WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS:
Nutrient Density Matters
“When are you going to stand up for your children and their
future? It’s time to warrior up!”
--- Tsleil-Waututh Elder Amy George from Sierra Magazine, March/April 2014
--- Tsleil-Waututh Elder Amy George from Sierra Magazine, March/April 2014
How often do you think about your children’s future and what
their world will look like in five years? In full
disclosure, the above quote came from an article in Sierra Magazine. The article was about the impact of coal
trains on a sensitive area of northwest Washington State where fishing for
salmon and herring support a local culture, including the Lummi Nation of
native Americans.
When I work with parents who are overweight or who have
children who are overweight or obese, I often have the same thought as
Tsleil-Waututh Elder Amy George. Are we
willing to let the large food manufacturers dictate whether our children will
be doomed to a shortened lifespan because they are overeating foods with no
nutritional value? Will the McDonald’s
dollar menu be your family’s demise? Will
eating too much of the bad foods (white sugar, white flour, and too much salt)
cause health problems for your family? Will
the sugar-filled cereals and Pop Tarts intentionally placed at a child’s eye
level of your grocery store rob your kids of their ability to focus in
school?
A lot of my work centers around teaching families about how
to become more health literate and making better choices for themselves and
their children. Our children are getting
fatter, but obesity is preventable. Focus
on eating nutrient dense foods (like wild salmon, kale, lentils, spinach) to replace foods of low value. The most nutrient dense food is
watercress - in case you are wondering where to buy it, I can always find it at Publix, thanks to B&W Growers in Fellsmere, FL. High on the list is
kale. Green is great! For a link to some great nutrient dense
recipe ideas, click here.
As parents, whether we choose to fight to prevent coal
trains from coming through environmentally sensitive lands or whether we choose
to educate parents with the knowledge about how to eat well and economically to
prevent obesity and obesity-caused diseases, we make choices every day. It is time to warrior up!
Thank you,
Nancy Heinrich
Founder, Growing Healthy Kids, Inc.
