5 Tips to Get Kids Eating Healthy at An Early Age

Eating healthy. It’s something that all of us should strive to do. Not only does it provide us with the vitamins and minerals that we need, but it also helps to keep us at a healthy weight level too. It’s important to care about our weight because obesity can lead to all kinds of health issues include heart disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis and respiratory problems.

Being that more than one-third of children and adolescents are currently battling obesity issues, we’re sure that you can see why it’s so important that you make sure your child starts eating healthy from a very early age. If you’d like some tips on how you can get your kids to do so, we have provided you with five of them below:

Be colorful. Children are not only drawn to how things taste but also how they look. So, try and make foods as visually appealing (and colorful) as possible. For instance, when you are serving a salad, make a game out of it by asking your kids to tell you about all of the different colors that are inside of it. Perhaps the prize can be their favorite dessert if they name them correctly (and if they eat them too).

Provide healthy snacks. Kids enjoy snacking so make sure that you have healthy options for them to choose from. The good news that there are many that we’re sure they will like including carrot sticks, yogurt, granola, baked chips, popcorn, dried fruit and even dark chocolate.

Let your kids cook with you. Even if you are preparing a meal that isn’t necessarily a favorite for your kids, there is something that you can do that will get them excited to eat it anyway: let them cook with you. You can even get out a video camera and turn it into a cooking show featuring you and your kids. By the time they are finishing helping you out, if you make a big enough deal out of how good of a job they have done, they will be excited about tasting some of their own handwork; even if their plate does happen to have some green vegetables on it.

Cook alternatives. Oftentimes, eating healthy is about how things are prepared. Therefore, your kids don’t have to go without some of the foods that they love. You simply need to cook them in a healthier way. For one thing, forego the fast food drive-thru and cook more at home. When it comes to French fries, bake them instead of frying and when it comes to soda, serve mineral water with fruit juice in it. For more ideas, go to your favorite search engine and put “fast food alternatives” in the search field or visit the website RecipeChart.com.

Be patient with the process. Just like we have to remind ourselves as an adult to eat healthy, it’s also a process for kids. That’s why it’s important to be patient with them as you introduce more and more healthy foods into their diet. And remember, it’s OK to have a pizza or a couple of scoops of ice cream from time to time. It’s all about eating those kinds of things in moderation and making sure that eating healthy is the greater priority.