Keeping yourself healthy is a big enough challenge, and i know keeping your kids healthy is a huge task, especially when time as a mother is always against you.
Spending time with my friends children, my nieces and nephews, makes me much more aware of the kinds of foods that are easy to prepare and that satisfy them, but the biggest question is are they nourishing them from the inside out? The Tricks of using, butter, sugar and white grains to fill their bellies cannot be their staple diet. If you know you don't want to eat them then why is it ok to give them to your child?
Every day children are growing and developing so keeping them at their optimum health needs to be a priority. They need the right fuel to keep them going.
When there was a backlash against Gwyneth Paltrow saying she doesn't feed her children carbohydrates and how the press made out that that was so unhealthy. "Read what she actually said" I wanted to scream! If you were to read her book and see what she was actually saying, that she did not give her children REFINED carbohydrates which is an extremely healthy choice, they still get brown rice, eat gluten free pizza and have cakes just not filled with sugar and white flours.
Why is Sugar and refined white flours so bad?
-Highly addictive
-Sends your blood sugar levels all over the place so after the highs come the very big lows with tears and tantrums
-Can cause and encourage obesity at a young age if eaten excessively
-Mood swings
-Diabetes
Here's some advice on what to look for when buying from the supermarket:
- Check to see if the following are in the ingredients list - if they are stay away!
- Cane sugar, fructose, aspartame, white sugar, corn syrup, raw sugar, malt syrup, maple syrup, dextrose and dextrin
- Sugar is hidden in everything so stick to whole grain and natural sweetened products - if you can cook from home even better.
- Using alternatives to these 'Terrible two' are just as easy to get hold of these days. Kids also love being involved cooking - it can be so engaging and great for learning new skills.
-When i have taught my clients children, my nieces and nephews to cook they absolutely love it.From our cook book 'Honestly Healthy' I have made everything from the Sweet potato brownies, granola bars, spelt pizza's, raw chocolate and mango balls, quinoa burgers, smoothies with children. For olvder kids you can try the spring rolls, and the ice-cream as its a little more challenging.
Tips and recipes for keeping the kids happy at the dinner table!
UPGRADES...
From white flour to Spelt / Rice / Tapioca / Teff / Quinoa
From white Rice to Brown / Red / Pearl barley / Quinoa
From pasta to Gluten Free / Spelt / Rice noodles
From white Sugar to Agave / Sweet Freedom / Coconut palm sugar / Raw honey
From chocolate to Raw chocolate, Cacao powder / Pamile vegan sugar free chocolate
From cows milk to Goats milk / rice / Kara coconut / almond / quinoa
From butter to sunflower butter / non hydrogenated fat / olive oil
For kids who love ice-cream, try giving them Booja Booja, its raw and unbelievably good (they also do yummy chocolates). Instead of fizzy drinks, try Gusto, do a brilliant "kola", lemonade and fizzy orange that are sugar and additive free
Ice-pops to make at home - blend up your children's favorite fruit with some water - make a thick smoothie - if not sweet enough add a splash of either Sweet freedom or Agave and then put into ice-pop holders or ice-cube trays - freeze then enjoy!
Hot chocolate to make at home - Blend up 500ml coconut milk (kara), 2 large table spoons of raw cacao powder, 1 handful of raw cashews, 2 table spoons of sweetener (brown rice syrup, agave, sweet freedom or honey) until smooth then pour into a pan. Heat on a low heat until its at your desired temperature. Pour into a mug and slip away into a healthy chocolate coma.