Back Up Your Child’s Diet
By Alan Greene, M.D.
www.drgreene.com
You know that it is wise to back up your computer’s hard drive; I
recommend backing up your child’s food drive with a daily
multivitamin/mineral supplement. This simple habit could improve your
child’s health and even intelligence. I’ll explain briefly why I feel
strongly about this:
For young babies, breast milk provides an ideal food.
The match between their complex nutritional needs and the milk that moms
make is spectacular. In their dance of supply and demand, babies are
designed with a drive to enjoy just the right amount and moms are
designed to make just the right amount. Even so, I do suggest that many
breastfed babies take 200 IU of vitamin D daily, as the American Academy
of Pediatrics recommends – but not because of any lack in breast milk.
We are built to get vitamin D from sun exposure. Because of the amount
of time babies spend indoors, and the depleted-ozone-caused need for
sunscreen when babies spend much time outdoors, many babies need an
extra boost of this important vitamin, linked not just to building
strong bones, but also to preventing breast cancer, colon cancer and
Parkinson’s disease.
I used to think that when breast feeding was over, so was the age of
perfect foods. Now I understand that children are perfectly designed to
thrive on a balanced variety of whole foods: fresh fruits, various
veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, and lean sources of protein and
calcium. They are even designed to enjoy just the right amounts of these
ideal foods, as long as their food drives aren’t tricked by empty
calories, added fats, sweetened drinks, etc. Children should be able to
get all of the vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients they need
for optimum development by eating the right combinations and right
amounts of healthful foods.
But the reality is that most kids today do NOT get the micronutrients
they need from what they eat. Not by a long shot. By some estimates,
only 2% of kids regularly eat the recommended number of servings of
different food groups. The result is that, even though the typical
American child eats too many calories, the typical child is getting
suboptimal levels of many key nutrients, including thousands of food
components (phytonutrients) we are just beginning to learn about.
And there are 13 major, named micronutrients, “the Greene 13”, that
concern me the most: calcium, fiber, folic acid, iron, magnesium, omega
3 fatty acids (especially DHA), phosphorous (except for kids who drink
carbonated beverages and get too much phosphorus), potassium, vitamin A,
vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, and zinc. Most kids don’t get enough of
at least one of these. One in six girls get iron at levels low enough to
affect their test scores. Seven out of ten boys and nine out of ten
girls don’t get enough calcium at key times of growth. A daily
multivitamin is more than just a safety net for occasional nutritional
accidents. It is also like spackle to fill in the small nutritional
holes, gaps, and cracks that many children develop every day. One could
compare it to defragging the nutrients, or to a patch for their
operating system. And beyond this, it can help a child thrive the way we
all want.
A June 2001 study published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
compared the results of 13 double-blind placebo-controlled trials of
multivitamins and their effect on the intelligence of children. Ten of
the studies analyzed were able to measure a boost in non-verbal
intelligence in those children who got a daily multivitamin. I’m not
surprised. We know these nutrients affect our intelligence, our growth,
our behavior, and our immune systems, and that typical American children
do not get enough.
I recommend starting the supplement spackle at the first birthday,
unless the child is on a toddler formula that already has the extras
added. The body and brain are growing especially fast up to age 3, when
many kids are notoriously picky eaters (with French fries the most
popular vegetable, apple juice the most popular fruit, and white flour
the most popular grain).
Not all vitamins are created equal.
One extremely popular kids brand contains hydrogenated vegetable oil,
the chemical dyes FD&C Blue #2 Lake, FD&C Red #40 Aluminum Lake, FD&C
Yellow #6 Aluminum Lake, artificial flavors, aspartame, sugar, butylated
hydroxytoluene (this preservative is a suspected carcinogen banned in
all foods in Japan and Australia, and in baby foods in the U.S.),
carrageenan, gelatin, and pregelatinized starch.
So what should you look for in a multivitamin?
Depending on how your child eats, you probably want to supplement with
50% to 100% of the age-appropriate recommended doses of at least “the
Greene 13” (listed above). You may not find all of these in one place.
In fact, it can be a great idea to look for other sources of calcium,
fiber, and omega 3’s (DHA), either in foods or in supplements.
Most children probably do not need or benefit from extra-large
supplemental doses of vitamins or minerals, and especially not vitamin A
or iron. Most children certainly do not benefit from artificial colors
or preservatives, or from extra helpings of sugars or artificial
sweeteners found in some children’s vitamins.
Look for vitamins with low-sugar, or healthy sweetener options.
I suggest not starting with gummy or candy vitamins, because daily candy
is not a lesson kids need to learn, and it can be a hard habit to break.
Where possible, food sources of the vitamins and minerals in the
supplements may contain many more nutrients than named on the label.
Don’t settle for pop-culture standards. A healthy food store is a great
place to ask for help selecting the best vitamins for your child.
But whatever vitamin you choose, the simple habit of a daily
multivitamin/mineral can be an important back-up to your child’s food
drive, a smart idea in a culture that seems bent on enticing children
with foods that undermine their body’s wisdom.
About The Author
Dr. Alan Greene, author of Raising Baby Green, is a graduate of Princeton
University and the University of California San Francisco. In addition to being
the founder of www.DrGreene.com, he is the Chief Medical Officer of A.D.A.M. He
is the Chair of The Organic Center and on the Advisory Board of Healthy Child
Healthy World. Dr. Greene appears frequently on TV, radio, websites, and in
print including appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox and
Friends, The Wall Street Journal, Parents Magazine, and US Weekly. Dr. Greene is
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University's Packard Children's
Hospital.
Used With Permission
