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Family & Adolesence
There are literally hundreds of nutrition programmes available today claiming to provide a range of health, weight loss and performance benefits. While some of these may indeed generate results in the short term (6 - 12 months), very few are sustainable for life.
 In addition, these short term 'diets' are inappropriate for the family and/or adolescents as they typically have agressive dietary restrictions or require foods be eaten at certain times of the day. Examples of these adverse dietary strategies include eliminating high carbohydrate foods such as breads and cereals or eating foods only at certain times of the day such as fruit in the morning only.
These approaches are not only unsuitable for families, they are dangerous for children and adolescents who need an abundance of nutrients to support their bodies rapid growth and development and active lifestyles.
The ideal nutrition programme for families and adolescents should not only be sustainable for life and provide nutrient dense food, it should also have:
- easy to use eating strategies that are effective for all ages;
- foods that taste good for everyone to enjoy, are readily available from the local supermarket and are suitable for the family budget;
- flexibility to suit busy family lifestyles;
- a planning system to take the guess work out of food preparation.
Here is an example of a mother of three who discovered many benefits when using the NutriFit programme with their family:
The Nutrition Success seminar for adolescents delivered by Dr. Nick Kimber has changed our lives for the better. As a mother to three active children I have always been aware of what we should be eating as a family but very often lack the knowledge of how best to introduce the correct nutrition and the amounts into our daily meals. Nick had all the answers and the strategies for my family so that we can all have the correct nutritional intake and be able to carry on with our busy active lives. In the notes handed out were meal plan ideas and a shopping list, both have been easy to use and a big help and also included was a list of snack ideas which I keep attached to the fridge so there is no excuse not to eat the correct food.
My husband is a shift worker and has found following the six meals a day strategy has helped him to adjust to his shifts and he has a lot more energy and is able to exercise and sleep well, both which he found difficult with shift work. For me personally, I also have plenty of energy and find exercising and coping with work and three active kids a lot easier now that I am eating correctly. My two younger children resisted a few of the changes at first but I was determined to make us a happy, healthier family and we can now all report that, with perseverance, we feel the difference that we are well on our way to achieving nutrition success.
So once again thank you for delivering this life changing seminar.
Hazel Heath, mother of 3 children
Christchurch, New Zealand
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