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Article How to create a good mood food family

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If you are a parent concerned about the wellbeing of your child – their brain power, concentration, energy, emotions, and healthy bodies then it makes sense to be concerned about their nourishment.

Did you know that…

  • 1 out of 5 teenagers are likely to experience a diagnosable depressive episode.
  • 1 in 10 kids is diagnosed with ADHD, which makes concentration very difficult for them.
  • 1 in 3 kids has hormonal skin and cycles which affects their happiness.
  • 1 in 3 kids has allergies related to food, which affects their mood and sleep
  • 1 in 4 kids in Australia has more body fat than they require, which zaps their energy.
  • Every kid would like to feel good about themselves and get rid of those ‘self esteem bombs’ that rob them of their energy, brain power and feel-good hormones.

The good news is that food – quality nourishment – can dramatically improve all of these issues our children are facing.

There are four key foundations for nourishment in my own home and the homes of our healthy clients:

  1.         Real food;
  2.         Some grains;
  3.         Fat eaters, and;
  4.         Veggie munchers.

Real food

It is really quite simple, each week start ‘crowding in’ so much good, real food that your family doesn’t realise that the packaged cereals, processed muesli bars, and high sugar lollies are missing. How to tell real food? A quick easy way is that it often doesn’t have a label – like a banana, apples, nuts or meats.

Some grains

There is a bit of grain discrimination going on in the world.

One of the issues with grain is that is often highly processed – like wheat.  Even when bread is whole grain, we don’t get the same nutrient density from this carbohydrate as other foods and because it has been heavily processed it may cause reactions in our bodies that our grandparents never saw when they ate bread.  Our preferred carbohydrate sources are vegetables, legumes and gluten-free grains like basmati or brown rice, quinoa, millet, and buckwheat.

Fat eaters

Fat feeds our brain, balances hormones, keeps us warm and provides us with a feeling of fullness.

Enjoy ‘good fats’ like olive oil, walnut oil, chia, linseeds, salmon, trout, olives, (other) seeds and nuts but enjoy the other fats too. Butter, nut butters, coconut oil, coconut milk, cheese, and a modest amount of saturated fat has been found ‘not guilty’.  If you are still a non-believer and need to see the evidence try searching online for ‘The role of reducing intakes of saturated fat in the prevention of cardiovascular disease: where does the evidence stand in 2010?” in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Veggie munchers

Eat raw, dip in hummus, wrap in tortilla. Stir fry, bake, steam, BBQ. It doesn’t really matter how you enjoy veggies just eat them.  They are full of fibre, vitamins, nutrients, enzymes and nourishment.  Who needs buckets of pills when you are consuming highly antioxidant, naturally low sugar vegetables.

Food is meant to be enjoyed.

Bring back the love of food. Bring back the family meal. It doesn’t need to be extreme; it needs to be easy and tasty. When a child is truly nourished, their food stabilises their mood, hormones, emotions and creates lean, healthy immune systems and bodies.

For more information visit www.myfamilywellness.com.au Low Sugar Lifestyle program Oct 2014

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Comments

  • This was an interesting mini article. Thanks for posting!

    Reply

  • Thanks for the article, I’m hopping to give my daughter I good well rounded diet. These tips will be very useful

    Reply

  • interesting read = especially when broken down into the 4 catergories

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  • Some great facts here I had no idea about!

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  • Love your ideas. Improving my family diet on the way…

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  • it is amazing how much that food can affect us and our children. those statistics are amazing. this is an eye opening article. it makes me wonder how many kid’s are on medication because of doctors not trying to look at diets as a big factor towards children’s behaviour.

    Reply

  • Have a look at this email from some one who really knows about anxiety,depression and all components of health!….
    “ Mental Health, emotional well-being and clarity of thinking are in my view all enhanced by a low sugar lifestyle. As a family we’ve kicked the habit (not hard) and its awesome! The science is all moving in this direction. For our own sake and the sake of future generations we need to address the “sugar” epidemic in all its manifestations. Michele and her team know what they’re about and practise what they preach. Bravo!” Peter Joseph,AM
    Chairman, Black Dog Institute
    Chairman, St James Ethics Centre
    Chairman, The Health-Science Alliance, UNSW Campus
    Former Chairman of St Vincents and Mater Health, Sydney and St Ignatius College, Riverview

    • wow i just think that this is a lot. wow

    Reply

  • I wonder if you could provide sources for those statistics? Some are quite shocking.

    • I know sad right? I am an evidence based writer… you can find all those statistics on my book Beating Sugar for Dummies and on the MINDD Foundation website.

    Reply

  • great tips, thank you

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  • great read

    • Thank you … what else do mums want/need to know around nutrition for their kids… talk to me!!!

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  • great tips to remember i often sprinkle chia seeds in my children’s weetbix they have no idea also sprinkle them through salad etc, i cut a platter of fruit in the morning and pop in fridge kids come and go picking at it as they please rather then “packaged snakc foods”

    • Excellent idea with the chia seeds. Full of essential fatty acids for the brain and fibre for the pipes!

    Reply

  • we don’t eat any processed foods in my house, but I do find it hard to keep the kids interested in their vegies all the time. I need to find more tasty recipes that don’t require too much preparation time

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  • Wow those numbers are very scary

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  • Thank you for the great tips and ideas. While we know what to eat, sometimes we get caught out coming up with ideas constantly.

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  • thank you I have been to the dietician lately and I have been any processed for a long time lately although I have still taken on all the other little hints

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  • Great tips – thank you!

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  • It’s so straightforward & logical when you look at it this way. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Reply

  • Although we do have butter sometimes, we usually consume low salt cholesterol lowering margarine..just can’t seem to convince me butter is OK FOR THE ARTERIES.

    Reply

  • An informative and interesting article

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  • Interesting and thought provoking article.

    Reply
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