Top healthy food

hello hi, I am Nadia Rafi

all the way through this blog  because I'm not just gonna list various different foods I'm gonna talk about why these foods are good for you and then at the end we're gonna have a little bonus for you because we all need a little treat in life at first I was gonna try to list the top ten healthiest foods but then I thought that's kind of misleading because it leaves out so many other foods and it also tends to give us the wrong idea about what a food is supposed to do so often I see examples of superfoods people say this is the food that you should eat or they'll say something like what's the number-on healthiest food for us to eat and then people want to find out what that is and they want to eat nothing but that and that gives us the wrong idea of food 

gives us the idea that the food is supposed to do something I often get the question so I have a headache what food am i supposed to eat I have high blood pressure what food am I supposed to eat you're supposed to eat a variety of food

the foods aren't supposed to do anything in terms of treating or changing or altering body function they're just supposed to provide the stuff that your body needs all right so we want to get away from the idea of superfoods okay I think there's some foods that get pretty close like there's just so jam-packed of good stuff there's just nothing bad to say about them but we don't want to think about them as treating anything we want to get away from the number one healthiest food we want to understand that it's the variety that complements each other and gives the body all the different building blocks and all the different catalysts and vitamins and minerals that it's gonna need another thing I want to caution on is natural foods just because something is in the section called natural food doesn't mean it's necessarily a health food they're often made with better ingredients they don't use as many chemicals but very often there's still highly processed so just be aware of that and every time I see that section in a grocery store that's called natural food I can't help but laugh because I ask myself if there is a section called natural foods why don't they label the rest of the store unnatural foods just a thought so because there's so many healthy foods I didn't want to just talk about single items I'm going to talk about categories and the first category of healthy food I believe are non starchy vegetables all right so again I'm not listing these in any particular order because it's the variety that provides the nutrition so non starchy vegetables include leafy greens so lettuce and spinach and kale and any sort of leaf is going to be very very high in nutrients in minerals and vitamins in fiber and it's going to be very low in carbohydrates and starch and sugar so pretty much any leafy green just eat as much as you can then there are things like broccoli and cauliflower and Brussels sprouts and these aren't leafy but there's still low starch so those are also things that you can eat so learn as you go which vegetables have less than 5% carbs 5% net carbs so you take the total carbs you subtract the fiber because some things have like 15 grams of carbs but it's almost all fiber then those are still perfectly fine alright so learn which ones have less than 5% net ARBs and those you can eat plenty of and these vegetables provide enormous amounts of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals primarily number two berries alright there is a lot of talk about fruits and berries and vegetables so here's my little caveat here I think that you can eat some berries but I don't think that more is better and I think that berries are the best type of fruit to eat because most fruit has been altered our ancestors might have had some access to fruit but their fruit was small and tart and it was seasonal alright so humans have never had access to sweet juicy fruit large fruit 365 days a year that we do now and therefore4 that provides a lot of sugar even though it does have a lot of nutrients it does provide more sugar than humans should probably have in the long run so eat some berries eat a little bit of fruit but eat it sparingly and don't think that you have to have it all the time now berries are the best because they are the lowest in sugar they are the highest in fiber and their jam-packed with vitamins the best berries are strawberries raspberries blackberries and blueberries right they're the lowest in sugar and the highest in nutrients category number three are meat animal proteins all right they provide a full spectrum of essential amino acids they are one of the few food groups that humans could live on for a very long time and survive alright most other things that we would eat exclusively for a short time we would perish we would get some sort of deficiency or we just wouldn't get enough fuel or nutrients to survive but animal proteins especially the fat kinds provide enough nutrients that we could live for years I'm not saying that's optimal even though some carnivores are doing really well on that so that would include beef pork chicken lamb and any form of wild animals so rabbit and venison and Buffalo etc and then of course fish so salmon sardines mackerel the clean fatty fish that provide tons and tons of the good omega-3s are the best ones to choose now the thing to remember here is that when you eat an animal then you're only getting food that is as healthy as what that animal ate and if that animal ate a diet that was innate for that species all right so I would do my very best to avoid beef that has been fed to grain because that's very unnatural for a cow to eat grain they do that because it makes the meat more tender it makes the meat fatty and it makes the cow grow it's getting getting a growth spurt they're getting like double the meat out of the cow is to feed it grain for a few months rightso they do that for money and for tenderness and for all the wrong reasons but a cow is supposed to eat grass and only grass and if it does it's a healthy cow the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is going to be in a good balance if you feed it grain now you're messing with nature and you throw that off so if you think that grass-fed is too expensive then do the best you can so you start with one thing and then as you learn and maybe as you develop some habits that will save you money then you can work your way up all right but do the best you can and eat food that has been raised in a natural way so for fish you want to absolutely do wild-caught only because the farm-raised