Nourishing Yourself and Your Children

by Kate Hutchinson, Registered Holistic Nutritionist

I went to a Santa Claus parade with my seven-year-old son last weekend. All was going well until the first floats began to pass by and our previously prime parade route spots, transformed into front row seats for a disheartening exhibition. Most of the kids poured off the sidewalks and stationed themselves in the middle of the street for the rest of the parade, as they scrambled to get as much candy as possible. The parents did not discourage this, nor did they seem to notice that their children were obstructing other children’s views.

Now, I’m all for celebrating with a little treat, but this experience really got me thinking about what we, as a culture and as parents, are teaching our kids about abundance and gratitude and what associations we make with each experience we share with them. I remember going to parades and also being thrilled at that unexpected moment when a handful of candy came skittering down the street – sometimes you got a piece and sometimes you narrowly missed getting one, but the floats that gave away candy were few and there was something wonderful about not knowing if you were going to get a piece or not. - This parade was like a constant volcanic eruption of candy and the greed that was evident and unchecked in the kids was very troubling to me. There was no “enough”.

When our children’s bodies are deficient, or the food they are eating is not complete, they will always
crave more. We are built the same way – it is easy for us to eat our way through a whole bag of chips because nutritionally, our bodies are looking for more. How many of us could easily eat our way through a bag of carrots the same size? Our bodies would tell us when we had had enough carrots because we would have satisfied many daily nutritional requirements.

Whole foods – like vegetables, fruits, quality meats, nuts, seeds, beans, and wholegrains– satisfy the body in a way that a refined food never can. Did you know that our bodies need to use up 56 molecules of magnesium from our own stores (think bones) in order to metabolize just 1 molecule of refined sugar – a single molecule? About 65% of our magnesium is contained in the bones and teeth, with the other 35% concentrated in the brain, bloodstream, fluids, and other tissues. Children will obviously have smaller stores of magnesium to begin with, so 6 or 8 or 12 pieces of candy will use up an awful lot of magnesium (not to mention other nutrients) that would best be devoted to other functions in the body. The immune system’s capabilities also dip for a couple of hours after consuming foods with processed sugar in them.

I know that many of you may not yet even be at the stage of feeding a toddler, but if you are pregnant (or thinking about having another baby) or have an infant who may still be relying on your body for nutrition, know that this is the most important time for you to focus on nourishing yourself in a whole way. You are already actively contributing to the most important foundational period for your child’s life-long health through your own food choices and attitude.

Kate Hutchinson, Registered Holistic Nutritionist

As we head into the holiday season, give yourself (and your child) abundant energy, nutrition, and health by making whole foods the foundation of your diet. Then you will find that the glow from a single candy cane, enjoyed to its full potential, will always be “enough”.