What’s the single most important thing you can do to ensure that your precious kids grow up to be healthy and happy adults?
Teach them nutrition basics along with cooking skills at home.
August is Kids Eat Right Month, a campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, encouraging parents everywhere to focus on shopping smart, cooking healthy and eating right.
Studies show that kids who are involved in the first two areas are much more interested and likely to follow through with eating right.
Getting kids involved in the kitchen — as well as at the grocery store — plays a powerful role in teaching them the importance of eating healthy foods in the right balance.
Taking the time (yes, it requires more patience on your part parents) to teach your kids about the nutritional value of foods, taking them with you to the grocery store and involving them in food preparation is your job as a parent. Your kitchen is a natural classroom and when you ask them to help they are excited to be part of the process.
Parents, this is your time to practice what you preach! Be a role model as you teach them about nutrition and demonstrate the experience, fun and pleasures of preparing and eating healthy foods.
Remember how curious you were as a kid? Ask them questions as you prepare food for meals—things like: Do you know why fruits and vegetables are good for you? Is red pepper a fruit or a vegetable? What’s your favorite vegetable?
Make mealtimes conversational and give kids a chance to taste and talk about food as you eat it. My rule at the dinner table when I was raising our daughter was she needed to take a bite of every food served. If she didn’t like it, that was fine.
I’m still a big believer in this method to help encourage little ones to develop a taste for vegetables and a range of flavors and textures. Persistence and repeated exposures to food pays off because it increases the chance they will like that food.
When kids learn to eat a greater variety of foods it increases the nutrients they get in their overall diet and that is the best way to ensure good health — as an adult, too.
Include the foundation of good nutrition in every meal: fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and dairy. Consistency with this is important so kids learn what a healthy diet looks like on the plate.
There’s no better time than the early years to make an impact on your child’s lifelong eating and exercise habits that will teach them how to manage their weight, shape their health, and help them prevent diseases in the future. For more tips, recipes and advice on kids’ nutrition go to www.eatright.org.
Kim Larson is a registered dietitian nutritionist, founder of Total Health, www.totalhealthrd.com, and a spokesperson for theAcademy of Nutrition &Dietetics.
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