The Homeschool Diet

At Indigo River Academy, we have our own unique homeschool diet. We thrive on organic foods, limit preservatives and sugar - and we always take our vitamins. Homeschooling allows us the opportunity to take greater control over the foods that we eat. Due to this we all eat healthier and know a great deal more about nutrition.

The homeschool diet is quite different from the public school diet. My son Quintin often says the best thing about homeschooling is "the food". My children have told me public school cafeteria horror stories from their pre-homeschooling days. They speak of unidentified vegetables and meats, and things that taste like cardboard.

Now that they're home - no more gross food I say! I'm pretty radical in the food department. Like any good earth-loving, commune-living, homesteading homeschool mom - I insist on organic foods. I weed out preservatives. I minimize the kids’ exposure to allergens such as milk, wheat and corn. I loathe the use of a microwave. I follow the children around the house with their vitamins and supplements. I actually try to cook very little because I feel raw whole foods are really best. One of my children has even chosen vegetarianism, and that's OK with me.

Here is a summary of my homeschool diet:

• Eat Organic Whenever Possible
• No Preservatives
• Minimal Allergens
• Watch The Sugar
• No Microwave Usage
• Children Do Need Vitamins and Supplements

Read more about the vitamins and supplements children should take in
Homeschool Kids Vitamin Regimen
• Raw Is Best
• Support Your Childrens' Choices

Eating healthy is very important to staying healthy. Get nutritional information and other medical information here today!

EAT ORGANIC
Children should eat organic foods. The greatest amounts of pesticides are ingested by children before the age of seven. Children eat more food per pound of body weight than adults do, and they eat more fruits, vegetables and juices than adults. Degenerative diseases such as diabetes are on the rise in children. There is also more obesity in children than ever before. Pesticides have been linked with some of these conditions.

In homeschooling, eating organic can be easier and less expensive than if your children were in public school. In homeschool, food can be saved and there is less waste. Menu's can be planned using leftovers from a previous meal. A home garden can be a huge cost-saving and educational tool. The homeschool diet maintains much less peer pressure over what children should eat and what they shouldn't eat - that is, children aren't tempted by their neighbors sack lunch cupcake.

NO PRESERVATIVES
Children should not be overtly exposed to preservatives. There have been many studies suggesting that preservatives play a significant role in children's mood disorders and attention issues. Many preservatives are also carcinogens. Children don't need to be eating these things - especially at home! Homeschooling allows us the opportunity to get preservatives out of our children's diet. In a homeschool diet we can prepare food fresh so we don't need to worry about preservatives.

LIMIT SUGAR
There is a real problem with the amount of sugar found in many foods these days. High fructose corn syrup, the sugar that has been associated with increased diabetes risk, is in almost everything! Last time I was at the store, I had a hard time finding a loaf of bread that didn't contain it! Regular sugar is horrible too. It lowers your immune system (for up to 6 hours after you ingest it - according to some dieticians), it supports the growth of harmful fungi and bacteria, it causes a 'blood sugar' spike and then the subsequent downfall, and I personally believe it can make children unfocused and hyper. I know some researchers have tried to make the case that it doesn't make children hyper - but then they don't live in my house.

A homeschool diet can "get the sugar out"! Making food from scratch and eating more fresh foods will eliminate the need for excess sugar. Have your children read the labels in grocery stores and give them a "cutoff number" for the grams of sugar a food can contain. Anything over the specified amount and it doesn't make it in the cart!

FEWER ALLERGENS
I've noticed a huge difference in my children when I limit allergens such as milk, wheat and corn in their homeschool diet. Many children have problems digesting the proteins in milk, are sensitive to the glutens in wheat and are down right allergic to corn. Substitutes to these items are not readily found in public school and it is difficult to manage a child’s diet from afar. I regularly use substitutes for milk and wheat products - like almond milk and rice products instead.

DON'T MICROWAVE
Microwaves are baaaad. They turn your food into toxins. There is plenty of evidence showing that microwaves unravel protein chains, destroy enzymes and render food completely nutritionally useless. Don't use it. Chop, fry, boil, bake and toast instead. Plus, don't let your kids get hooked on the ease of the microwave. It's support the fast food culture. And isn't that one of the reasons why we're keeping our kids home?

FEED THEM VITAMINS
Children need vitamins and supplements. I strongly believe this. University Studies have demonstrated that humans no longer get all the nutrition that they need from their food to depleted soil conditions, harvesting and processing. Even with an organic lifestyle, some things may be missed. Plus, there is a growing body of evidence showing that vitamins and minerals need to be ingested at levels higher than found in foods. My children take all sorts of things. I'll give them multi-vitamins, fish oil, probiotics and enzymes and I've even had good experiences with children's herbal cold and cough formulas that can be found in health food stores. You can contact me directly if you'd like specific information about what my children take.

Homeschooling is essential for the vitamin and supplement lifestyle. Have you ever tried to get a prescription into public school for your child? There are many rules and forms for them. However, there are no rules and forms for supplements of any kind in a public school (at least when we were there). This means that my child couldn't even pop a children’s chewable after lunch, unless they wanted to face suspension. But adding vitamins and supplements to a homeschool diet is easy.

SERVE IT UP RAW
Next, I wanted to talk about raw foods in the homeschool diet. It's true that when fruits and vegetables are heated their enzymes are killed. Enzymes are the basis of every chemical reaction in your body. Children need them to grow! Raw foods don't hold up well in a sack lunch or in the cafeteria lunch line. But at home there's no problem.

HONOR YOUR CHILDREN
Lastly, honor your children's choices. My oldest daughter, Raiyna, made the choice to have a vegetarian homeschool diet. She can't stand meat. When we honor her choices, she feels valued as a person. Being vegetarian is actually something that she has become proud of and thus, her self esteem has improved. If a way of eating is overtly forced on a child - when they 'leave the nest' they're just going to go and eat what they want anyway. It's important to honor as many of their choices as possible - now - and help them to create eating habits that will last a lifetime.

In addition to diet and exersize, our homeschoolers see a chiropractor. Click here to read our our experiences with chiropractic care.

When you have finished reading our "Homeschool Diet" Article, return to our homepage by clicking here