I am amazed at how often I hear someone boast they’ve achieved optimal health and can eat whatever they want ("I'll work it off")because they exercise regularly and vigorously and having a low BMI. The opposite is true! Of course we need calories and macronutrients but with the right foods. We are engineered to use many thousands of essential micronutrients in fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, the phytochemicals that are the building blocks of cellular health, and impact each organ and bodily function. Exercising induces oxidative stress, generates free radical damage and must be combated with antioxidant-rich whole foods. That’s why the CDC replaced its “5-A-Day” campaign, and partnered with the Produce for Better Health Foundation in the campaign, "Fruits & Veggies: More Matters."
And kids’ nutrition is getting even worse, with excessive junk food. Half of American children snack about 4 times a day and some eating almost constantly, consuming either snacks or meals as often as 10 times a day. Kids are eating less at mealtimes when more nutritious foods are offered because of empty-calorie over-snacking the rest of the day on refined sugar, salted and fatty foods. Kids as well as adults are moving away from being hungry and eating for satiation to just eating. Children rely on us to safeguard their health – let’s not let them down.
Variety is the spice of life for foods, so dress up veggies, whole grains, dried beans and legumes to give them more appeal by adding fresh herbs, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and chicken broth.
David Bjerklie reported: "The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you that they could save your life" (Times Magazine, Oct 20, 2003). So, let’s make 2010 a National Nutrition YEAR by filling our plates with good nutrition daily -- and supplement with a whole-food concentrate to fill the gaps between our best efforts and the 7 to 13+ servings we need. Essential nutrition means eating a rainbow every day. That is challenging for kids and grown-ups who need to recondition their taste buds to acquire a taste for plant foods. The cost of ignoring our nutritional gaps is one we can no longer afford, if we want to safeguard our future and the future of today’s younger generation. Aren’t we – and they – worth it?