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July 22, 2010
Kids Can Eat Better!
Here are five common offenders and what you can eat instead:
Fruit juice and fruit drinks
Juice and juice drinks can be high in sugar and calories. Kids 1 to 6 should have no more than 4 to 6 ounces of juice a day. Kids 7 to 18 can have a serving double that, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Instead, try diluted juice. Give a 1- or 2-year-old an ounce of pure juice mixed with 3 ounces of water. Then, the child can drink that juice mixture four times a day. The best option is to ditch juice and eat fruit instead.
Convenience meals
Parents often turn to ready-made frozen meals for a quick supper. But preservatives and sodium far outweigh the convenience, and the meals rarely contain vegetables.
Instead, cut back on the number of times a week you serve these convenience foods, and instead cook simple meals. Baked chicken, baked potatoes or steamed carrots aren't that hard to make and are much more healthful.
Breakfast bars and energy bars
Not all bars are created alike, but most are packed with sugar. Breakfast bars like Nutri-Grain cereal bars are occasionally OK because they do have some form of grain. But these shouldn't be eaten regularly nor as a stand-alone breakfast.
Instead, opt for granola, whole-grain toast or hot oatmeal.
Hot dogs and chicken nuggets
These well-loved choices are the saviors of busy parents with picky children. But hot dogs are made of processed parts with lots of sodium and additives. Chicken nuggets also have too much of the bad things and not enough of the good.
Instead, buy preservative-free, all-meat hot dogs, like chicken hot dogs. And for chicken nuggets, make your own by rolling chicken breasts in egg whites and bread crumbs and baking.
Whole milk
We all know that milk is good for you, especially in promoting strong bones and teeth. But the saturated fat and cholesterol in whole milk is so high that the artery-clogging disadvantages outweigh nutritional benefits.
Instead, children older than 2 should drink 1-percent or skim milk. It seems watered down, but it actually has more concentrated vitamins and minerals because of the removed fat. Other high-protein milk options include soy and almond milk.
Posted by Lisa at July 22, 2010 9:02 AM
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