Healthy eating for children
May 17, 2009 by Alex Hendricks
Filed under Health & Fitness
No matter what age our kids are, we never really stop wanting to spend time with them. Use the tips here to encourage your kids to eat healthy, and make smarter food choices.
-Make sure that your kids (and you) have a lot of good snacks to eat. -Follow your own advice by making better choices for yourself. -Dinnertime isn’t the time to start a battle over food. If you don’t leave it up for debate, your kids will eat healthy. -If you let your kids help cook and shop for groceries, they are more likely to eat healthy if they chose the food.
These are great ways to incorporate healthy eating into family life, but it’s not easy to do it when everyone is so busy and cheap fast food is so widely available. Here are some methods by which you can bring the above strategies into your daily routine.
Sitting down for a meal as a family can be the start of a wonderful tradition. Children thrive on structure, and knowing that there is a family meal coming up gives them something to look forward to. Parents can use the opportunity to catch up with their kids’ lives. Kids who eat meals as a family have been found to be:
-more likely to eat healthy foods like veggies, fruits, and grains- and less likely to snack on “junk food” -much less likely to use illegal drugs or alcohol
When kids eat with their parents, they are more likely to try new foods, and their parents are modeling healthy choices. Teens, however, are independent by nature and they probably will be less than enthusiastic about a family dinner.As they age, they still need to rely on Mom and Dad for advice, discipline, and love. Family meals are a fine opportunity to get up to speed with what’s going on in everyone’s life. Try these tips:
-Invite your teen’s friends over for a cookout. -Give them a say in what your family buys, cooks, and eats.
What counts as a family meal? Basically, whenever you and your kids eat together, whether it’s fast food or a homemade meal. Aim for good nutrition, and schedule meals for when you’re sure that everyone will be home. Sometimes, you’ll have to eat later in the evening to accommodate the schedules of everyone, or maybe starting a tradition like a pancake breakfast on Sunday.
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