Healthy Nutrition For Kids

Some parents worry that if they keep their children from eating the fatty foods they love, and offer more fruits and vegetables, the children will develop nutritional deficiencies. They also feel helpless when it comes to getting their kids to eat healthier foods.

For one thing, its important not to feel apprehensive about feeding your children healthier foods - that is, worrying that your kids will not develop healthy eating habits because children pick up on their parent's anxieties... and if you feel anxiety when it comes to yuor kids eating healthier-they will respond by not eating healthier because of your anxieties.

The way you eat during pregnancy is also a strong indication of the foods your child will like or dislike from birth into adulthood. The majority of vegetarians do not have problems with their kids eating healthily, especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables! 

Children are also influenced by their parents from a young age. For instance, if you are a meat and potatoes person and prepare vegetables for your kids because 'its good for them' ... they will pick up that attitude and reject what you offer.

If you love and are excited about healthy foods, chances are your kids will be too...but most parents demand that their kids eat their vegetables as if they are a terrible thing to eat! 'Eat your brocolli sweetheart!' Subconscious message 'Yes, we know its a burden and its really awful but its really good for you!'  Kids pick up these subliminal messages!

Getting your kids involved in preparing foods from an early age...especially vegetables and fruits! helps them to appreciate what they eat more.

For instance...preparing vegetables for salads and making sure that your kids feel in charge of making them or any other healthy meal gives them a sense of pride and a willingness to eat what they have prepared. Creating food games with fruits and vegetables helps kids to see these healthy foods in a positive light. They will feel connected and in tune with such foods.


 
Since many children feel disconnected from fruits and vegetables, its up to you to make sure they overcome this. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, talk about their beautiful colours, their fresh aromas and tell fun stories about how healthy foods make children strong and vibrant. Healthy food enables kids to concentrate better and do well educationally. They are imperitive for good cognitive function and have a host of other health benefits. In the same way, talking about the problems 'fast foods' cause - in a way your children can understand according to their age - is also important. Heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, skin problems (no kid wants to go through teenage acne and painful periods which are mostly due to the kinds of foods we eat!) Get kids to play with carrots in their play room and other veggies!(these play veggies and fruits are not for eating) Fun example: Where is Mr Carrot hiding? I think he's afraid you're going to get him!

We know that fast foods are not good for children. In fact, former adult diseases such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes are now plaguing children. Some kids dont go near vegetables and feast mainly on 'fast foods' (or should we call them toxins) like french fries, sodas, artifically coloured syrups and fruits juices, processed foods, fatty meats and other fast foods. Fat cells which are known to store the protits of disease overwhelm the body as muscles starve and organs become burdened and diseased. Obesity is severe malnutrition - the body is not getting the nutrients it needs to build healthy bones, muscles and other internal systems - what it gets is loads of fat that creates so much fat cells that the body is covered in a dangerous layer of fat. This fat is also inside the arteries, the liver and heart as well as other internal systems where it shouldn't be.

Once in awhile, letting your kids have burgers and other foods is acceptable - after all it gives them an idea of all types of foods that are out there - but if they develop a love for such foods - it is important to prepare them yourselves and use healthy, lean meats with wholegrain buns etc. Grill meat instead of frying.

Juicing fruits create delectable real fruit juices that no kid can refuse. Whenever kids want to snack on something make sure a lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are included - that way they will get used to snacking on healthy foods. They will begin to enjoy it, especially if they see everyone else in the family eating healthier.
  • Incorporate bean soups, such as yummy lentil soup and if that doesn't work make your lentil soup into a "lentil burger". You may have to gradually change their eating styles.
  • Try making fresh bean and/or vegetable soups. Make sure it is tasty, and not too spicy.
  • Make homemade pancakes with wheat (except for kids with gluten allergies!) and only sweeten it with pure raw honey. Make fruit shakes and throw in a carrot or romaine lettuce.
  • Make tasty salads with homemade dressings...and also make playful faces out of the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots.
  • Make tasty salmon and have them try it. Salmon has very high concentrations of omega 3 and 6 as well as zinc. 

There are so many possibilities and recipes that you can try. Do not give up on your child because they have shown a dislike for a vegetable or fruit. Just eat it around them and watch them ask you for a piece. Keep offering it to them at dinnertime, play games with fruits and veggies and mostly tell healthy food stories with imagination. Imagine their interest when you tell them that one day Mr. Green Pepper went inside someone's tummy and made them so healthy because he had antioxidants. And then! ... when all the strawberries and oranges went inside the kid's tummy, they made sure that he never got a cold again. All the other kids were sneezing and miserable but this kid didn't seem to get colds so much! That's because his secret was...lots of healthy foods!!! Kids will start to think how fantastic fruits and vegetables are!

If children eat plenty of fruits and green leafy vegetables, they are also getting their calcium requirements. But you could also include some almond milk or rice milk if you want.

The focus is to keep introducing them to new foods so that they develop a taste for natural foods that we, as human beings, were meant to eat.

____