Episode 97: My top three things to focus on for kids' health

Episode 97: My top three things to focus on for kids' health

There is so much information out there about what our children should and shouldn't be eating, and honestly, it can feel like a lot. I don't want you trying to do everything, because when we try to do everything, we end up doing nothing.

So in this episode, I'm keeping it simple and sharing the three key areas that I personally focus on for my kids' health: gut health, quality protein and sugar.

First up, we'll talk about why gut health really is at the centre of overall health, and some really simple ways you can increase fibre and plant foods without your child needing to sit down to a huge bowl of vegetables. Then we'll look at protein, particularly the importance of looking beyond dairy and making sure we're getting enough iron and fibre into our children's day.

And finally, we'll talk about sugar. I'm not about banning sugar or making it the forbidden fruit. It's about understanding where sugar is creeping into our children's diets and making some simple changes, particularly with drinks and snacks.

In This Episode

Supporting Your Child's Gut Health
Why fibre, plant foods and a diverse gut microbiome are so important for children's health, plus simple ways to increase fibre every day.
Choosing Quality Protein
Why it's not just about getting enough protein, but looking at where that protein comes from and whether your child is also getting enough iron and fibre.
Making Snacks Count
How everyday snacks can be an opportunity to add more iron, fibre and other important nutrients, particularly for picky eaters and fussy eaters.
Reducing Sugar Without Banning It
Why I don't believe in completely avoiding sugar, and how to manage sugary drinks, cereals, yoghurts and snacks without creating unnecessary food rules.
Just Pick One Thing
The biggest takeaway from this episode: don't try to perfect everything. Choose one small change, start there, and build from it.

As a paediatric dietitian and children's nutritionist, I want you to feel confident making simple changes that actually fit into your family's life. It isn't about having the perfect diet. It's about those little improvements we make to our child's day and week that, over time, can make a really big difference.

Highlights:

Introduction: Episode Overview & Kids' Health Focus - 00:00.136
Area #1: Gut Health, Fiber, and Plant Foods - 02:00.864
Practical Ways to Boost Fiber and Reduce Gut Disruptors - 04:21.898
Area #2: Quality Protein, Iron Intake, and the Dairy Trap - 06:42.786
Maximizing Nutrition in Kids' Snacks - 08:54.182
Area #3: Managing Sugar and Hidden Sugars in Foods - 11:06.402
Conclusion & Final Takeaways: Focus on One Thing - 13:28.716

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes & Resources

Healthy Recipes for Kids:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

Nutrition Consultation:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/nutrition-consultation

Karina's Recipe Book:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/recipebook

Membership:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Introduction: Episode Overview & Kids' Health Focus (00:00.136)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 97. My top three things to focus on for kids' health.

Hi there, I'm Karina Savage, and with over 20 years' experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast. Hello, hello, welcome back. I hope you're well. I hope the kids are well and healthy. There's been a lot of sickness going around lately in my kids' school.

Lots of kids away. Camp was just last week and we had kids that were unwell before, during, after. So, you know, it's a time of sickness. So I hope your kids are are really well and hopefully before we know it, spring will be here and yeah, the sun will be out for longer and yeah, everyone will be feeling better. So and if that's you actually, I do have previous episodes on boosting immunity.

on how to boost your child's nutrition when they're sick. So check those out. But today we are talking about three key areas that I think are really important to focus on. The thing is I don't want you to try and do everything because when we try and do everything, we do nothing. I want you just to pick one thing from today's episode.

Because that's the way that you're going to get stuff done is focusing on one thing, getting it done, and then you can move on to another. So three key areas that I want to talk about are number one, gut health, number two, quality protein, and number three, sugar. And I'm going to go through each of those and just talk you through the things that I think are important to focus on and why. And then I'll give you some tips as to what you can do. And as I said, just pick one or two.

Area #1: Gut Health, Fiber, and Plant Foods (02:00.864)
No just pick one. So let's start with gut health, because really gut health, if you've been listening to me for a while, and if you have, by the way, please leave me a review and a star rating so that I can get this out to more parents. But if you've been listening to me for a while, then you'll know that gut health, I believe, is the center of systemic health. Gut, the gut is involved in digestion, immunity, the improduction of important compounds that directly impact our overall health.

