Every mother want to feed their children best possible food and give them as good as possible start in life.
My observation is that nearly every mother I meet THINK that they are actually doing quite well and its rare for me to hear a mother admitting to not doing well because its almost like attacking our own identity to admit that we on a daily basis manage less than optimum.
I often hear statements such as I make sure I feed my little one a balanced diet- and we don’t feed them junk and my daughter is a fuzzy eater.
Here is the problem:
A growing child up to 15 years of age has HUGE nutritional needs, more so than an adult. For example per kg body weight a child need MORE protein and MORE calcium than an adult would require. When we talk about malnutrition, we are no longer speaking about children not getting enough food, they are getting too much of the wrong foods.
Did we see obsese children 10 years ago? Not to extent we see today? Is the quality of the nutrients in grains, rice, vegetables, fruits, more or less today than 10 years ago? Every one knows the answer. Is the amount of dangerous processed oils used in every day food and processed food higher or lower today than it was even 5 years ago? What about sugar consumption? Did you know that we on average today consume nearly 35% more sugar on an annual basis per person than was the case 20 years ago.
A good friend of mine who happens to be one of the top pediatric dentists in Mumbai, observed that it was nearly unheard of that children had root canals done 10 years ago, and today its becoming common? Why – its not because of the quality of dental hygiene and toothpaste but because of excessive indirect sugar consumption.
I will in my next article share some practical tips I use for giving my own 10 and 7 year old daughters a great start in life – and my husband and myself also follow similar principles.
More on this specifically in next article, in a few days…!
