Kids Need Nutrition, Too! Multi-Ingredient Formulas for Better Health

When kids are younger, we definitely have more control over the foods they eat and the supplements they take. If you have younger children in your life, I hope that you are taking advantage of this time to teach them about nutrition (along with other healthy lifestyle habits) and get them taking some essential nutrients.

Kids, just like adults, need a nutrient dense diet. They need high quality animal proteins, a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, and healthy fats from cold water fish, olives, avocados, and raw nuts and seeds.

It is an unfortunate and absolutely FALSE American belief that kids will only eat “kid food”.

The American way is to allow kids to eat all the junk food as we assume that is all they will eat. We relegate “kid food” as fare that is highly processed, artificially colored, full of sugar, and sorely lacking in nutritional value. Burgers, chicken fingers, and french fries are on every kid’s menu. Highly processed foods like “fruit snacks”, yogurt tubes, and bags of chips are the norm. 

All these products and more are part of a disgusting marketing ruse that keeps us buying ultra-processed “foods” and feeding them to our children (and ourselves).

A 2021 survey of over 30,000 children found that 67% of calories consumed by children comes from ultra-processed foods. Adults did not do much better, with 57% of calories from ultra-processed foods. These foods, on average, contain less that 20% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of micronutrients across the board. The RDA was established to prevent frank deficiency of nutrients, not to establish levels of nutrients required for optimal health or even healthy functioning.

Intake of nutrients at the level of the RDA would not necessarily be expected to replete individuals previously undernourished, nor would it be adequate for disease states marked by increased requirements. Meaning that shooting for intake at the RDA level will still leave us functioning well below what our bodies require to function.

And since over 57% of food intake across all ages is sorely lacking in any nutrition, we are in big trouble with our health.

This means that, with sub-optimal levels of these nutrients from our diets and our depleted soil, we are at a higher risk for diseases associated with poor cellular function- namely ALL diseases!

Unfortunately, a good diet may not be enough to optimize nutritional factors because of deteriorating soil quality. The worldwide use of herbicides and pesticides diminish nutrients in our crops because they chelate minerals that should be in our foods from the soil. The emphasis on high-yield crops at the expense of nutrient density and an increase in atmospheric CO2 are all factors contributing to the lower nutrient content of foods.

Additionally, each of us has slightly different individual needs for various nutrients. Some people have a congenital need for more than typical amounts of cofactors for optimal enzymatic activity.
We now know, through genetic testing that we all have Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), little genetic variations, that make certain enzymes have a decreased binding
affinity for a certain vitamin or mineral, making our own personal requirement for that vitamin or mineral higher than average. We can “fix” these variations by supplementing with higher doses of vitamins and minerals.

Since, without genetic testing and a knowledgeable doctor to interpret them, it is impossible to know which nutrients you might need, we can cover our bases with a high-quality multi-ingredient formula. This is just a fancy name for a multivitamin/mineral supplement. A multi-ingredient formula has much better health outcomes than if you try to replete one or more nutrients separately.

It is extremely important that you spend your hard-earned money on a multivitamin/mineral supplement that contains bio-available forms of nutrients. Beware the cheap, one-pill a day multivitamins. They will contain the less expensive to manufacture synthetic forms of vitamins and minerals, often at insufficient quantities, that are not bioavailable to your cells.
While you may be concerned about your vitamins ending up in the toilet, this is simply not true. Your body uses the nutrients that are available for it to use and what you see in the toilet is simply the metabolites of those utilized vitamins.

Please:

1. Eat a whole foods, nutrient dense diet. I promise that if you introduce real, whole food to children they will eat it. I promise that if you lead by example, they will follow. I promise that feeding your children and grandchildren nutrient dense foods will make them grow bigger and stronger, level out their moods, allow them to focus more clearly, sleep more soundly, and be generally healthier with fewer colds, infections, and fewer chronic conditions.
2. Take a high quality, professional grade multi-ingredient formula and give one to your children and grandchildren. We all need more than you think!