Love your kids? Don’t feed them processed foods

Childhood is wonderful, and parents love to preserve the memories.  Preserving memories is one thing, but feeding your child preservatives is another.  If you love your kids, you want to give them the gift of good health. 

The best way to bless your kids with good health is to avoid feeding them processed foods.

Processed foods include:

• Virtually all fast-food unless it’s from an organic deli
• Pasta
• Bread
• Canned food
• Frozen food
• Meals in a box
• Frozen dinners

Sad to say, almost any meal that’s easy and convenient is probably highly processed.  So what kinds of foods are unprocessed?

• Organic or homemade baby food
• Raw fruit
• Raw or lightly steamed vegetables
• Veggies sautéed lightly in coconut oil
• Wild game
• Free range chickens
• Organic beef
• Fresh-squeezed organic juices

Switching to organic or unprocessed foods can give your kids "dramatic and immediate" protection from widely used pesticides that are used on a variety of crops, according to a new study by a team of federally funded scientists.

In the study, a team from the University of Washington, Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested the urine of 23 elementary-school age children in the Seattle area over a 15 day period.

During one five-day period within the study, organic foods were substituted for conventional foods. And during those five days, concentrations of two organophosphate pesticides --malathion and chlorpyrifos -- declined substantially in the bodies of the kids.

Getting enough green vegetables? Probably not. TRY THIS GREEN DRINK - Click Here Those two chemicals are the most commonly used insecticides in U.S. agriculture. The health effects of kids’ exposure to minute amounts of pesticides are largely unknown, but some research suggests that the residue may harm the developing nervous system.

When the kids in the study ate organic foods, the children on average had zero malathion detected in their urine, with a high of 7 parts per billion in one child. But when the children returned to eating conventional foods, one child had as much as 263 ppb and the average increased to 1.6 ppb.

These results indicate that children are exposed to organophosphate chemicals mainly through food, not through spraying in homes or other sources. In 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned most residential uses of chlorpyrifos but has left most agricultural uses unrestricted.

"In conclusion," the researchers wrote, "we were able to demonstrate that an organic diet provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposure to organophosphorus pesticides that are commonly used in agricultural production."

Sure, organic foods cost more and can be harder to find. But you can minimize your kids’ exposure by substituting organic products for those that contain the most residues. Gerry Morton, CEO of EnergyFirst, has these suggestions for cutting your kids’ exposure to hazardous processed foods:

• If you buy conventional foods, wash them with soap and water.
• Experts recommend also peeling fruit, but be aware that most of the Vitamin C in fruit is in the skin.
• For foods that can’t be peeled like grapes and strawberries, buy organic.
• Be aware that that highest levels of pesticide residues in fruits and veggies are found in peaches, apples, pears, grapes,
  green beans, spinach, winter squash, strawberries and cantaloupe.
• Foods with the fewest residues are bananas, broccoli, canned peaches, canned or frozen peas, canned or frozen corn, milk, orange juice, apple juice and grape juice.

More tips on how you can improve your child’s health be found by visiting Healthy Snacking Tips for you and the kids!.