it's just like the cows they feed them things they're not supposed to eat and then they're not very healthy when we mess with nature when we try to change the rules it never ends up in a good way number 4 eggs so there's all sorts of healthy eggs if they come from healthy animals  eggs and so forth but for practical purposes most people are going to talk about eggs from hens or chickens and now what you're looking for again is the higher quality the if the animal if the hen lived a natural healthy life then it's gonna make natural healthy eggs if we feed the hen garbage and hormones and food pellets and we keep it inside and we crowd them and we stress them then the eggs are going to be pale and devoid of nutrients if not toxic so what we're looking for is a standard called pasture raised in the United States that's a new standard and it means that even in in commercial production there's a way of making healthy eggs and it means every chicken lives basically outdoors and they have at least a hundred and eight square feet per animal per chicken so that gives them a lot of space they run around outside they eat bugs they eat grass they eat seeds and sometimes they supplement a little bit with various grains but that's not a terrible thing for a chicken but the main thing is that they have to run around and they have to have a choice of what to eat and they can't be crowded when you look at those eggs you crack them open then the yolk is a deep orange right the mass-produced cheap eggs from sick chickens is a pale yellow you can almost not tell that it's yellow that's how pale they are sometimes whereas the pasture race is a deep orange and what you can also tell oftentimes is that the yolk will be larger even in like a medium egg it seems like the yolk is really now someone brought to my attention I didn't even know this but I have looked and I've seen these in stores that what you want is pasture-raised not pasteurized all right pasteurized just means that they take the cheap eggs from sick chickens and they steam them right they sterilize them with steam or something so they they pasteurize them all right that's not what you're looking for category number five is fats and oils a fat has been demonized because they don't understand that the fat on the body does not come from the fat that we eat the fat on the body is stored by a hormone called insulin that is a result of fructose and sucrose and starches and processed foods but if you eat a diet that doesn't promote insulin then fat is perfectly fine and they rule the key for the fats and oils is that they need to be in a natural state in a relatively natural state so it's great if you get the fat in the food itself but it's totally okay to eat fats and oils like refined isolated fats and oils as long as they're done in the right way meaning minimally processed not heated so things like grass-fed butter is excellent organic grass-fed butter is a great food I go through a lot of that organic extra virgin olive oil organic coconut oil and recently you can find more and more frequent and affordable MCT oil medium medium chain triglycerides and then some other fats that people don't understand are actually pretty good if it comes from a healthy animal then they're perfectly fine so if I make some beef broth some bone broth from healthy grass-fed organic animals if you make a big pot you might get four or five pounds of tallow left over so you can skim that off you can save it and use for cooking and if you know where it comes from then it's a healthy fat and something to keep in mind about these concentrated fats is that most pesticides most toxins most hormones are fat soluble that means that if you concentrate the fat into these products you're also going to concentrate the toxins that's why fats it's worth spending a few extra dollars on getting the organic and the clean stuff because if you don't then you're buying a product that has concentrated the toxins along with it category number six are nuts and they can be an incredibly healthy food right you don't want to overdo it because they do contain some Omega 6s you don't want to make it like the main part you won't want to make it a foundation of your diet but mixed in as part of all the other stuff it's a very very healthy food and you want to focus on the nuts that meet three criteria the ones that taste good raw because raw maintains keeps more nutrients alive once you roast them or process them then they lose nutrients and you can alter some of the fats in there you also want something that is low in carbohydrates and you want something that's high in fat because the highest one in fat means they have the lowest amount of carbohydrate and in that order we have macadamia nuts and pecans and walnuts and almonds so these meet all of those criteria that I talked about walnuts and almonds are a little bit higher in carbohydrate but you're not going to eat a ton of these nuts because they're so dense that you're typically going to be okay even on a low carb or a ketogenic diet another great thing about nuts is that they're also very high in fiber and they're very high in protein so you're getting a lot of nutrients all packed into a little bit of food category number seven is seeds and they're often kind of lumped together with the nuts but I like to put them separate because they are quite different and you don't really use them the same way a lot of the times and especially not the ones that I emphasize so my favorite seeds are chia flax hemp and pumpkin and while the nuts are things that you can often bring in a snack bag and you just take a few and it you can crunch on them and it tastes good you're probably not gonna be munching on flax seed and chia seed they sort of just sit there in your mouth and you got to chew forever and they don't taste bad but it's not the way that you typically eat those but they're great for low heat cooking you can make sort of like an oatmeal with them you can bake bread with them as long as you keep the heat down they're great for smoothies and if you eat something like yogurt then instead of cereal you can just grind up some of this and put on the yogurt instead of cereal and what seeds have speaking for them is that they're usually very very inexpensive especially recently as they become more popular you can find in the United States you can find these at Costco and it's like they're just giving them away almost and they're extremely high in healthy fats in fiber and in protein it's like they just packed those things in there and there's virtually zero carbohydrate in there even though the