Unfortunately, refined, fast, and junk food is becoming easier and easier for children to buy and consume. Vending machines offer candy bars, sugar-filled soft drinks, and snack foods loaded with fat and salt to children in both grade schools and high schools. Many school cafeterias also sell fast-food to children for lunch every day. It seems as if nutritionally lacking snacks and soft drinks are sure to be available everywhere children go and gather. Parents who are determined to fight this disturbing trend are seeking solutions everywhere to help their children get their needed nutrition. One answer they are finding is supplemental multivitamins, many of which are formulated especially for children. There are superior multivitamins and exceptional immune boosting products that actually taste great.
Because there is so much variability in the food we prepare, even the most nutritionally vigilant parent cannot be absolutely certain as to what nutrients are in the food they serve to their children. For example, fat-soluble vitamins can withstand normal cooking, but vitamins A and E are destroyed gradually as they are exposed to air. Similarly, water-soluble vitamins including B1, B6, folic acid, and pantothenic acid are destroyed by heat. Vitamin B2 is destroyed by light and heat and vitamin C is destroyed by light and air. Some food preservatives and preparation methods can destroy the vitamins in food. Even more, raw fruit and vegetables that are grown in a way that does not promote nutrient content can be lacking nutrients. There are also those crazy food phases that all children seem to go through. Although these phases are generally harmless, there are exceptions.
Since most teachers believe that nutrition and learning go hand in hand, researchers decided to study children to see if multivitamins can help children to become better students. After following 245 school-children aged 6 to 12 for three months and giving half of the children a multivitamin, while giving the other half placebos, the children were tested. The results showed that those children who were given the multivitamins had an increase in their nonverbal intelligence scores, which is closely associated with academic performance.
Many parents have a great deal of trouble getting their children to take 100% natural flavored multivitamins because they don't taste very appealing. The magnesium, iodine, copper, and iron found in children's multivitamins are partly responsible for the terrible taste. To solve this problem some manufacturers skim on the amounts of these minerals in their children's formulas, while others cover up the bad taste with massive amounts of sugar or artificial flavors. However, a few multivitamin makers have discovered how to offer a natural flavored, great tasting, children's multivitamin containing these vital minerals. The best children's vitamins are prepared in a base of natural fruit, having very low sugar content, while providing antioxidants, other healthy phytonutrients, with as little as four calories a day.
Because there are several vitamins and minerals that children need to take each day, parents should look for a multivitamin that includes: biotin, folate, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamins B12, B1, A, B6, C, D, E, and K. Folate, one of the B vitamins, helps the body use protein and make DNA, helps cells grow and divide, and keeps the nervous system healthy. Folate reduces homocysteine levels in the blood, as high levels can irritate blood vessels, make blood clot more easily than it should, and cause blockages in arteries which increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Other vitamins that are necessary for children are vitamins C and E. When these nutrients are given to children with asthma, they are able to breathe better and feel much better also. Both C and E keep asthmatic bronchial tubes from constricting, resulting in wheezing less and breathing better.
Children also require certain minerals each day including calcium, chromium, iron, magnesium, manganese, selenium, zinc, and phosphorus. However the majority of children do not get the recommended amounts of these vital minerals, as children in America drink more carbonated soft drinks than milk and green leafy vegetables are often absent from teen diets. According to many studies, today's children are in danger of being part of an osteoporosis epidemic in the future as they enter late adulthood. A lack of adequate calcium also has immediate consequences for children, as the number of fractures among children and young adults has increased greatly and pediatricians are seeing children with rickets, a bone disease caused by low levels of vitamin D that has been almost nonexistent since vitamin D was added to milk in the 1950s. Zinc is another vital mineral for children because it is critical for normal growth and development and is connected to children's ability to process information, pay attention, and remember and retain new information. Zinc has the ability to connect with our immune systems by enhancing the body's immune status, preventing infections from establishing themselves in the body, and improving the immune system's ability to rid itself of the infecting organism.
There are other nutritional supplements that can keep children healthy such as 100% natural flavored children's immune formula nutritional supplements that contain zinc, vitamins B6, C, A, and elderberry extract which has been used as a traditional medicine for many years to treat colds and flu. Vitamin C provides immune protection by speeding up the healing of wounds. However, vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that cannot be stored in the body, and therefore, must be replenished each day. When children are under increased stress, such as having a cold or flu, vitamin C levels are depleted more rapidly. Vitamin B6, which is also water-soluble, can only work in children's bodies for eight hours. It strengthens the immune system by helping white blood cells make antibodies. Vitamin A helps make lysozymes, which are important anti-infectious agents, and also stimulates the thymus gland, and important immune organ.
An immune formula can be taken several ways. Some parents give the formula when school starts or at other times when children are exposed to lots of germs. A child who suffers from asthma or seasonal allergies and seems to get sick frequently may be provided with the immune formula every day, increasing the dose when most needed. Others feel as if they should only give their children the immune formula when they catch a cold or have the flu. No matter how it's given, the 100% all natural flavored immune boosting nutritional supplement can give your children powerful protection against disease-causing germs that children are exposed to every day. If you're looking for individual vitamins and minerals or looking for a great multiple vitamins, visit an online vitamin store today for all your children's dietary supplement needs.
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