Junk Food Jungle; how do we protect our kids?

Lately I've noticed an issue repeating itself to me; how do we control the quality of the food our little ones eat? Other mothers have asked about it, I've faced it with my son, and it's been in the media (again). It's a real issue. Those of us trying to maintain health are often faced with opposition from other parents. Those other parents themselves suffer from nutritional confusion and lack of reliable information. How do we do the right thing?

My wise old herbal medicine teacher used to say; "if I could wave a magic wand I'd get rid of sugar. Then I'd be out of a job." She meant that most of the unwell people who sought her help probably wouldn't have become unwell if their gut flora had not been damaged by the refined foods in their diet. She was underscoring the point that if whole foods were the only foods available, we would all be well, without having to make the choice to eat well.

The unfortunate reality is that many of the things available to eat in this world are not food. They're  slow acting poisons.  They are often the easiest edible options. They're certainly the most tempting. Some even masquerade as health foods! So keeping them out of our kid's bodies becomes increasingly difficult as their ability to exercise free will increases. The aware parent ends up having to walk a tight-rope between health and sociality, a situation unique in human history.

Until the last century, the only thing available to eat was food. Food that we have eaten since we first became homo sapiens. Food that our bodies are familiar with and able to draw nutrition from. Foods in their whole form. These foods are specifically:

vegetables, meats, fish, eggs, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), fruits, nuts, whole grains, and in some areas, raw milk products like cheese, yoghurt, whole, milk and cream.

These are the ingredients for health, freedom from pain and disease, in both the short and long term. The diet we subsisted on since evolving from apes has been more or less the same for tens of thousands of years. All those years that we lived without chronic lifestyle illness. Without rampant childhood allergies and "intolerance's". Without dentists, podiatrists, nutritionists, psychologists... These foods are still available to us, but we don't choose them often. Instead we feed ourselves and our children:

boxed cereals, processed milk, refined wheat products, processed salts, fizzy drinks, processed meats, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oils and a cocktail of added chemicals like colourings and shelf-life chemicals, given the friendly sounding name, preservatives.

This list of "food like substances" (to borrow a phrase from Michael Pollan) are the slow acting poisons. They provide no nutrition (fats, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants) whatsoever, but use up our body's stores in being ousted, they destroy our delicate gut flora, which is our defence against acute and chronic illness, and they age (oxidise) our bodies. Very few people really comprehend the extent to which they are damaging to us. Their very availability suggests their relative innocence. It's understandable that most parents, untrained in nutrition, fail to suspect them of systematically destroying their kids health, mentally, emotionally and physically. But we shouldn't require a degree in biochemistry to choose our foods, that's not fair. Food should be food. Unfortunately refined foods make too many people too much money. We can't expect them to vanish any time soon. We'll just have to be brave and make the choice to feed our families the way their bodies expect to be nourished.

Kids are born with an inherent expectation that their diet will consist of the first list of foods. They don't, until they've already experienced them, want, much less need, anything from the second list. Not even on their birthday. The parent usually has a nostalgic attachment to the idea of treat food. But we have a responsibility to inform ourselves in this age of nutritional confusion, for our kid's sakes. Inform ourselves, but also listen to our intuition, because we know this stuff, deep down!

In recent decades it has become socially unacceptable to restrict our kids diets to the former list, the real foods. We who try hear the catch phrases "You can't control them", "You have to let them try it", "They'll be teased at school" and my favourite, "Balance in all things".

Lets talk about balance. Equilibrium. That feeling of centredness, in control of ones emotions, calm, contented. This sounds like a happy way to feel. Does it sound like most kids - people for that matter - that you know? Does it describe you? Studies show the startling difference in before and after MRI shots of subjects' nervous system from sugar alone. A normal, versus an inflamed, agitated nervous system, unable to contain itself. How does a three year old bear this? Hydrogenated fats attack the stuff our brains are made of. Low fibre high refined carb foods like bread stick to the wall of your bowel and become a festering mass of disease, destroying normal flora and leaking toxins into the body, clouding thought processes. There is ample evidence that colourings lead to hyperactivity.  How can a little body facing this barrage of biologically unfamiliar substances feel balanced? It can only feel out of control. And that's a decidedly unpleasant way to feel. There is no balance when it comes to junk food. Nature created balance. She even gave us fruit and honey. Big business created junk foods, for profit. And that's the only reason it's still available.


So what can we do?

There are certain healing foods that we can feed our kids on a daily basis which protect them on that odd occasion when the only food available is refined junk. This happened to us recently at an event, where we thought good food would be available but were 'caught out'. As Antonio gets older he's just going to see it and grab it. Here's what I do.

1) The healing foods I include daily are bone broths, fermented foods (yoghurt), egg yolks and LOTS of fresh plant foods. This will protect little intestines when junk sneaks in. Yoghurt and yolks can be added to a fruity breakfast smoothie. Bone broths can be added to soups, stews, risotto, pilau/biryani...

2) Be a champion of healthy choices by refusing to cave in at social gatherings and parties. Until we actually start catering our gatherings with food we'd happily feed our kids every day, nothing will change! Kids don't go to parties for the food. They go because they're social. They want to play, not eat. Keep your emphasis on their true priorities.

3) When at a junk-foody social occasion, feed your kids loads of high fibre, high fat food first, like a good chicken and veggie stew, cheese and raw veggies, bean casserole, avocado and carrot sticks or some fish poached in coconut milk with steamed veg. These foods satisfy the body with the nutrition it wants, so it stops asking for more.

4) Be the change you want to see. Modeling good food habits to kids makes them believe it's the norm. Parents are always right to a little kid.

In my next post I'll give some ideas I've come up with for healthy party foods for kids. If you have some ideas please let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Healthy times!
XXX