Tips for getting your children to eat more nutritious foods
Children learn about the world around them by observing. Children will imitate what they see and become accustomed to mimicking actions that they see most often. The same concept applies to eating nutritious foods. A child who grows up watching mom and dad practice healthy eating habits is more likely to do the same. On the other hand if your child sees you sneaking handfuls of potato chips and guzzling down chocolate milk, of course they are going to want to do the same thing. If you want your children to eat more nutritious food the first thing that you need to do is to make sure that you are providing them with a good example of how to do so.
Sometimes getting yourself and your children to eat more nutritious foods is hard. This is especially so when your parents were the ones who taught you the bad habits that you are now trying to break free of. The most important thing that you will need in your quest to eat more nutritious foods is to be committed to making a change. This change will not happen over night. As you gain more knowledge of easy things that you can do to alter your eating habits your children will not be far behind you. Below are some simple suggestions of things that you can do to get yourself and your children to eat more nutritious foods.
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Remember to eat the new food yourself. Your children will be more likely to follow your lead.
- Encourage your child to help with food preparation. Children are more likely try something new if it is something that they helped to make.
- Ask for substitutions when ordering your children fast food. Choose to replace the fries with vegetables or fresh fruit. Instead of a soda ask for milk or water. Many times you kids are more concerned with the box/bag and the toy that comes with the meal rather than the actual food. The concept of asking for healthy alternatives remains if you go out to eat at a sit-down restaurant.
- Decrease the meat and increase the vegetables called for in stews and casseroles. Meat is better eaten as a compliment to the meal rather than the staple ingredient to the dish.
- Limit snacks to two per day.
- Substitute whole-wheat flour for bleached white flour when you bake.
- Serve imaginative whole-grain side dishes (bulgur, kasha, etc.) instead of egg noodles.
- Limit beverages. Picky eaters often fill up on liquids instead. Make sure the types of beverages you do serve your kids are 100% juice, milk, or water.
- Look for crackers, bread and corn chips that contain whole grains.
- Offer a new food only when your child is hungry and rested.
- Substitute and ground turkey for ground beef but watch for the fat content because poultry is not always less in fat especially if the skin of the bird is included when the meat is ground up.
- Substitute low-fat yogurt for mayonnaise or eliminate the condiments completely.
- Cook with less fat by using non-stick skillets.
- Instead of oil, use a spoon of water, spices, vegetables or nonfat broth to replace some moisture and flavor loss when fat is reduced.
- Blot all fried meats on paper towels.
- Present only one new food at a time.
- Make new foods fun by playing a game or by cutting the food into unusual shapes.
- Serve new foods with favorite foods to increase acceptance.
- Be aware of the contents of the sauces and marinades in your cupboard. Avoid cooking with products that contain monosodium glutamate (MSG).
- If fresh is not an option, substitute garlic or onion powder for garlic or onion salt.
- Fats like oil, butter, or margarines can usually be cut by one-third to one-half in recipes. In order to ensure that they recipe will stand up to the lesser amount of fats, try a small cut-back at first, and then increase the amount you cut back on little by little.
- Choose canned fruits packed in water or their own juices instead of heavy syrup.
- Use fresh-frozen fruit without added sugar if fresh is unavailable.
- Sweeten foods with cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla or almond extracts. If you must use syrup on your breakfast food, thin the syrup out with water. You will get the same flavor with less of the sugar content.