The gut and the brain talk to each other all day long, both ways, both directions. And a diverse gut microbiome really is the center of our health. And we need to have a diverse range of gift plant foods to feed the healthy bugs in our gut, which supports that healthy environment or microbiome. And for children, the most important thing you can do is to try to give them some more fiber because that is the food for the gut bugs. That is how they stay alive and well.

So with more plant foods, what do I mean by that? I mean fruits, vegetables, baked beans, lentils, chickpeas, grainy bread, whole whole meal bread is still a whole grain, nuts, seeds, even herbs and spices count as plants, especially if they're fresh, but even dried herbs are still nutritious for kids. It doesn't mean that kids have to eat, you know, big bowls of salad or even huge bowls of vegetables.

But it is about how we can boost fiber to support their gut health. Now look, we support gut health other ways as well. So using very beneficial compounds such as polyphenols, which are in extravagant olive oil, for example, they really support gut health as well. But definitely looking at fiber as a a starting point is a really important thing to to do.

So practical ways that you might be able to add fiber to your child's day, whether it's adding chia into a jam sandwich, whether you tip some flaxseed meal into your child's banana bread, whether you add oats to smoothies, or you can add oats to a breadcrumb mix, including fruit at breakfast or afternoon tea. Mixing lentils into bolognese. Actually, I saw a really great recipe the other day where you blend up.

Practical Ways to Boost Fiber & Avoid Gut Disruptors (04:21.898)
Lentils that have been soaked, and then you mix them with firm tofu with some water, with some spices, and you blend that all up really well and you pour it into the pan. It's like a wrap, high protein wrap. Looked amazing. So I'll be sharing that with my members soon. So it's about finding simple, easy ways to boost fiber daily. Whether it's avocado, guacamole, hummus, or a nut butter in the morning or after school, whether it's frozen peas on a hot day.

Gradually increasing plant foods will make a big difference to your child's gut health and the diversity of the bugs or the microbiome in their gut. Another thing that we can do for gut health is to reduce food additives that may be gut health disruptors. Now, not every food additive is harmful, and parents don't need to fear every single ingredient in a food, but definitely avoiding ultra-processed foods will

benefit your child's gut because some of those additives are going to be gut health disruptors. And again, my members have access to all of this inside my supermarket information, inside my food additive guide in the membership. But definitely trying to simplify your child's food ingredients list, whether it's bread, whether it's muesli bars, is going to support their gut health because it's not only things like emulsifiers and preservatives, but it's the sweeteners.

Also impacting gut health, unnecessary colours and flavors can impact behavior. So it's something just to be mindful of that can directly impact gut health. Okay, moving on to my number two, which is quality protein. Now, again, if you've spent any time with me, you will know that I do talk about making sure that there's a good balance of protein in your child's day.

And it's not too heavily skewed towards dairy because dairy protein, whilst is a good source of protein like yogurt and milks and whatnot, it doesn't contain any iron and it doesn't contain any fiber. Two nutrients that have been identified that our children do not get enough of. And so this is why we are seeing more and more iron deficiency. This is why we do see children who are not meeting their daily fiber requirements because

Area #2: Quality Protein, Iron Intake, and the Dairy Trap (06:42.786)
They're munching on cheese and yogurt as snacks rather than other iron-rich and fiber-rich foods that also contain protein. So protein is important because it supports their growth, their muscles, their hormones, their immune function. But at the end of the day, most Australian children get plenty of protein each day. The bigger concern is where that protein is coming from and whether they're getting enough iron and fiber. So

Just be really mindful of that dairy trap where children are having a lot of those because they're displacing those other foods that children also need and those other nutrients that children also need. So iron-rich protein foods include meat, fish, eggs, lentils, chickpeas, butter beans, baked beans, tofu, tempeh, edamami.

nuts and nut butters, seeds and seed paste and iron fortified cereal. So even things like wheat bicks. So pay attention to your child's day. On my website is typically when people have online consultations, I'll send them the link to my food diary. But you can just write it all out and have a look at your child's day and look at the spread of their day and work out whether they're having, you know, more than a couple of serves of dairy a day. Because if they are, you need to look at substituting it.

Inside my membership, I've got a white diet nutrient booster, which is a brilliant resource to understand whether your child is getting a good spread of the food groups. And if they're not, you get plenty of ideas for how to plug nutrients in certain food groups. So that's something that my members have free access to. And it's something that will really help you identify whether your child is getting enough nutrition.

