The benefits of a ‘clean’ diet have been well established. Eating food that’s closest to its natural form means you avoid harmful preservatives, adding salt and sugar, fat and everything else. Processed and modified foods have been linked to cancer and all kinds of other dangerous health conditions, and so it makes sense to avoid them as much as possible. It’s even more important when it comes to our children, whose delicate systems will suffer damage far more readily than our own. When certain ingredients and additives have been linked to ADHD, autism, aggressive behavior and other difficulties it makes sense that we would avoid those as much as possible. But how can you ensure your child gets the very best start in life when it comes to their diet? Here are a few points to consider.
Make Your Own Baby Food
There are so many benefits to making your own baby food. It’s far cheaper, and you avoid all of the additives and preservatives that are added to jars for a start. As a busy parent, pre-made food can feel like a tempting convenience, but there are ways you can make things easier for yourself. Batch cooking means you’re not constantly having to cook from scratch, it doesn’t take long once a week to boil up some veggies and cook some lean protein and blend it together. Pop into individual containers and then put it in the freezer. You then always have food on hand and know exactly what has gone into it.
Use Filtered Water
Tap water can contain plastic, metal, parasites, bacteria and all other kinds of things that you most definitely would not want to ingest, let alone your child. Thankfully filtered water can remove up to 99% of this, and so it’s an easy fix. Filling up a filter jug and popping it in the fridge means you always have access to cold, clean water and can give you that added peace of mind. To take it a step further you could even look into reverse osmosis purification. This uses pressure to send water through filters in an unconventional way and can be bought as a countertop system for the kitchen. Sites like HomeWaterPros have more information.
Pack a Lunch
If your child is eating out of the home, you could consider packing them a lunch. This way you know what’s going into it. When you’re going on a day out for example, rather than rely on fast food joints a healthy packed lunch is a better alternative. It doesn’t have to be boring, there are lots of ways you can make it interesting. Take sweets for example. Rather than giving them regular sugary snacks from the shelf, there are better alternatives. You could make your own flapjacks from oats, honey, ‘clean’ dark chocolate and high-quality peanut butter. You can make ‘truffles’ from blended dates, almond flour, cocoa, and coconut. Or banana muffins baked with wholemeal flour and naturally sweetened with honey and dried fruit. They won’t feel like they’re missing out and can satisfy their sweet tooth in a much healthier way.
