With the start of a new school year, now is the time to assess your children’s eating habits and the contents of your pantry. Are your children constantly craving carbs and asking for the next snack? Do you notice a difference in their behavior when they have had sugar or refined carbohydrates at a meal or snack? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” we have listed some helpful tips to get you started…
Smarty Tips for Maintaining Blood Sugar and Improving Behavior
1. Read the labels and see what has crept into your pantry over the summer.
2. Eliminate snacks and yogurt that contain food dyes, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils and artificial ingredients.
3. Stick with packaged snacks that have six or less ingredients and make sure you can read all the ingredients. If you don’t know what it is, neither does their body.
4. Be Prepared – In order to keep our children’s blood sugar stable, they need to eat frequently. They are very active, which means giving them the right fuel is essential to their success throughout the day.
5. Do your best to make sure breakfast, lunch, dinner and all snacks contain some protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats.
6. Keep them hydrated with water and avoid sugary drinks.
7. Talk to them about 15 grams of sugar as the maximum a child should have per day. Let them choose, but also let them know that when they have reached 15 grams of sugar, they are done for the day.
8. Veg out – Even if your children resist at first, don’t give up. Continue to offer them vegetables throughout the day.
Try a new strategy this fall and every time you go to the grocery store, SWAP 2! Buy two less packaged items (unless it is a single ingredient items like brown rice, olive oil, quinoa, etc.) and replace it with two whole food items, such as an additional fruit or vegetable.
Don’t be afraid to buy a produce item that you are not familiar with. Challenge yourself to buy an “odd ball” item and come up with a new recipe to use it. I recently bought a bundle of lemon grass at the Farmer’s Market and used it in a curry recipe and infused it in some tea. It seemed intimidating at first, but ended up being so simple and enhanced the flavor of each dish.
In addition to keeping our child healthy and focused, The Whole Tulip can help get you reengaged in healthy eating and well-being, which will hopefully filter throughout your whole family. If you would like more details or more recipe ideas, please contact us.
Photocredit: The FABULOUS Brooke Brown of Brooke Brown Photography.