You can reduce obesity by eliminating wheat and dairy. How to start today!
Wheat and dairy are two diet assassins when used in the wrong amounts at the wrong time of day. Wheat and dairy require a little extra digestion, but the digestive process and the nutrient value of each do not balance out with what the body needs. A lot of the wheat and dairy that is consumed turns into fat. Read on to learn ways to cut out on wheat and dairy products and help your child become healthy and lose weight in such a manner they will think that they have been given a treat instead of a diet. Fruits and vegetables along with lean proteins can help your child and the rest of the family becomes healthier also. As a family project, child obesity is much easier for everyone in the family, including the child that needs help with eating habits and health issues due to overweight, such as asthma. Eliminating much of the wheat and dairy products from the child’s diet encourages the child’s body to more efficiently use other types of glucose and carbohydrates. Wheat and dairy are known triggers for asthma and a contributing factor to obesity. Eliminate them from the family diet!
Family Treated Childhood Obesity
You may ask how you might manage to avoid wheat and milk in the diet. It is not easy, but it is possible to eliminate wheat and dairy products from the diet with planning and creativity. Some people eliminate wheat and dairy products from their diet because they have allergies, but research has also shown that weight loss comes as an added benefit. Here are some ideas to help stick with this method of eating:
· Variety is the spice of life! New tastes, textures and flavors add excitement to the diet and will encourage the family to enjoy this method of eating. Salads do play a big part in the diet, but they can be mixed up in many ways that are tasty and liked by most everyone. For instance, left over salad can be used for a taco salad, made with leftover meat, salsa and taco chips. Leaving out the high calories of cheese and sour cream makes this a perfect family night dinner or a party dip that is healthy for everyone. Sticking to a diet can be difficult if you have to eat the same things continually. Change it up and add spice to life with tuna or chicken on a bed of lettuce with almonds, raisins, apples and a peanut butter/mayonnaise dressing. Yum! Every kid in the neighborhood will want to sleep over and enjoy this tasty treat.
· Crunch makes the day! Eating salads are all well and good but there are times when crunchy or salty foods are just a must. Tortilla chips or rice cakes are good, though be careful of flavored foods, there may be some dairy related products such as whey, casein, and caseinate. By checking the list of ingredients you can catch these diet assassins. Celery stuffed with peanut butter or flavored tofus are great snack items. A soy cream cheese spread on a rice cake with fresh sliced strawberries is another flavorful, crunch treat. A couple of handfuls of salted peanuts are also very good salty crunches. For a very good sweet/ salty crunch, crush some salted peanuts into the caramel flavored rice cakes.
· Cereals make real good snack items. Corn Chex, Rice Chex and other non-wheat cereals can be used to make up a trail mix type snack, or just be snacked on right out of the box. Non-wheat cereal eaten with soy milk, especially the flavored milks, is a very good enticement for individuals to switch over to soy milk rather than using cow’s milk.
· Flavor is king and chocolate is a necessity. Everyone loves chocolate. Pierre’s chocolate sorbet has no dairy products. The creamy rich illusion of decadent ice cream is truly a frozen soy treat. The chocolate peanut butter flavor is a favorite among ice cream and chocolate fanatics. An excellent milkshake is made with soy milk, peanut butter and chocolate soy ice creams.
· Serve up the cheese please! Veggie cheeses are quite good and contain no dairy products. The flavored cheeses add zing to crackers and cheese or in cooking. The Veggie cheese can be added to omelets and other cooked foods and no one knows the difference, except the calories are eliminated and nipped in the bud!
· Finally, as a mom, probably the most important thing in sticking with a change in eating habits is convenience. For quick meals, we relied on Lean Cuisine dinners. They're really surprisingly good. We had to be careful when making our choices, but we were able to find ten different meals containing no wheat or milk. Remember, variety is important.
There are lots of things you can do to improve your diet, even if allergies aren't an issue for your family. We found that making these substitutions isn't as hard as we thought it would be. And the extra effort is definitely worth it. The whole family has been able to be part of the solution of the childhood obesity in our family instead of antagonists to the problem. Our change in the method we eat and what we eat has become a wonderful adventure of learning, seeking and problem solving lessons for all of the kids, and the adults as well. We all learn as we go how to become healthier and fit by the choices we make in the foods we eat. Teach your children a method of eating that will serve them well all of their lives and teach the way they can protect their children’s health.