“It takes a village to raise a child,” said almost every parent ever. Therefore, it can be hard to keep track of absolutely everything.
Retail Pharmacy Assistant magazine September takes a look at children’s nutrition and when it may be time for parents to consider looking into vitamins for their kids.
The list below goes through some of the ‘must-haves’ when it comes to nutrients that are necessary for healthy brain development, according to Harvard Health Publishing:
- Protein: protein is an essential for keeping many bodily functions running. It is characterized as a building block and is stored primarily in muscle and collagen (International Food Information Council Foundation, 2010).
- Protein is found in meat, poultry, seafood, beans, peas, eggs, soy products, nuts, seeds, as well as dairy (Harvard Health Publishing, 2018).
- Zinc: zinc not only helps the immune system fight off invading bacteria and viruses, but also helps growth and allows children to develop properly (National Institutes of Health, 2019).
- The food that has the most zinc is actually oysters; however, it is also found in many meats, fish, dairy products and nuts (Harvard Health Publishing, 2018).
- Iron: “iron deficiency is very common, as well as causing anaemia, may affect psychomotor development and neurocognition,” said Integrative Medicine Naturopath and Pharmacist, Vanita Dahia.
- Iron is found in meats, beans, lentils, fortified cereals (tip: sip on vitamin C enriched orange juice to help absorb the iron from the cereal), breads, dark leafy vegetables (Harvard Health Publishing, 2018).
- Choline: this is a water-soluble nutrient necessary for healthy cell membranes. It’s part of acetylcholine, a key chemical involved in memory function (Organics Happyfamily, 2018).
- Choline is found in meat, dairy, eggs and many vegetables (Harvard Health Publishing, 2018).
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