September 24, 2013
By Dr. Jeremy Hayman
BURLINGTON, ON. So we all strive to put our best foot forward in raising our children to live the best lives possible, correct? No problem; give them a stable home-life, welcoming and supportive social environment, love, nurturing, guidance, opportunity, compassion and understanding, a balanced active lifestyle and good food. Done, it’s as easy as that. We raise our children the best way we see fit. They grow up happy and healthy, flourish and succeed in life. The next successful generation begins. Agreed?
Is this child’s mood the result of a problem at school or due to the food that he was fed?
Well… let’s see you say that while looking me straight in the eyes and without your fingers crossed behind your back. A simple endeavor, maybe for an outsider looking in at the delicate balancing act of being a parent, but as a parent, it’s often a different story. So where do we begin as well-intentioned parents wanting to provide “the best” for our children from day one? Well, a little of each, if possible, but even that vision can sometimes fall short and derail. It’s not by choice or from lack of trying, but it’s often due to the simple fact of life and its multitude of impressions constantly being offered up to our children.
And we certainly can’t forget about children themselves, they too have a mind and vision of their own! So, short of equipping our children with everything they need in life in order to be healthy and live happily, it seems like there’s quite a division of extremes in fulfilling what we need to do as parents, and to not blame ourselves or point fingers at others in the end. So if you’re not a perfect parent, don’t strive to be one, realize there is no such thing, and still can’t quite seem to fill in the missing pieces, then putting your best “food” forward and feeding your children then, properly, may be a good place to start.
What is this parent dealing with? An adolescent going through a stage or a child that didn’t eat properly?erft
Would you believe it if you were told a bag of candy each night may be the reason your child “decides” not to fall asleep for three or more hours after putting him or her to bed? How about feeding your child a bowl of marshmallows before sending them off to school with no food in sight remaining, only to find out from the teacher that he or she “just doesn’t seem to be listening, cooperating, or focusing throughout the day”? How about being told that feeding your child an overwhelming amount of “midway” “grub” may have been a strong contributing factor to him or her getting sick while on that high velocity amusement park ride? The list goes on.
Well, we believe ourselves when we remain rigid on not feeding our kids too much red meat due to the risk of causing high cholesterol and cardiovascular concerns (which, by the way, I utterly disagree with, so stay tuned for an upcoming perspective on that!). What about that “the tryptophan in the turkey is what put us all to sleep”, or that “the one small piece of raw broccoli must have been what put my child’s digestive system over the edge with that horrible and gassy stomach ache” (of course it wasn’t the other processed food or drink they’re fed on a day-to-day basis…of course not that!). So why is it that we often “believe” to a default that healthy food that affects our children and causes them “strife”, but the unhealthy food we fill our children’s diets with have no effect on them at all? It’s a social and culturally embedded oversight, that I realize, but what we all need to accept is that food, healthy or not, affects us all, children and adults alike.If sugar laden processed food before bed can potentially keep our child up at night, then why do we suppose it stops there? Can’t this exact food wreak even deeper havoc on our children’s personality, emotions, energy, focus and health? Well here’s the answer: It does!
They aren’t Oreo cookies but that food is healthy.
And beyond the overabundance of legitimate literature that supports the effects of food on children’s health as well as the effective use of food as medicine and on health, we, as parents, accepting or not, know that food, to whatever degree, somehow affects our children. So let me tell you this; deprive your child of any food for any great length of time, and tell me he/she won’t waiver on some extent of grumpiness, upset, irritation, tiredness, ‘wildness’ or otherwise (need I go on?). Yet fulfill and satisfy these emotional and biological reactions with food, and what happens? You guessed it; your children’s mood changes, and usually for the better. And here’s a hint, feed your child nutrient dense, tasty, satisfying foods (yes it is very possible to do this!) and guess what? You guessed again, mood improves even more. Feed them calorie dense, nutrient depleted, processed, high sugar foods, mood will artificially improve, for the short-term, before taking a nose dive once again. So what’s the point here? Well if no food causes alterations in our children’s mood (as is clearly evident), then isn’t it possible that food itself may cause changes and effects as well?
What’s wrong with this picture? It’s not a LED television set?wev
<>Our bodies accelerate on an insurmountable number of chemical reactions, all at the mercy of vitamins, minerals and cofactors. Yes, one can argue we physiologically create some of these on our own, however many, essential components, are only created by way of the nutritional content from food. Consider it like this; would you tend toward a healthy, youthful vibrant individual who eats primarily nutritious and healthy food, or prefer to put your money on a person who simply survives on calories alone from any food source to get by? Well the body and its physiology is an amazing entity, but to stress toward the unhealthy option, I mean, eventually, the body will give out, so why give the option to start our children down that path at all? Well here’s how I, as a Naturopathic Doctor, and parent, see it; as parents, we all attempt yet struggle to provide the absolute best for our children’s lives. When pondering the unanswerable parental question of “what am I doing wrong?”, we clearly realize that we cannot possibly change each and every aspect of our child’s lives once the multitude of life’s influences have already begun to unfold. Therefore, what we know from our discussion so far is that food, yes food, can play a vital and impactful role in the lives of our children. We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the literature available to us, however when we opt to present our children with more healthy snack and meal options, we know from our discussion so far, that there has to be some sort of effect, and most likely positive, within their lives.
It’s clear, at this point, that within medical science, foods contain many of the precursors to mood, stability, and emotions of our children via the brain and otherwise (take one of serotonins – the “feel good” neurotransmitters precursor, tryptophan, for example), yet we always tend to wonder “why is my child not happy, why do they act the way they do, why don’t they listen, why can I do everything for them yet they still seem not to be assimilating into a happy healthy life?”.
Well, multiple consideration are possible, however although a grade of “A” can be given to all those parents who try so hard to provide as much as they can for their children, there still seems to be something lacking when it comes to overall happiness and health. Ever wonder, just by chance, that one of those missing pieces just may be healthy, nutrient dense food? Unhealthy, non nutritious type “foods” do interfere with the assimilation and use of nutrients from healthy foods, so it’s no wonder an eating plan unfocused on health can interfere with our child’s overall constitution. Our children’s foundation of overall health is built on a few simple yet obvious pillars; and along with enough rest and a proper balance of stress, providing healthy eating options is certainly one of the most effective ways of putting our best foot…and food forward.
Dr Jeremy Hayman is an Ontario and Board licensed Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, practicing at Back On Track Chiropractic and Wellness Centre in Burlington Ontario where he maintains a General Family Practice with special interest in Psychiatric as well as Pediatric health. Dr Hayman can be contacted at send me an email
