5 Secrets for Healthy and Adventurous Children

1. Start Early with Foods from Nature:   Breastfeeding and Beyond
2. Every Day is an Outdoor Day to Play:   Get Dirty
3. Sunshine is Natures Strength:   Vitamin D is key to optimal muscle growth and development for activities
4. Pure Environment: home, organic, alternatives to mainstream thought and practices?
5. Family Camping and Hiking in the Mountains, Deserts, and Beaches:    Experience Nature. Explore the Terrain.

© Sara Newell: June 2008

I was researching eating patterns in childhood and the connection to adult eating patterns and found some great information.  See below!  (DGAC = Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee which establishes the American Dietary Guidelines based on updated research every 5 years.)

• Eating patterns established during childhood are carried into adulthood: Report of the DGAC on the Dietary Guidelines of America (2010)
• Those children who eat fruits and vegetables and milk are more likely to as adults: Report of the DGAC on the Dietary Guidelines of America (2010)
• Fathers who believe that dinner is an important family gathering might help lower a child’s intake of fast food. (Journal of Nutrition Education Behavior, 2011, McIntosh A. et al., 43:142-149)
• Children and teenagers sharing three or more family meals per week were more likely to be in the normal weight range, have healthier dietary and eating patterns and less disordered eating compared to children eating one or fewer family meals. (Pediatrics, 2011, Hammons AJ and Fiese BH, 127:15565-1574)