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by Dr. Taryn Forrelli, ND, a board-certified naturopathic physician with a long-standing passion for organics. In her writings, lectures, and radio appearances, Dr. Forrelli inspires individuals to take responsibility for their health and the choices they make everyday, from eating the right organic foods to selecting toxinfree cleaning and body care products. Her diverse professional background includes experience as a clinician, researcher, writer and product formulator within the natural products industry.
Most parents realize the importance of good nutrition during childhood, but getting kids to eat
all of the fruits and vegetables they require can be a real challenge. According to the USDA, less
than one third of US children between the ages of 2 and 19 eat the recommended servings of fruit
and vegetables each day. This means that most kids’ diets are deficient in important
nutrients like vitamins A and C. Such deficiencies can not only influence their growth and
development, but may significantly impact their health as adults. Many parents logically wonder if a
children’s multi-vitamin might be part of the solution. While it certainly could be, 99% of children’s
vitamins fail to deliver the organic whole-food form of vitamins that kids need. Instead, they contain
synthesized chemical forms of vitamins, the safety of which continues to be called into question.
Additionally, most children’s multi-vitamins contain a laundry list of “other ingredients” like refined
sugars, artificial flavors, “lake” dyes, and aspartame, which have been linked to hyperactivity, allergic
reactions, neurotransmitter imbalances, and immune dysfunction. These toxins are the last things
they should be getting in their multi-vitamin.
Some of the most concerning environmental toxins children are exposed to are pesticides.
Children’s organs and pathways of detoxification are still developing, so when they eat conventionally
grown foods, the pesticide residues left typically stay in their tiny bodies much longer than in
adults. The Environmental Protection Agency warns that if pesticide exposure
occurs during one of many “critical periods” in human development, it may
permanently alter the way an individual’s biological system operates.
Thankfully, parents can reduce their children’s exposure to pesticides by feeding them organic
food. Researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle found that kids who eat a diet consisting
of mostly organic fruits, vegetables and juice have six times lower levels of pesticide residues in their
urine compared to kids eating foods raised conventionally. Another advantage of organic food is that
it packs a more powerful nutritional punch. Studies suggest that organic foods contain up to 30%
more antioxidants than conventional foods and higher levels of nutrients like vitamin C, magnesium
and phosphorus. Parents all over the world feed their young children fermented foods like yogurt
(fermented milk), miso (fermented soy), and kimchi (fermented vegetables) every day. Knowledge
passed down for thousands of years has taught them that fermentation with beneficial strains of
yeast and bacteria like Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus acidophilus enhances the nutritional
quality of foods while making them easier for little tummies to digest. A large body of scientific
research has validated this ancient wisdom and revealed numerous other benefits of eating probiotically
fermented foods, most of which are attributed to beneficial compounds known as “synbiotics”
produced by the probiotic organisms and released into their surrounding food medium during fermentation.
One major benefit of eating fermented foods is the promotion of normal immune tolerance to
food and environmental allergens which have a major impact on skin, sinus and respiratory health.*
Others include: increase in number of immune cells, defense against pathogenic microbes, regulation of bowel movements, protection against mercury, pesticides and other environmental toxins, and regulation of cell growth.*
So, what should a children’s multivitamin
contain? Ideally, it should contain whole-food forms of vitamins as well as synbiotics from probiotics. It should be certified organic, free of refined sugars and artificial ingredients, and, of course, it should taste good. Does all that really exist? Thankfully, yes!
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