Meet Ruth. Ruth began her career in food by teaching Food and Technology and Health in schools. Today, she is a dietitian and is working in women’s health at Monash, while also seeing clients in her rural home town of Warrnambool, Victoria.
After thinking about it for a long time, Ruth’s work position allowed her the flexibility to pick up the phone to start the process of becoming a carer. Accredited at the end of last year, Ruth is looking forward to starting her foster care journey.
How do you define a well-balanced diet?
The foundation of a well-balanced diet is whole foods, regularly eaten. ‘Whole foods’ can be a bit of a buzz word, but it essentially refers to foods that haven’t been overly processed. When it comes to eating, regularity and routine are important. Snacks that replace meals, unhealthy snacks, missing meals or consistently grazing throughout the day make it difficult to establish and maintain a well-balanced diet.
You also need to consider that what constitutes a well-balanced diet based on age, sex and physical activity levels. For example, an 8-year old girl’s nutrition requirements are quite different from a 16-year old boy. This will vary child to child, but also at different times of year. For example, you may have a little footballer on your hands, but when it’s not football season, they may not require as much high-energy food if they aren’t training as much.
There are a lot of diets that are quite prescriptive about what you can eat. Are any of them worth following?
Diets like intermittent fasting and ‘Keto’ diets may be effective short-term to achieve a goal, such as weight loss. However, when you apply these as regular every-day diets, problems may arise. When considering going ‘on a diet’, you need to think about the long-term impacts on the body as well as gut health. If you’re considering altering the diet for you or the children in your care to achieve a short-term goal, talk to your GP or a Pediatrician. Consider connecting with a dietitian, as there is a lot of mis-information online that could potentially be dangerous.
How do I know if I need to change the diet for children in my care?
GPs should be maintaining growth and height charts for children, which are a strong indicator of whether the child is getting the nutrition they need. At home, you can also monitor their energy levels, skin health, concentration, mood and sleep. All these factors may be impacted by the food they’re eating. If you have concerns, seek advice from a GP or Pediatrician.
What are some of the things to look out for when grocery shopping? What are the red flag products and what should we be buying?
I know kids love it, but we should limit the amount of soft drink, fruit juice and flavoured milk they drink. While these are fine occasionally, they should not be part of a regular diet for children. Water and plain milk is best (low fat is recommended for all people over two years of age).
Always consider whole foods for meals. A simple way to consider this is to always think of the five food groups: wholegrain cereals, vegetables, fruit, meat (or vegetarian alternatives), dairy. If you’re not sure what group it falls into, that’s problematic. It is unlikely to be a whole food that is good for your health. It is likely to be so processed that it has lost a lot of its nutritional value. Thinking about the five food groups is a great way to get kids to thinking about food (they often learn about the five food groups at school) and establish healthy eating habits early.
What are some the healthy snacks that you recommend for kids?
Replace flavoured milk with home-made fruit smoothies made from plain milk (low-fat) and fruit. Another great substitute for ice-cream is yoghurt instead. If you child wants frozen yoghurt, simply pop a small tub of yoghurt straight into the freezer.
For snacks, I recommend fruit, crackers and cheese, vege sticks and dip or nuts (if there are no allergies in the house). Muesli bars are often fine as a quick and easy snack, although some can be high in sugar. If you generally send kids off with a packet of chips, consider replacing the chips with little packs of popcorn (cheap from Woolies!). Home-made snacks such as muffins or slices are also great – and a fun activity to do with the kids.
