Wednesday: 5 ways to improve performance in your kids

• Hydrate water is always the best option.  In place of juice, kids can have a whole fruit and water.  Fiber is key to mitigating the effect that fructose has on our bodies.  Fruit juice is a wonderful treat, though.  Just keep the quantity in check.  I’d recommend 25grams of fructose or less a day for kids.

Avoid packaged foods an amazing choice for the on-the-go lifestyle, packaged foods are not an amazing choice for our bodies, especially little growing bodies.  Whenever possible choose fresh, local and organic vegetables and fruits.  Always show up with sliced cucumbers or carrots and celery.  It’s easy to add in the junk AFTER they’ve eaten the good stuff, go healthy first and then if they’re still hungry you can feel good about giving in. 

• Keep dairy to a minimum between the chocolate milk, the go-gurts, and the cream cheese bagels kids get exposed to way more dairy then the body needs in one sitting.  Dairy is an excellent choice for calcium, but make sure you’re choosing it for the calcium and not because your wee-one’s become addicted to the massive amounts of sugar found in most of the diary targeted toward kids.

• Throw in a few alternatives to wheat pancakes are every child’s favorite breakfast food, and are often just a delivery system for maple syrup YUM! Try switching from buttermilk to buckwheat, and throw in some Chia seeds for added fiber and omega-3’s.  I recommend doing this very slowly: start with ½ cup buttermilk mix and ½ cup whole wheat.  Once your children are tolerating that mix, move them completely to whole wheat and then do the same for the buckwheat.  We call our Chia seeds Superman seeds, kids love sprinkling them in the mix. 

• Minimize snacking it’s always better to have 3 square meals, then spend the day grazing on snacks.  In fact, starchy, sugary snacks will just lead to more snacking since they don’t really fulfill our nutrient needs.  I recommend making one meal for everyone; party line being: “this is lunch, you don’t have to love it, it may not be your favorite, but you have to try it, and this is it until dinner.”  If kids think there’s an out, they’ll take it.  And not that I care about them generating more work in the kitchen, kids need to know that you’ve selected these foods because you know what’s best for their growing bodies.  Nutrition is not up for negotiations – neither is running into the street!