Tarika Ahuja - Beautiful Children: The Parents Essential Guidebook for Raising Strong, Balanced, Healthy Children

Beautiful Children

The Parents Essential Guide to Raising Strong, Balanced, Healthy Children

Tarika Ahuja

Contents

Children raised with Macrobiotics are all bright, curious and surprisingly well-behaved compared to children eating a mainstream diet. They have stronger bones, a love of learning and unique thinking. Its apparent that nutrition in the womb and after birth makes a noticeable, amazing difference.

Recent scientific research has shown that the development of our gut bacteria guides the development of our brain and immune system. The combination of grains, beans and vegetables together with pickled and fermented foods creates abundant and a unique kind of nutrition for healthy gut bacteria.

Tarika Ahujas understanding and her warm, caring, sensitive nature will guide you through her book that will help you raise bright, healthy children.

DENNY WAXMAN

Counsellor and founder of Strengthening Health Institute

Foreword by Melanie Brown Waxman
Raising Healthy Children

Becoming a parent is one of the most creative and loving experiences in life. A babys education begins with the nurturing of the spirit at conception and continues through babyhood and into adulthood. The loving environment in which a baby develops will nourish him at all levels physically, socially, spiritually and mentally. One of the most beautiful ways to express love for your child is to feed him a healthy diet. This vital part of his education will provide him a strong, healthy and vibrant start in life.

Not only will your baby benefit from the healthy nutrients and the living energy of vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds and fruit, he will also begin to develop natural associations between these foods and how they make him feel. The connection of food to how we feel is becoming more widely accepted today and many understand that we are what we eat.

Food is energy and we need energy to grow, develop, move and enjoy life. Whole, natural, living food prepared in different ways is the most direct way to get energy. This means that the key to our health and the health of our children is in our hands and our kitchens.

Although some people enjoy a healthy diet, trends in the last fifty years have resulted in huge changes in eating patterns around the world. Many people are eating processed, packaged and refined food items that have caused a considerable decline in the health of society. This food is filled with chemicals, preservatives, colours and pesticides. This food is poison for the body.

Children are especially sensitive to these additives and consuming these foods causes serious problems like obesity, allergies, diabetes, mental/emotional issues and cancer at a young age. These kinds of food have very little energy and so more and more of the same is needed to feel satisfied, or strong stimulants are required to make up for the lack.

We all have the ability to trust our intuition and this goes for food choices too. Children have the advantage of choosing food based on how they feel, rather than from conceptual theories or rules. A baby who has been raised on a wide variety of healthy foods develops a strong memory of them and is far more likely to make healthy, intuitive choices in adult life.

Regular mealtimes and the atmosphere around eating are also vital in creating a healthy attitude towards food. If parents are too strict with their children, they run the risk of actually discouraging them from making healthy food choices later on. The key is to make meals fun and enriching, and to relish the sharing of food as a family.

Feeding children can be a challenge. It is essential to be patient and offer a wide variety of healthy home-cooked dishes. Fights over meals create stress for all concerned and should be avoided whenever possible. It is essential that parents are in charge of the kitchen, but it is also important to remember that you look to enrich and expand your childrens lives rather than curtail them. Whether you are already eating macrobiotic, vegan, whole foods or want to make changes to your present diet, a gentle approach
is advised.

An important aspect of parenting is to take personal responsibility for your own feelings, needs and physical health. When you do this, you are teaching your children, through your own behaviour, how to take good care of themselves.

Children learn the most from observation. If they see their parents and friends enjoying beautifully prepared, home-cooked, healthy meals, it encourages them to follow suit. Even if they are fussy in the beginning, there is a deeper learning going on that stays with them throughout life.

Fortunately, parenting is an ongoing process and not something that can be ruined or perfected in one day. Health is also an ongoing process, as it is something you move towards rather than finally arrive at. This can make the whole idea of preparing nourishing meals for your children an exciting adventure.

Many times you may want to be the perfect parent and accepting your mistakes is part of good parenting. Its best to learn as you go along. This view makes it easier to play, experiment, discover and learn from your own experiences.

You can start to make healthy changes by simply including new ingredients in your diet rather than feeling pressured into throwing out old foods. Increasing natural traditional foods, such as whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, has tremendous results and is reflected in calm, peaceful, strong, intelligent and vibrant children. Children flourish on natural foods. It provides them the foundation for living a full and happy life.

As children get older, it is helpful to have light-hearted discussions about why it is important to choose healthy foods, and how they feel after eating different dishes. This can further educate them in making intuitive choices of their own. It is important for children to understand the difference between foods that are suitable for daily eating and those that are enjoyed on special occasions, festivals or when dining out.

In todays society, every day is like a party. Kids get to eat rich, sugary foods like sodas, cakes, cookies and pizzas whenever they want. These foods are not life-sustaining, have little energy and have greatly contributed to the emotional, mental and physical problems that we see in the world.

It is important to know that we all can and do! make a difference. And the best place to start is in your home with your family. The marvellous thing about nourishing yourself and your children is that you are also nourishing the living world.

We come from nature and without it we wouldnt exist. When we choose to eat natural foods, we are actually ensuring the health and future of the earth.

Macrobiotic philosophy and principles are not part of a prescriptive diet, but part of a fun, adventurous journey that embraces self care in many ways. It is really a way to come back to centre, stay grounded, de-stress, slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of family life.

Please enjoy what I hope will be an inspiring book. Learn to cook and relish the recipes here that you can share with friends and family. Your loving, brilliant, strong, healthy and vibrant guidance stands as a living testimony to them for years to come.

In love and peace.

MELANIE

MELANIE BROWN WAXMAN is mother to seven children and has authored books such as Eat Me Now! , Yummy Yummy in My Tummy and many others on cooking and health.

Preface
My Story

The Sickly Child

My memory of childhood is a memory of sickness though often I did not realize or recognize that I was very sick, as I lived in my dream world. I had very low stamina and energy levels and did not know a better way of being. My weakeness was the result of poor womb health (genetic prana /energy formed in the womb which determines the health of a person) essentially, I had no idea what it felt like to be an energetic child. I thought poor health was part and parcel of my being. While she was carrying me, my mother had severe complications due to a womb mass that had grown rapidly and threatened the pregnancy throughout its term. Her physician considered my birth a survival miracle.