If you have a "divine beast" at home, how can you feed it healthily?

I believe that every family with children has a common topic: how to feed children healthily? Traditional concepts often believe that children who are too thin or too short are malnourished, and that tall and fat children of the same age are strong and healthy. In fact, modern medicine believes that being too thin, too short, too tall or too fat compared to children of the same age is unhealthy. Being too thin or too short is called developmental delay, which may be caused by long-term dietary malnutrition or nutritional imbalance; being too tall or too fat reflects long-term dietary excess nutrition, which is also a manifestation of malnutrition or nutritional imbalance.

Parents, please refer to the table below to check whether your child’s development is normal!

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the strength of the spleen, stomach and kidney functions are closely related to the growth and development of children and adolescents. For a child's healthy growth, it is not only necessary to provide a scientific diet, but parents and schools should also pay special attention to the child's physical condition. Only by adopting a dialectical diet based on their physical condition can the nutritional effect be achieved with half the effort.

1. Feeding of overweight and obese children

Studies have shown that one-fifth of children in my country are overweight or obese, and their body fat content is significantly higher than the standard. Overweight and obesity are important risk factors for a variety of chronic non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes. Obesity is not a sign of physical strength in children and adolescents. On the contrary, it increases the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood.

It is recommended that overweight and obese children and adolescents should follow the following dietary guidelines:

1. Eat appropriately according to the amount of physical activity. Teach your children to control their mouths, move their legs, and strive to achieve a balance between eating and moving; but when losing weight, it should be gradual and not too fast.

2. Change bad eating habits and eat regularly. Eat a good breakfast, a full lunch, and a small dinner.

3. Change the dietary structure. Reduce the intake of high-fat, high-calorie, high-carbohydrate, and high-glycemic index foods, and increase the intake of vegetables, fruits, aquatic products, milk, and legumes. It is reported that consuming a large amount of low-glycemic index foods has a significant weight loss effect.

4. Pay attention to the nature and taste of food and improve physical fitness. Regulating gastrointestinal immunity and improving intestinal flora disorders can affect the secretion of a variety of endogenous hormones that suppress appetite, produce a sense of fullness, reduce appetite, and control energy intake.

5. Cultivate a light diet habit. Reducing the intake of fat, added sugar, and salt can reduce appetite and energy intake and control fat accumulation in the body.

2. Feeding of children and adolescents with developmental delay

Developmental delay can affect the physical and intellectual development of children and adolescents, resulting in symptoms such as decreased physical fitness and poor academic performance. In severe cases, it can lead to diarrhea, pneumonia, etc., increasing the chance of infection and mortality. It can also affect height in adulthood, increase the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, and reduce labor capacity. An unreasonable dietary structure, bad eating behavior, or improper feeding by parents can lead to the occurrence and development of growth delay in children and adolescents; long-term loss of appetite, anorexia, food stagnation, and dieting in children and adolescents can cause spleen and stomach dysfunction, which is also an important factor affecting growth and development delay in children and adolescents.

It is recommended that children and adolescents with growth retardation should follow these dietary guidelines:

1. Diverse foods to meet growth and development needs. Ensure three meals a day, regular meals, and adequate energy and nutrient intake; each meal should include at least 3 types of food such as cereals and potatoes, vegetables and fruits, livestock, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, and soybeans; the number of food types should reach more than 12 per day and more than 25 per week. On the basis of a balanced diet, appropriately increase the amount of foods rich in high-quality protein such as lean meat, aquatic products, poultry, eggs, and soybeans.

2. Nutrition should be tailored to the individual, the place and the season, and the spleen and stomach should be regulated. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the diet of children and adolescents with growth retardation should be based on strengthening the spleen and increasing food intake. Different diet plans should be adopted according to different symptoms. Food supplements should not be excessive to prevent blocking the spleen and stomach. When other symptoms occur, other organs should be regulated on the basis of regulating the spleen and stomach. According to the characteristics of different geographical environments, eating habits and food supply characteristics, follow the principle of nourishing yang in spring and summer and nourishing yin in autumn and winter, and choose appropriate food.

3. Cook properly and cultivate healthy eating behaviors. Provide children and adolescents with fresh and hygienic food that is mild in nature, easy to digest, and good for the spleen and appetite. It is advisable to use steaming, boiling, stewing, and simmering for cooking, and avoid frying, grilling, pickling, and other methods. Choose snacks reasonably, drink enough water, avoid sugary drinks, and eat less high-salt, high-sugar, high-fat, and trans-fatty acid foods. Develop healthy eating habits to ensure good spleen and stomach function and facilitate the absorption and utilization of nutrients. Children aged 2 to 5 should use less seasoning in their meals; children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 should not blindly diet or overeat.

4. Carry out nutrition education and create a healthy food environment. Children, adolescents, their parents, and school canteen workers should actively learn the knowledge and skills of nutrition and health and traditional diet through various channels, gradually improve their nutrition literacy and meal preparation skills, and effectively improve the nutritional health of children and adolescents.

5. Maintaining appropriate physical activities for children and adolescents, ensuring sleep time and quality. Guiding children to manage their emotions and behaviors are necessary measures to improve their appetite and increase their food intake. According to the specific situation of the child, the diet plan should be appropriately adjusted to suit the child's individual growth needs.

The healthy growth of children and adolescents requires scientific and reasonable diet, but Chinese medicine believes that the internal constitution of the human body and external environmental factors also affect the absorption and utilization of nutrients by the human body, indirectly affecting the healthy growth of children and adolescents. Only by adapting to the external environment and coordinating the constitution of children and adolescents, and achieving a reasonable diet according to time, place and people, can we ensure the health of children and maintain the healthy growth of the body. Parents with "divine beasts" at home, do you know how to feed your children healthily? Let us work together as a society and take positive actions to escort the healthy growth of children and adolescents!

References:

[1] Wang Longde. Nutrition and disease prevention: Medical weight loss management manual [M]. 1st edition. Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 2021.

[2] Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents with Growth Retardation (2023 Edition).