Month: June 2018

As a  Nutritionist, I am in agony to plan healthy eating routine for a teen weighing more than a 100kg or suffering from Type II diabetes or  diagnosed with high cholesterol. It’s a scary future we are heading towards. It disturbs me even more because all these conditions are highly preventable and reversible.

In most health surveys done worldwide, it is found that children are consuming far too much saturated fat, sugar and salt and not enough fruit and vegetables.

“Teenage girls are facing the risk of illnesses like cancer, heart disease, strokes and diabetes in later life by eating fewer than three servings of fruit and vegetables every day” – as per the Hindustan Times.

A recent  diet survey in Beijing found that nearly two-thirds of students favoured sugary beverages and weren’t drinking enough water.

A UK Health report has equally bad findings stating children eat 50 per cent more added sugars than the recommended maximum and 25 per cent more saturated fat.

80% of US teens have an unhealthy diet.

1 in 3 Australian kid buys unhealthy takeaway meal daily.

Modern day  couch potato lifestyle has adversely affected our kids. Chronic diseases and mental health problems have started  to hamper the health of much younger groups- younger than we can imagine!

All one needs to control this scary scenario is to Eat Healthy ,Eat Natural and Eat Real. We as parents have to ensure to guide our kids right from the early years. The importance of eating right and worth of healthy body.

 

What is a well-balanced diet?

A well-balanced diet is one that contains enough (neither less nor more) of all food groups and hence nutrients. It is a perfect blend of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. All from natural food and not out of a packet.

Where do we go wrong?

One main indicator is the changing patterns in food availability- more packaged than real and the increase in convenient easy to source food.

This becomes a bigger problem because parents are not aware of all the harmful effects of the entire bag of chips or packet of biscuits, colas and instant noodles their kids consume.

Popular advertisements showcase teens preparing their own pasta and noodles but these processed foods are extremely harmful in the long run.

The result from such a lifestyle is that we are taking in chemicals, hazardous trans fat, high saturated fat,  excessive salt, artificial colouring and harmful preservatives. It’s not just about your child’s weight or  waistline, but an unbalanced diet  breaks almost every aspect of the body. What goes on your child’s plate, has an impact on everything: his productivity, memory, growth, and his overall health in later years of life.

If your child regularly feel gassy, constipated, always hungry, depressed, frequent bad moods, fatigued, cold, break out into rashes, have low immunity and avoid entire food group all together – then he is a candidate for an unbalanced diet.

 

Why are teens more subject to unbalanced diets?

 Do you see your child opening the fridge or food cupboard once in two hours? Do they crave pizza or chips or ice-cream?

As teenagers grow and develop, it’s normal for them to feel hungry frequently. Your child’s body is going through a major growth spurt and extra food provides extra energy and nutrients to support this. The more instant-energy processed carbs they eat, the more unbalanced their diet will be.

What to feed? Refer to our blog Easy Healthy Snack ideas for Kids for details.(http://umanarula.com/blog/2018/06/10/easy-to-prepare-healthy-snack-ideas-for-kids/)

 

How frequently your child eats outside food?

 Today’s trend veers more towards eating or ordering from out versus preparing at home – by this we cede our control over the quality of ingredients in the food that we are consuming to nourish our body. Also, not practicing proper meal times has become a part of our modern lifestyle today. But whatever you prepare at home even if its pizza or cheese fondue will be healthier than what you get outside.

Try and cook more at home – cook in batches if required – pre-prep ingredients – make it a family activity – but cook at home!

Planning and doing same may seem a little daunting at first, but is easily do-able once you get the hang of it. Well-planned meals will then become second nature to you.

How is your teen affected by social media and peers?

Social media, celebrities, peer pressure all lead our kids towards fad diets. Keto, Paleo, Lemon Detox, General Motors, Atkins…all contribute towards no balance. While they work short-term, over time they deplete the body of vital nutrients.

I find many teenage girls lacking in iron, calcium and other essential vitamins and minerals, irrespective of their age.

Your child need to know how every  bite that they put into their bodies affects them. Educating your child about  wholesome meal habits is an ongoing continuous process.

