Regarding baby nutrition, the correct choice of ingredients and the timing of their introduction is essential to ensure harmonious development and optimal health. Dr. Ioana Stavrositu, a specialist in endocrinology and nutrition expert, offered us some valuable tips on how the ideal plate for little ones should look like during the Parents Present show, moderated by Loredana Iriciuc, editor-in-chief of ParintisiPitici.ro.
"In principle, the ideal plate should include all the dietary principles. That is, we should have a carbohydrate, a protein, and a part of lipids, a healthy lipid, of course. When we talk about lipids, we are not referring to fried foods.
We try to combine them so that each meal includes all of these components.
What differs is the fact that in the first part of the day, we try to include more carbohydrates. For this reason, we often include fruits here. It’s important to note that fruits don’t contain protein or lipid components. Offering only fruits in the morning for breakfast is practically not a complete meal. However, a fruit with some nuts and yogurt can be a full meal.
Indeed, the place for fruits is more suitable here, just as cereals are more appropriate for breakfast rather than dinner because we don't need a carbohydrate component in the latter part of the day. We don't need energy in the evening! Carbohydrates give us energy. Therefore, the largest carbohydrate component should be in the morning", said Dr. Ioana Stavrositu on Parents Present, a show by ParintisiPitici.ro.
Dr. Ioana Stavrositu also emphasizes the importance of diversity and complexity in lunch.
"Lunch should be the most complex meal from all points of view. Just as it is or should be for us. At lunch, we eat a main course with a side dish. Lunch shouldn't consist only of soups or broths.
I want to highlight this point! Soups and broths, no matter how nutritionally enhanced they are—whether we add an egg or some sour cream—do not provide a sufficiently large nutritional intake to sustain us in the long term if they are offered daily as the sole option for lunch.
It would be important to offer something else from time to time. A small child usually cannot manage to eat both soup and a main course. And this is precisely the problem! Somehow, that liquid fills up their stomach capacity, leaving no room for the main course. This is why, for a small child, between six months to a year, or a year and a half, we should either offer soup or a main course, so to speak, but we should alternate them. Lunch is not just for soup!" says the endocrinology specialist and nutrition expert.
Dr. Stavrositu emphasizes the importance of a substantial protein component at dinner.
"As I said, breakfast is not just for fruits, and dinner is not just for cereals, because generally, this is what I find on menus.
In the evening, a significant protein component is important. Why? Because protein has the highest degree of satiety and ensures satiety throughout the night. It has the highest digestion rate, meaning it takes the longest to digest.
Meat, dairy products, cheese, and fish do not mean they are hard to digest! The idea that meat is hard for children to digest in the evening is not true. It is an opinion, I don't know where it comes from, but it is not real!
In the evening, for example, we can offer meat, fish, and some vegetables alongside dairy. Of course, we can add a potato, polenta, or rice, but these should not necessarily be the basis of the evening meal as quickly as they are at lunch.
It should resemble the diet that we should at least have ourselves. This helps us in the long term to maintain our weight and energy levels throughout the day by increasing carbohydrates in the first part and decreasing them in the second to promote sleep and rest", concluded Dr. Ioana Stavrositu.
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