The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.

'Soup and porridge are optional': a gastroenterologist debunked 5 myths about a child's nutrition

'10.04.2021'

Source: deti.mail.ru

What broth is suitable for baby food, is it possible for a three-year-old to have mushroom soup and why semolina is not as scary as it is painted - the gastroenterologist, Ph.D. Alexey Golovenko.

Photo: Shutterstock

Is lunch soup just a habit or a healthy diet?

Many mothers believe that lunch without soup is not lunch, so whatever you want, but you must eat the first one, he writes. deti.mail.ru. In our culture, soup is considered the basis of nutrition and a symbol of a healthy stomach. Soup is certainly a healthy, tasty and inexpensive dish. But is it really so uncontested and what will happen if the child categorically does not want to eat soup?

Let's start with what soup is for lunch - this is, first of all, our national tradition. In the world, the situation with soups is very different. There are countries where soups are not eaten at all or are rarely eaten. For example, the popular Mediterranean cuisine is not at all rich in soups, but at the same time, the inhabitants of the region do not have any special problems with the stomach - everything is like everyone else.

Abroad, soup is not the most popular dish in the everyday family diet, and if it is present, it is more often in the form of mashed potatoes. And few people in the world know about pickle and borscht.

That is, the idea that you cannot go without soup for lunch is generally wonderful, but it is only in our heads.

Now let's figure out what soup is. Soup is a fairly low-calorie food; it is actually water with a small admixture of nutrients. From the point of view of the work of digestion, it makes no difference whether the child ate a vegetable soup in which a piece of meat floats, or a separate stew, a separate piece of meat and drank a glass of water. For our body, both of these meals are equivalent, only the soup seems more nutritious due to the volume. But this is an illusion: if a child is fed with soups alone, the food may turn out to be insufficient in calories and satisfying.

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Which broth is more beneficial for a child - meat or vegetable?

From the point of view of benefits for the child's body, there is not much difference in which broth you cook the soup. There are suspicions that there are no more nutrients in meat broth, say protein, than in water. Yes, there are special taste, aroma, some kind of fat floats, but it still does not saturate a person as much as just a piece of the same meat.

You can calmly cook soup in water, without meat broth. There is nothing wrong with that. The main task of the parent is not so much necessarily to feed the soup as to observe the proportions of nutrition in terms of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. And in what form they enter the body is not so important.

Is it possible to add frying to children's soup?

Some parents believe that adding to the soup a frying of onions and carrots is very harmful. From the point of view of medicine, the problem here can only be in trans fats, that is, fats resulting from repeated use of oil. A little frying for gustatory qualities will definitely not make the soup dangerous for the child. Especially if you do not fry these onions and carrots to coals.

The problem is actually not in frying as such, but in the constant use of pans and deep fryers: when you have fried eggs in the morning, fried meat for lunch, and fried cheesecakes for dinner again. This kind of diet is definitely harmful, and for all family members. Many studies confirm that people who eat a lot of trans fats are more likely to get cancer. Yes, it is, but this does not mean at all that now it is impossible to cook in oil at all.

For example, if a person lives in a metropolis, and even smokes, works in an enterprise that does not monitor the environment, besides, he is from Magnitogorsk, the risk of lung cancer will be quite high. The whole question is the contribution of a particular cause to the overall risk. And in this regard, frying is quite harmless.

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Can I feed my kids mushroom soup?

In general, mushrooms can be given to children. It is clear that not quite crumbs, but, for example, a three-year-old is quite acceptable. But only if we are talking about store-bought mushrooms and small portions. Self-picked mushrooms are a very unreliable story because they are easy to poison. In the forests there are a lot of poisonous mushrooms that disguise themselves as edible. And edible mushrooms also come with surprises, because they perfectly absorb harmful substances from the environment.

Shop mushrooms, of course, are not so fragrant, but they are completely safe, they can be boiled and given to the baby. But we must remember that mushrooms are a very low-calorie product. It is rather naive to expect that a child will eat mushroom soup, where potatoes, carrots and three mushrooms float, and will be full.

A plate of mushroom soup is hardly much more nutritious than a plate of water. Although, of course, tastier and more aromatic.

Do I need to deify porridge?

With porridges, everything is the same: here they are simply deified, in our tradition, porridge is the queen of breakfast. Even adults often come to see me and say: "I eat right - I eat porridge for breakfast every day." Again, this is not so much a matter of unconditional benefits as tradition and habits. In porridge, too, frankly, there is nothing particularly unique in terms of nutrients: the same water, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, starch, dietary fiber, vitamins. Basically, this whole set can be found in other breakfast options as well. And if the child categorically does not eat porridge, then you should not pull out your hair, but it is better to cook other dishes for him.

Today, many nutritionists and parents scold semolina and try not to include it in the diet. But if you look at its composition, then it is quite typical for any porridge. The only problem is that it is low in dietary fiber, which means that the child may have constipation. To compensate for this feature, you can put more berries and fruits in it. And so there is nothing toxic or harmful in semolina, and it is not so sweet that the child would say: "From now on, I will only eat semolina."

If you cook porridge for a child, then try not to put sugar in there, it is better to add blueberries, blueberries, raspberries, apricots, something so that there are fewer quick carbohydrates, and the taste is the same. In my opinion, the ideal porridge is oatmeal or multi-grain porridge with bran and berries. This breakfast has a lot of fiber and vitamins.

It is better to choose whole-grain cereals, which need to be cooked for about ten minutes, and not cereal-minutes, which I poured with water, they swelled - that's all.

But the most important thing is diversity, when a child eats rice porridge today, oatmeal tomorrow, then buckwheat and so on. This is the key to healthy development and good mood.

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