Charles K. Bens, Ph.D. | President of Healthy @ Work, Inc., author of Healthy at Work: Your Pocket Guide to Good Health and The Healthy Smoker: How To Quit Smoking By Becoming Healthier First . Educational specialties include nutrition, smoking cessation, wellness and mental challenges. He is also the team leader for wellness consulting assignments.
DR. CHARLES K. BENS: I'm Dr. Charles Bens, president of Healthy @ Work, and I'm here today to talk to you for a few minutes about a proper diet for children. You know, how you feed your child is probably the most important thing you're going to do for them for their whole life. The key is to make sure it's balanced and it's colorful. Each meal should have some complex carbohydrates in it, some good quality protein, and some really good fat. The body needs all three for energy, cell replacement, biochemical processes like the production of hormones, and for immune function. A good example would be a breakfast. Let's say a whole grain wrap where you would actually put in eggs and green and red and yellow peppers, and some chopped turkey sausage, some flax seeds or some olive oil. When you break that down, you can see that we've gotten the whole grains, we've gotten the fruits and we've gotten the vegetables. We've got the protein in there. We've got the oils and fats in there. So in one simple breakfast wrap, you've given those children all the things that they need. You could do the same thing with an omelet and mix in all those things to make a wonderful omelet in the morning. I think a colorful and healthy snack is also important during the day. Non-fat cheese with whole wheat crackers, fruit with almonds, and walnuts and pecans. You know, the important thing to give those walnuts and other nuts with that fruit is, it takes it from being just fruit dose to being a complex carbohydrate, which means it burns more slowly in the body and doesn't kind of lead to too much sugar, which can then lead to diabetes. Dinner should be some kind of protein like turkey, chicken, or white fish, try to avoid the red meat if you can with fresh, local, organic vegetables, and some brown rice. These are all healthy suggestions throughout the day. So first of all, make a healthy shopping list and make sure you stick to it, and buy a good health cookbook. Healthy cookbook at the health food store, and use it, because your children will thank you for the rest of their lives. So, my summary is, make sure you buy healthy foods, make sure you follow a good and interesting diet throughout the day with a mixture of colorful foods that hit the whole balance of carbohydrates, protein and good fats. That will make sure your child is getting all the nutrients they need. Thank you so much for your time.
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