Children love Thanksgiving. It’s a chance for them to eat some things they don’t usually see during the year.
But GenuLines feels this is also a good time to look at some ways to get kids to eat with an eye toward health and wellness.
6 Ideas For Teaching Children How to Eat Healthy
One of the leading causes of childhood obesity is poor food choices. Offer kids either vegetables or a cookie and most will choose the cookie.
Hey, sometimes even adults do the same thing! But, with a few strategic lessons and good role modeling, you can teach your children to put health first. Here are some ideas:
* Help them learn to like healthy foods
Forcing kids to eat vegetables and whole grains gets met with resistance. Instead of preparing a plate of lima beans and telling your children to eat it all, give them a choice.
Prepare a variety of vegetables, side dishes, and whole-grain options. Encourage your children to try new things.
Children generally have to try something several times before they begin to like it. You’ll have to be patient.
Reward them with verbal praise when they try new healthy foods.
If they say they don’t like it, nod your head and praise them for trying it. Let them know that taste buds change and they might like it better next time or as they get a bit older.
* Make sugar a treat
Many children have become accustomed to sweet foods. A lot of them feel that anything that doesn’t have sugar just tastes bad.
If your kids eat a lot of sweets, scale back on the amount they have available to them. Start with one treat a day and at some point consider reducing it to one treat a week.
Now, make sure that food doesn’t become a reward for behavior. And don’t forget to check things like cereal which can be high in sugar.
Your children’s desire for sweets will decrease. And they’ll begin enjoying a variety of other healthy foods.
* Involve them in meal planning and preparation
Children who help you prepare a meal, are going to be much more excited about eating it. Invite yours to help you choose meals, help with the grocery shopping, and then prepare the foods.
While in the produce area, ask them to find and pick out the various vegetables and fruits you need for the meal. They’ll learn about their veggies, and they’ll be more excited to try them.
Consider putting them in charge of the meal choices for one evening each week. You can provide them with a list of choices.
You can also browse cookbooks together.
* Be a good role model
You can’t expect your children to make healthy choices if you don’t. Take good care of your health.
Exercise and eat well. Show the kids that taking care of themselves and making good food choices is important.
* Embrace other cultures
A great way to help your children appreciate food is to help them learn about what other cultures eat. You can embrace one country each month and make a meal.
You can call it “cultural night.” Combine it with family game night, and make trying new foods something to which you can look forward.
* Teach your children the “why” behind the food choices
If your children don’t know why they should make healthy choices, they won’t care. Talk to them about how some foods work.
Some provide lasting energy, while others burn out quickly and make us feel tired and cranky. Adjust the conversation depending on your children’s ages.
Finally, just enjoy food, because it’s so easy to get caught in the trap of being too rigid about food. That can cause a backlash.
It can motivate children to hide food and to feel ashamed. Make sure children know that it’s about moderation, not restriction and deprivation.
This will lead to a happy relationship with food that they can take into their adult years.
JohnK 11-23-2020
Overheard: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are” ~Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Article image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay
RSS - Posts
Have your say!