How to keep youngsters mind healthy
published:
Thursday | July 17, 2008
Laura Redpath, Freelance Reporter
Children enjoy sweet desserts, but these should be had in moderation.- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Here are some tips to keep in mind when keeping your child on the healthy track.
Children spend September to July, hitting the books and learning mathematics, Spanish, English, etc. Summer is the time to learn all other lessons, like cooking!
Here are five tips to keep in mind when keeping your child on the healthy track:
1. Babies are already sweet
Toddlers don't need sugar. Keep things as natural as possible without the artificial flavouring. So forget the ice cream, the cookies, the chocolate and all other sinfully delicious food. What your child doesn't know will not hurt him.
2. The calorie count
Do not encourage your child to count calories. This can lead to obsessive behaviour that might be even more unhealthy than obesity. Make healthy eating habitual by being aware of what the healthy foods are and preparing healthy meals for your child.
3. Routine is good
Having a routine for a child is a good thing until he can develop his own. Try not to feed your child too late. Metabolism slows down as the day wears on. Have a good breakfast to kick start the metabolism which provides energy. Energy is needed to keep your child active and alert, while at school and during the holidays.
4.The family that eats together stays together
Get children in the kitchen as soon as they're tall enough to see over the counter. Encourage them to prepare healthy meals and snacks with you. This way, when the child is alone, he will be conditioned to prepare healthy meals for himself.
5. Let's talk about health
Parents love to grill their children about smoking, drugs and sex. Make health a topic on that list. Talk about heart disease, diabetes and treat obesity as drug addiction. All are serious and all must be addressed.
Breaking down calories
Food labels are constantly ignored. But they are the secret to healthy living. Here is a short and easy way to understand food labels.
1. Don't let "reduced fat" and "low fat" or "light" or "lite" fool you. All of the above are only required by US standards to have 50 per cent of the original fat count, or one third less calories per serving. If the regular label has 17 grams of fat and "lite" has 12 grams, that is still a lot of fat. Look out for fat free (contains no more than 0.5 g of fat per serving) or low fat (3g of fat or less per serving).
2. Read what the "per serving" is carefully. Don't let the word "serving" trick you into believing one bag of cookies is the serving. If you read the label carefully, you might see "per serving = one cookie". Uh oh.
3. To have a well-balanced diet, focus more on carbs and proteins and less on fat.
4. Pay attention to saturated fat, trans fat and unsaturated fat. The first two are deadly. Well, they can be. Those are the two types of fat that increase one's risk of heart disease. For example, butter, meat fat, whole dairy and meat products, packaged baked goods like cookies, French fries and doughnuts. Examples of unsaturated fat (the best fat of all) are soybean, sunflower oils, fish, olives, olive oil, canola oil, nuts and avocado. Don't cut out fat altogether, just choose the right one. It is needed to absorb vitamins A, D, E and K and it keeps you warm.
Healthy alternatives for the summer
1. Forget the soda and all those sweet juices with artificial flavouring and go for water. Water quenches thirst. Soda is dehydrating.
2. Have mustard instead of mayonnaise.
Tiny pizzas
Prep time: about 15 minutes
Ingredients:
1 standard-sized bagel, cut in half
Tomato sauce
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Toppings like diced green pepper, chopped onion, or chopped tomato (whatever you like)
Seasonings like oregano, basil, and pepper
Directions:
1. Set the oven to low heat.
2. Spread tomato sauce on each bagel half.
3. Sprinkle the shredded cheese all over the tomato sauce on each half.
3. Add your favourite toppings.
4. Put a light sprinkling of seasonings on each half.
5. Put your bagel halves on a baking sheet.
6. Bake in the oven on low heat for about five to eight minutes. You'll know they're done when the cheese is bubbly.
7. Let cool for a minute, then enjoy your tiny pizzas!
Serves: One
Serving size: two tiny pizzas
Pretzels
Ingredients:
1 tbs yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp honey
1 1/3 cup flour
1tsp salt
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 Fahrenheit (165 Celsius).
2. Put the yeast into a small bowl with the water and honey. Stir a little, then let the mixture sit for five minutes.
3. Mix the flour and salt together in a medium-size bowl.
4. After the five minutes is up, check on the yeast mixture. It should be bigger than before and a little bubbly. Add this mixture to the flour and salt mixture.
6. Stir everything together. Use a spoon to start. Finish with your hands. The dough is ready when it's still a little crumbly and flaky.
7. Sprinkle flour on to a cutting board. Put the dough on to the cutting board and knead it as you are playing with clay. Knead it into one big ball.
8. Break off a piece of dough that's about the size of a big gumball. Use your hands to roll it into a skinny snake.
9. Twist the snake into a medium-size pretzel shape, and put it on to a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Do this with all the dough, making 12 pretzels.
Bake your pretzels for 10 minutes. Let them cool and take a bite!
