Eating, after all, should be a pleasurable experience. If we can get the message across to kids what a well-balanced healthy diet is, and then I think that we will have imparted to them knowledge that they can use throughout their lives. What often happens with the fad diets and the reason that many people think they work is that if they are successful, they always involve fewer calories. As we talked about before, any time one can lower his or her caloric intake relative to energy expenditures, which includes exercise, then you are going to lose weight. There are starches in some vegetables.
Starches provide an important source of carbohydrates for adults and children.
I would think that teaching children about what constitutes a healthy diet, which would include starches, proteins, and the other basic food groups, should be our goal. Unless there is some absolute reason of a medical nature to eliminate starch from a diet, I would think that in general this is not a good idea. One of the chat room participants asked about how you would get a child who seemed disinterested in team sports involved. We were talking a little bit about the alternatives to team sports. Maybe this is a child who would respond very positively to exercising with his family.