NUTRITION is an art of eating nutrients. As a certified herbalist, and a student of this science for over 14 years, I have come to realize that eating healthy means eating foods that are rich in natural nutrients that come from planet earth to nourish our bodies. While proper nutrition may be hard to fit into one’s schedule and it may take effort and discipline, it is more than worth it for not only producing a beautiful smile, but also helping your body stay strong and healthy.\n\nThrough their research and 38 years of scientific evidence, these authors concluded that the current North American diet, while sufficient to prevent vitamin deficiency diseases such as scurvy, night blindness and rickets, is inadequate to support optimal health, particularly the elderly, and that insufficient vitamin intake is a cause of chronic disease.\n\nA toddler or pre-school age child needs a wide variety of each of the four main food groups: Milk and dairy, meat, fish and poultry, fruit and vegetables and carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta and potatoes). There is considerable debate among experts about what is the best ratio of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.\n\nYou also try and limit how much acidic foods you eat as well as the amount of coffee and tea because you don’t want your pearly whites to turn yellow. A great lunch or dinner meal would be a healthy salad mix which has added to it freshly prepared protein, like grilled chicken.\n\nIf you still encounter resistance then why not use the food pyramid as the basis for a meal time star chart to reward good eating – even young children can grasp the concept behind it and they all love earning stickers and getting presents. (PS: I hate the word “diet.” Notice what the first three letters of diet spell.:) Instead focus on changing your eating and drinking habits, instead of bouncing back and forth between diets.