How ??
You Can Provide A
Balanced Diet To Your
Children
Food Habits Page 2
The practice of making healthy food choices should be started in childhood. If
you give your children a well-balanced nutrition, they will have the strength,
stamina, alertness needed to complete tasks both at home and in school. They
will also have a more positive disposition. Some pointers on how to develop
healthy childhood eating habits are found in the succeeding paragraphs.
Be a role model
Children form habits through imitation and, so you
should act as a role model by eating healthy as well. It
will be pointless to encourage y our child to prefer
eating fruit and veggies when they see you gorging
yourself with potato chips and carbonated drinks.
Cook more at home, dine out less
Home-cooked meals are healthier since
they don’t have ingredients that are
unnecessary for human consumption
like food colorings, flavor enhancers,
and preservatives. At the same time, it
is a great activity to do with your kids.
In addition, this can be a good
opportunity to bond with your children.
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Aside from that, allowing your child to help you prepare meals is a good way to
introduce them to the concept of healthy eating. At the same time, finicky eaters
tend to be more receptive to try new foods if they helped to make it.
Familiarize yourself with the latest food pyramid for kids
Actually, the USDA has adopted a different
symbolic representation for proper childhood
nutrition. The old food pyramid for kids has been
recently replaced with the food plate. Both the food
plate and old food pyramid for kids share similar
assertions, being that parents should offer various
food items, and that there are certain food types
that should be eaten sparingly, and those that children need more of. The food
pyramid had six vertical stripes to represent the five food groups plus oils. The
food plate is partitioned into vegetables, fruits, grains, and
protein, and a dairy circle on the side. And just like the
previous food pyramid for kids, the plate has been divided
so that the grain section is bigger than the protein section
because children need more of the former than the latter.
Healthy grain options include brown bread and oatmeal. Healthy protein options
include fish, eggs, nuts, beans, and tofu. Believing that the food pyramid was not
simple enough for kids to understand and parents to implement, the First Lady
Michelle Obama presented the food plate as an alternative.
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Make eating healthy fun
Compelling your child to eat more healthful food items will not help them develop
the right attitude to following a well-balanced diet. You need to be innovative to
think up ways on how to motivate your children to
choose more healthful food items. For example, you
can top a bowl of whole grain cereal with a smiley
face made of banana slices for eyes, a grape for the
nose, and an apple slice for the lips. Serve fruits
and vegetables with favorite foods to increase
acceptance. For instance you can give them
homemade blueberry muffins, zucchini bread, and
carrot cake. When doing groceries, bring your kids so they can pick out fruits
they want to try.