bone broth?
Natalie
Emily,
I love this post! My kids are such picky eaters and have food allergies to boot, so its a nice reminder that even though they don’t knowingly eat their greens (usually eaten in a smoothy) that in many ways they are eating very healthy. Thanks for all the great info!
Robin
Thanks for this informative article! I have always used pasture raised meat and eggs.
My 5 year old asks for ” green juice” every morning before school, it’s a combo of Kale , spinich, ginger and green apple. I hope this is ok to give him?, somedays i skip just to give him a break.
In a freezer bag in the freezer.
Hi Carma – That’s great that your son likes veggies. As long as he’s getting some saturated fat at breakfast, the nutrients of the juice should assimilate well.