A child with cravings for truly healthy whole foods like fruit and veggies.
A child whose compassion will heal the world around her and within.
Little do we realize that the majority of these and other values are “given” to our child very, very, very early in life. By that I mean from birth up to 3 years old. This developmental period is critical not only in mastering linguistic, motor, emotional control, social attachments skills. This is the window of opportunity to give your child a sense of foods surrounding her.
Reading a research article on sucrose exposure of mice showed in that experiment that:
1. The mice who were given unlimited access to sucrose or table sugar gained considerably more weight than those mice that were not exposed to sugar. Please note that the experiment was conducted on baby mice who were just weaned from their mothers. (See reference below)
2. Plus, this sucrose exposure was for a short period of time. Which suggests that it doesn’t take a lot of effort and time to give a child a burden for the rest of her life. Mainly, a burden of fighting for her normal weight.
One time more, it reminded me of importance to offer more whole foods, fruit and vegetables in front of my toddler son.
The biggest gift I could give him that would bring joy to him and the people around him year after year would be a sense of yumminess that is found in fresh fruit and vegetables.
Silly desire of mine? May be. However I am not afraid to seem silly, for the vibrant health is the only powerful force that could take him far and beyond on his path of living his own dream life.
Celebrate Your Child Today!
References:
Sucrose Exposure in Early Life Alters Adult Motivation and Weight Gain by Cristianne R.M. Frazier(1), Peggy Mason (1,2), Xiaoxi Zhuang (1,2), Jeff A. Beeler(2)
1 Committee on Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, 2 Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
