10 False Beliefs about a Low-Carb Diet for Children’s Health

1. A Low-Carb Diet Is Dangerous for Growing Organisms

Except from empty calories, traditional starchy foods are almost void of nutritional value. Wholefoods, like meat, eggs, vegetables, berries, and nuts, are low in carbohydrates but very high in vitamins and minerals that nourish growing children’s bodies.

2. A Low-Carb Diet Won’t Satisfy Children

Though filling, high-carb foods don’t satisfy for long because of low nutrition. Due to raising blood sugar too quickly, they cause sugar crashes leading to a greater sense of hunger and sugar cravings.

3. Children’s Brains Need Carbs

The popular belief about the human brain running on sugar isn’t entirely true. The human brain also uses ketones, produced on a low-carb high-fat diet. Though children might require more carbohydrates due to fast growth and schooling, they could easily meet their carb requirements from vegetables, fruit, and dairy.

4. Kids Need Carbs to Meet Their High Energy Requirements

Fats and proteins are also energy sources. The energy rush gotten from high-carb foods is followed shortly by a slump that causes cravings for more sugar. When eating low-carb foods, your child avoids dangerous blood sugar spikes throughout the day.

5. Carbs Are One of the Essential Nutrients for Children

To grow, children need real food balanced in proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Whole foods can satisfy your children’s carbohydrate needs much better than non-nutritious high-carb foods.

6. Children’s Nutrient Requirements Are Different

Though children need more and different nutrients than adults, they still need real food to satisfy those requirements. Kids need fats for essential fatty acids and for absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. They need protein to build their tissues. Your child won’t be deprived with plenty of carbohydrates in fruit, vegetables, and dairy.

7. Switching to a Low-Carb Diet Will Eliminate a Food Group

A low-carb diet asks you to eliminate processed and sugary foods and get your carbs from nutritious vegetables, fruit, and dairy.

8. Fat Will Make Children Gain Weight

It’s quite the opposite―deprived of essential fats, children can’t be satisfied and reach for sugary snacks more often, thus overeating. Healthy fats are necessary for hormone production, tissue growth, healthy brain and eye development and function, appetite control, and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

9. It Is Impossible to Prepare a Low-Carb School Lunch

By discarding your notions about lunch and showing a little creativity, you can make your children’s lunches fun and exciting, bursting with vibrant colors and different textures of real foods.

10. It’s Cruel to Put Your Child on a Diet

Having your children eat low-carb foods does not imply putting them on a strict diet but rather having them eat delicious and satisfying wholefood meals that make them feel and look good.

As you can see, each myth about children eating low-carb is easily disproved. Though enhanced, children’s nutrition follows the same formula as for adults―all people need real food to thrive. Check out the food tracker app for some great low-carb family recipe ideas.