Three years ago when I went back to work and was on my road to recovery, health and wellness, I started working with a little boy who had a ton of issues. They included a lack of typical motor development, fine motor development and sensory issues. Around this same time, I had started juicing and taking gluten out of my diet and was sharing my experience with this boys mother. With the hope that a diet change might help her son, she took gluten, dairy and a bunch of other things out of his diet. Within weeks, a difference could be seen. His congestion, which was another one of his issues, was now minimal. Stomach issues that he had for years slowly got better. And remarkably, even his motor development began to catch up. Watching the changes in this boy made me understand more clearly than ever the direct link between the food we eat and our health and wellness.
With added enthusiasm, Tim and I slowly started taking other things (refined sugars, dairies) out of our diet and adding more plant-based foods. We loved the way the food we ate made us feel. But even more so, we felt empowered by the choices of food we were eating. The more we learned about the foods we ate, the more we learned that they were powerful medicines to fight against disease. Cancer was and is all around me, my family and Tim’s family. The thought of my children being predisposed to cancer is terrifying. Cancer, I have learned, loves unhealthy fats and sugars. That’s what cancer needs to grow. But how was I supposed to introduce all these healthy foods to our children. We didn’t want to force foods on them, we wanted to demonstrate and teach healthy habits as a family. So instead, I just committed to make little changes each day. Each meal I would add a little more veggie, take away a little more wheat, dairy and meat. To make it fun, we started exploring with colors of the veggies, fruits and legumes. We started a “science project” of sprouting mung beans in a glass jar. It turned out to be a huge hit! My kids love snacking on “energy beans” now. Building on our success with the mung beans, we’ve now started an “indoor sprouting garden” with choices of dozens of different seeds. And I never get tired of watching my kids walk up to the backyard garden in the summer to tear off a leaf of kale and eat it whole. They still don’t love it when I try to sneak kale into their dinner, but I think some prehistoric hunter-gatherer thing kicks in when they are outside.
This all got me thinking even more about my job. I am a pediatric occupational therapist. I have been working with children and their families for 20 years (please don’t do the math, it makes me feel old). Being more tuned into my own nutrition, I started to investigate what foods clients were eating. I began to observe a pattern that children with low tone, sensory processing issues, attentional difficulties and autism spectrum disorders seemed to love white foods – pasta, french fries, white breads, pretzels (although this does not make them all that different from many other kids). With further observation and investigation I found a growing body of evidence that a persons diet can not only feed a persons weakness but also be the cause of it.
I am not saying you need to change your diet and become vegan. I actually think that is a bad idea. If you try and go cold turkey with your family, you will never succeed. Instead, just start with one step and look in your cupboards. Begin to notice how much processed foods you have. Take the next step and add whole grain and remove white flours from your diet. Start eating whole foods and lose the processed foods. These little changes are manageable, and quickly add up.
When you’re having those pancakes for breakfast make them with whole wheat flour, spelt or buckwheat, consider real maple syrup instead of syrup with high fructose corn syrup. Add a scoop of nuts and some fresh fruit. For lunch, make your own nuggets. You can bread them with panko or even spelt bread crumbs. Make a bunch and freeze them for the next time you need a quick meal. Instead of yogurt made from milk try coconut yogurt, or greek yogurt plain with fresh fruit. For dinner, make a buffet with colorful peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, fresh fish or fish sticks (look for the ones that are actual fish not parts of fish), brown rice. Or you can dabble in soups. Blend some spinach or kale into that split pea soup, the kids will never know!
Because of what I have seen in both my professional and personal life, I am convinced of the direct link that nutrition plays into health and wellness. Making small changes in your child’s diet can make a huge difference in their overall behavior, energy levels and health.
