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Home > Children's Health & Parenting > What not to feed your child

What NOT to Feed Your Child!
by Stacelynn Caughlan

As a parent, I understand the overwhelming pressures to feed children sugary snacks and fast-food meals. Well-meaning friends and family sometimes have difficulty understanding your motives when you try to limit the non-nutritious or harmful foods your kids eat. While they may feel you are depriving your children, rest assured you have science supporting you!

Sugar and Refined Grains
1. Sugar is listed under many names: glucose, fructose, galactose, honey, corn syrup, etc. Alway read labels carefully. Ingredients are listed by weight. Manufacturers often use a variety of ‘sugars’, thus reducing the individual ingrediant weights. If totalled though, sugar might appear at the top of the list.

2. Sugar seriously depletes white blood cell capabilities for up to five hours after ingestion, thus limiting your child's body's ability to fight off viruses or bacteria it comes into contact with.

3. Sugar stimulates LPL (lipoprotein lipase) which encourages the body to store food as fat.

4. Sugar is linked to diabetes, heart disease, and learning difficulties in children.

5. Refined grains (white bread, pasta, rice etc.) and sugar contain little to no nutrition. They do, however, require nutrients for their metabolization. This means the body "robs" nutrients from the other foods eaten to metabolize sugar and refined grains, with little left over to support your child’s growth and health.

Trans-fatty Acids
1. Trans-fatty acids (TFAs) are found in hydrogenated oils and fried foods i.e. breads, crackers, cookies, pastries, cereal, infant cereals and formula, potato chips, pudding, frozen foods, fast foods, etc. Read every label carefully. Fast food restaurants will often use an hydrogenated oil for deep-frying.

2. TFAs interfere with enzyme functioning, liver detoxification, and essential fatty acid metabolization.

3. TFAs are linked to cancer and heart disease in children and are known to suppress the immune system.

Non-organic Foods
1. Children's foods are often concentrated (water is extracted from baby-food for example) thus concentrating chemical residue.

2. Children are also more likely to eat a lot of fruits, juices, fruit bars, etc.

3. Many farm chemicals are tested and approved for 150 pound males, not children.

4. Chemicals accumulate in the fat of animals, such as those found in the animal's feed (pesticides, fungicides, etc.). Limit meat consumption and remove all visible fat. Whole fat dairy products (milk, cheese) are also likely to contain higher residues.

5. As of March 1999, the crops with the highest residues in the US were: peaches, apples, grapes, green beans, pears, spinach, winter squash.

6. British Columbia residents take note: Produce grown in BC are subjected to a lot fewer chemicals than other provinces and countries. Buy BC whenever it is not possible to buy organic.

Stacelynn Caughlan is a Clinical Nutritionist and Certified Herbalist who specializes in Prenatal and Pediatric Health.