Food Freedom Friday Edition 235 - Low Carb For Kids
There are so many great benefits to following a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet that it becomes natural to want to share the results with friends and family and urge them to do the same.
However, if you are a parent, it might not be as easy. Explaining to a young child that cutting carbs will improve their blood sugar levels and reduce inflammation is no easy feat.
By switching your child to a low carb diet, you will be helping her develop better, healthier eating habits for when she get older too. It is easy to say you will cut out sugar and junk food from your child’s diet, as these are obvious changes that need to be addressed in any case. But what about the hidden sugar and nutrient-poor ingredients found in everyday, seemingly healthy food?
A low carb diet for a child means that she will eat more meat, vegetables, nuts and dairy – all of which are rich in vital nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Up until the age of 10 children require as many nutrients and vitamins as possible, as this the stage that they grow and develop the most. Here are where good, healthy eating habits, will set the stage for adulthood. What your child eats today will have an impact on her health in the future, making it vitally important to take diet seriously.
It is never too late to introduce your child to a healthier, low-carb diet. Children are incredibly adaptable so this is the best time to get them used to healthy, wholesome food. Remember – you’re setting them up for the future.
Although a diet filled with processed and refined carbohydrates food won’t cause diseases and illness overnight, excessive exposure to foods high in sugar, carbs and crop oils will eventually have an effect on the body and create chronic inflammation.
Is A Low-Carb Diet Healthy For A Child?
A low carb meal will mean blood sugar levels remain stable and energy slumps and mood swings are avoided. More importantly, there will be far less to inflammation and diseases. You might have reservations about introducing your child to a low carb diet but they actually need less carbohydrates than you might think.
It is important to understand the nutrient density if foods. Take a chicken sandwich as an example. Most, if not all, of the nutrients, are in the chicken and salad. The bread is simply there as a carrier and filler but provides absolutely no nutrition as from the sugars and grains which are only causing chronic inflammation. By removing the carbohydrates from a child’s meal, you are allowing her to enjoy more nutrient dense vegetables, proteins and healthy fats.
Importance Of Healthy Fats
Healthy fats are an essential part of a child’s diet. Omega-3, in particular, is essential for eye and brain development and can be found in most oily fish, grass-fed meat and avocados. Healthy fats can also aid tissue development, hormone production and healthy brain function.
Examples of healthy fats include clarified butter, eggs, red meat, oily fish and nuts. If cooking with oil opt for beef fat, olive or coconut oil and avoid seed oils which are highly processed and can cause inflammation.
The Problem With Crop Oils
Fried food (or yellow food as I like to call it) has sadly become a staple in most children’s diet. Many kids’ meals will contain some type of fried food like chips or nuggets and the oil used to cook them are just as unhealthy – if not more. Highly processed seed oils like canola oil or sunflower oil can lead to inflammation, which is the root cause of most modern diseases If these oils are in your home I urge you to swap them for olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil. If you must give your children ‘yellow’ food, skip the frying and try to oven cook them instead.
Fruit And Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables contain carbs but these are better for your children than the processed options. Most of them are packed with vitamins, antioxidants and fibre which all essential for a child’s healthy diet. However, fruits and vegetables are not equal in terms of nutrition and some are better for you than others.
Most fruits contain high amounts of fructose, a naturally occurring sugar. Fruits that are lower in sugar include berries, which should be given no more than twice a day. Tropical fruits, which contain more fructose, should be eaten less and dried fruit should be avoided completely.
Fruit juices are also deceptively unhealthy and most of them contain just as much sugar as a fizzy can of pop! A glass of orange juice is not the same as eating six oranges, it’s the equivalent of consuming the sugar in six oranges. When you consider this it’s best to stick to water.
‘Healthy’ Wholegrains
You can be forgiven for assuming a wholegrain option of your favourite starch is okay, but these are still incredibly processed and contain little or no nutrients. Wheat and grains are hard to avoid and can be found in most food, which means they are constantly being consumed. This is a leading cause of inflammation and high blood sugar levels. By cutting out the grains in your child’s diet they will have more of an appetite for vegetables and proteins.
