Healthy Eating = Strong and Smart Kids (and adults)
Teaching children about healthy eating is just like giving them any other information. It needs to be age appropriate, repeated frequently, and explained in a variety of ways. Feeding your family is a huge daily task, but it is also a daily opportunity to teach your children the value of taking care of their bodies for life-long health and optimal performance. Introduce the language of nutrition and health early so that even young children have the information to make good choices. Share repeatedly with your children the information that a balanced diet has multiple short-term and long-term benefits: they will get sick less often, feel better, grow stronger, and have sustained energy to do the activities they enjoy doing.
Small bites of information for small people:
- A balanced diet gives you all the vitamins and nutrients that your body needs to be strong and healthy.
- Eating healthy meals and snacks feeds your growing brain and body so that it will be smart and strong.
- Too much sugar makes you feel hyper and then out of energy.
- Healthy food is like premium gas for a race car – it will make you really fast.
- Good foods are the tools to build a healthy and strong body.
Easy ways to share information on making strong food choices:
- Use a grocery ad and ask them to circle healthy foods and cross out unhealthy foods.
- Using the “My Plate” template, let them color and fill in the plate portions.
- Grocery shop together to explore and talk about good food choices.
- Use helpful terms. Healthy food is delicious food. Call high sugar, high sodium foods “sometimes foods,” not “treats.”
- Have older children write down what they eat for a week, and then review with them what are the healthy and not healthy foods.
Use the Table365 Lunch Idea List to create balanced lunches
For ideas on a complete menu plan for a week see the Seven Day Sample Menu from My Plate.
Keep the conversation going!