 

Tips to educate your child

• Show kids what “eating right” looks like: If eating healthy is routine for you, it will be for your child as well. You are your child’s best role model.
• Help them choose healthy: Visit a local farmer’s market over a supermarket. Processed options automatically get cut down.
• Create a healthy food environment: Involve your kids in meal planning,grocery shopping ,chopping the veggies, finding out a new recipe. These tasks are great bonding activities. Help your kids gain ownership and eat better.
• Avoid calling foods “good” or “bad”: All foods have a place in your plate. Instead of saying this is good or bad for you, make it fun to differentiate. Good foods such as whole foods can be green lighted, lesser healthy foods like vada pau can be orange and biscuits and French fries need not be off limits but are red-lighted in their minds. How? Read Further.
• Discuss how food affects the body: Discuss all good things about healthy eating and how it affects their body rather than just telling them to eat this not that. Explanation matters and clicks them.
• Make meals fun: You don’t need to lecture on good food during meal times. If pav-bhaji is on the menu today, add your hidden veggies inside. If pizza is demanded, add a salad as well. Make meal times happy, satisfying and a time to bond.
• Talk about portion size. It’s not just what kids eat that matter.Right Portions and timings matter too.
• Limit sweets.Explain why excess sweets can make them feel yucky from inside! Offer fresh fruit for desserts and limit treats to two or three times a week to keep cravings for sweets in check.
• Help kids stay in touch with their “hunger cues.”: Help your kid determine their own appetite and understand how much is enough. Chewing slowly, banning screens, portion control, tasting what they eat are all pointers to help them pay attention to how much they’re eating and when they’ve had enough.
• Change their meeting place: Rather than meeting up with their friends at the local cafe, suggest a food outlet that serves healthier foods or at swimming pool or basketball club or may be just a garden for a walk.

If you still think your child needs to lose or gain weight, do not self-diet. Speak to a nutritionist – this will help you chart out the best healthy eating routine  for your child as per his specific requirements.

 

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The Nutritionist in me cannot deny the significance of snacking for kids. Snacks often get a bad reputation but if chosen wisely they are integral fillers in between big meals. Kids grow fast and need frequent refuelling. Snacks are saviours to meet the daily nutrient requirements of our kids.

Being a mommy , I can relate well to one of our pet peeves as moms ‘kitna variety banao?’. Breakfast, Tiffins, lunch, after-school snacks and dinner….

That’s a bit too much to take in everyday…especially since most moms are working now and our kids have an equally packed schedule post-school with their classes, tuitions,sports etc.

So how do we solve this conundrum without having to resort to sugary, fatty and junk. To keep them from grabbing chips or cola, let’s  get savvy with snacks for kids.

First things first!

Always Have A Plan

We take out time once a week and plan our family’s menu- Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner,right? Include after school snacks too in the planning. You might need to make an energy dense heavy snack for the day your child goes for basket ball straight after school while a bowl of fruits will do on days when it’s an art activity.

Once you know what kind of snack you need to prepare, it sorts out your mental clutter drastically.

 

Have Your Ingredients Ready

Shop for the week once your meal and snack timetable is ready. It will save you grocery runs in the middle of  week. And will also help avoid those impulse chips, cake and cookie buys too.

 

Keep Your fridge and Snack Cupboard Stocked

Teens and even younger kids have mood swings and get bored easily. You may plan to make the favourite and yummiest sandwich or wrap, and your kid will be like ‘not this today, please give me something else!’

Have stuff that you can fall back on. It may be peanut butter, hummus, dips, fruits, rawa, yoghurt, rice flour, oats, besan, green chutney, khajoor chutney, corn kernels, boiled potato or sweet potato anything that your family likes and eats readily.

Now, you can offer your young one something that’s handy and they like .It avoids the fights and the power matches. You may also consider involving your little one while planning the menu to avoid such situation frequently.

Beware: You will feed what you stock , so choose wisely and stock healthy!

 

Involve the Kids and Have fun

As moms, we are always in search of that new recipe – be it online, on what’s app, from the colleague’s tiffin or something your friend made at home…’kaise banaya?’ becomes our favourite question 😊.

Listen and learn, but adapt it to your family taste and likes. Don’t be afraid to experiment and include your children in your experiments…they might just get hooked on to.

Talk to your child about the new recipe you came across or ask him to youtube an easier version of same recipe. Involve them in meal planning, simple pre preparations like stirring the batter or packing their own tiffin. Not only will they eat better but they are nice bonding activities too!

