Nutrition on the Cheap
Got a picky eater living on a diet of nuggets and Nutella? Is ketchup the most popular “vegetable” on your table? Like us, you probably fear that your family isn’t getting all the vitamins and minerals they need. And experts confirm that many children are deficient in key nutrients such as iron, calcium and fibre. What to do?
One idea is to pick up some of the new so-called functional foods in your grocery store, items such as juice and eggs fortified with extra goodies like calcium and omega-3s. But these can set you back some serious coin, and aren’t always as effective as you may think. So, embrace your inner cheapskate! We’ve got family-tested ideas on how to fill your kids up with the nutrients they need – based on Health Canada’s guidelines – without breaking the bank.
EXPERT SOURCES
> Kathy Romses, community dietitian with Vancouver Coastal Health
> Janis Randall Simpson, an assistant professor in the department of family relations and applied nutrition at the University of Guelph
> The Dietary Reference Intakes as outlined by Health Canada
CALCIUM
what it does
Builds bones in kids and helps teens shore up bone density. Vitamin D also boosts calcium’s effective-ness. (The Canadian Cancer Society says D may help lower cancer risk.)
what kids need
800 mg/day for kids and 1,300 mg for teens; vitamin D levels should hit at least 200 IU per day.
premium approach
Give dairy-despising kids calcium- and vitamin D- enriched orange juice, but don’t rely on this one source. Kids shouldn’t have more than one to two glasses of juice a day (half a glass for toddlers), as the sugar adds up. Children too full on juice may pass up good food, too.
the cheaper route
It’s hard to beat milk with its 300 mg of calcium and 100 IU of D per 250 mL glass. Secretly slip super-cheap powdered milk or fluid, fortified rice or soy milk into soups and sauces. Nothing wrong with other dairy products like cheese and yogurt, either, but only milk is fortified with D. Let ’em play in the sun for five minutes each day in spring and summer without sunscreen – but no longer, as more sun exposure increases kids’ risk for skin cancer – and you’ll get some of the vitamin for free.
parents dish
Romses puts a teeny squirt of chocolate syrup – so the squeeze bottle lasts forever – into her teens’ milk, so they’ll chug back. Chrystal Bymak in Yorkton, Sask., whose daughter hates milk, mixes one tub of flavoured yogurt with one tub of plain and makes frozen yogurt popsicles.
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