This week thousands of children and young people return to classes in Costa Rica. Whether in person or online, the quality of food should be a priority for parents. Dr. Cinthya Rodríguez, from the College of Nutrition Professionals, affirms that the changes experienced by students in both school and college have led to overweight or obesity in many cases. Problems in feeding times, not complying with the three main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), sitting in front of your computer, does not contribute to healthy eating.
For her part, the psychologist Marianela Gamboa explains that “the entire emotional platform where the minors had been developing, the ties that they had been weaving at a mental level, have been fractured. Excessive feeding and the search for moments of satisfaction with food can be a desperate attempt to deal with all these educational, social and family dissatisfactions that minors are experiencing”.
Return to good habits
Therefore, resuming good eating habits in class period will require patience on the part of parents. Returning with dual modality makes this work even more difficult, because the schedules at school and at home vary a lot.
The nutrition professional adds that in consultation she has seen how a large majority of the boys are not eating breakfast. This implies a greater probability of being overweight or obese in addition to diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. If we look at it from the academic side, breakfast improves school performance and learning in general.
Key nutrients for the brain
To have a better school performance, key nutrients for the brain have been discovered, among which we have:
– Iron: Some sources help kids remember: red meat, liver.
– Zinc: Improves attention and memory, sources: shellfish, fish and seeds.
– Vitamin A: important for memory, sources: carrot and broccoli.
– Vitamin D: necessary for the proper functioning of the brain, we can obtain it from direct exposure to the sun, important that it is between the appropriate times, before 10am and after 4pm.
– Omega 3: for a good development of the neural membranes, source can be fish and seeds such as almonds.
Dr. Rodríguez insists that for an adequate immune system you have to consume sources of vitamin C, which is present in citrus fruits (orange, acid lemon, sweet lemon, tangerines), guava, papaya, pineapple, strawberry, green mango and Ripe, cas, yuplon, parsley, raw sweet chili, radish leaves and purple cabbage.
The fruit that provides the most vitamin C is Acerola, which can be found mainly in the Orotina area (100g provide us with 1678mg of vitamin C), the deficiency of this vitamin increases the risk of suffering infections, especially in the respiratory tract. superior, so we must consume a lot of these foods. In addition to food sources of vitamins D, A, E and essential minerals for its proper functioning.
Strong immune system
To have a good state of health and a strong immune system, children need the consumption of all food groups in the appropriate portions for their age to achieve adequate growth and health, recommends the nutritionist.
Snacks play a very important role for children. They must be healthy and it is also important that parents know the menu that the school cafeteria manages and the meal times they offer. This in order to avoid doubling some feeding time, because sometimes they have lunch at school and when they get home they repeat it, which causes an increase in food intake that will be reflected in their nutritional status.
Meal times
It is important that boys and girls try to maintain feeding schedules and adhere to meal times. Also, that at home they for healthy foods that can be prepared easily and maintain a healthy breakfast with fruits and proteins such as eggs.
It should also be avoided that children eat in front of the computer or TV and that they respect the spaces that are provided in the class schedule to make snacks and drink water, avoiding processed juices and sugar. For school, the ideal is to plan ahead for meals for daughters and sons to send healthy and varied foods.
