In this day and age eating healthy is the main concern for a lot of people, especially parents who want their kids to grow up eating the right foods. In this article we will focus on healthy eating tips for kids and parents. The main goal is to get kids to like and want those healthy foods, and here you will learn some healthy eating tips you can use too.
1. Fresh is always the best. Aim for fresh fruits and vegetables; they taste better and tend to hold up better taste-wise.
2. Don’t treat fruits & vegetables differently. Kids pick up on the little things from their role models (yes parents, you are their role models). If you enjoy certain fruits or vegetables, then have them in the house, enjoy them and share your banana with your kids at snack time.
3. Portion Control! One fear most parents have is making sure their child has enough to eat. If a child is loaded up with a full plate and expected to eat it all, they will grow up without learning the all important ‘stop when you are full’ feeling most people lack these days.
4. Substitute a carbohydrate and sugar loaded snack food with a naturally sweet snack food. Don’t reach for the chips; go for the strawberries or cherries instead!
5. If your child just doesn’t like a fruit or vegetable, don’t throw it out! Try to prepare it in different way, to see if they like it.
6. Make healthy foods easily accessible for kids to get to. Have the apples already sliced or the oranges already segmented and portioned. All they have to do is grab it and go!
7. Go Natural. A good money-saving tip as well as a healthy eating tip is to go natural, use those fresh strawberries or raspberries to make preserves you and your kids will love! Plus going natural means you can control the amount of sugar, and other things going into the food your children eat.
8. Moderation is the key. There should be some allowance of the candy and junk foods which your kids will want to have, and everyone is allowed their “junk food day”, but keep it in moderation. Go for only a handful of chips, or have a half a glass of soda with ice.
9. Not just the foods you eat are important, but how you prepare them is equally important. Steaming a vegetable is always better than any other cooking method. There are steam bags you can buy which cook the vegetables with nothing added.
10. Wash your food! Most people do not take the time to wash the food they put into their body. If you have a hard time finding a reason; think of all the hands that have touched your food before you brought it home.
In closing, there are many tips and tricks for you and your kids to get more healthy foods into your diet: go fresh, clean your food, and try to cook it multiple ways before just giving up on it. Happy eating!