Keto & Growth
One of the most common myths is that your child’s growth will be stunted without carbohydrates. The source of this myth comes from a study on a “ketogenic” diet being used to treat epilepsy. Along with the fact that severe epilepsy has its own growth and development implications, the diet prescribed was a 4:1 fat to protein diet. For every gram of protein, they had 4 grams of fat. This protein ratio, especially for children, is dangerously low. Children need MORE protein than adults to fuel growth.
The general recommendation for adults is 0.8 times your lean mass (in pounds) for your protein grams a day. Kids need much more to fuel growth. Young kids like toddlers need 3.0 times their lean mass. Early teens maybe 2.0 times their lean mass. The children in the study were receiving significantly less protein than these recommendations which in turn resulted in growth issues. The poor formulation of the diet resulted in growth concerns and challenges.
Furthermore, focusing on such high fat requirements results in low nutrient density of the diet. In nature, whole foods like animal proteins do not have a 4:1 fat to protein ratio. You have to add significant amounts of fat to reach this target. Animal proteins are very nutrient dense and adding lots of fat (which is very low in nutrient density) results in a diet low in nutrients and protein which is also bad for kids growth and development.
Simply focus on real, whole foods and complete animal proteins and the healthy fat that comes with it for you, and your child.
A Well Formulated Low Carb Diet for Kids
What does a low carb diet for kids look like?
There are a couple recommendations that are different when it comes to kids and low carb. Children need more protein (per pound of lean mass) than adults. While adults have a protein goal of about 0.8 times your lean mass (in pounds) for grams of protein per day, your child needs much more to help fuel growth. Healthy growth requires sufficient complete amino acids to build new muscles, bones and tissues. For young kids around 5-8 years old or so, they need about 3.0 times their lean mass for their protein goal each day. Pre-teens and teens need about 2.0 times their lean mass.
Generally speaking, there is no need to limit the protein. Let your child eat as much as she needs along with all the healthy fats that come with it.
Growing children should also avoid any form of fasting (intermittent or otherwise). Kids growth demands require a lot of fuel and their stomachs are not large enough and they thus require 3 meals a day and sometimes a bedtime snack. Your child does not, however, need to be snacking all day long. If she eats until full with three meals she generally will not require any snacks except occasionally in the evening.
Picky Eaters
Parents assume their child is a picky eater, but in reality, they simply do not have the same attention span to eat meals like an adult. Offer more variety at meal times by including small portions of meat/fish, vegetables and dairy. You could even use a plate with compartments and make it into a game.
Chances are the child who is labelled a picky eater is allowed to eat whatever she likes, as long as she eats SOMETHING! This is a mistake that parents make from the outset as it teaches the child that if they continue to resist healthy meals you will give up and give them whatever food they want. You may even offer snacks in between to make up for a missed meal, not realising that this will only fill them up before the next meal. It becomes a vicious cycle!
Avoid ‘quick-fixes’ when feeding a picky child. Instead, let her wait for the next meal to eat so that she is hungry enough to finish (or at least try) what you have placed in front of her. After doing this a few times your child will begin to understand that skipping a meal does not equate to a yummy treat.
For a picky eater, the issue may also be about control and not being able to choose what she wants to eat. Involve your child as much as possible in the meal planning. Another trick is to allow them to leave one piece of vegetable on their plate. Often the child does not realise that there are extra vegetables to make up for this, but the feeling of control is created.
Switching your child’s diet to low carb need not be stressful. Meals do not need to be complicated or fussy – stick to fresh ingredients and keep it as simple as possible. The key is to stop turning to processed, packaged food every time.
Transitioning Kids To Low Carb
· Throw out the junk food – if it’s not in the house your kids can’t eat them. Simple.
· Ensure they have access to lots of protein
· Increase the amount of omega 3 in your child’s diet by feeding them more oily fish, avocado, nuts and organic meat
· Cook with your kids and get them involved in the meal planning process so that they feel empowered.
· Ensure to have all ingredients at home ready and available
· Avoid buying unhealthy carbs so that there is no temptation
· Save the take-out for special occasions only
· Entice with a small reward that is not food related