I was only chatting to my friend yesterday about her children and she's like, my children are fussy and you know, they're just not getting enough good nutrition. And she was talking me through the snacks and look, the meals were healthy. They tried really hard and the meals, although the kids were fussy and you know, they were very reliant on protein food such as nuggets and sausages. It was the snacks that really needed the work. The snacks were very carby and fruity and didn't have

Maximizing Nutrition and Iron in Kids' Snacks (08:54.182)
iron in them. And so we talked a lot about making the most of snacks and making snacks count. And I've just given her my recipe book because my recipe book has those ingredients that are iron rich. And that's where we really need to try to maximize their iron intake is in their snacks because little ones, snacks can contribute significantly to their day. So really focusing on how you can increase iron and fiber in kids' snacks is a really good one.

And if you want to grab my recipe book, head to nourishedwithkarina.com forward slash recipe book and you can grab that as well. It's got over a hundred recipes that I've created for my kids to boost these key nutrients. Okay, moving on to number three, sugar. Now, I'm all about keeping it real and importantly, not avoiding sugar totally, because if we avoid sugar completely, it will become

like the forbidden fruit, and then your children will want it more, then there will be a higher risk of them sneaking it. So it's really important that children understand how sugar fits into a healthy, balanced lifestyle. So sugar is a normal part of life these days. It wasn't always like that, but now it is with sugar being super accessible and super cheap. So children should be able to enjoy a cake or an ice cream or special foods without the

guilt or worry about their parents saying something. However, it absolutely needs to be managed in a way that they don't have it all the time. Because when children are having these high sugar foods and drinks all the time, that will absolutely impact not only their concentration, their behavior, but it will impact their gut health as well and so and also increase their risk of becoming overweight.

So it's something that we really need to be mindful of and and the drinks is where I'd start because kids these days guzzle a lot of sugar in drinks, whether it's juices or soft drinks. It's a you know, I only saw a patient the other day who was four and she's drinking coke sometimes. So it's a quick and easy way to reduce a child's sugar intake through reducing sugary drinks.

Area #3: Managing Sugar and Hidden Sugars (11:06.402)
But sugar also quietly creeps in in breakfast cereals, flavoured yogurts. I was only talking about that the other day on Channel Seven Sunrise. How some of the yogurt, even the no added sugar yogurts, they add in concentrated fruit juice as a sugar, but they can say no added sugar on the label because it's from fruit, which is absolute rubbish because really at the end of the day, it's got it's n there's no nutrition in concentrated fruit juice. It's really an added sugar.

Sugar can creep in in muesli bars, in fruit straps, in flavored milks, in you know, many different ways. And it's important for parents to understand what to look for on the label, look for the ingredients list, look at the sugar per hundred grams or per hundred meals, because that's the only way you're really going to understand how much sugar is in a product because you can't trust what they say on the front of the pack, sadly. So have a think about your child's day and your child's drinks and your child's snacks.

And think about whether there's the opportunity to reduce the sugar in one of your child's snacks or drinks that they're having consistently because we need to focus on the things that children are having consistently. It's really important as parents that we don't strive too hard to try and perfect everything because that will never happen and it will just feel like more of a failure. Just pick one thing. Pick one thing out of what I've discussed today, whether it's looking at increasing plant foods and fiber, whether it's focusing on

the protein and swapping out some of the protein foods or whether it's focusing on sugar. But just pick one thing, start there and then move on. It's not about perfection. It's about little improvements that we can make to our child's day, our child's week that over time will significantly make a difference to their health. If you want more information about my membership, we'll pop a link in the notes. Head to nourishwithkarina.com forward slash membership.

For personal consultations, just click the consult tab. That's where we take a real deep dive into your child's nutrition and I create a personalized plan for your family. And as I said at the beginning, please leave me a review and a rating and we can get this podcast out to more parents so that we can help more parents make simple changes to improving their children's health. Because at the end of the day, that's what we want to do. We just want to set them up to live a long, happy, healthy life. And

Conclusion, Final Takeaways & Outro (13:28.716)
And it really all starts in their gut and the foods that they eat. So I wish you a really beautiful week and I can't wait to chat with you again soon. Bye for now.