Have No Fear, Your Calcium is Here! By Wendy Wegner
Many parents agree – it’s tough to feed a picky eater, let alone fill them up with nutritious foods. But one thing is for sure – you don’t have to settle for high-fat, high-caloric foods in order to include some very important calcium in your child’s diet. I once worked with a chef who taught children’s cooking classes and it was a ton of fun to help out and watch the kids get excited about new foods and recipes. It was amazing to see how empowered they were by taking on new responsibilities in the kitchen, and how they took ownership of their meals and experimented with new and “unusual” foods (veggies, legumes, whole grains, oh my!). The cooking teacher always reminded her students that you need to try a new food 10 times before you can really know if you like it or not. While I’m not positive about the science behind her statement, I do tend to believe it. Although it probably took me 10 years to like asparagus, and now it’s officially one of my favorite vegetables. The point is, don’t give up on your kids. And more importantly, don’t let them give up on the wide variety of healthy fruits and vegetables available to them. It’s a wild world of food out there, and you never know what dish might tickle your taste buds next. Due to the recent LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) ban on flavored milk, many parents have feared that their children will develop a calcium-deficient diet. That’s why I’ve proposed a sample menu made with children’s nutritional needs in mind, and it’s chock full of our favorite chemical element. Meet Olivia. She’s 9. And she needs about 1,000 to 1,300 mg of calcium every day. Here’s a sample menu to get her through breakfast, lunch, dinner (and even dessert!), and it’s sure to keep her happy and healthy. And with an appropriate and safe amount of sun exposure during the day (hopefully playing outside!), she’ll soak up enough vitamin D to keep her calcium absorbed.
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Breakfast (warm up your brain and start the day off right) 1 cup calcium-fortified orange juice – 300 mg calcium/ 120 calories 1 packet instant oatmeal – 200 mg calcium/100 calories ½ cup golden seedless raisins – 104 mg calcium/219 calories ½ cup almond milk – 100 mg calcium/35 calories Breakfast total: 704 mg of calcium & 474 calories