Healthy Child Eating Habits Are Easy!
What Can Parents Do To Help Their Children With Weight Issues?
Healthy child eating habits are critical to combat future weight issues for your child. First and foremost, you must start your children on a healthy regimen when they are young. If they aren’t young anymore, don’t worry, you can still make the changes outlined below and have an impact on your child’s life moving forward. The reason to start young is so you can plant the seed in their little minds on what being healthy is and how it can be achieved. So, what are some easy steps you can take right now to get your kids in the right mind set?
1. NEVER
SKIP BREAKFAST!
This is extremely important for everyone, not just
children. Can you remember the last time you went eight hours without
food during the day? Unless it was for religious purposes, you probably
can’t think of any instances, right? Well, that is exactly what you are
doing every night when you go to sleep. Your eyelids may be closed and
your activities stopped, but it doesn’t mean your body stops burning
energy. Our bodies are constantly consuming energy and need to be
replenished regularly…with healthy supplies! So, after an eight hour
fast, you need to wake your little ones with a nutritious breakfast and
get their bodies primed for a long day at school or the play yard. (For
some good ideas on what to have for breakfast, go to Healthy Child Eating Habits and scroll down to breakfst)
2. Replace
All Soft Drinks and Fruit Juices with Water.
Ever look at the labels on the fruit juices you are
giving your children? Take a guess how much sugar is in one serving? A
single pouch of Capri Sun can have as much as 26 grams of sugar! That’s
two-thirds of what is in a can of soda, which also should be a no-no
for kids. When you replace these types of drinks with water, you can
cut out nearly 50% of the sugar and carbohydrates that a child may
consume in one day! That’s huge! Plus, water keeps us hydrated which
helps to reduce our hunger cravings.
3. Limit
Pizza, Burgers, Ice Cream, etc. to One Night Per
Week.
Now, this is going to be probably more challenging than
the other tasks, but it’s very important. What happens to us
psychologically as we’re growing up is that we tend to see these ‘junk’
foods as an easy go-to source and tend to associate them with good
feelings and quick fixes. In reality, nothing is further from the
truth. These so called ‘good’ feelings one gets when consuming junk
food is simply a sugar high that stimulates your metabolism. After that
high is gone, the body returns to its normal state and the process of
trying to get rid of those toxins (and that’s what they are, toxins)
begins. This leaves people feeling low and that sub-conscious memory of
feeling good that is associated with junk food returns. It’s a vicious
cycle, and if it is prevented early, then the battle of breaking the
habit later on in life is not an issue.
For now, I think that will be enough to get the process started. I don’t want to burden you with too many ideas and insights right now. However, now is the perfect time to start getting your family on the ‘health train.’ Everyone is talking about eating healthy and exercising more, so why not join them. Then you can have the support of others to get the job done.
If you want more support and advice, please feel free to leave a comment on our blog or in our Healthy Eating Forum.
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