Cooking World

Do you know the joke - «What to eat to grow thin?» And, as it is known, many a true word is spoken in jest.
In fact there is such food, which do help get rid of avoirdupois. Add these foodstuffs in the diet and observe growing thin.

Pumpkin
This vegetable for a long time has been associated with Halloween, but very few people know, that it is also the ideal tool for those, who are trying to grow thin. Pumpkin contains only 40 calories, its structure is stringy - that is very useful.

A great many researches have proved that stringy foodstuffs are not only wholesome, but also useful for growing thin. In addition, the pumpkin is cooked very quickly. It may be cooked with cinnamon, nutmeg and almonds. It is very tasty, and also useful and low-calorie.

General food value of a daily diet of the child in the age of 1-1,5 years makes to 1300 kcal. The child who has stepped 1,5 year’s boundary, needs 1400-1500 kcal, and three-year’s child need 1550-1600 kcal a day. Breakfast and dinner - 25 %, a lunch - 35 %, afternoon snack - 15 %.
Certainly, volume of the food depends and on children’s appetite. If the child has good appetite, do not abuse it; do not accustom your child to excessively plentiful meal. First or last it will lead to superfluous adipopexis and health disorders. If your child has poor appetite and not always wants to eat, temporarily do the fifth food intake as an additional supper at 21 o’clock or an early breakfast if the child wakes up too early - at 5-6 o’clock AM. Additional food intake may include a glass of warm milk, kefir or yoghurt with cookies or a slice of a roll.

The food is digested in a stomach of the child on the average within 3-4 hours; therefore intervals between food intakes should be approximately equal to this time. Time of feedings should be constant, deviations from this time should not exceed 15-30 minutes.

If to speak about frequency of a meal, it is recommended to feed the child four times a day. High-protein food (meat, fish) children should take in the first half of a day, as it needs more time to be digested in a stomach, and the second half of a day is good for a dairy – vegetative and carbohydrate food.

An important point in a diet of children of 1-3 years are requirements to culinary handling of food.
Till one and a half years soups and porridges are made grinded, and meat and fish - as a souffle, steam cutlets, meatballs.
Vegetables and fruits are also given mainly as purees or being chopped.

From one and a half till three years special mechanical and thermal processing is still very important. Well boiled soft porridges, gentle baked puddings and other dishes of more or less dense consistence gradually remove purees and souffles from a child’s diet.

The majority of second servings are still made by cooking and stewing, but there are also the first fried, for example, low-fat cutlets.
In children’s meal it is well to use the specialized foodstuffs of industrial production. These are dry fast porridges, dry dairy drinks, canned meat, fish and vegetables, fruit purees and juices.
Such foodstuffs solve a number of problems: save time, guarantee an optimality of nutrients, ecological and epidemiological safety.

Meat
Children’s dieticians consider, at the given age the most part of all proteins should have an animal origin. It promotes high assimilability of proteins and keeping of nitrogen in an organism. Nitrogen is vital in synthesis of DNA and RNA connections which are responsible for all biochemical processes in a human body.

The major source of animal protein is meat, however not of all its varieties are useful for children of 1,5-3 years. So, pork and meat of some birds (ducks, geese) contains surplus of hard animal fats excessively loading digestive system of the child. Therefore it is better to choose a low-fat beef and veal, and also meat of hens, chickens, turkey and rabbit.

Fish
Fish is very useful product for children from one year. Fish protein is high-grade and digestible. Within a week a child can eat dishes from meat for four - five days and two - three days - from fish.
It is better to use low-fat varieties of sea and river fishes (pike perch, cod, hake, sea perch, etc.).

Eggs
Eggs have great value in children’s diet as they contain a lot of digestible nutrients. Vitellus contains complex of liposoluble vitamins A, D, Е, phospholipids and various mineral substances and microelements.
However, despite of their advantages, one shouldn’t abuse them it is impossible, as they can cause allergic reactions. Eggs are used only hard-boiled or as various dishes (omelets with milk or fresh vegetables, salads with an egg, cheesecakes, etc.), but not raw.

Fat products
Butter and vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, olive, etc.) are used as sources of fats for children from one year. Vegetable fat is a rich source of vitamin Е and polyunsaturated fat acids, and butter - A.
Fats are better to be used in a natural kind: butter in sandwiches and ready vegetable purees or boiled soft porridges, and vegetable fat - for seasoning of salads, vinaigrettes, and the same porridges or purees.
Kids in the age of 1-1,5 years need 12-15 g of butter and 3-5 g of vegetable oil each day, and from 1,5 to 3 years 17 g and 6 g respectively.

