Is It Dangerous For Children To Go On The Paleo Diet?

It may be surprising to note that this is one of the most common questions regarding the paleo diet. On some level, it is actually a little amusing that parents will worry about putting their children on a diet comprised of vegetables, meat, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, and fruit. Yet they have no qualms letting their child guzzle a soda, eat fast food, candy with artificial colors, and all manner of things from the deep fryer. The paleo diet is a nutrient dense way of eating for children and adults alike.

We live in a society where obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes among kids is skyrocketing. What really lights my fire is the marketing that is aimed at kids promoting “fun” foods loaded with artificial colors and ingredients. Even worse is when the American Heart Association puts its heart healthy label on a box of cereal loaded with sugar. They’re still beating the Ancel Keys drum that unfortunately was never based on science. Yes, they do find cholesterol in the arteries of those with heart disease but that cholesterol doesn’t come from eating cholesterol or saturated fat, it comes from sugar.

A Must Read Book For All Parents

If you want to know the history of how our government created our current dietary guidelines I recommend Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. It’s a book that I think everyone should read because we’ve all been duped. Gary is an investigative journalist that outlines step by step how we got here. I’ll warn you though. I haven’t been able to make it through the entire book because reading it makes me mad. They know. They’ve known for decades that science doesn’t support the low-fat guidelines we’ve all been handed.

What About Grains And Dairy?

The paleo diet does not allow the consumption of grains or dairy. Neither of these are the health foods that they have been touted to be.

What’s Wrong With Grains?

Grains metabolize in the body into glucose, aka sugar. Did you know that 1 slice of whole wheat bread causes a larger insulin spike than a Snickers bar? In the body Vitamin C and insulin compete for the same receptor site on your cells. If your kid is sick all of the time you might want to look more closely at their carbohydrate intake. Phytates are another reason that grains are eliminated on the paleo diet. Phytates bind to minerals such as zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium, and selenium and prevent the body from absorbing them. The lectins in grains damage the cells of the digestive tract that work to repair the lining. To learn more here is my post outlining 12 Reasons To Stop Eating Grains.

What About Dairy?

Dairy walks a fine line in the paleo world. On one hand it’s the perfect food for infants who need to grow. For that reason once a child is no longer an infant the question is do they need the growth promoting substances found in milk? Then you get into the genetic inheritance aspect. People with ancestors from the northern latitudes are better adapted to dairy because plant life wasn’t abundant throughout the year. If a person could tolerate dairy they were more likely to survive and pass their genes to the next generation. Conversely, those with ancestors from the equatorial region of the planet didn’t have to rely on dairy to survive.

If your child is sensitive to gluten then there is a good likelihood they are also sensitive to the casein protein in dairy. Both affect the body the same way. The best way to evaluate whether or not your child tolerates dairy is to remove it for 30 days and then try adding it back in.

The best dairy is full fat, whole, and either organic and/or from grass fed, pasture raised, animals. This is one area where I don’t recommend conventional. With conventional dairy you’re getting growth hormones, pesticides, antibiotics, and fewer beneficial nutrients like healthy fats and fat soluble vitamins.

What If I Have A Picky Eater?

A lot of my primal health coaching friends and I wrestle with this issue. Our kids haven’t been raised in a paleo home from the beginning. For me, I do the best I can and I feed our son the paleo foods that don’t cause a struggle. One of his favorite dinners is called a “picnic”. My husband is a paramedic and we have a few nights a week where it’s just the two of us for dinner. For our picnic I pull out a large plate or platter and load it up. The platter is usually different each time but some of our regular ingredients are: Organic Prairie summer sausage, olives, cucumber slices, carrots, Primal Kitchen Ranch Dressing (save 10% EATWITHJEN), apple slices, nuts, uncured turkey or ham, Kerrygold cheese slices, and [amazon_textlink asin=’B01CI3TA5M’ text=’Simple Mills crackers’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’jphphc-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’841570cd-c97e-11e8-ae62-d305db62f8e9′].

Does my child still eat non paleo food? Yes. It’s a balance. I don’t want to give him an eating disorder by always saying no but at the same time if he’s going to eat non-paleo food it has to be clean. We still stay away from artificial colors, processed food, alternative sweeteners, vegetable oil, and I limit grains as much as possible. I don’t restrict calories rather I try to promote as much nutrient density as I can. Focus on the colorful vegetables they will eat, animal proteins they like, healthy fats, and opt for fruits that are colored on the inside over those that are white inside. Colorful fruits, on the inside, have a higher nutrient density. Apples and bananas are fine but according to Dr. Terry [amazon_textlink asin=’1583335544′ text=’Wahls’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’jphphc-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’be8e8cc3-c980-11e8-8f3c-21d55bdb0e42′] they simply don’t have the same nutrient punch.

Your Role As A Parent

Dealing with your child’s compliance will be the most difficult part of getting them to follow a paleo diet. Take it in stride and realize that it’s a marathon and not a sprint. As a coach I know firsthand that people don’t like to be forced or told what they have to do. How would you like to be approached? At the same time you have to be aware of how often you’re allowing “treats”. Even paleo treats like cakes and cookies are filled with carbohydrates.

Children like to emulate their peers and when they see all their buddies eating jellies, guzzling sodas, burying their French fries in chocolate and eating them; your kid may be tempted to give in to peer pressure. When we go to birthday parties I don’t implement any rules other than he must have food before cake. Unfortunately my child usually ends up with an artificially colored sugar attitude, he’s 7, and I’m trying to foster an awareness of how these foods affect him. Parenting is HARD. It’s a balance especially if paleo is something new. How receptive is your child to new foods and change? Don’t make it regimental as that will be a surefire way to turn them off paleo and make them rebel but also don’t be their enabler to make bad choices.

What you can take solace in, is the fact that the child will probably have 2 meals at home. If you can avoid school lunches your child will eat better 3 times a day. Some friends have shared photos of their child’s school lunch and it’s abysmal. French toast sticks, nacho chips with cheese sauce, and pizza considered a vegetable… The more real food you can feed them the better. As kids get older they will have to decide if they wish to make paleo a lifestyle choice.

If you’re looking for where to begin check out my paleo for beginners series. The first step is giving up the things that no one will miss.

Additional Reading And Cookbooks To Feed Paleo Kids

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Originally posted on October 23, 2018 @ 12:07

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