Make It Simple: Four E’s for Better Nutritional Health

The average American diet is sabotaging the health of your children.  Diet affects the ability children have to focus and concentrate in school.  It impacts the ability to rest, which influences performance-both mental and physical.  As the most important model your children have for good nutrition, your choices are establishing healthy habits for their lifetime.  It’s never too late to make changes.  The Four E’s make it simple to remember and help get you started.

1. Eliminate processed sugar
2. Eliminate processed food
3. Eat more fruits and vegetables
4. Eat lots of greens

For more help discerning high sugar and processed foods, read Getting Children on the Road to Good Nutrition.

Make Simple Changes

Some may want or need to make radical changes in the food consumption of your family to improve overall health. Others may decide to eliminate one processed food from the pantry and add one nourishing food to the monthly menu.  Everyone can make one positive change a month that the family can accept as you move toward healthier eating.  Here are several simple changes to help you get started.

1. Stop buying soda and other sugar filled drinks.
2. Eliminate foods cooked with hydrogenated oil (chips, fried foods).
3. Buy kale, spinach, romaine, arugula and other greens every week. Try to eat greens every day.  Use them in a salad or add to soups, omelets, smoothies, or pasta dishes.
4. Add ground flaxseed as a staple in your refrigerator (stays fresher, longer). Rich in omega-3 fats and antioxidants, flaxseed has many benefits. With a slight nutty flavor, ground flaxseed, also known as flaxseed meal, can be added to oatmeal, cereal, or a smoothie in the morning or to soups, salads, and dressing for lunch or dinner.
5. Switch from white sugar to date sugar, white rice to brown rice, and white bread to whole grain bread (read label carefully).
6. Buy fresh ground nut butters rather than processed, which contain hydrogenated oils (peanut, almond, sunflower, or cashew butters).
7. Load up on fruits. Berries are especially high in antioxidants and can be added to greens for a healthy, delicious salad.

Food is medicine.  The choices we make in the food we eat effects our energy, our sleep, our memory, our ability to think clearly, to move easily, and to strengthen our immune system.  You or your child may suffer from a condition that requires eliminating gluten, or diary, or animal protein.  I encourage you read and study the evidence-based literature on nutrition and to talk with your doctor.  Visit NutritionFacts.org and read books by well-respected medical doctors and nutritionists.  While there are many other changes espoused by these experts, the seven changes above are agreed upon, positive changes for healthy living.

Dr. Greger’s website, NutritionFacts.org provides current research on a plethora of searchable topics.  His summary of the findings offers a concise review of the literature, without promoting any product or service for which he profits. You might also consider Tips to Improving Your Family’s Health.