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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Food Restriction: Yay or Nay?

This week I reached out to the parents of the community via Facebook to see what issues are affecting families these days.  One reply that I received wanted to know about food restriction. This reader wanted to know if they should restrict food with their child to help with weight loss.

I want to start off by saying that in no way do I want children starving.  They are growing bodies and the future of our world.  However, the majority of today’s children are overfed and undernourished.  Many portion sizes are at least double of what they should be, stripped of nutritional value and over processed.  With low quality food choices, you definitely want to keep an eye on the portion sizes of your child’s plate.  I don’t recommend that you constantly tell your child “you are eating too much” or “don’t eat that.”  That’s like telling someone not to think of chocolate cake and then that’s the only thing they can think about.  If you constantly tell them those things then you will be counter-productive with this issue.  Make sure that you are providing food options with a high nutrient to low calorie ratio.  This is going to be fresh produce such as fruits, vegetables, and berries.  If the quality is good, then you don’t have to pay attention to portion sizes as much.   

·         TIP - Try cutting up an assortment of fresh vegetables and placing them in different compartments of a muffin baking pan.  Also, place an assortment of fruits and berries in some of these compartments.  Place on the kitchen counter or coffee table and let your child graze on these food items.  You have provided a variety of good food choices with little effort for your child.    

To keep both children and adults from being tempted into bad food choices, don’t keep tempting food items in the pantry.  If it’s not available, then you will be less likely to eat it.  Everyone is going to eat out of convenience.  If there are cookies in the pantry, then you might bypass the apples sitting on the kitchen counter.  Basically, if you keep bad food items out of the pantry then you won’t end up treating your child’s stomach like a garbage can.    

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