Keeping it nude with food! |23 April 2016

. Healthy eating for children

Poor eating habits and the growing number of obese children in Seychelles are among some of the issues that the National Council for Children and its other child protection partners have been grappling with over the last few years. 

We all know that healthy eating and exercise are vital to ensuring our long term health and well-being. The problem we face these days however is that many of our foods contain a range of additives and preservatives, many of which are causing us long term health issues.

These days children have a large variety of choices when it comes to food. Unfortunately, most of these available ‘choices’ come in packets that are bright and colourful, and most often marketed towards attracting children. These foods are also packed with additives and preservatives to increase shelf life, thus making them more addictive. The more of these types of foods we consume, the more we want. Additives such as sugar give children a ‘high’. For that moment in time, we enjoy the chocolate and our bodies are flooded with endorphins, making us feel good, but after the chocolate has finished we experience a low. After time we crave more and more sugar in order to get that ‘sugar high’. We need to limit the amount of sugar we consume and teach our bodies to get a ‘natural high’ through clean eating. This also means reducing our intake of drinks filled with sugar, and increasing our water intake.

Educating ourselves and our children about healthy eating is vital to maintaining our long term health. As adults we have a responsibility to teach children about eating in moderation and making sure that the meals we provide our children with are nutritious and contain all the relevant vitamins and minerals they need for their growing bodies.

The concept of ‘nude food’ is an international campaign that encourages eating fresh foods such as raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes while also encouraging environmental protection by limiting the amount of rubbish that results from packaged foods, thus limiting our landfill. Eating ‘nude’ foods is about eating cleanly and limiting the amount of chemicals, additives and preservatives that we put in our bodies. This is particularly important in regards to children, whereby we are seeing an increase in childhood obesity, health problems and behavioural issues which are often correlated with poor diet.

Next time you are wondering what to put in your child’s lunch box, remember to think ‘nude’. Carrot sticks, fruits, eggs and raw nuts are all great choices that will meet all the dietary requirements for your growing child. When cooking meals limit the amount of packaged or take away foods used, and think ‘fresh’. Fresh fish, salads, nuts and vegetables should all form part of your meal plans.

There are many research articles available which promote the idea of eating clean and maintaining a healthy balance of bacteria in our gut. Research shows that having healthy levels of gut bacteria can actually reduce the amount of illness and infections we experience. Our bodies are like mini eco-systems and when we fail to eat our nude foods, we start to upset the balance of healthy bacteria, which can often lead to illness.

Promoting and encouraging healthy eating can lead to positive health outcomes for all of us, most importantly for our children. Remember, the concept of nude food is about eating foods the way nature intended. You can’t pull a packet of chips off a tree, but you certainly can an orange. Next time you reach for a snack, think nude!

Contributed by NCC’s child safety officer