When you have underweight kids or athletes who need to put on some weight, dietitians and pediatricians tend to recommend cereal bars, Carnation instant breakfast, and/or ice cream every night before bed and lots of chocolate milk throughout the day. This really bothers me because they (dietitians and pediatricians) are regarded as experts, and when they recommend such foods for gaining weight, they seem to not know how food works in the body. If your parental instincts are telling you these recommendations aren’t a good idea, read on for better ideas.
The problem with those foods is that 99% of their ingredients are chemicals. Probably the healthiest food on that list is ice cream. It’s true that feeding kids ice cream every night before they go to bed will cause them to put on weight. But it’s going to be the type of weight that leads to diabetes, heart disease and really unhealthy cholesterol levels. I say get rid of all those foods (except maybe the ice cream for special occasions.)
5 Healthier Ways to Pack Your Kid’s Diets with Calories
- Coconut oil. It’s just an amazing fat and a really healthy way to get high calories loaded into your smoothies. It actually makes a smoothie into a creamy consistency. You can also cook with it although I do not recommend to just eat it plain because it’s a gross consistency. A teaspoon to a tablespoon of coconut oil in your kids’ bellies once a day is great.
- Avocados. Have your kids eat as much avocado as they please. Add them to smoothies, make guacamole, Google some recipes for avocado chocolate pudding!
- Egg yolks. People have been afraid of eating eggs for so many years because of dietitians and the FDA’s campaign to eat low-fat and low cholesterol foods but the truth is that eating healthy fats doesn’t make you fat, nor does it increase your bad cholesterol levels. It’s actually sugar which mainly increases the bad cholesterol in the body.
- Nuts and seeds are really nutrition packed. Chia seeds, Hemp seeds and Sunflower seeds are great. Nuts and seeds are high in calories but have good protein and fat in them. Also a little tip is try to make sure (especially for your athlete kids) that they are getting the majority of their carbs from fruit. That way, they do gain healthy weight but not unhealthy fat.
- Protein Powder. You need to be extra careful when choosing the protein powder for you and your children.
Recommended Protein Powders:
I like XM protein because although it’s whey-based, the whey comes from grass-fed, pastured cows who have never been given hormones and it’s a very high quality whey concentrate. There’s chocolate and vanilla variants. Be sure to sign up for a wholesale account for a 25% discount on the link above – that’s how I purchase it!
As for vegan protein shake options, I recommend SunWarrior.
There are many ways to pack your kids diet with healthy calories. What are yours?