How to teach your kids to eat healthier and smarter?
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Once you’ve cultivated a habit, it can be pretty tough to break it. This is why it’s best to cultivate good habits instead of bad ones. This same concept holds true for your children. As a parent, it makes sense to only instill the best lessons in their minds. By giving them a great foundation, you can help your children build habits that will positively serve them for the rest of their life. A great area to focus on involves their relationship to food. Consider some of the best ways to teach your children to eat healthier and smarter.
Introduce green smoothies
Green smoothies are really simple to make. They’re also extremely delicious to consume. If you’re using a green, leafy vegetable like spinach, your children won’t be able to taste it when it’s combined with fruits like pineapples, bananas, and mangos. As you get your children used to drinking green smoothies, you’ll make sure they’re getting a healthy portion of greens along with other nutrients.
Decrease refined sugar intake
Refined sugar is found in desserts, pre-packaged juice, and more. It’s one of the hidden culprits to a bad diet. While it’s hard to completely eliminate refined sugar from your diet, there are plenty of ways to decrease the intake. If your children love spaghetti, make your own tomato sauce. Store-bought tomato sauces typically contain a significant amount of sugar with each serving.
If you’d like to give your children a nice dessert each night, make sure it’s less than 25 grams of sugar. This will help them keep their sugar intake low while they still enjoy a sweet treat.
Create more homemade treats
Instead of purchasing popsicles, purchase popsicle molds. There are tons of online recipes for healthy versions of treats like popsicles. They’re really easy to make. You can also keep a close eye on how much natural sugar is going into each popsicle. By creating your own homemade treats, you get to decide how much of any ingredient you’d like to include. Plus, homemade treats tend to be more delicious.
Read the labels of prepackaged products
As you and your children go shopping for groceries, teach them the importance of looking at the labels. Teach them how to read the nutritional facts. As they learn the numbers to look for, make it a fun game to help them decipher between the best pre-packaged items to purchase. Besides, not all pre-packaged foods are bad. A pre-packaged item like protein keto bites can satiate a craving, taste delicious, and satisfy your nutritional needs.
Practical education is important because it will help your children understand why they eat the way they eat. If it seems pointless, it’ll be harder to stick with. However, when they understand the purpose of different nutrients for their optimal health, they’ll develop a holistic, well-rounded approach to nutrition.
Be the change you want to see
Your children are more likely to follow your lead. If you’re constantly snacking on junk food, they’re going to want the same items. If you haven’t already made the shift with your own diet, it’s time to transition with your children. If coffee is considered a vital food group in your household, focus on decreasing your intake. As you make your transition gradual, it’ll be a lot easier for everyone to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s easier said than done. Still, you have to focus on being the change you actually want to see. You are your children’s first example.
Moderately indulge
Even though you might want to keep your children under your care forever, they’re going to go to school, birthday parties and social events with other children. As a result, they’ll come in contact with junk food options like cupcakes, fries, and candy. You don’t want them to go wild and binge whenever they come into close proximity with junk food. Instead, it’s a wise idea to allow them to moderately indulge in junk food. This might mean that they can have a piece of candy for dessert or some potato chips with their lunch on Fridays.
The earlier you start, the better off your children will be. However, if you’re starting when the children are in their pre-teen or teenage years, don’t get discouraged. Just refocus, and try a different approach. As long as they’re under your roof, it’s never too late to get started in helping them cultivate great habits.