Include junk in limits

Totally cutting off their favourite treats is going to result in one sulky kid! Include their favourite treats but as part of a snack – never make that the full meal. Include a cookie along with bowl of fruits or a some chips along with dosa. This  not only cut downs the junk but  also ensures more healthy intake.Special junk treats can be reserved for special occasions.

 

 

Make the food look interesting

Always remember, kids eat with their eyes. The way you present snacks makes a lot of difference.Try experimenting with interesting shapes, bright colours,contrasting textures to make the food look more appealing. Time pressed? Buy a new  tiffin or a nice colourful plate. See the difference this simple change brings in the way,your child eats the same old snack. For a child going to a class straight after class, you might want to provide a mini hamper of one heavy snack, a drink and a small sweet. You can even include a nice note if your driver or maid is assisting them to and fro. It makes them feel special and they will happily eat what you’ve sent.

Cute cherry tomato case I bought to make plain cherry tomatoes look interesting!

 

Now for some quick, healthy and yummy snack ideas!

Here’s a list of easy to prepare snack ideas and some tips that you can use as a reference for your meal-planning.

Fruit Smoothies & Sorbets

Don’t give up on a chance to serve those fruits and veggies! Combine interesting combinations into smoothies or shakes adding a little nuts or dry fruits or freeze them as sorbets for later.

Veggie Sticks & Dips

Cut veggie sticks with dips is another quick pick me up. Experiment as much as you like with yogurt based dips, hummus, guacamole or salsas.

Ready to eat Fruits & Veggies

Fruits or veggies of choice can be kept ready and chilled before your kid comes home. Let them eat them as soon as they come. They can have them plain or with  tangy chaat masala.

PS: Let the child pick fruits and veggies of their choice, take them for grocery shopping,let them experiment with different flavours and textures. Don’t force for a particular fruit or veggie.

Experiment with bread – go beyond a sandwich

Use whole-wheat bread, tacos, pita bread, pizza bases, mini burger buns, large subway rolls for more variety. Can be fashioned into mini sandwiches and roll ups as well.

Make your fillings in advance with healthy ingredients, say paneer or crushed chickpeas or mixed veggies or oiled potato or unprocessed cheese . That way you only need to take out your filling and use it on a wrap or sandwich.

Roti ,wraps or rolls

Here’s one space to get experimental with ingredients.

• You can mix flours (soya, wheat, corn or some local millets) to make your roti base. Spinach /beetroot/pumpkin can be blanched and added to the flour to make it more healthy and interesting.
• Toppings can be Indianised, Chinese, Lebanese whatever you prefer, will bring a twist.
• You may use finely cut veggies, corn kernels or separate some boiled beans or chickpeas or potatoes which you plan to prepare for dinner.

Dosas/Chillas

Doss can be of traditional rice and pulse, multi-grain, semolina(rawa), local millets(Jawar,bajra,nachni) and even oats. An interesting instant combination can be semolina(rawa), besan(gram flour). Moong dal chillas are a great way to get those sprouts in.

 Pancakes

• Pancakes again can be sweet or savoury. Use  whole wheat flour instead of refined flour.Can include some home-made almond flour in them if your kid is not a fan of whole dry fruits.
• You may even add beetroot for a fun pink pancake or pumpkin for golden yellow.

Left-over magic

How to reuse food is an art and a necessity for all of us.

• Left-over rotis: can be made into a khakra, can be torn into strips and made into a bhel, can be cut into small pieces, topped and served as quesedillas.
• Left over idli: simply break into pieces, temper and serve.
• Left-over dal/pulses: Knead them in a dough and prepare base for the roll or wrap.
• Left-over veggies: can be fashioned into rolls or sandwiches.

Bhel Varieties

We Indians love our chaat! Instead of just sev puri or alu tikki, try these ideas as well. Try sweet potato or sprouted green moong chaat or corn bhel or chana chaat. They are simpler to prepare and light on tummy too.

Traditional snacks

Stay in touch with your roots. Be it thepla, moong dal vade, ragda pattice, sabudana vada, uttapams, dahi vada, rasam vada – let your children enjoy the taste of their heritage. Try healthier cooking methods. Like baking the potatoes for ragda pattice or roasting the vada in rasam vada makes the unhealthy, super healthy.

Baked Falafel with veggies!

 

Stay Tuned! Our next write up on Ensure Balanced Diet for Kids -Coming soon.

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