Healthy Nutrition For Your Growing Dancer

A dance parent recently asked me if I have any idea what would healthy nutrition be for a teen aged girl who takes a few ballet classes a week.

For a growing ballet dancer, I recommend that junk food be kept to a minimum, and fresh organic foods are eaten as much as possible. Why organic? The hormone disruptors in food laden with pesticides cannot help any child grow up to be healthy. Hormones affect bone growth, muscle strength, and your child's view of the future.

The general guidelines of lean (grass fed or wild caught)proteins, lots of green vegetables (raw with a tasty dip can become a favorite with kids) and salads made with healthy oils, would be good for anyone, especially athletic people.

Learn about HEALTHY FAST FOOD.

Read about NATURAL MUSCLE BUILDING AND WHEY PROTEIN.

Understand BRAIN HEALTH AND OMEGA 3 OILS.

Use a NATURAL ENERGY DRINK without all those food chemicals.

Green vegetables supply calcium and other minerals for proper growth. Healthy oils such as flax seed oil, walnut oil and coconut oil make wonderful salad dressings. These oils contribute to brain function. If your teenager is moody, get them oils with omega 3 fatty acids in them. Unfortunately, the regular bleached super market oils are not the ones that help them grow.

Snacks that help a young dancer would be celery, nuts and seeds. The oils and trace minerals in these foods will get them more mileage than a pizza. O.K., have pizza once a week, but it is not good snack food.

Your dancing daughter or son will have a real struggle with the stress of competition in ballet and the physical demands if they eat the typical modern diet. I hope you'll read the articles listed above for more detail. But this is for you too, the concerned dance parent. It should be your diet too. It is anti-aging, and your dancer will have you around longer!