total carbs can look high it's almost all fiber so the net carbs are very very low they're like three four percent and you don't want to rely on plant food for Omega threes exclusively but they can be a good foundation and Chia and flax have the highest level of omega-3 fatty acids in of any plant but you still want to get some omega-3s from fish because the Chia and flax omega-3s they're just the precursor and the conversion doesn't happen the way it's supposed to and it doesn't happen in a very large degree to a very large percentage some people say you can eat these omega-3s and make fish oil but it doesn't work like that a lot of people convert as little as 1% of the omega-3s implants into the actual omega-3 that we get from fish number eight is avocado and I think that's not necessarily a superfood because like I said I don't want to think of foods that way but I think it's so great in so many ways that I made it its own category all right it is great tasting it's creamy it's high in natural fats you can eat it raw  you can just open it up and spoon it or you can cook with it you can put it in dishes you can make guacamole from it and it is so satisfying that it becomes almost a meal in itself it goes with anything like who can argue with avocado another thing I recently talked about the fasting mimicking diet and avocado would be the perfect food there because it's high in fat and it's very low in carbohydrate and it's very low in protein so it's like it's really the perfect food don't think of it as a superfood just think of it as a great staple that fits with everything category number nine is something called tubers or root vegetables they grow underground and they're usually pretty starchy they serve as an energy reserve for the plant and examples would be yam or sweet potato potatoes rutabagas turnips carrots and something called celery a core celery root now these are very starchy so some people want to avoid them if you are trying lose weight if you're on a very low carb diet if you're doing keto or if you're insulin-resistant then you do not want to eat these hardly at all but if your insulin sensitive you reach your goal weight or if you're doing some some carb cycling maybe you're doing keto during the week and then you're loading up a little bit more on carbs during the weekend then these are the perfect foods to get some quality food with some carbs without getting into grains and things that cause inflammation they are however very starchy so you don't want to eat too much of them but they're great you can use them instead of potatoes for mashed potatoes or you can use several of them to mix them up a little bit to get some more variety and a deeper flavor they're also great to chop up in little cubes if you're doing a vegetable soup or a beef soup or something like that category number 10 is herbs and spices so things like garlic and ginger and turmeric cinnamon cloves cardamom cilantro parsley dill rosemary all of these are highly highly nutritious all right they provide micronutrients you're not gonna get many macronutrients you're not gonna get any protein or fat or carbs to speak of but you're gonna get lots of minerals you're gonna get lots of vitamins and you're gonna get some things with medicinal properties but on a natural level so I don't want to think of them as medication right there are supplements you can use herbs and and these do have some tremendous benefits but again think of them mostly as things that make food taste wonderful all right but garlic ginger turmeric they do have antibacterial antifungal antiviral properties the turmeric is anti-inflammatory it helps with gut healing so and cinnamon has been shown to have some benefits one blood sugar so there are some tremendous benefits to these just don't get go crazy and start using them as drugs don't think of them as taking something for something just incorporate them frequently in a healthy diet all right here's a little bonus for you and it's something that isn't necessarily like a food but we have to have some treats in life I think that makes life a little sweeter but we want to understand what we're getting so chocolate is something that gets people really excited and a lot of people they say oh I'll give up anything but I'm not gonna give up chocolate but there's a big difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolates so when people talk about the benefits of chocolate they say oh well dark chocolate has all these benefits the reason is that cocoa has nutrients all right the cocoa bean is a plant with some nutrients that can be very beneficial but milk chocolate has a lot of sugar that ruins and more than ruins the benefits so the darker the chocolate is the less sugar it has and the way you can sort of get a rough idea is that if you're getting a 78% cocoa content in the chocolate then the rest is sugar so you just whatever isn't cocoa is sugar if it's got 85% cocoa it's 15% sugar right so chocolate is pretty high in carbohydrate but most of that carbohydrate is fiber so you can subtract it so I like chocolate that's somewhere between 78 and 85 sometimes I think that 78 is the only good one and other times I think oh the 78 is too sweet and I prefer the 85 but the darker it is the more satisfying it is the less you feel the need to overeat and with a piece of 78 percent chocolate so if you have something like a lint bar that one has eight pieces in a bar so if you have one piece that's 1/8 of a bar that gives you about 1.5 grams of sugar all right so if you're trying to keep absolute zero on the sugar then don't eat chocolate but if you have one or maybe two pieces you're not adding a tremendous amount and if you get up to 85% you're getting about one gram of sugar per piece a lot of my patients will tell me that you know I can tolerate some dark chocolate but I can't get higher than 50% cocoa content everything else is just too bitter well don't fear you can change that all right it's gonna take a little bit of time but the more you cut out the sweets and the sugar out of your diet the more your taste buds change right most of our tastes are learned and the more you get away from sugar the more you're gonna find a lot of things that you thought were normally sweet they're disgustingly sweet and as you work your way up as you get more adapted to real food and you cut out the sugar you're gonna start appreciating the flavor of all these things you're gonna learn what they actually taste like and then you're not gonna have a problem with very dark chocolates so 75 78 85 even 90% chocolate is going to be very flavorful 

