Healthiest Kids Principles

Our Healthy-Kids principles provide simple visual guidelines you can use at a glance to help you keep a consistent check on your family’s diet. It’s a practical way to keep their diets healthier at home, at school, and even while you are out and about.

With so much conflicting information on what’s healthy, how do you know what to feed your child? We think the answer, when you take into account proven science and basic human physiology, is actually quite simple. This is also, in most cases, the eating plan that most people feel healthiest on.


What does a healthy diet contain?

These days most food is labeled healthy depending on what you leave out of your diet (e.g. “low fat”, “sugar-free”, “wheat-free”, “lactose-free”). A healthy diet is more than this. A nutrient-rich diet must provide a lot of vitamins, minerals and macronutrients that will keep your child’s body running well. So it is critically important that this diet be primarily focused on what you do choose. Leaving out the unhealthy things will follow suit as you choose in favour of the foods that give you optimal health.



When you shop for food, when you prepare a meal, and when you serve your food, use these 3 simple principles to help you make your family’s diet something to be proud of.

Principle 1: Balance your food proportions
One quarter of your daily food = Protein
One quarter of your daily food = Starch
One HALF of your daily food = Fruits and Veggies

Principle 2: Mix a wide Variety of colours and types
Make a rainbow on your plate by mixing colours and types of food
Get into the habit of rotating your foods so that you avoid channel eating (eating the same thing every day). Try to eat different things every day, and cycle through foods every 2 – 3 days.
Be especially careful of foods that contain soya, wheat and cow’s milk, as it is quite easy to eat these at every meal if you are not watching!

Principle 3: Choose high quality, high nutrient food
It matters what food you choose. Go for unprocessed foods with a minimum of ingredients, and preferably fresh and unrefined. This type of food is naturally high in nutrients and low in salt, refined starches and unhealthy fats.
Remember to consciously eat healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil and omega 3 from fish



Why would you want to eat like this?

Here are three solid reasons for you:

Science shows that a diet like this can make all the difference.

One epidemiological study compared people who ate the recommended quantity of fruit and veggies each day with those who ate none, and found that eating your fruit and veggies literally halved the risk of cancer in just about every possible location in your body.

Another study of over 100 000 nurses (dubbed the Nurses’ Health Study) showed that more than 80% of coronary artery disease (i.e. heart attacks and other forms of heart disease) can be avoided if you eat a Mediterranean-type diet that typically consists of high levels of fruit, vegetables, whole grains and fish, and low in saturated and trans fats. 

You feel so much better

when you eat better, it is well worth the extra effort and will power.

Whole food even tastes a lot better,

especially once your taste buds acclimatise. You will never go back to a processed diet for long…


Which situations are these guidelines applicable for?
Babies: Choosing foods to feed solids to your baby.
Pre-schoolers: Food for your toddler / pre-schooler
Scholars: Feeding your school child, including what goes in their lunch box
Adults: Choosing the food you eat (especially when setting the example for your kids)
Pregnancy: Follow these guidelines to make sure you get enough healthy food while you grow your baby!
Breastfeeding: These guidelines will help you get trim quickly while having enough nutritious milk for baby and continuing good health for you