Low carb diet and kids - advice please!

[UserN0me]

Hello, I have just stared low carbing to lose a bit of weight and so far I’ve still been giving the kids (aged 4/7/9) carbs, so for example
Kids - salmon, rice, spinach and corn
Me - same except rice

I’m just wondering if low carb is better for everyone is it ok if the whole family does it or should I continue to give them carbs eg breakfast cerial, sandwiches etc?

I should say they are not overweight and are good eaters. I’m just wondering if there’s no need for all the carbs for every meal because of what I’ve read about food cravings/diabetes etc but want to make sure they are getting everything they need in their diet

I’d appreciate your advice!

It depends what your objective is for them. If they don't need to lose weight, why eliminate one food group? It will be more expensive to meet their calorie needs if you are not including carbs. So I wouldn't.

If they have working pancreases they really won't be on much of a blood sugar rollercoaster and eating rice isn't setting up bad habits for life. You could try to go for lower GI carbs like brown rice.

It won't do them any harm to eat the same way as you at their evening meal, but you might find that they are hungry (they won't be in ketosis like you if they are eating carbs at school, so won't have the elimination of cravings effect that you may be benefiting from).

BTW if you are low carb, then corn is not really a good option.

Interesting question - firstly, I would NEVER put a child on a diet unless strictly told to by the doctors.

But given that, it's not a bad idea to mix in some lower carb meals for DC.

So for example, what works for my DD is:
-normal breakfast of toast and either cereal or yoghurt.
-Normal school lunch or a sandwich if at home.
-And then after all those carbs, a dinner of just meat/fish and non-starchy vegetables is probably quite a good balance, IYSWIM.

I don't feel such a need to include a starch with every single evening meal. Green beans and broccoli, cucumber and cherry tomatoes, red peppers etc - that's plenty of bulk.

So the only difference to most kid's diets really is that pasta is a once or maybe twice a week thing, not stuffing her full of white carbs every single meal; I think a lot of us give kids way more pasta than is healthy.

We eat a fair bit of rice (Tilda pouches of wholegrain rice are amazing) if I think we need a carb with dinner. The fussy brat won't eat potatoes so that's not an option!

And all things in moderation/balance... pizza night is sacrosanct.