Who wants to chime in with their best advice of raw protein intake for my extremely active, light eater, 4 year old boy?
I do not seem to get solid information by searching google or from my nutritionist & naturopath as they are not very knowledgeable on the raw food lifestyle.
The last nutritionist I sought for help didn't even know about the many benefits of hemp!
I just want to know the best sources of protein as well as daily intake recommendations.
We sprout and dehydrate almonds, cashews, walnuts, pumpkin/sunflower seeds, eat chia, hemp, sesame seeds regularly as well as hemp seed & pumpkin seed butters. I sprout some beans, seeds, and quinoa.
My biggest concern is giving him too many nuts, not enough veggies. We have a juicer, VitaMix, food processor & dehydrator. If you have kid favorite lunches (he's the only one in preschool who does NOT eat cafeteria food) you want to share I would be grateful!
Plant based proteins, how do I know if he's getting enough??
Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2010 03:22AM by bellinanina.

The foods you describe sound like an excellent sources of protein. A variety of fresh greens, fruits & vegetables should easily ensure his protein needs.

I would imagine you would know if he is not getting enough if he shows symptoms of protein deficiency - which you see very rarely in non-impoverished & non-eating disorder folks.

[www.whfoods.com]

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Make sure to remind him to chew his food well. Hell, make a game of it!

Looks like you have all areas covered nice one, wish i was eating this healthy food when i was a preschooler might not have got ill so quickly.

The World Health Organization says 5% of daily calories should be from protein. Five percent is about the amount of protein in most fruits. Vegetables have a lot more protein than fruit, though, so you're right to include some - also for their higher mineral content. If your son is eating a variety of plant foods and getting enough calories per day, then he's getting adequate protein.

"not enough veggies"
How do you feel about subversive activities? Your veggie concern may be taken care of by stealth! You are fortunate to have a juicer, VitaMix, food processor & dehydrator! Start slipping in some veggies whenever you can. Making a fruit juice? Add some beet juice. Making a flatbread or cracker? Add some minced kale. Dehydrating a cookie? Put some shredded carrot in it. Making a smoothie? Slip in some baby spinach leaves.
(P. S.: Spinach is high in protein - more than other greens.)

"extremely active" -
sounds like he's getting lots of good energy from fruit

Besides your concern about protein, are you ensuring that he's getting B12 and Vitamin D? I seem to recommend to people pretty often to use fitday.com or nutridiary.com (or some other similar site) to enter all foods eaten in a day for a while to monitor what might be high or low. You may want to do this with what your son is eating until you're comfortable that he's getting enough variety in his diet. I don't know if a site is able to be adjusted for young children, but maybe you can find a site like that that is?

If you want to look up the nutrients in a particular food, you can look up a fruit or vege on www.nutritiondata.com.


My favorite raw vegan

Mother's milk has 7% of it's calories from protein (and 1% protein by volume).

Since your child thrived on this amount of protein (I'm assuming you breastfed) why would your child need any more than this.

My almost 3 year old son DOUBLED in size in the first four months of his life just by drinking my milk.

Since your child isn't growing so much then he will do just fine simply eating lots of fresh fruit, vegs and nuts/seeds.

Protein is a non issue.

I hope this helps!

All the best,

Karmyn
[karmynmalone.com]

bellinanina Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Who wants to chime in with their best advice of
> raw protein intake for my extremely active, light
> eater, 4 year old boy?
> I do not seem to get solid information by
> searching google or from my nutritionist &
> naturopath as they are not very knowledgeable on
> the raw food lifestyle.
> The last nutritionist I sought for help didn't
> even know about the many benefits of hemp!
> I just want to know the best sources of protein as
> well as daily intake recommendations.
> We sprout and dehydrate almonds, cashews, walnuts,
> pumpkin/sunflower seeds, eat chia, hemp, sesame
> seeds regularly as well as hemp seed & pumpkin
> seed butters. I sprout some beans, seeds, and
> quinoa.
> My biggest concern is giving him too many nuts,
> not enough veggies. We have a juicer, VitaMix,
> food processor & dehydrator. If you have kid
> favorite lunches (he's the only one in preschool
> who does NOT eat cafeteria food) you want to share
> I would be grateful!
> Plant based proteins, how do I know if he's
> getting enough??
> Thanks!