Eating Healthy

Reflections

Eating Healthy is critical to a child's physical and mental well-being. By utilizing the food pyramid as a guide we encourage you to ensure that your child's nutritional needs (and yours too) are met.

It's always important for a child to have 3 well balanced meals per day along with healthy snacks. Breakfast should never be skipped, as this provides the energy to cope with hectic school days.

For more information on healthy eating, we have supplied a number of website links listed below:

• Compare what you eat to the food pyramid
  
• The food guide pyramid
• The British Dietetic Association
• Healthy Eating for Children

It is important to have as many meals as possible together with your children. For us, it was breakfast and dinner, daily. Not only does this help by allowing you to share a meal as a family, but it also allows a family catch up on what's happening in each other's daily lives. Children tend to live what they learn, and when they see their parents eating healthily, it also starts to become a part of their way of life.
 
Eating Healthy, the Lighter Side

While growing up, I recall receiving a mandatory regimen of cod liver oil daily. Mommy would be standing on one side of the refrigerator with half of an orange and daddy would be on the other side with a bottle of cod liver oil and a teaspoon, while my two sisters and I lined up to get our daily dose. The orange however, proved to be a redeemer of sorts, as it distracted us from the horrible taste left in our mouths by our cod liver dosages. They always insisted it was good for us, they could be heard saying "It will keep away the colds and help you to grow big and strong". As children, we children felt that Milo (a chocolate drink similar to Ovaltine) would work just as well.

After breakfast we would always get our animal shaped vitamins and Ribena was the drink of the day. Of course we preferred sodas.

Carrots, callaloo(which is similar to spinach), beet, tomatoes, pumpkin, cucumbers, string beans and lettuce were all a part of our regular diet. Of course we preferred candy, chocolate, patties, pastry, cheese trix and chips. We also loved eggs, chicken, fish nuts and peas, so we did in fact select (unwittingly so) our sources of protein and iron.

Sugar cane helps to keep the teeth healthy, we loved that so we had a lot. Carrots helped to keep the eyes well, we ate lots of carrots in the hope that we never had to wear glasses to school.

We loved milk however and also had lots of cheese.

At the end of every school term we had to get the dreaded "wash out" (a detoxification procedure involving the use of medicines and herbs) to cleanse our systems. Boy!! Our parent's thought that we had to be squeaky clean both outside and in. It was their way of ridding us of the "unnecessary" junk food which all children seem to be attracted to and keeping us healthy for the next term.

The information on this site is for information only, and is not intended for use as
medical fact or treatment.