1. Healthy Foods for children are:
• Fresh fruits and vegetables raw and as a salad, steamed and moderately
cooked,
• Beans, lentils, soya products, lean meat/fish and eggs (meat and eggs no more
than thrice in a week because of high cholesterol)
• Whole grains -where the germ has not been removed: brown bread, hand-
pound rice /with bran, pasta and porridge, rice cakes, plain muslies.
• Dry fruits, nuts and seeds very beneficial for child.
• Regularly Milk, lassi, and curd and cheese in moderation. These are a good
source of protein and calcium but they are known to contribute to allergies
and create a lot of mucus in the body making it easier for children to breed
cold and flu germs.
• Goat’s milk is healthier than cow’s milk for humans (see my previous article
www.healthyfoodmanagement.com/goat-milk-it-is-nourishing-and-easier-to-
digest-than-other-milk) Children with bronchial problems or repetitive cold
and ear infections should exclude these products from their diet.
• Honey, Molasses and Jaggery
• Real sea salt
• Homemade cakes and biscuits made with whole wheat flour and brown sugar.
• Real chocolate, which is dark chocolate with at least 70% of real cocoa and
cocoa butter but not hydrogenated fat (Cocoa butter replacer)
• Pure drinking water, fresh and real fruit juices, natural mineral water and
herbal teas.
• Organic and locally produced whenever possible.
Unhealthy Foods for Children are:
• Cakes, biscuits, ice-cream, chocolate. Especially those mass produced and
especially those made for children that have large amounts of white sugar,
artificial colours and indigestible fats.
• Lollipops, sweets, candy floss and chewing gum. These have no real food in
them they are simply artificial colours, artificial flavours, preservatives and
white sugar or artificial sweeteners which are very harmful over the long term
and rot children’s teeth.
• Sugared cereals, especially those made for children: cherios, rice crispy,
sweetened muslies.
• Fruit juices that are not 100 % juice. They contain only 40% juice and the rest
is sugared water, colours and flavours. They do this because it is cheaper than
using real fruit.

2. • White grains which have had the grain removed: white bread, rice pasta and
flour, pastry (yufka). White flour turns into sugar once it is digestive and is an
‘empty’ food meaning that it fills up the stomach without giving a nutrition.
• Coke, fanta, sprite, lemonade, gazoz and other artificial fizzy drinks.
• Children do not need to drink tea or coffee. If they want to drink tea with you
give them very light tea with no sugar.
Important note:
Salt: whilst salt is an important part of food especially in hot climates the common
salt used ‘sodium salt’ or ‘table salt’ has only 2 of the minerals out of the 53 minerals
that ‘real salt’ or ‘sea salt’ has which the body needs to replace after sweating. Still we
do not need too much salt and high doses of sodium cause problems in later life
such as stomach cancer and high blood pressure.
Sugar: especially white sugar, artificial foods i.e. colours, flavourings and sweeteners
and caffeine; in chocolate, coke, tea and coffee are addictive foods. That is why
children seem to ‘like’ these foods because they become addicted and crave these
products. Children are very sensitive and these foods give them a ‘high’ which they
then crave, these foods are like drugs. After the high the child then has an energy
crash which is often interpreted by adults as ‘naughtiness’. The child becomes
restless, frustrated and irritable. These foods have been blamed for the cause of
aggression, hyperactivity and lack of concentration in children. Children who have
behavioural problems often crave these foods more than well behaved balanced
children and it makes their condition much worse.
Sugar, especially white sugar which is in all mass produced food for children
drastically reduces the power of the immune system leaving children weak and less
able to fight infections especially in winter.
Children who have restricted sugar diets and never have artificial foods are by far the
healthiest children.
By Abdul Quddus, Founder of
www.healthyfoodmanagement.com
http://twitter.com/Healthy_Food_
http://www.linkedin.com/in/abdulqudoos