Getting Kids to Eat Right

Is it a challenge to feed your children healthy foods? With family schedules so frantic today, it is tempting to munch on high fat, high sugar snacks and dine on fast foods that kids request. Healthy foods are the building blocks your children need for optimum growth and development, regardless of age. Establishing good eating habits can have lifelong benefits, including lowered risks for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Good eating habits begin with smart selections in the grocery store. Include your children in helping you pick out nutritious foods. Teach them to look at labels to see fat and sugar content. Did you know that there are approximately four grams of sugar per teaspoon? Your favorite cereal with 15 grams of sugar has three teaspoons of sugar per serving (usually a one cup serving size). Look at total fat content per serving. You may be quite surprised to read on the label that 15 potato chips contain 10 grams of fat. How many chips is your child eating out of the bag? To promote healthy snacking, stock up on nutritious munchies such as pretzels, graham crackers, fruit, mozzarella cheese sticks, yogurt and raw vegetables.

Watch the “liquid candy” in your grocery cart. Americans drank twice as many soft drinks in 1997 as they did in 1973. A 12 ounce can of regular soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar. It is important to select foods and beverages that have the most nutritional value per serving. Don’t let the high sugar drinks replace the more nutritious beverages such as juice or milk. For children two years and older, you can serve lower fat milks such as 1 percent milk. Even though juice is good for you, it is a good idea to limit the amount of juice consumed. Excess juice intake can interfere with your child’s appetite at mealtime. Read your labels and select 100 percent juice. Some juices are really juice drinks and may only contain five to 10 percent juice.

After you have made nutritious selections in the grocery store, now it is important to have these foods readily available to your children. Encourage your children to consume fruits and vegetables daily. Keep a colorful assortment of fresh fruits in a bowl on your kitchen counter. Prepare meals with a variety of vegetables. The National Cancer Institute recommends at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily to help reduce the risk of developing cancer.

Help your children make nutritious selections for mealtime and snacks. Keep your refrigerator and pantry full of nutritious snacks instead of high fat, high sugar items. Remember, you are helping them to develop lifelong healthy eating habits.