Back To School Foods
Every year it feels like we have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to sending food and snacks to school with the kids. For some reason, after a summer of easy schedule and everyone eating the same thing at the same time, we experience a few days of tension getting back up to speed.
This is actually a wonderful opportunity to reexamine our choices and habits. Remember the cardinal rules of nutritious food, some elements are desirable: high nutritional content, unprocessed, organic and complex carbs for example. On the other hand, many ingredients should be avoided. In particular foods must have no trans fats, no excitotoxins, no processed sugars or processed grains.
Specifically, our kids need Omega 3 supplementation and they must have none of these ingredients:
- Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated oils.
- Natural Flavors (unless the food is certified organic)
- High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Artificial Sweeteners
These ingredients should be avoided or used in extremely limited amounts:
- Safflower, corn, canola, cottonseed oils.
- Fried foods
- White flour (its white if it doesn’t say whole wheat in the ingredients list)
We also make our kids lunch most days. It's just easier to make good choices when all the ingredients are wholesome.
If you have any questions regarding food recommendations, please plan to attend my next Nutrition Workshop. I wish all of our students a healthy and enriching school year!
Dr. Jean-Marc