Cereals, bread and bakery products are included into an obligatory daily diet of the child of 1-3 years, providing an organism with carbohydrates and proteins.
In the age of 1-1,5 years the most important cereals are oatmeal and buckwheat, but others are also quite possible - fine-ground barley, pearl-barley, wheaten, etc.
Children of three-year age can eat rice, buckwheat, oatmeal and semolina cereals.

Kasha can be prepared with milk and without it, with vegetables or fruits. For example, very useful and tasty are porridge with apples, with raisin or banana, boiled rice with pumpkin or carrots, a buckwheat cereal with apple.

In total the child needs about 15-20 g of cereals a day.
Choosing bakery products give the priority to products from a meal which is rich with vitamin B and dietary fibers, which stimulate intestines work. Children in the age of 1,5-3 years need 50-100 g of bakery products in a day, and 30-40 g in the age of 1-1,5 years.

Fruits, berries, vegetables and potherbs are an obligatory component of children food. They are an indispensable source of vitamins C, Р, provitamin A (carotin), easy digestible carbohydrates - glucose and fructose, organic acids, pectin and dietary fibers, some minerals and microelements.
Daily ration of a child of 1-3 years should contain enough fresh vegetables (1-1,5 years - up to 200-250 g, 1,5-3 years - up to 350 g), and also fruits and berries - (1-1,5 years - up to 100 g, 1,5-3 years - up to 130-200 g). They are useful both raw (provide good training of a masticatory apparatus and a gastrointestinal tract), and as fresh juices rich with vitamin C.
Every day a child in the age of 1-1,5 years needs about 80-100 ml, and 1,5-3 years - 100-150 ml of juices.

From vegetables the most frequently used are potato, carrots, cabbage, turnip, beet, vegetable marrows, pumpkin and tomatoes. Green-stuff and wild-growing greens are also very popular (provided absence of specific contra-indications) - fennel and salad, spinach and parsley, sorrel, green onions and garlic, ramson, nettle.

From fruits parents can choose from apples, pears, plums, bananas, citron and tropical fruits. From berries - raspberry and a blackberry, ash berry, gooseberry and sea-buckthorn berries, and also bilberries, red bilberries, cranberries.
All seasonal fruits, berries, vegetables and greens in a natural kind are useful for the child. They also may be given as juices and purees, or used in compotes.

The diet of the child in the age of 1-3 years should necessarily include some sugar, which provides quick energetically valuable substances for the growing organism. The daily norm of sugars makes about 35-40 g for children of 1-1,5 years and 40-50 g for kids of 1,5-3 years. A source of sugar may be dried fruits, confectionery. From the last the most recommended are wafers, fruit candy, fruit candy, fruit caramel, jam and honey if the child has not allergy. Chocolate and chocolate sweets raise excitability of nervous system, can cause an allergy, and therefore should not be given often.

Kids are very active and losses of water are rather noticeable, therefore they cannot be limited in drinks. But parents should not compensate lack of liquid by sweet compotes, juices or drinks, as it leads to an appetite depression. Whether to allow the child to drink during a meal or not - depends on specific features of the child. If the child experiences difficulties with deglutition and eats slowly and reluctanly, certainly, it is better to drink after food. In intervals between meal water should always be available for children. Usually kids are given just boiled water, cooled to room temperature or mineral water without gas. Herb teas, for example, from fennel or camomile are also recommended.

Mums have always known that vegetables, fruits and fish are useful for children. But Greek scientists have decided to find some additional factors to prove once again the uniqueness of their native Mediterranean diet. So, last researches say that children, who like to regale on fish, fruits and vegetables, are protected from asthma and allergy.

These results are based on the research and observation of physicians over 460 Spanish children.

Scientists observed kids’ state of health and came to a conclusion, that those who ate more than 40 g of fruit and vegetables (tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, green beans and vegetable marrows) and 60 g of fish every day did not suffer from allergic diseases.

Besides, doctors have noted that the question is about certain dietary effects. Other food (meat, poultry, and dairy products) did not provide the same protective effect. Biological mechanisms, which are responsible for action of these products, are not completely clear for a while.

Authors of the research believe that fruit, vegetables and fish reduce an inflammation connected to asthma and allergy.

This is an excellent answer to the question “so, what to put in a child’s lunch box” and will take only 5 minutes to prepare it. This sandwich will taste even better with a glass of milk or kefir.

So, you need:
2 slices whole wheat bread
1/4 banana, sliced
2 tablespoon peanut butter
2 tablespoon natural wheat and barley cereal flakes

Spread one side of each slice of bread with peanut butter. Then spread one slice of bread with banana pieces on the peanut butter. Cover the other slice of bread with flakes so that it sticks to the peanut butter. Place the slices together and put in lunch box.
You may also try slices of apple or any other fruit instead.