 dangerous foods we feed our kids There are a lot of people who would prefer to get their children fed with safe and high quality food, instead of getting them unhealthy and eating food that is very low in nutritional value.

 There are many reasons children need food that is healthy and nutritious. These foods help them develop their bodies and physical health and keep them away from harmful health effects. It will help their immune system function properly and improve their mental abilities. In addition, they can be helpful to prevent many negative diseases like asthma, obesity, diabetes, and so forth. However you have a child or children, you should choose wisely the kind of food you buy for your family. Parents want to think about these things when choosing which kinds of products their children should eat. You must know if its safe (free from unhealthy ingredients and possible hazards), how much time and what kind of money do you need for giving your child. The quality of the product, prices, and what kind of meal you will give to your kid are some of the key factors that should be taken into consideration. 

Do you want your child to know how to make good, delicious food? Or does your child need something difficult and complicated? The importance of selecting healthy and well-balanced meals for your little ones doesn't end here. They are also important for their mental health, as they will help him or her deal with their routine. Your child's behavior affects the success of your business, so be sure you can meet their expectations. For instance, a busy parent might not consider paying for a simple meal for her child. When considering this thing, you need to talk to your supplier. If you discover that he or she is not providing enough healthy food for your child, you may need to change your order to other brands and spend more money on this.This means you will be spending more money on your child. Another factor is the possibility that there are different types of fruits and vegetables grown for various purposes. So it needs careful planning before being bought. Not all veggies can be used by toddlers; you can consider buying a vegetable that can easily grow in sunny weather. Don't forget about fresh produce! There are many reasons why it is better to use fresh vegetables and fruits, such as that it makes your home look healthier, fresher, and cleaner. The price will obviously depend on what kind of vegetables, fruit, and grains you usually use. Some may come with packaging, so they could be more expensive than vegetables grown on their own, but they're worth it: fresh fruits and vegetables will only cost you 15–25% more! Be aware of price, and be careful when purchasing anything from supermarkets. You can check the ingredients and compare them to those in the supermarket. Fresh produce and fresh vegetables can be a good thing! The fact that they do not come from pesticides means that you can be ready for your groceries without worrying about your kid having any pesticides in the environment. It is important to do research and buy produce and vegetables that you can trust, especially those grown in the most suitable environments, avoiding contamination. Healthy and well-cooked vegetables are best, so don't buy canned spinach. Besides vegetables and fruits, there are lots of other healthy foods you can add to your child's diet by making this process very easy. For example, there are plenty of recipes where we can prepare salads,

