There are almost 24 million children who have diabetes in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association. Given the easy availability of refined, fast food high in saturated fat and sugar, these numbers are not surprising. Unchecked, childhood diabetes can lead to chronic diseases such as high blood pressure or obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control, most children diagnosed with type two diabetes are 10 to 19 years old. Change the trend by offering a varied diet to your children that includes vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, low-fat dairy, legumes, nuts, and whole grains. There are many ways to do this that even children will be able to stomach, and over time will prefer.
Serve Whole Grains Daily
Provide whole grains at every meal. For example, prepare a hot breakfast by combining instant oatmeal with ripe bananas, cow or soy milk and a small amount of maple syrup. Oatmeal provides 10g of protein for every half cup, uncooked and the banana provides potassium and fruit sugar. Other options might be whole-grain toast slathered with unsweetened peanut butter and jelly, or pancakes made with a mixed-grain mix of unbleached whole wheat, corn or rye flour. The idea is to replace refined, white flour foods such as white bread, donuts or sugary cereal with whole grains: millet, whole wheat, oats, brown rice and quinoa.
Add Wheat Germ, Rice Bran
Add wheat germ or rice bran to any cookie, muffin, pancake or cake recipe: your children will not know the difference. For example, if you are baking chocolate chip cookies, add 2 to 4 tbsp. of wheat germ. If your children are gluten-sensitive, use rice bran. Boost the nutritional content of any baked quick bread by adding 1 to 4 tbsp. of ground flax seeds.
Introduce Quinoa and Millet
Mix it up with new grains by serving small amounts of brown rice, millet, quinoa, basmati or whole groats. To make any of these whole grains more appealing to children, cook them with plenty of water to make the grains soft and add toasted, sliced almonds or chopped walnuts or whole cashews. By introducing these whole grains to your children, they will learn to enjoy and appreciate them. Millet and quinoa cooks up in 15 minutes and you can purchase quick-cooking brown rice that is ready in less than 20 minutes.
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