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Children’s bodies are like high-powered combustion engines that need not just enough fuel, but the right kind.
If New Zealand is a land of milk and honey, Kiwi kids are drinking too little milk and eating too much honey.
Key findings recently released from NZ Food NZ Children, the Ministry of Health’s National Children’s Nutrition Survey, found that children lacked calcium and dietary fibre, their intake of milk (ideally the reduced-fat kind) was poor and takeaways were on the family menu two or three times a week.
Jam and honey rated as the most popular spreads, while only half of the under-15 year olds studied managed to chomp their way through the recommended intake of five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Sobering findings. But try talking to your children about the long-term benefits of nutritious food and watch their eyes glaze over.
“You’ll see much better behaviour with children, they’ll feel calmer, learn better, be more alert and sleep better if they are well-fed,” says paediatric dietitian Lea Stening, who has studied how diet affects learning and behaviour.
Popular packaged snacks such as muesli bars, crisps and crackers are often high in saturated fat and provide energy that’s burned up quickly, leaving kids running on empty.
For Lea, who specialises in sports nutrition and has worked with New Zealand Cricket, New Zealand Rowing and New Zealand Paralympians, one of the most critical issues is protein intake.
Many of us eat little or no protein during the day, and then exceed the recommended single serving of meat (100g) at night. Instead of a carbohydrate-only breakfast of cereal and toast, adding in an egg, a slice of cheese or some
yoghurt fuels the body with sustainable, slow-burn energy, which means you’re less likely to reach out for a high-fat snack.
It’s easier to get children accustomed to new tastes and textures as toddlers. Try spreading bread with raspberry jam and cottage cheese, then rolling it into a pinwheel sandwich (standard cottage cheese has a 4 per cent fat content, compared to 24 per cent for Edam).
Start introducing wholemeal or wholegrain bread from the age of three or four, avoiding dense, heavy loaves. Bran can also be added gradually to cereal, starting with a couple of tablespoons and building up to no more than
half a cup.
Calcium levels begin falling in girls from the age of six or seven, and in boys aged 12 and over. Lea says children should be drinking trim or calcium-fortified milk, with goats’ milk, rice milk and soy milk all good alternatives.
Aim for two or three servings of calcium a day (250ml of low fat milk, one pottle of low fat yoghurt or two slices of cheese count as a single serving).
Between meals, bread-based snacks such as hummus sandwiches, pikelets and scones are a better option than muesli bars, biscuits, chips or crackers. Fruit smoothies can be whipped up with banana and berries for an after-school energy boost, while fruit or popcorn (dusted with icing sugar rather than butter or salt) makes a good high-fibre, low-fat choice.
For lunches at home, canned tuna, baked beans and spaghetti with a sprinkling of low-fat cheese are a good source of protein, but (like all processed foods) can be high in salt. Although it’s important to limit sodium intake, more than half of the children in the national nutrition survey were iodine deficient, while girls aged 11 to 14 were most likely to be low in iron.
Don’t feel guilty about stocking up on frozen vegetables. They’re just as nutritious as fresh, sometimes more so. Frozen peas, for example, have a higher level of vitamin C. It’s important for parents to lead by example, says Lea. “You can’t tell your kids to have breakfast if you’re standing at the bench making school lunches. You have to get your own diet right first.”
Let’s do lunch
A healthy lunch can provide as much as a third of children’s daily nutrient needs. The trick is getting them to eat what you put in their school lunch box. Here are some tips from Lea:
Children under seven love to unwrap things – try bite-sized snacks such as a mini cheese muffin or pitabread pocket with grated cheese and pineapple, a small dinner roll with their favourite filling, dried fruit, or cheese and crackers.
Low-fat foods rich in protein, such as cheese, eggs or lean meat, not only aid growth but also fuel kids’ engines for three to four hours.
Carbohydrates in bread, cereals, fruit and vegetables provide dietary fibre and energy for up to two hours. If your child is a nibbler, keep quantities small by trimming crusts off bread and offering smaller fruits such as apricots, plums and mandarins.
Keep lunches cool by putting in a frozen drink bottle or frozen foods such as muffins, pikelets, fruit buns, peas, fruit jelly or yoghurt that can thaw during the morning.
Water and raw fruit is more sustaining than fruit juice, so keep a freshly filled water bottle in your child’s backpack. Flavoured reduced-fat milk is healthier than highly coloured or caffeinated drinks.
If a child has an after-school job, sport or drama, pack an extra snack and drink. However, younger ones can be put off by the sheer volume of food, so keep their lunches small and interesting.
Encourage children to make their own lunch and also let them buy it occasionally. They may even surprise you by choosing something healthy!
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