Spring is here - the start of new life - seedlings are often accompanied by instructions on soil preparation and nutrients to ensure healthy and flourishing plants.

Children are precious "seedlings" and optimal nutrition will ensure flourishing health and vitality throughout their lives. Sadly statistics show that many children in South Africa receive less than two-thirds of the recommended levels of vitamins and minerals with some children being severely undernourished and others unhealthily overnourished.

The nutritional demands of infants and children are exceptional yet, at this critical time, the diet is often the poorest. Eating habits are established early in life and there is an on-going battle to get children to eat what&rsquos good for them rather than what tastes &ldquoso good&rdquo.

Convenience foods, fast foods, hectic lifestyle and advertising targeting children encourage a diet of sweets, fatty fast foods and highly processed products in preference to one including fruit and vegetables.

MALNUTRITION

The prefix &ldquomal” means ill or bad, so malnutrition means bad nutrition which adds up to ill health. All nutrients work together in a fine balance to provide optimum nutrition for the body and if one element is missing the balance is upset and can result in ill health.

HEALTHY CELLS PRODUCE HEALTHY BODIES

Cellular health starts with the essential oils, lipids and sterols, that have been refined out of wheat, rice and soy. These oils keep cell walls healthy and enable nutrients to enter the cell and waste to be eliminated.

Protein is essential for a child's body which is constantly undergoing growth spurts and produces more than a billion new cells every day. Ten of the 22 amino acids needed every day to replace used cells and build new ones cannot be made by the body. This potential dietary gap may have life-long consequences as a deficiency or imbalance will result in the malfunctioning of the hormone, enzyme and immune systems.

Vitamins, from natural food sources, together with enzymes found in whole, fresh raw vegetables, regulate metabolism and assist in release of energy from digested foods. Synthetic vitamins may provide some nutrients but also contain artificial colouring, sugars, preservatives and other additives that deplete nutrients and create chemical imbalances.

Minerals are essential for proper cell function and structure and for the proper utilisation of vitamins and other nutrients. If correct mineral levels are not maintain some minerals can become toxic. Supplemental minerals should be chelated to enhance their absorption.

INCREASING DIETARY DEFICIENCIES

During the refining process, minerals needed to digest sugar, are stripped from the sugar. The body's mineral supply is thus depleted when processing refined sugar. As long as refined sugars are eaten, many essential nutrients will be unavailable to the body and optimum health will not be achieved. Dietary deficiency of B vitamins occurs with excessive consumption of refined sugar and causes damage to the pancreas and the early onset of diabetes.

Drugs destroy nutrients, use them up, prevent their absorption, increase their excretion or chemically take their place and are usually administered when the body is least able to cope with it.

OPTIMUM NUTRITION

Providing babies and children with optimum nutrition in their formative years ensures life-long advantages for their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. It has become vital to bridge the gaps in children&rsquos diets with high-quality supplements, based in nature and backed by science, to ensure a future generation of healthy adults.

INVEST IN THE GOOD HEALTH OF YOUR CHILDREN BY PROVIDING THEM WITH A NUTRITIONAL FOUNDATION TO LAST A LIFETIME.

Contact me for more information on a nutritional programme