Those of us who are parents are constantly struggling to feed our kids a healthy diet. We all know the pressures of a time packed lifestyle and the constant lack of control we have when the kids are at school, on a play date or or with another family. There is often a sense of guilt as we trade off health and convenience. It is late in the day, the kids are screaming and you see the golden arches up the road. Sound familiar?
At some point though we have to make the kids want to eat better on their own, so that they have some motivation and reason to eat better. We recently did an interview with Dr. Joel Fuhrman, and the following clip is part of the discussion focusing on the issue of children and diet:
Click Here To Listen To Jackie Wicks, Joshua Wayne and Joel Fuhrman Discussion
Click Here To Listen To Jackie Wicks, Joshua Wayne and Joel Fuhrman Discussion
Why Do Kids Need To Eat A Diet High In Fruits And Vegetables?
With the cells rapidly replicating and developing, children are very sensitive to the damaging effects of certain foods. Additionally children who overeat are at greater risk for adult cancer. Dr. Fuhrman cites the "Boyd Orr Study" which showed that children in the highest quartile of fruit intake had a 60% decreased risk of all adult cancers over the age of 50.
"Disease Proof Your Child": Summary
Most people know the book Eat To Live, which has become a very popular diet book. But Dr. Fuhrman has also written a book called "Disease-Proof Your Child" in which he explores in detail the link between childhood diet and health. There are profound short term and long term effects.
The most striking of the book are some of the statistics he presents, and these really hit me (and if you have watched the Disney Channel recently promote healthy eating during some of their valuable ad slots you will realize that they know these stats as well)
-The total caloric intake of natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, raw nuts is less than 5% in the average child in the US. As this percentage increases, occurrence and risk of disease decreases
-Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer and is the second most common cause of death in children. Low consumption of vegetables and fruits before and during pregnancy has been linked to this
-Taking supplements alone is not sufficient- we need the total package of "micronutrients" in foods to ward off disease.
-Allergies and autoimmune diseases are strongly linked to high consumption of refined and processed foods
-Sugar, butter and cheese contribute the most calories to children's diets in the US.
-Cheese consumption has tripled in America in the last 30 years
Most of us know that generally we need to "feed our kids better", but a book like this really helps to spell out in detail why we need to make this a priority. A lot of the work we do with our various coaching programs on PEERtrainer has to do with developing deep reasons to do something. If you have children, or plan to, you will want to take a look at this book to really develop the why and also get some great tips on how to actually implement a better diet.
Disease-Proof Your Child is available in paperback now. You can also get a hardcover version, and they have recently put in on a 5 CD audio set to listen to in your car. It cites study after study, and has 16 pages of footnotes citing various studies, in addition to many chapters on very practical questions and suggestions.
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