 sandwiches, pasta sauce, and even a drink made from egg white, milk, and lemon juice.

 Add vegetables and fruits to your child's meals, and you have an excellent way of preparing healthy and convenient meals for your little one. Also, many foods can be found in natural stores or in special offers. That means you can try using vegetables from the garden and cook up the dishes yourself without having to deal with any chemicals. Remember that you don't want to spend too much money on buying goods because you will need it later if you plan something else after you have given your baby a tasty meal!

Unhealthy food we eat daily

 

Most unhealthy foods Unhealthy is an umbrella term which describes a lot of different things that may be harmful to human health. Often, it's hard to identify what exactly a person is trying to say when they say that someone has been suffering some type of illness or disease. In order to take preventative measures, individuals need to look at their diet and realize how much junk that they eat each day can affect them in many negative ways that will ultimately lead to illness. Below, I summarize some of the most common types of unhealthy food that people eat... Starchy vegetables This vegetable has many forms, such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, beans, mushrooms, red peppers, and asparagus. I also known it as kale, spinach, or romaine lettuce. They also have lots of beneficial nutrients, like vitamin C, potassium, calcium, protein, and iron. However, it is very easy to overdo on the amount of starchy vegetables by having this vegetable every day. Starch is actually a sugar. So, when the amount of starch increases, it can make people feel full. This way, they may end up consuming more foods that are high in the carbohydrates that cause high blood pressure and diabetes. According to the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), there should be no excess amounts of starch as it can decrease digestive enzymes, so it slows digestion down. For example, if you have a ton of pasta and potatoes, your digestive system is going to suffer. Plus, it can be harder to digest. These vegetables can also contribute to weight gain because they are mostly empty calories. If we do not know what we are actually eating regularly, we can develop issues with the brain and our gut. Proteins As mentioned above, I made proteins up of amino acids. When we intake too much of protein from our meat and poultry products, it can be difficult for the body to produce enough digestive enzymes. In fact, I need digestive enzymes for healthy digestion. As well as digestive enzymes, the pancreas produces insulin for the metabolism of food so that it cannot be stored and used for fat. In our daily meals, I recommended a small portion of protein to help us get the right amount of calories per day. To avoid excess protein consumption, it is best to consider adding more protein-containing food to your menu. That said, it does not mean that something can avoid altogether all meats. The USDA recommends that there are only three to four servings of protein per week. Many processed foods When people think about processed foods, they often think of fast-food chains like McDonald's or KFC, but this term only covers one third of processed products and not everything that goes into making burgers and fries these days. You need to know what you are actually consuming regularly in order to see whether it is good to realize the health impact and choose wisely when buying foods. One thing that everyone should know is how dangerous processed foods are to their health. Many times, they filled processed foods with saturated oils and artificial flavors. For instance, one tablespoon of peanut butter can contain upwards of 30 grams of saturated oil. I find saturated oils in several fruits and vegetable products. And artificial flavors can add flavor and sweeten your food with nothing else in it. Unfortunately, these ingredients are really easy to find. These additives and preservatives affect digestive enzymes. Also, many fast-food chains provide excessive amounts of sugar to compensate for the lack of fiber that is usually present in the natural sources of foods that aren't fried, mashed, and baked. As well as providing sugar, they also often add other ingredients, such as starches and sauces, to help keep a consistent taste and texture. This is especially important for kids who are watching cartoons and television shows on their phones. Processed foods will not keep their flavors intact, which can turn off their taste buds. The extra sugars in these processed foods can cause a buildup of plaque in the arteries that causes inflammation when eaten. This inflammation can interfere with the ability to regulate blood flow so that we have low oxygen-carrying blood that leads to other conditions like heart failure. So people should limit themselves to 4 to 5 portions of any single meal. Foods high in sugar This is another common food word that we often forget to monitor and think about, but again, this dissent means that we should skip out on foods with high levels of sugar. High sugar levels can affect how many healthy hormones and neurotransmitters reach our cells and can lead to depression. Sugar also reduces the immune system's ability to fight diseases. Sugar causes inflammation, which makes