Author: Marko Balašević
Time for reading: ~4
minutes
Last Updated:
October 27, 2022
A child's body, which is growing and developing, needs strength for the great discoveries that happen to it every day. In order for a child to grow up healthy and active, his diet should be varied and balanced. Let's learn more about how to make the most useful children's menu.
A child's body , which is growing and developing, needs strength for the great discoveries that happen to it every day. In order for a child to grow up healthy and active, his diet should be varied and balanced. Let's learn more about how to make the most useful children's menu.
A child's health depends on many factors, and nutrition , physical activity and a positive environment play an important role in its development . Useful products for children contain a charge of vitamins and minerals necessary for active growth. Knowing the list of the most necessary products for the child , you can make a menu, each time offering the child a new tasty dish.
It is intuitive and so clear which products are useful for the child . The basis of a child's diet should be dairy products , cereals, vegetables, fruits, berries, greens, meat and fish, eggs, nuts. It is important that every day the child eats a variety of food with a high content of proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals.
Let's start with breakfast. It is difficult to find a better dish than porridge for the first meal. Porridges from cereal crops charge the body with energy and give a feeling of satiety. The most useful are cereals with a low glycemic index - rice, buckwheat, wheat. These cereals are rich in vitamins A, B, C, D, E, fatty acids. The complex carbohydrates of rice help to produce the energy needed by schoolchildren in the educational process. Buckwheat porridge is rich in vegetable proteins. Semolina is considered the least useful porridge.
Another indispensable product for the full development of a child is a chicken egg. Eggs contain a lot of animal proteins, amino acids, vitamins A, D, B2. If there is no individual intolerance , the child can eat eggs at least every day. Especially since there are many recipes for cooking dishes from eggs that you will not get bored of. Omelet, poached eggs, benedict, egg in toast, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs - this breakfast is simple, tasty and healthy.
For the second breakfast , the child can be offered a fruit salad. All fruits contain vitamins and trace elements in varying amounts. It is believed that the body better assimilates fruits and vegetables that are suitable for its place of birth and growth. That is, the most useful fruits in our country are apples, plums, pears, apricots, peaches, rich in vitamin A. This vitamin is important for the formation of hormones in the young body, improves visual acuity, promotes good skin and hair, strengthens bone tissue and teeth.
Citrus fruits contain a lot of vitamin B1, which is responsible for the body's metabolic processes. For the proper development of the nervous, cardiovascular and muscular systems and prevention of vitamin deficiency, it is advisable to eat at least 100 g of grapefruit, kiwi and pineapple per day. Children should eat fruit fresh or frozen. Canned fruits contain sugar, which increases the calorie content of the dish, and the body receives all the useful components as a result of long-term storage in a less high concentration. It is desirable to eat different fruits every day.
The child's lunch should be hearty, but moderate, and should contain protein food. If the child is not brought up in a vegetarian family, then for lunch you can prepare fish or a dish made of lean meat. Rabbit, turkey and veal meat is considered dietary. Dishes prepared from these varieties of meat and poultry are rich in protein, iron, zinc, vitamins B2 and B6. Steamed, boiled or stewed meat is better and faster absorbed by the body.
The most useful products for children can be found in the fish section of the store. Swedish scientists, using the example of their country's children , showed the whole world the benefits of fish for a growing and developing body. According to their research, the presence of fish in a child's diet contributes to the improvement of the child's mental abilities by 2 times compared to those who do not consume seafood.
Fish is rich in proteins, iron, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin B12. Fish dishes should be included in the child's diet at least once a week . The most useful types of fish for children are cod, zander, and trout.
It is better to serve meat and fish dishes at lunch with cooked side dishes - potatoes, buckwheat, rice, pasta made of durum wheat.
As a snack, offer the child a glass of milk or kefir, or another dairy product . The norm of dairy products for a child is at least 500 ml of milk and 50 g of cottage cheese per day. You should choose products with low fat content, 2.5-3.5% is suitable for milk, cheese - up to 9%. Healthy dairy foods for children contain calcium, the most important element for bone growth, animal fats and vitamins, as well as beneficial for the digestive system and intestinal tract lactobacilli.