Key nutrients to help your children feel happier, healthier and smarter
Key Nutrients to Help Your Children Feel Happier, Healthier, and Smarter
As a parent, you have a huge number of different jobs and roles. In fact, it can sometimes be rather overwhelming when you realize just how much responsibility you have and how much you need to remember and get right.
No pressure.
But here’s something else that’s important: nutrition. There are specific, key nutrients that can make a world of difference to your children’s happiness, their health, and their performance in school.
Again… no pressure.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important nutrients for our fast-growing children.
OMEGA 3
Omega 3 fatty acid is a fatty acid that is found in fish, particularly salmon and tuna. It’s also available in various nuts and other sources and can be taken as a supplement.
However, your kids get it, ensure that they are getting it. It is one of the key nutrients for happier and healthier children. The current Recommended Adequate Intake of omega-3s for kids are: 0 to 12 months: 0.5 grams/day. 1 to 3 years: 0.7 grams/day. 4 to 8 years: 0.9 grams/day.
Omega 3 fatty acid plays a huge number of different roles, but some of its greatest hits include:
● Reducing inflammation in the joints
● Reducing inflammation in the brain (which can reduce brain fog and even depression)
● Improving communication between cells by increasing cell membrane permeability
● Improving myelination of brain cells, helping young children to learn
● Increasing the production of DHEA and reducing cortisol (the stress hormone)
Lutein
Lutein is a nutrient that is typically associated with eye health. In fact, elderly patients are advised to supplement with lutein in order to prevent macular degeneration and other issues. Vision is important for children too, especially during their developmental years. Lutein has also been shown to improve the efficiency of the mitochondria (a cell that converts out nutrients to energy), helping to give children more energy. Children are often thought to have and need more efficient mitochondria than adults. Lutein has also been linked with brain development and appears to correlate with performance in school during a child’s early years!
Vitamin D
A happy kid is a kid who spends a lot of time playing outdoors. Those are also the kids that have the most vitamin D – a prohormone that manages the production of other key hormones in the body. Vitamin D is produced in the body when we are exposed to sunlight. It can also be supplemented if your child spends more time indoors or if you living in the UK like us, where we get very few sunny days! The most effective source of usable Vitamin D, though, is sunlight. Our children need regular, daily doses of this vitamin because our bodies don’t store Vitamin D. So, it doesn’t work to get a lot of sun one day and then none for a week! Daily exposure to sunlight, for at least 20 minutes, is essential or a supplement is highly reccomended.
It’s particularly important for our little people for a few reasons:
● It manages the production of growth hormone and testosterone.
● It encourages good sleep (which further elevates those hormones).
● It works synergistically with magnesium and calcium in order to strengthen the bones and aid growth.
There’s many more nutrients and vitamins our growing children need and its always good to talk to your GP or health practitioner to seek advice before supplementing your child with concentrated vitamins. However, these are a few examples of key nutrients that your kids need for a healthier, happier, smarter development.
Other important nutrients for children include (but are not limited to):
● Healthy fats
● Vitamin C
● Calcium
● Magnesium
● Iron
● Folate
● Protein
Do your research, look at your children’s diet and consult with your physician, to ensure that your children are given every chance to grow up as smart, strong, and happy as possible!
