I just finished reading The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by William, Martha, James, and Robert Sears. I think I pretty much adore every single Sears book I have read but this one was especially good. The subtitle of the book is 10 Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track and if I had to recommend a book to anyone about healthful eating for children, this is the book I would tell them about.
Our children are facing a nutritional crisis with increases in diabetes, obesity, compromised immune systems, and emotional issues. Even childhood afflictions that you may not immediately assume to be diet related can in fact be linked to the junk food diet that so many kids eat today.
Well Dr. Sears and has been in a pediatric practice for many years and he has been able to see how the pure kids fare and how the junk food kids fare. He has noticed many differences including the fact that his pure kids get sick less, they don’t get diabetes, they are lean and trim, and they don’t get diagnosed with disorders such as ADD and ADHD.
In this book the Sears tell us of ten changes that every family must make:
Shape young tastes early
Feed your family the right carbs
Feed your family the right fats
Feed your children grow foods
Feed your family fill-up foods
Begin the day with a brainy breakfast
Raise a grazer
Feed your child’s immune system
Raise a lean family. Get active as a family.
Teach your children to be wise supermarket shoppers.
These are important points and each is discussed at length.
One of the things that I like the most about this book is the personal experiences that are shared with us. All of the advice they give is practiced in their own homes. I especially love the chapter on supermarket shopping and William Sears tells us about how he took his kids on trips to a mainstream store and Whole Foods store to gauge the reactions and impulses of his children. His experience was very eye opening and made me want to try a similar experiment and record my findings.
The book also has quite a few recipes in the last section including a recipe for their favorite brainy breakfast. There are also some healthy cookie recipes that I will be trying this week just in time for a dinner party this weekend. When I tell my guests they are eating flax seed cookies with carob chips, what will they think? We will see.
This book is a must read for every family.
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