A Mother's Guide to Raising Healthy Children--Naturally Read Free Page A

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explanations and will even try new food that is offered in a warm, loving atmosphere."
Dinnertime should not be a battleground, he explains. "Children learn to enjoy new, healthy foods at different paces. The more pressure and bribery we offer surrounding broccoli, the less likely kids are to eat and enjoy it."
Gordon disapproves of telling children, "If you eat your broccoli, you can have dessert." He says this is a very traditional and very flawed way to get kids to eat their vegetables. "Basically you're saying if you eat this food that you dislike, I'll reward you with food that you like." This approach sends the message that broccoli is undesirable, while dessert is desirable. "I suggest you offer whole foods, and then relax."
Think of yourself as an educator rather than an enforcer. You can help your child understand why some foods are better than others by giving a simple and clear explanation. Gordon calls a hamburger a "greaseburger" to paint a vivid picture in his child's mind.
Remember, what you keep on hand is what your family will eat. Paul Wenner, author of Garden Cuisine and creator of the GardenBurger, points out, "Anything you do in life requires a little planning to turn out well. Eating healthy meals simply requires advanced planning. When we're hungry, we go with what we've got on hand. So make sure that what you've got is both healthy and tasty."
We Are What We Eat
The food you feed your child creates the foundation for her future health. Although we must relax and educate rather than enforce, remember that vegetables and fruits provide abundant nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, which promote efficient digestion and elimination and may help protect against cancer and heart disease.
An important and often overlooked aspect of your child's diet is making sure that their water is filtered so that it is free from chemicals such as chlorine, and that their food is organic (raised without pesticides or herbicides).
Consider this: American farmers annually apply 700 million pounds of pesticides to their crops. Farmers in other countries use nearly twice as many pesticides on their crops as we do; we import many of these fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits and vegetables get especially large doses of pesticides,

 

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with some being treated to a dozen or more applications per year, according to the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that pesticides cause cancer in 6,000 Americans annually. Many members of the organic farming community believe this number is, in reality, much higher.
The potential impact of pesticide residues is more of a threat to children than to adults. Children eat far more fruits and drink more fruit juices relative to their body weight than do adults. Children's growing bodies, with their developing organs and tissues, are more sensitive and vulnerable to toxins than are the fully developed organs of an adult.
A report by Consumers Union (CU) found that Americans eat some fruits and vegetables that contain high enough levels of pesticide residues to cause concern. The study looked at twenty-seven foods, using data gleaned from U.S. Department of Agriculture tests of 27,000 samples from 1994 to 1997. Risk estimates were based on the number of samples containing pesticide residues and the amount of toxicity of each residue. The toxicity levels came from EPA data. CU combined the figures from the two federal agencies to compile a "toxicity index." Apples, grapes, green beans, raw peaches, pears, spinach, and winter squash were high on the risk scale. The highest amount of pesticides was measured in U.S.-grown peaches, which had ten times higher pesticide levels than peaches imported from Chile. The report concluded that even a single daily serving of some produce can deliver unsafe levels of toxic pesticide residues for young children.
Earl Mindell, Ph.D., author of Parents'