Whole Foods - Better for Your Kids! ~ part 2
Posted on January 9, 2008
Photo by Savannah Grandfather
As promised I am back with the continuation of the “Whole Foods – Better for Your Kids” article. In this second part, I will explain in greater detail why you should feed your kids whole and organic foods. There is a growing popularity in America for going natural, whole, and organic for good reason and that reason is our health. We have the highest rate of sickness and disease of any country in the World, and while we have the best doctors and health care all of us still get sick. One problem with our medical industry is that we are always reactive not proactive in treatment. Do you go to the doctor before or after you are sick? Do you feed your body the proper nutrients so it can take care of itself? With my career in maintenance I have learned that as long as you work on the symptoms, the problem will never go away. To eliminate problems you have to go after the cause, not the effect!
Proper nutrition will go a long way to reducing your medical bills and eating organic foods, while slightly more expensive, is a small price to pay for your health! Organic foods have less pesticides and chemicals on and in them that hurt your bodies natural defense system. Think about it for a minute. If you help a plant fight off harmful insects and disease it will not develop any natural defenses. By eating plants that have not developed their natural defense system, you also do not get the benefit. It is pretty simple to me, if you cripple the plants defense and artificially allow it to flourish, you are taking away all the naturally formed compounds that help YOU fight off disease.
Whole Grains
A whole grain is one that contains all natural parts of a grain kernel. The bran of a kernel is the outer shell of the grain that is mainly for the protection of the seed. The endosperm is the tissue surrounding the embryo of the seed. The germ, the last part of a whole kernel, is the embryo or heart of the seed. A nice diagram from Wikipedia is shown below describing each part of a whole kernel. Whole grains are substantially different from the refined grains that are typical in most conventional foods. Refined grains only contain the endosperm which is mostly carbohydrates with little nutritional value.
Probably one of the most significant differences is whole and refined grains is the amount of fiber that whole grains food. Besides the well known benefits to the digestive system, a diet high in fiber has been linked to reduced cancer rates, helps maintain a health heart, and helps many diabetics control their blood sugar better. Eating whole grains provide your children with all the natural nutrients that they need to grow up healthy. Many refined foods are “enriched” in the manufacturing process to help from the removal of the natural vitamins and other compounds. While “enriching” refined grains may help, it is not even close to the benefits of eating the whole natural grain.
Healthy Snacks for Kids
As a new parent I never realized how much kids snack. We are very good as parents to feed our little boy nutritious, whole, and organic foods, but he still is like all children and wants to snack. We have combatted many of the problems of snaking by letting him snack on healthy snacks. It is easier to find organic and whole foods at the grocery stores and healthy snacks are in high demand. It seems like in most of the major food stores that it is easier to find organic snack than it is to find organic produce. I am sure that the lack of organic farming is part of the problem, but many farms are increasing their investment in organic farming to supply the growing market.
Some of our favorites:
- Organic apples
- Organic oranges
- Organic bananas
- Organic pickles (the favorite the past few days)
- Organic baby carrots
- Organic yogurt
- Organic apple sauce
- Organic string cheese (comes in many different types)
- Organic Cheetos
- Organic milk
- Organic snack bars (lots of options from fruits, nuts, chocolate, bran, and granola)
- Organic cereal (Cherrios and Fruit Rings are excellent dry snacks)
- Organic peanut butter sandwich crackers
- Organic cheese sandwich crackers
- Organic fruit cups
- Organic blueberries
- Organic strawberries
- Organic Pop-Tarts (a term you can not say around our little one with out him running to the kitchen)
- Organic grape tomatoes
- Organic fruit roll ups
- Organic trail mix
- Organic Popcorn
- Organic Doritos
- Organic chips and salsa
- Organic dried fruits (apple, mango, banana, etc.)
If you have a hard time finding snacks take a look at the display below of all the different organic foods that can be purchased through Amazon Grocery. Snacks are easily purchased online because many of them are packaged and are light so shipping is not expensive.
Another Look Forward
It looks like this article is becoming a series almost, but I will be back with a third part in the near future to get into even more details. The subject of your kids and nutrition is so important I do not want to rush and skip over any of the details and meat of the topic. For more on eating healthier and organic foods check out some of the similar articles listed below.
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» Filed Under Family, Health, Nutrition, Organics
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5 Responses to “Whole Foods - Better for Your Kids! ~ part 2”
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Great stuff Brad! You’re a new dad eh? How old is the little one?
My little boy is coming close to 11 months now. In that time we have gone from eating no organics to having organics comprise a lot of our diet.
Our little boy is 17 months old and he is into everything now. It is amazing how much they learn and how fast they learn at such a young age. They are in a constant mode of learning.
Going organic is such a wise decision in our view. We have pretty much feed him 100% organic foods and he has never really been sick. He has had the chicken pox and a minor arm injury but as far as colds, viruses, etc. we have been really blessed. If you ever need any ideas on organic foods for the little one just let us know. My wife has been excellent at finding organic foods that he enjoys.
[...] Whole Foods - Better for Your Kids! ~ part 2 [...]
[...] I am back with the final article of what has become a short series dealing with the your children’s nutrition and eating habits. The first two articles, “Whole Foods – Better for Your Kids” and “Whole Foods – Better for Your Kids ~ part 2” covered most of the areas about why your children should eat whole and natural foods, but I will cover fruits, vegetables, and a have a special section on resources in this final article. There is so many studies and physical evidence out there on why you should make your kids eat good foods that there is not enough time or space to put all the information into a short series. After reading this series, I encourage you to spend some time researching and seeking out further information on nutrition and how to eat right so your family can be more healthy! [...]
Wow!! Great information. This is a good site for organic foods. You gave a excellent note on the sequence to bring organic foods. The art of organic gardening is simply growing food in an environmentally and health friendly manner.