Children do not need any special food, says Margit Slimáková<

Margit Slimáková is an optimist: more and more people are interested in healthy eating and lifestyle, and this is the foundation.The path to it may not be heavy, just not be fooled by the marketing of food manufacturers.And not to be afraid that our healthy child needs to "add" this or that to make it right.

Can you give an example of the food that we give to children, thinking they are healthy, and maybe it's not at all?

Healthy is not what the food industry has convinced of us for decades, that it should be healthy and for children it is the best.I remember advertising for cereal balls that are reportedly many times better and healthier than a donut.She was named Breakfast's duel, and even a doctor backed her up.

How did the duel turn out?

The joke was that the balls were on the portion of little and the donut had enlarged.But when everything was calculated, the breakfasts came out the same.In cereals is normally up to sixty percent of sugar, so it is sweetness, nothing healthy.

I, as a parent, but I read on the box that this is the best for my child.As well as a box of "healthy biscuits" for toddlers and other things.

Children do not need any special food.About ads I say we should put on a media diet on them, stop watching and reading.We have to realize that manufacturers and retailers write it on those products.They are experts in production and sale, not to health!They do everything to make cheap and sell well.They do not play in our favor, and we do not want to spend on something that does not benefit us.

Often, however, have doctors in ads…

Yes, they are paid by the food industry.It is not difficult to navigate it after a while.

On your Facebook pages you have critically commented on children's biscuits.I myself bought them for children thinking that they were healthy - promise strong bones, immunity and other miracles.

I myself stare what the manufacturers dare.There are more than seventy grams of carbohydrates in one hundred grams of biscuits.And we can start with the smallest children.The vast majority of them do not need artificial infant milk.It is ideal of course to breastfeed exclusively within six months of the child's age.Within a year the baby is still an infant, so my mother is breastfeeding.When breastfeeding stops, the baby does not need any baby milk.This is the recommendation of the World Health Organization.

So why does so many parents give it to a child sooner or later?

Because in the Czech Republic it is different.In our country, pediatricians are trained by a program 1000 days for life.But this is a program of a company that produces infant milk.So the recommendation is contrary to the World Health Organization.After the first year of life, children do not really need any special food for rare exceptions.

But the first objection to this may be that, for example, toddler milk contains the necessary nutrients for children.Where do they otherwise get them?

Well, where we adults!But the basis is to cook from real foods.What a child is born to eat that will eat.This is normal until the age when it starts to rebel and we cannot fully influence it, but at home still yes.The good news is that it is becoming more and more fashionable to take care of your health.I'm an optimist.Used to be normal smoking, drinking and not sleeping.Now, especially in young parents, Cool does not smoke, alcohol is drunk more moderate or at all, and across the population is becoming healthy nutrition important.Health is becoming popular.

But a lot of people argue that healthy foods are expensive and unavailable.

Many of us already have knowledge, we know what we would like.Before we go shopping, we'll tell us what great and healthy we'll enjoy.But in the end we buy by price.I don't want to blame my parents.Not everyone we have knowledge, skills and funds.When a single parent is needed who can barely run into a supermarket that is open nonstop is not easy.And it's not just about the price, but the total availability.

What do you mean?

If we were surrounded by healthy food, even children would probably eat it automatically.But just look around - vending machines, cinemas, until recently and schools… We are surrounded by unhealthy food everywhere.We want parents to keep children to healthy nutrition, we teach them in schools.And then we surround them with sweets in most of the environments where they move.

Another big offense is probably drinks and juices.

We live to think how healthy are juices.The fruit of course yes, but when we press it, we sometimes even remove fiber from it.Juices are concentrated - if the children ate the fruit and had to bite it, it would not be so suddenly, and therefore such a amount of sugar.Mixing partially damages fiber and works differently than when we bite fruit.In addition, 25 grams of sugar are required in a box of such a juice.According to the American Cardiological Association, this maximum recommended daily dose for the child is already.

You mentioned that healthy food is still not commonly available.How is it elsewhere in Europe?Do children eat healthier there?

I blame the state of the state in our country.I lived in Germany twenty years ago.Even then the children did not change with sweets.

Farmers' markets, boxes… all of this was already the norm.In our country it is hard to fight.Bio is normal in the world, many people mock him in our country.State support is small.And when the measures were due to coronavirus, supermarkets in enclosed spaces with a thousand people could normally work, but local retailers in the fresh air could not sell.

Back to the kids.Tell me as parents what to start when I want to pay attention to a healthy diet.

The basis is to cook from real foods, that is the food of basic and at least industrially treated.Healthy nutrition is very easy for me, but requires some time and thinking.The whole family can go to the farmer's market as a trip.We should use seasonality, then it pays off financially.I have now found a cauliflower for forty crowns on the market, in the supermarket stood a hundred.If we learn to eat yeast bread, we will know that they will last a week and will not need to buy rolls daily.As a result, we will save.In addition, we don't eat so much, the real foods will feed more because they have maximum nutrients.No addictive concentrated substances, glutamates, flavorings.

Children are about to start with all this in time, right?

When we teach a child to eat white full -fat yogurt, he will eat it.It is important that it has been since childhood.Also, what parents eat, they eat children.Such yogurt is the foundation, sometimes I can stew into it, sometimes add grated carrots and a teaspoon of honey or dissolve quality chocolate.But when a child gets used to sweetened flavored yogurt, it will be hard to learn.

We often argue that we do not have time for preparation, cooking, and healthy especially.

Healthy cooking is not complicated, they are often even minute matters.Maybe porridge for breakfast.Just put oatmeal, chia seeds, milk or vegetable milk, yogurt and fruit in the evening.A child can work on all of this.The raw materials overnight swell and ferment and the mash is finished in the morning.But a lot of people do not even cook today, plus Czech cuisine was full of sauces with flour and watering from sugar, salt and vinegar.But it is about starting somewhere, perhaps for someone who cooks healthy.

You are a big critic of projects such as fruit for schools, why?

I think it's not thoughtful and it is an unnecessary ejection of money.We often pay fruits and vegetables that are not local or seasonal, which does not have logic.Then still money to a company that sells and packs.I have already seen in plastic packed and banana or melon cubes.

It really doesn't look very tempting.

Intention is good but not like this.Moreover, as it looks, we can easily discourage children who eat fruits and vegetables when they see the disgusting cover.The same is with milk where sweet drinks are giving away.And if mothers do not solve it at home much, they will say how healthy it is and then buy it home.

What do you think would be a good procedure for children to eat fruit and vegetables with taste?

I would rather invest in school canteens.After all, there may be a fruit that takes a child who has a taste of it somewhere.When the school is involved in various projects, it must be across the board.It is distributed to all children and many of them play with the food, it is unnecessary waste.Children should co -decide what healthy they want for.They should have options, so I advocate a buffet dining and also the methods of BLW - Baby Lead Weaning - baby food led by a child.When you eat healthy at home, there is no need to watch anything, the child does not need any baby food.He simply grabs what he wants from a healthy table.