Bringing a healthy baby into the world is such an emotionally fulfilling experience for parents, grandparents, and even for the medical team.
Something about that helpless, dependent child evokes a deep sense of nurture and protection by moms and dads.
We want the best for them – to provide a healthy environment, healthy food, good educational opportunities, and sound preparation for a long and fulfilling life.
Unfortunately, many factors conspire against those aims.
The struggling economy is putting pressure on home finances and limits our options to provide the best opportunities for our children.
But one of the most important interventions to protect our children is to feed them healthful food.
The food industry is largely profit-driven, and unfortunately, money often takes precedence over health.
Much of what we find on the supermarket shelves is highly processed and designed to be addictive through excess sugar, salt and saturated fats.
To ensure our children stay healthy, they need to be taught from a young age to enjoy whole foods, like fruits, vegetables, whole grains (whole wheat, brown rice, oats, maize and corn), legumes (beans, lentils, chick-peas, peas, soya), some seeds and nuts and mushrooms.
Limit fatty meats, fried foods, fast foods, sugar-sweetened drinks, snack foods, sweets, and confectionery.
It is good to start teaching our children to cook healthy foods from a young age.
It makes healthy food preparation fun when it becomes a family social occasion and expands their taste repertoire.
Teach them about all the healthy nutrients in plant foods like fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, designed to keep our body working smoothly and efficiently.
Overweight and obesity among children between one and five years is 13% in South Africa, double the global average of 6,1%.
This sets these children up for later heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, certain cancers, and dementia.
Ensuring our children are healthy takes effort and planning.
We cannot allow the adverts and peer pressure to dictate what we feed our children.
Certainly, we cannot capitulate to our children’s demands for that which destroys their health, especially because we love them enough to care.
Dr Dave Glass
MBChB, FCOG(SA), DipIBLM
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