Category: Diet and Meal Plans

Foods To Work Into Your Child’s Diet – Eggs, Probiotics, & More

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Our children grow at alarming rates and, while we all have good intentions, it can be quite difficult to encourage them to do things that will set them up for a lifetime of health. While most of us understand that we need to encourage them to eat vegetables or to take digestive probiotics, we don’t always know what we should suggest. (To help your child digest foods, consider adding digestive probiotics: https://bioptimizers.com/best-digestive-probiotics-what-are-they-how-they-help/.)

The foods that our children eat are essential to forming who they are today and who they will be in the future. As their bodies grow and strengthen, we need to give them the fuel they need – even if their metabolisms are fast enough that they can eat junk food for every meal. So what foods should you incorporate into your child’s diet? Here are some of our suggestions:

Leafy Greens

Most children are afraid of green foods, and let’s be honest, they don’t always taste great. The best thing you can do is find fun ways to prepare leafy greens so that they retain their nutrients but kids still like to eat them. For example, there are many recipes that add kale to pasta dishes, spinach to muffins, or mix a few different types into smoothies. 

The key is to make sure that you aren’t zapping all of the nutrients out of your children’s food by making it taste better.

Eggs – Of All Kinds

Eggs are some of the best foods that you can get your kids to eat, which is perfect because most kids love eggs. There are plenty of proteins and other nutrients in eggs that help to strengthen kids, boost their brains, and keep them full. Hardboil eggs for snacks, make scrambled eggs for dinner or breakfast, or even make egg salad sandwiches for lunch. 

Once again, just make sure you aren’t only making fried eggs that have way too much fat for many kids to process.

Seeds, Nuts, and Nut Butters

Seeds and nuts make for great snacks because they have so many different essential fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins that children need. They help to fortify nervous systems, they are easy to eat and travel with, and most kids love them. You just have to make sure that you don’t send them to school if your child eats lunch with someone who has allergies.

Of course, you can also use nut butter on bread, celery, or crackers. However, do make sure that you aren’t feeding your child too many sugars or processed foods like are found in commercialized spreads. If your child cannot take peanut butter to school, consider sending sunflower, almond, or other types of butter. 

Yogurts and Kefir

Greek yogurts and kefir drinks are perfect for children. They often taste just like their sugary relatives but have many more nutrients. There are many types that have the protein that will keep your children full, help to build up their muscles, and provide them with probiotics they need to digest foods. Even better, yogurts help to build brain muscles. You can even use plain Greek yogurt as a replacement for sour cream in many recipes!

Instead of buying flavored yogurts, buy plain vanilla yogurt and supplement with fruits, a bit of honey, granola, dark chocolate chips, or peanut butter. 

A Rainbow Of Fruits

Many kids will eat bananas, strawberries, and oranges without a problem. But what about some other fruits? Plums, dragonfruits, and apricots are all great fruits that too many kids don’t have access to until they are older. The fruit is extremely easy to take wherever you go, keep in a bowl for quick, self-serve snacks, and cut up for road trips. Go to your grocery store with your child and have them pick out fruit that looks interesting and then incorporate it into their diets. 

If possible, you want to buy organic foods and encourage your children to actually eat the skins of the fruit – that is where they get the nutrients.

Oatmeal

It may seem so simple, but many people aren’t eating oatmeal anymore – but they should be. Oatmeal helps to keep the heart and brain healthy. It is easy to make, can be worked into many different recipes, and is affordable.

Whether you work it into muffins, serve it as overnight oats, or add cinnamon to it in the mornings, oatmeal really is a great food. Your mom was right (as usual).

These are just a few of the foods you want to work into your child’s diet. Remember, the more foods you can expose them to now, the more adventurous they will be later in life.

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The Best Dairy-Free Milk Options

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Milk is a staple of many households – we use it for morning cereal, afternoon soups, to coat chicken for dinner, and even to dip a few cookies in for dessert. Even so, dairy is one of the most controversial industries for various reasons. As more and more people are trying to eliminate it from their diets, replacements are popping up all over – to mixed results. Some dairy-free milk options are great, but others do not quite make the cut.

It is important to know that you will not find many dairy-free milk types that taste, feel, and look just like milk. For those who aren’t drinking traditional milk because they are vegans or don’t want to support the dairy industry, these kinds of milk will do just fine. If you do enjoy milk but have trouble digesting it, you may want to consider taking lactobacillus probiotics specifically for dairy digestion which can help with digestion and keeping milk as a part of your diet: https://bioptimizers.com/lactobacillus-probiotic-uses-treatment-dosage-what-is-it/. 

Want to eliminate dairy milk from your diet? Here are a few places to start:

Oat Milk – Best For Mouth Feel

Oat milk has been a game-changer for so many people. This milk is thicker than many other kinds of dairy-free milk, which earns points in its favor. It also tends to have some sort of flavoring, which helps when you add it to desserts, coffee, or cereal. In fact, drinking some oat milk feels a bit more luxurious than other types of milk.

One thing to be aware of is that oak milk does tend to be a bit more expensive than other types of dairy-free milk.

Cashew Milk – If You Are Looking For Protein

If you tell anyone that you are vegan or vegetarian, one of their first questions will always be, “But how are you going to get your protein?” Milk is an option for many vegetarians, but vegans have a harder time. With cashew milk, you are getting more protein per ounce. This helps it to be creamy and more satisfying than other milks – and it makes it a great substitute in many recipes.

Once again, cashew milk can be a bit harder to find and it does tend to be a bit more expensive than other options.

Almond Milk – For The Budget Conscious

Even though most milk replacements are much more expensive than traditional milk cartons, almond milk is almost always the most affordable. It doesn’t have a bad taste to it (especially if you get the flavored options) and it does feel like traditional milk. Even better, it is one of the easiest types of dairy-free milk to find – you won’t have to go to a specialty store.

Some people don’t love the color of almond milk because it is an off-white, beige color. 

Soy Milk – Best For Recipes

While most of the milk types on this list can be used in recipes, if you are going to be cooking or baking, the best option is soy milk. Not only does it look and feel like traditional milk, but it also cooks like it. It is also a great option for those who want something that looks and feels like real milk – you may even be able to fool someone.

Once again, soy milk is probably the most popular and easiest to find of all milk alternatives. 

Coconut Milk – Best For Healthy Fats

Coconut milk is a bit of a controversial option among people. Some people like that it does have that slightly coconut-y taste to it and some people don’t. What most people find is that you will have to do some testing if you want to use this milk in recipes – it is great for some, but it doesn’t quite work for others. Still, it has some really great healthy fats that most people only get from fish.

Coconut milk can also come in many different forms, so you may want to experiment with different thicknesses. As a general rule, if you get the milk in canned form, it will be much thicker than traditional milk. When warmed, it will thin out (much like a cream-based soup). However, you can also get liquid versions that are already thinned out. The thinner version often has a milder flavor.


Eliminating dairy from your diet is something many people do for moral, health or environmental reasons. Don’t feel like that means your diet has to be lacking. Rather, it can mean that you have plenty of other options available to you that you wouldn’t have tried before now – or you can just trying taking a lactobacillus probiotic – visit BiOptimizers.com to find out more information.

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