cells release more substances like cytokines. Some foods that have high levels of sugar include bananas, creamers, cakes, ice cream, chocolate, and fruit juices. According to the U. S Department of Agriculture, there are approximately 300 calories in a banana. Nowadays, people use both refined and natural sugars. Added sugars result from the extensive production of industrial chemicals and energy. These manufactured sugars come in a wide variety of sizes. With this, children can consume larger amounts than healthy adults. When you see brands of food, it says that they made the product with real fruits and vegetables. But something actually loaded these processed foods with trans fats and added sugars. I found trans fats in virtually everything, even though it is highly unlikely that people knew that these were bad for them until recently. The added sugars and refined grains that are commonly used in processed foods can increase your risk of developing obesity. This is actually what triggered the epidemic of overweight and obesity. People in certain areas may have an increased number of calories that they are taking in and not being able to burn. We can know this because of the large percentage of obesity that occurs in developed countries. Chocolate I also considered chocolate to be a high level of sugar. Not only does a chocolate bar have around 15 grams of sugar. But for a regular bar, it has roughly 40 grams of sugar. A few slices can have anywhere between 10 to 25 grams of sugar. Although these products denied contain fat, people still want to eat them. It is extremely tempting to try something new when you know it won went last long and is low energy dense. Most people don don don don’t know the difference between chocolate bars and brownies and don don don don’t realize this when they watch TV. Chocolate bars are just like typical snacks except that instead of having milk, they have caramel and candy pieces in them. What is really interesting about the chocolates is that you can add sprinkles and dark chocolate chips to create fun shapes. Chocolates are essentially just sugar and sweets. They come in a wide range of different colors and tastes. There is only one specific brand that can be claimed to have the highest amount of cholesterol. I made this up of over 70% of all chocolate ingredients. Over the years, we have seen people ingest a higher number of food items that are rich in saturated fatty acids. A few examples of saturated fat in food include avocado skin, nuts, and cheese. Even if the content of saturated fat ascent is that big of a deal, it can increase cardiovascular problems and also cancer risks. Many people may think that these two things are unrelated. While these two have no relationship, they go hand in hand. When we eat these foods, we can absorb them through our stomach and intestines. Along the same line, we can also pass on them to our liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. But while we can pass on these foods, our bodies will eventually produce digestive enzymes that break down into alcohol and the harmful fat (fatty acids) of our bloodstream. Because of this, people often end up drinking more alcohol that they should limit themselves to a glass of water every day. Foods containing genetically engineered organisms or changed crops Because of the increasing global population, there is a great deal of interest in breeding plants to improve the fertility rates of soil and to grow healthier plants. This is done by using the genes from other crops to enhance the growth of new plant species. Another method that people use is genetic engineering, where scientists take the DNA from animals, bacteria, and plants and insert it into other entities. Scientists can then harvest the desired results. However, it was discovered that this technology makes plants more vulnerable to the growing season because of their changing hormone-related metabolic pathways. Their metabolic pathway alters every year. It causes plants to lose their leaves and flowers every summer before they bloom in spring. It can also trigger flowering when the plants are near the ground. Scientists can now change the amount of sunlight and heat that your plants can get during the winter. Plants are not used as a food source anymore because of the safety concerns. They can grow to be almost identical to the plants which already exist around the world. This might harm the environment just as well as the animals living on the Earth. When GMOs are planted in places like Iceland or New Mexico, it can threaten animal populations. GMO seeds often end up being pollinated by insects and birds in nearby environments. Animal and insect pollinators are a major factor in the spread of GMOs and other pests. Overall, even if something sounds safe and nutritious, it could be dangerous in the long term if left unchecked. The problem with this is that there is no evidence to show that this ingredient would actually be a threat to humans or animals. Artificial Sweeteners Many companies have used artificial sweeteners that replace sugar in their syrup and juice mix. An artificial sweetener is basically a chemical that gives a boost to your sugary dessert without giving you any actual sweetness. Artificial sweeteners that are currently available are called sucrose, glucose syrup, cane sugar, dextrose, xylitol,

