Food and nutrition for kids: An evidence-based guide

© 2009 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

New research offers important insights about nutrition for kids. Some examples:

Iron. Laboratory analyses confirm which foods are the best sources of iron. And experimental research helps us understand how we can improve iron absorption.

Picky eaters. Are you having trouble getting your child to try new foods? Or to eat his vegetables? Some kids are predisposed to be picky eaters. But research suggests several good strategies for coping with picky eaters, such as pairing new foods with sweet flavors. To learn more, see these evidence-based tips for dealing with picky eaters.

Probiotics and Prebiotics. Food and supplement manufacturers are pushing prebiotics and probiotics. Are the claims overblown? Perhaps. But studies suggest that probiotic supplements can be an effective treatment for diarrhea, and the daily consumption of prebiotics may bolster the immune system.

Milk. Should your kids drink milk? There is a lot of pseudoscientific nonsense written about cow's milk. Invariably, the writers fail to cite the relevant studies. The truth? There are good and potentially bad things about milk. Whether or not milk consumption is worthwhile depends on what other choices you have. For the details, see this evidence-based look at the costs and benefits of milk consumption for kids.



Fish, mercury, and nutrition for kids. Fish oil contains healthful omega-3 fatty acids that are crucial for brain development. Moreover, fish consumption has been linked with better cognitive development. But people are concerned about mercury in fish, and these are legitimate concerns. For highlights of the research and a guide to choosing the right fish, see this article about mercury levels in fish.

Babies. Researchers are also investigating our children’s earliest experiences with food. It turns out that some taste preferences may be formed in the womb. Food preferences are also shaped by flavors in breast milk and baby formula. In addition, babies are influenced by the choices parents make with solid foods. For more information, see this article about getting babies to eat new foods.

Nutrition for kids: An evolutionary approach. The latest research about nutrition for kids seems to confirm many old-fashioned--even prehistoric--approaches to food.

For instance, modern science confirms the many benefits of breast milk. Baby formula has greatly improved since the 20th century, but it’s still second best.

By the same token, it appears that modern agricultural diets—-the diets associated with affluent, industrial nations—-are in some ways inferior to the diets of our Stone Age ancestors.

In part, this is because agricultural diets are relatively new.

For hundreds of thousands of years, humans ate only wild plant and animal foods. Then, around 10,000 years ago, people began the shift to agriculture and animal husbandry. Humans began eating food types they’d never eaten before. The human body, adapted to digest a Paleolithic diet, was suddenly challenged with an agricultural diet.

Four hundred generations later, descendants of the first farmers have evolved new adaptations for coping with new foods (Patin and Quintana-Murci 2008). For instance, some people retain the ability to digest milk sugars after infancy.

Others possess genes that produce extra amylase--an enzyme that breaks down dietary starch (Perry et al 2007). Indeed, there is evidence that our ancestors began eating starchy roots and tubers long before the advent of agriculture (e.g., Gibbons 2009; or, better yet, read anthropologist Richard Wrangham's witty and absorbing book, Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human).

But humans haven’t had enough time to adapt completely to the new menu of saturated fats and highly refined, highly processed cereals. Some anthropologists argue that 21st century diets are responsible for many chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and diabetes (Cordain et al 2005).

So I think it’s worth a review. What can Stone Age menu teach us about nutrition for kids? Perhaps that the traditional food pyramid-—which tells us to eat lots of bread and rice—-is misguided.

For more information, read this article about the likely benefits of Paleolithic nutrition for kids.

References: The science of nutrition for kids

Gibbons A. 2009. Of tools and tubers. Science 324 (5927): 588 - 589.

Patin E, Quintana-Murci L. 2008. Demeter's legacy: rapid changes to our genome imposed by diet. Trends Ecol Evol. 2:56-9.

Perry GH, Dominy NJ, Claw KG, Lee AS, Fiegler H, Redon R, Werner J, Villanea FA, Mountain JL, Misra R, Carter NP, Lee C, and Stone AC. 2007. Diet and the evolution of human salivary amylase gene copy number. Nat. Genet. 39(10): 1256–1260.

Content last modified 6/10