So your child eats this regularly?

This part of the series, My Children’s Health.

Calories are based on a recommended 1600 calorie diet for a 10 yr old female with low activity (just things a regular kid would do during the day).
Program Used: http://caloriecount.about.com

Unfortunately, my children are unavailable for this experiment so I did a conservative estimation of what children might eat in a day. This is meant to represent a day where mom or dad just didn’t have time to cook dinner. My ex-wife works. I work. We have activities. You know how it goes.

I know that my children eat horribly when they get home from school. I’m scared to get the real details from them. My ex does make a good effort to feed them with a balanced diet, but I do think they consume too many sweets in proportion to more nutritional foods. We’ll see about that later.

Another thing we have to consider is that children rarely finish what is in front of them. Visit your child  for lunch at school and be amazed at what kids don’t eat. Seriously…they don’t eat. Full milks, white and chocolate…never opened. So we have to think about undernourishment in conjunction with that horrible mess that is being served to them via the cafeteria. We need a Jamie Oliver at every school!

So here is my mock up day:

BREAKFAST:
Before anyone starts shouting, “I don’t feed my kids that stuff!”, I get it. The fact that you are on this site suggests you give a damn. But giving a damn doesn’t mean we can’t improve. My main concern (for myself) is proper nourishment and under nourishment. My own children have cereals with their mom that I would not buy, so I chose to include it. I threw in some sausages and, to be honest, forgot the fruit. They always get fruit. Of course, they also have pancakes and waffles…anyway.

LUNCH & DINNER:
Lunch at school. Does everyone remember the school pizza? Children really don’t need good food, right? Just make sure it has large doses of sugar or salt and you’ll be good. This is not the place for my rant on school food, so I’ll leave it at that. I just remember the pizza, corn and chocolate milk. This is definitely the meal where you can say that our children are extremely malnourished (mainly from the lack of supervision). There is no one there to tell them to eat, so they don’t. Keep in mind that I did not include whatever the dessert might be (the one thing they usually finish).

So mom or dad is running late from work, or there was soccer practice or drama. No time to prepare and make a meal. Fast food is always there to help. Could there be anything less nutritious than fast food? Candy, I suppose. And as a business model, I applaud fast food. At this moment, I could get into my car and go to any fast food restaurant, stuff myself and be a happy camper. For that matter, a Little Caeser’s pizza is only $5. Can you beat a $5 pepperoni pizza? I think not.

But all this is besides the point. If you fast food once a week, whatever. 3 & 4 times a week is going to be a problem. Look at the calories in small size Happy Meal. I can’t remember if there is a sugar treat with the Happy Meal. Regardless, no sane adult can claim a Happy Meal to be a passable dinner.

SNACKS:

I threw in one 12 oz coke and some fruit chews. I’m positive my children inhale more sweets than this if they have the pantry to themselves. Again, scared to know.

TOTAL CALORIES IN A CHILD’S DIET:

1917.4

So we are over 317 calories based on my 10 year daughter. What is our analysis of Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat? Maybe our grade (B-) is part of the problem with our epidemic. This menu ranks a clear F with me. Let’s look at the nutritional breakdown:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind of says it all, doesn’t it? Carbohydrates, Saturated Fats and Sodium are all rated Too High. Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Calcium are rated Too Low. This is a B-?

Again – I created this fictitious day. The good news is that this is not everyday. The bad news is that obesity (adults and children) is going up every year in this country. Based on the lunches that I see everyday at my kid’s school, I have a bad feeling that many of our children are undernourished and/or eating some really sub-par substitutes. If a child is undernourished a little each day, would we actually be able to notice?  What effect would this consistent malnourishment lead to? There are good fats and bad fats, good carbs and bad carbs, better forms of protein. This is what needs to be sorted through.

This is my quest for myself concerning my two children. I’ll take any input along the way.