Balanced nutrition helps with immunization

Author: Liu Yunman Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Reviewer: Hong Li, Chief Physician and Professor, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Vaccination is the most effective means of preventing and controlling infectious diseases. The invention of vaccines and vaccination are the greatest public health achievements in human history. The popularization of vaccination has prevented tens of thousands of children from becoming disabled and dying. Countries around the world have listed vaccination as the top priority public preventive service project.

What is vaccination?

Vaccination simulates the process of the body producing specific antibodies to resist bacteria or viruses when they invade the human body. By artificially inoculating a small amount of bacteria or viruses and their metabolites that have been treated with attenuation or inactivation processes into humans, the body will produce specific antibodies or cellular immune responses, thereby generating resistance to the pathogen. Specific antibodies will remain in the body for a period of time, protecting the body from harm from these bacteria or viruses.

To ensure children's health and fight against bacteria and viruses, in addition to relying on planned immunization, we also need to use a healthy lifestyle such as balanced nutrition, moderate physical activity, regular work and rest to maintain and promote the normal function of the body's immune system and enhance resistance.

How should children eat healthily before and after vaccination?

Before and after vaccination, children need a light and balanced diet. The latest "Balanced Diet Pagoda for Chinese Preschool Children" and "Diet Pagoda for Chinese Residents" released by the Chinese Nutrition Society in 2022 provide detailed dietary recommendations.

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Re-understanding the benefits of staple foods

The human body needs to ensure sufficient energy, especially in the form of coarse and fine staple foods. This is also reflected in the fact that the base of the food pyramid is cereals, potatoes, and beans. Carbohydrate-rich staple foods such as rice and flour provide the most important source of energy for the human body, ensuring children's growth and development and normal life and study. Coarse and fine staple foods better retain nutrients such as dietary fiber, B vitamins, vitamin E, and a small amount of minerals, allowing children to obtain higher nutritional density while increasing satiety and maintaining intestinal health.

In addition, sufficient carbohydrates help save protein energy and improve the body's efficiency in using protein, including the synthesis of body tissues, antibody synthesis, transportation, enzymatic reactions, etc.

Therefore, it is recommended that children eat brown rice, mixed noodles, whole wheat bread, black rice steamed buns, red bean porridge and other staple foods with whole grains, potatoes, beans and other coarse grains on a daily basis. Many parents hope to manage their weight by greatly reducing the intake of staple foods, and apply this diet pattern to children, which is not advisable.

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Vegetables are not only green, but also have their own way of eating fruits

You should eat colorful fruits and vegetables every day, of which green leafy vegetables account for half of your vegetable intake, and dark vegetables account for half of your vegetable intake. Dark fruits and vegetables are often rich in nutrients such as vitamin C, carotene, anthocyanins, etc., which have antioxidant and immune-enhancing effects. At the same time, fruits and vegetables are rich in minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium, which help protect cardiovascular health. Common dark vegetables include dark green leafy vegetables (spinach, chrysanthemum, amaranth, etc.), tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli, etc. In addition, light-colored vegetables such as eggplant, zucchini, loofah and other melon and solanum vegetables are rich in water and are also an important source of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

Regarding fruits, the best way to eat them is to eat the whole fruit. This can not only allow children to obtain the rich nutrition in the fruit and exercise their chewing ability, but also avoid excessive sugar intake caused by consuming large amounts of fruit juice.

Therefore, it is recommended that parents cultivate good habits for children to eat enough vegetables and fruits from an early age. By adding various vegetables to meals, such as vegetable and meat rice, vegetable and meat dumplings, vegetable pancakes, etc., children can learn to recognize vegetables, taste vegetables and get used to a vegetable-rich diet. At the same time, eating fruits scientifically can promote health while enjoying the delicious taste.

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High-quality protein, too much is not good

Combining meat and vegetables is also an important principle of a balanced diet. Many parents also fall into another misunderstanding, that is, the polarization of animal product intake: for young children, parents worry about indigestion, food accumulation and other problems and do not let their children eat enough meat; for older children, parents worry about slow growth and not growing tall and let their children eat too much meat.

First, animal products such as livestock, poultry and aquatic eggs are important sources of high-quality protein for children's growth and development. Second, livestock provides rich nutrients such as iron, zinc, and vitamin B12, and poultry and aquatic products are also rich in unsaturated fatty acids, which are important nutritional foundations for ensuring children's resistance. Eggs, especially egg yolks, are rich in high-quality protein, lecithin, vitamin A and vitamin D. They are not only important early complementary foods, but also a daily necessity for older children.

Therefore, children should be provided with animal products such as livestock, poultry and aquatic products based on the recommended intake of livestock, poultry and aquatic products in the dietary pyramid.

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Do you eat these foods regularly?

The fourth level of the pagoda is the food that is easily overlooked by parents, namely dairy products, soy and its products, and nuts. Dairy products are rich in calcium and are easily absorbed by the human body, making them the most important source of calcium for the human body. However, many parents no longer pay attention to maintaining the good habit of keeping their children drinking enough milk every day after their children are two or three years old.

Soy foods are rich in soy protein, calcium, unsaturated fatty acids, soy lecithin, soy isoflavones and other nutrients, and have been an important delicacy on the Chinese table since ancient times. Nuts are rich in unsaturated fatty acids, magnesium, potassium, calcium, plant protein and other nutrients, which help regulate blood lipids and blood sugar and promote cardiovascular health.

Therefore, it is recommended that children drink two glasses of milk a day or pair it with low-sugar or sugar-free yogurt, eat soy products such as tofu and dried tofu several times a week, and eat a moderate amount of plain nuts as a healthy snack.

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Healthy cooking, appropriate calories

In addition, various foods often need to be cooked before they can be presented on the table. Condiments such as oil, salt, and sugar play an important role in this, but they are often too much. One of the outstanding problems in the current diet of Chinese residents is that cooking is heavy in oil and salt, and the intake of added sugar is too much. The oil content of a fried dough stick for breakfast can be as high as half of the daily requirement. The average salt intake of Chinese people can easily reach 10 grams per day, which is twice the amount recommended by the World Health Organization. A box of 200 grams of "plain" yogurt may leave little remaining for the daily added sugar balance. In light of national conditions, the National Health Commission advocates "three reductions and three healths", among which "three reductions" are "reducing salt, reducing oil, and reducing sugar", which requires parents to cultivate children's light taste from an early age and eat less deeply processed packaged foods.

Therefore, it is recommended that families prepare separate meals for preschool children and younger infants and toddlers, feed them mainly natural foods, and buy and eat less packaged foods and pickled foods rich in oil, salt, and sugar.

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Enough physical activity is also necessary to promote immune function

Finally, a strong body and good immunity cannot be separated from regular and appropriate physical activity. Appropriate physical activity can stimulate the immune system and prompt cells to produce anti-inflammatory responses. It is recommended that school-age children engage in 60 minutes of moderate to high intensity physical activity every day, including various sports and recreational physical activities. Younger children should reach 180 minutes of various intensity physical activities every day. Balanced eating and moving, metabolic health and planned immunization together build a protective line for children's bodies.

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