Set a clear expectation with your children that healthy eating is important, and stick to it. This does not imply that one must be a strict rule maker and enforcer of consequences for poor eating habits. Consistent adult role modeling of healthy eating behaviors is invaluable. It will be easier to make healthy eating a lifestyle choice if there is support at home.
If you have children, teaching them to eat and enjoy healthy foods is as important as teaching them to ride a bike, swim, read, and climb a tree. Food provides nutrients to their bodies, allowing them to engage in physical and mental activity. But that doesn't mean that choosing healthy foods comes naturally to children, especially when there are so many options and so much junk food marketing aimed at children.
The time spent encouraging, modeling, and empowering children to eat healthy foods is well worth the effort.Caregivers have a lot of influence over their children's eating habits. Take the role seriously, and seek out like-minded support from other health-conscious adult eaters. Be encouraged by the fact that modeling healthy eating habits for children will have an impact on the health of future generations. Allow children to participate in the process by assisting with the creation of the grocery list, grocery shopping, and meal preparation.
Set a clear expectation with your children that healthy eating is important, and stick to it.This does not imply that one must be a strict rule maker and enforcer of consequences for poor eating habits. Consistent adult role modeling of healthy eating behaviors, on the other hand, is priceless. It will be easier to make healthy eating a lifestyle choice if there is support at home. However, if you find yourself as the lone wolf of healthy eating in your home, stick with it. Your dedication can help reduce the risk of childhood obesity and other diseases, which is a worthwhile endeavor.
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Provide alternatives.
Allowing children to choose between two food options, either for a snack or to pack in their lunch, is empowering. If you give a child the choice between a bowl of ice cream and a salad, don't be surprised if the majority of children choose the ice cream. Our taste buds prefer foods that are high in sugar, salt, and fat.
Give the child a choice, but make it one of two healthy options. If a child has too many options, it can become overwhelming, so limit it to two or three at most.
Food should never be used as a form of reward or bribe:
If a sweet treat (ice cream, cookies, cake) is used as a reward for finishing another healthy food—for example, broccoli—the child will grow to prefer the sweet treat and dislike the healthy food. Furthermore, this strategy gives the impression that broccoli is unsavory.
People also use food as a reward for completing a task, such as finishing a project, getting a good grade, or scoring a goal in soccer.This behavior introduces the concept of emotional eating by reinforcing the idea that eating unhealthy foods is acceptable when doing something good. People may also use food to cope with a variety of other emotions, including anger, sadness, loneliness, boredom, and feelings of anxiety or stress. These patterns are sometimes learned at a young age and then reinforced in our culture as people grow older. In these situations, it is critical to address the underlying emotions in order to be successful in changing dietary patterns.
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It is critical to recognize that not all emotional attachments to food are negative. Many cultures and traditions revolve around the idea of celebrating with food (birthday cakes, holiday sweets, candy and chocolate giving on Valentine's Day, for example). While it is not necessary to eliminate all celebrations and rewards, be aware of the frequency with which they occur. As a culture, we can begin to shift the emphasis toward creating traditions, celebrations, and communities that focus on healthy food. If a sweet treat is desired on occasion, don't make it contingent on finishing another food item. Remember that fresh or frozen fruit or smoothies can be a delicious sweet treat while remaining a healthy option. Furthermore, a special treat or reward does not have to be food.We frequently see families bribing their children to eat certain foods by promising something in return, similar to how food is used as a reward. When a child is told that he can watch TV or stay up later after eating a certain food item, the transaction makes the healthy food appear unappealing and difficult to eat. Bribery will not promote healthy eating habits. The best course of action is to set a good example of healthy eating for children to follow.
Keep junk food out of sight:
Some parents believe that hiding junk food so that a child will not eat it is a good idea. Many homes have a stash of candy hidden in a locked drawer or high on a shelf. Unfortunately, the majority of children pick up on this strategy. If the children are aware that a particular food is being kept from them, it will increase their desire to eat that food even more, as it will appear more special, exciting, forbidden, or something only for adults.Store all of your food in the same way, and be honest with your children about which foods in the cabinet are healthy and which should only be eaten on rare occasions.