Children, as we know, are difficult and demanding “clients”. Most of the healthy and advisable foods do not find pleasure in their palate. There are, however, many tricks to counteract bad habits and root their healthy habits of life. Cancer is a pathology closely linked to food: eating properly right from an early age is the best investment for health.
Dietary preferences and the habit of regular exercise are consolidated in the first years of life. This is why it is very important to teach children to feed properly and invite them to play sports in the right amount.
Several epidemiological studies have shown that more than 30% of tumors are associated with the type of diet followed and that consumption of healthy foods from an early age is accompanied by a lower incidence of tumors.
This data was also confirmed by a large European epidemiological study, the EPIC study, to which AIRC also contributed.
A decisive element, according to the EPIC study, is the high consumption of vegetables from the earliest childhood, compared to an intake of protein of animal origin.
Question of proportions
Because the little ones are always awake and full of energy it is necessary that the caloric intake follow the scheme shown below.
The mutual importance of lunch and dinner is, unfortunately, often reversed: children who eat in school canteen tend not to consume the entire meal (often because they are not liked), while working parents reserve the most complete menu in the evening, thus promoting weight gain. In fact, at night, the child has no way of disposing of excess calories.
Breakfast is a serious matter
Breakfast in the morning, often underestimated in Italy, is very important because upon waking, after an average of 10 hours of fasting, the body needs “fuel” to start again.
To make a good breakfast, the key element is time. Getting up ten minutes before to sit down at the table is a winning strategy: not only does it give the child time to wake up calmly and to feel the effects of nighttime fasting, but it encourages a not too hectic start to the day.
A poor breakfast triggers a real vicious circle: it is easy in fact that the child who does not eat when waking up gets hungry on the morning snack. As a result, you will not be hungry at lunch. The afternoon snack will therefore be excessively abundant and the dinner poor: in essence, the nutritional balance is moved towards snacks of little value at the expense of main meals.
The mid-morning snack should consist of a fresh fruit or simple bread, better if integral, which provides a good supply of carbohydrates without the excess sugar and fat present in snacks and biscuits.
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