A Ten-Year Old's Tale of How Food Affects His Body

A Ten-Year Old's Tale of How Food Affects His Body 2

"Honest hearts produce honest actions." – Brigham Young

I do my best to educate my kids about eating healthy. I teach them how to read labels, what to look for on packaging, and how certain foods affect their growing bodies. They love fish oil, seaweed and chia seeds, and eat veggies with every meal. But don't get me wrong, my kids are also like most other children — they love junk food — and not always the healthier options.

My ten-year old son Zack is very aware of his body and how food affects him. Often if he eats too much conventional junk food, from candy to fast food, he barfs it up. It started happening a few years ago — he would go to bed feeling fine, only to be woken up a few hours later throwing up in his bed. Sounds gross, I know…but the truth is, it was his body telling him that it didn't like what he ate that day.Read more about junk food in schools

This past summer Zack was invited to a boys camping trip with his best friend and his dad. They left Friday and came home Sunday morning. On Saturday night, Zack and his buddy ate a lot of food…and junk…and who knows what else. They went to bed at 11:00 and at around 1:30 AM Zack threw up in the tent. It slipped my mind to warn his friend's dad about Zack's sensitive stomach. My bad. However, that experience showed Zack that what he eats really does affect how his body feels after. He understood.

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Recently, Zack and I were asked to speak to an audience of more than 200 people. I spoke about unjunking our food and Zack spoke about his appreciation for our book and how it has impacted his life as a ten-year old child.

I asked Zack to write his own speech because I wanted what he said to come straight from his heart.

Boy did it ever.

Here's his full speech:

"Today I'm going to talk to you about my mom's book, Unjunk Your Junk Food. It's a great book, but I'm a little disappointed that my favorite type of candy is there, Twizzlers. I realized after reading the book that they're bad, so I don't eat them anymore.

I saw the movie Super Size Me and I realized that junk food, especially fast food, is really unhealthy, and I won't ever go to McDonald's.

Now I'm going to talk to you about food coloring. When I eat foods with food coloring, they make me crazy and I don't even know myself. If I eat other foods with chemicals in it, I usually feel sick and sometimes throw up.

Finally, I'm going to talk to you about being a health ambassador for Naturally Savvy. I brought my mom's book to school, and my mom even did presentations to many classes, including mine. Well you guys can do the same thing and show people the book at your work and schools, and give them tips on eating healthy.

Thanks for listening."

Read more about healthy school tips for kids

Wow. I found his honesty to be very inspiring, and I was very proud to be standing next to him on the stage at that moment.

While not all children have as much of a reaction to junk food as Zack, it's clear that the human body doesn't work as its prime when we give it this type of food, whether it has a drastic reaction like his or a more subtle one such as causing headaches.

It's

important to me that my children eat a healthy diet and limit their exposure to foods that aren't good for them, and the best way for them

to do that is for me to teach them about making healthy choices. While I

fill my home with healthy options, it's wonderful to see my son now

come to realize, on his own, that the choices he makes affect the

way he feels.

Main photo credit: BookMama

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Andrea Donsky, RHN
Andrea Donsky, B. COMM is an international TV Health Expert, Best Selling Author, Nutritionist Podcast Host, and Founder of NaturallySavvy.com—a recipient of Healthline’s Best Healthy Living Blogs for 2019. As a pioneer and visionary in the health food industry, Andrea’s passion is to inspire people to make healthier choices. Andrea has combined her background and expertise as both a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and an entrepreneur ("She Boss!") to educate the public on living a healthy lifestyle through the creation of her businesses, books, articles, podcasts, videos, talks, and TV and radio media appearances. Andrea founded Naturally Savvy Media Inc. in 2007 in order to share her passion for healthy living, and love for natural products and companies. Among her numerous publications, Andrea co-authored Unjunk your Junk Food published by Simon and Schuster, a book that journalist, author and mother Maria Shriver endorsed: “Unjunk Your Junk Food has certainly made me more aware about the food that my children eat and the effects it has on our body and mind."</P. Andrea also co-authored two e-books entitled Label Lessons: Your Guide To A Healthy Shopping Cart, and Label Lessons: Unjunk Your Kid’s Lunch Box.