Importance of superfood for kids

       Importance of superfoods for kids

A Superfood for kids: This blog is part of the Natural Health Guide Series, hosted by Dr. John Mascolo, Co-Founder and President of The Good Housekeeping Institute, and edited by Emily Spalding.

As parents realize their children's food preferences, there are more and more foods that can be added to a child's diet. In fact, many foods are now designed to be nutritious but also tasty! What if our young kids could eat only natural foods? Who would have anything else to fear? After all, as much as we all love delicious things, it would be nice to keep them happy as well, right? And what if they were in control of how they wanted to eat? Well, this might just be the perfect idea for those parents. Here is why you should start implementing some healthy practices into your kid's meals.


A simple breakfast: This could be one superfood that most people don't realize until they're trying it. We all like to serve up scrambled eggs. Or maybe pancakes and veggies? However, when I was little, my mom taught me I couldn't have both a pancake or two because she said "you grow out your muscles when you sleep." When she told me this, she meant no harm, but it definitely gave me an insight into what she means when she says a meal is Mary nutritious€ when you get protein from dairy foods. As a result, my mom developed her own special form of protein - she called hers Post-Parmigiano-Calculus Protein (or PPCP). It's a type of protein that your body burns. If you ever heard that phrase "You lose muscle mass when you eat," you probably already know exactly why. PPCP is a good source of extra protein that will keep you lean and strong. Your brain needs a steady supply of amino acids just like any other animal needs proteins. So it only makes sense that you need to take more than enough time to prepare your kids' meals. They're going to think that you've had more time to prep it for them and you're not, so they won't complain when you skip out on one important ingredient.

A snack: This isn't just about snacks, either. There are plenty of treats that are packed with nutrients and taste great. Just like regular snacks, there are a few that have certain vitamins and minerals that are extremely beneficial for you and your child's health. You can make these simple and delicious frozen ones too. But, just like eating a spoonful here and there, don't waste your energy and always include a serving of fruit and vegetables. Even on days where your meal doesn't require lots of protein such as an egg scramble or oatmeal, fresh fruits are a healthier choice for breakfast. Just look at all the benefits and know that your child will get some of his/her daily dose of vitamin D while staying hydrated. He/she won't worry about getting tired from long walks because they can focus better on schoolwork now that they're getting enough water to stay energized throughout the day. Plus, they'll develop more strength and endurance throughout the day because of the Vitamin C content in each banana that's served!

Something sweet: Instead of cutting down on sugar, you can give your child something sugary that they actually want. We have tricked most of us into thinking we don't like sugar. So we give them a cookie, ice cream or a drink that tastes amazing. Then when dinner rolls around, we still like to say we had sugar or the kids are going to get sick because it wasn't exactly what they wanted after all. Don't fall into this trap. Try something different with your kids. Go beyond the simple candy bar or chocolate chip cookie. Nowadays there are even options for flavored milks and pastries. With each piece of cake or toy you buy, try experimenting a bit and find things that your child likes. Make every treat something that they want; instead of making it seem low-income. That way they can feel really proud of themselves and want to share it with friends.



The end, or the beginning. These types of foods give us peace of mind. We know what foods bring us joy and we know what foods are best for our kids. Why stop? Start the journey of learning what's best for our family today and be prepared for the next generation. Parents need to do more than just encourage healthy choices. They need to be realistic about what they'll allow their kids to eat. No matter what age, we all have a responsibility to provide our kids with quality food that they truly enjoy, sacrificing nothing important. Maybe they don't get as much calcium and iron because they aren't in enough blood group to get that from milk, but that's OK for them. We can help them by telling them to give it to them! We can't have what they can't have!