Diet-related Conditions
Dietary Treatment Tools
Diet-related Conditions
Dietary Treatment Tools
A diverse diet is the single most valuable way of meeting a child’s nutritional needs, building and maintaining a diverse gut microbiota, which in itself will support effective elimination, strengthen gut integrity and mature the protective immune systems. The first nutritional need for a child to thrive well is for energy. All food contains energy, but those with higher nutrient and fibre profiles will provide sustained energy release over the day, and can be found in wholegrains, roots, fruits, nuts, seeds, fats and oils from a wide variety of foods.
Proteins also provides energy, but are an inefficient way for the body to harvest energy, as protein’s primary purpose is to support body growth and tissue repair. Super necessary for children and teens, as around 20% of their daily energy needs are required for growth and repair of new tissue, bone, muscle, brain and internal organs. It is energy from carbohydrates, fats and oils that maintains physical activity and learning. Fish, eggs, pulses, nuts, seeds, dairy foods, tofu, red meat, poultry, wheat and some vegetables are all rich protein. And so, a balance in the ratio of energy to protein is needed for the body to work at its best, in the region of 1g protein to every 25-35kcals
Importantly, the gut microbiota thrives on a diverse diet, specifically from unprocessed plant foods such as wholegrains, pulses, vegetables and nuts & seeds which provide the optimum “diet” for beneficial microbes living in the large bowel such as bifidobacteria. Sugars provide energy and flavour in the diet, but with no other macronutrients, vitamins, minerals or fibres. It turns out that sugars are the preferred “diet” for the other less beneficial and opportunistic microbes, naturally present in the gut such as candida, clostridium and E.coli. When those bacteria are fed their preferred diet, they increase in number, eventually producing an out of balance microbiota called dysbiosis.
The term “balance diet” comes from the idea that foods need to be in balance for our bodies to be well and healthy. Too much sugar and not enough wholegrains leads to an out-of-balance microbiota, leading over time to poor gut integrity and inflammation. This is dysbiosis, where opportunistic bacteria thrive, gut integrity is compromised, with poor cell-to-cell junctions within the single-celled intestinal lining called the endothelium. This used to be called leaky-gut syndrome!
IBS-like symptoms, food sensitivity, immune activation and irregular or painful elimination with loose, explosive, hard or smelly stools are associated with dysbiosis, and with poor gut integrity, as well as other mechanisms. Close attention the a diverse diet, eating mindfully, and building a diverse and balanced diet all contribute to the health of our gut microbiota. Mindful eating is a simple tool to help us slow down and enjoy our eating; connecting with our sensory experience, and giving our bodies the chance to engage their digestive and neuro-biological capacities. A healthy and diverse microbiota will produce vitamins, hormones, neuro-chemicals and many other bio-active substances beneficial for health including immune, digestive, metabolic and mental health.
The microbiota is part of what gives the gut its second brain status, alongside the millions of nerve connections and the super nerve highway of the vagus nerve that connects the gut directly to the brain.
from grains & roots, fats & oils and proteins is a good starting point. Meeting needs for key nutrients can be achieved with a focus on diet diversity. Whole and unprocessed foods contain the most nutrition, but generally need more chewing, and so adapting to a well-textured diet is a fundamental skill to address in infancy and early toddlerhood. Getting all the intelligent nutrients the body needs to function well in addition to these food groups will include essential fats, vitamins and mineral combinations.
Calcium is essential for growing bones and is found in dairy foods, plant milks, tofu, nuts, seeds, fortified white flour and hard water.
Vitamin D is a hormone-like substance, produced in the body from the sun’s rays on the skin, and not found in any significant amounts in foods except oily fish. All children in the UK need a daily supplement of at least 10ug; teens need 25ug
Iron from eggs, red meat, green leafy vegetables, dried fruits, wholegrains, fortified cereals, nuts and pulses is needed for making haemoglobin, the oxygen carrying substance in red blood cells. Importantly, haemoglobin carries oxygenated blood to the muscles, body and brain. It’s necessary for brain development in infancy, vitality, appetite, exercise tolerance and concentration.
Essential fats of the Omega 3 family are necessary for many aspects of brain development, vision, cardiac, arterial and immune function, and are found in a range of foods including oily fish, egg yolk, walnuts, flax, chia seeds.
Other nutrients such as iodine are essential for metabolic regulation and thyroid function. B vitamins and magnesium for production of energy. Vitamins A, C, and E to protect cells and zinc to boost immunity and body growth.
The benefits of nutritional health are lifelong, and I believe investing in this at the beginning pays dividends over a whole lifetime. Developing routines, behaviours and patterns regulates the body and also educates the mind into healthful behaviours.
This is a valuable parenting task throughout childhood, a balancing act to help children learn to enjoy eating as diverse a diet as possible.
For any general enquiries, please fill in the form with the necessary information. Any information about booking treatments or assessments can be found below.
Carine offers accessible online workshops on a variety of topics, designed to provide a space alongside others to listen, learn, share, practice and develop tools and strategies for nutritional health.
08/03/2023
Making Mealtimes Better : Structure, Nurture & Boundaries Accessible and full of sensible evidence-based information to support feeding young children well. Making Mealtimes Better is an on-line workshop series of...
05/07/2021
Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional problem affecting infants with 60% of 6-12 month old babies in the UK having low dietary iron intake, a key risk...
09/01/2020
I really do get it - it's hard to make time on a school morning to prepare a nutritious breakfast. My teenage daughter Izzy and I teamed up to produce...
26/11/2019
Many people are confused about the difference between lactose intolerance and cow's milk allergy. Misunderstood as same condition; the terms lactose intolerance and cow's milk allergy are used interchangeably and...
30/10/2019
Following a 2 - 6 week low lactose diet to treat lactose intolerance, your child should now be well on their way to recovery from symptoms. Reintroducing lactose back into...
02/10/2019
Infants and children need good sources of calcium in their diets on a daily basis. Calcium absorption in the gut is variable and ranges from 25-50%, increasing when intake is...
