Getting Kids Eating Healthy: Rescuing Your Kids from the Convenience Generation

Getting kids eating healthy means having healthy eating plans. Why?

Because your kids are part of a “convenience culture” that is used to a diet of sugary, salty and fatty foods with not enough fruits, vegetables or dairy products.

• Research shows that by age two, children have developed food preferences that will follow them for life.

• What's the problem?

Time Magazine recently reported a survey that one in five babies age two or younger eats sweets every day, and the VEGETABLE they eat MOST is FRIES!

The Secret to Your Kids Eating Healthy

Kids likes and dislikes are guided by their mothers -- if you dislike a vegetable, and you don't give it to your kids, they won't learn to like it!

• Eight year olds usually like the same foods they did when they were four. (A feeding infants and toddlers study that tracked 3,000 kids)

• Children will suffer irreversible damage into their adult life without healthy eating. Deficiencies in vitamin A, folic acid and zinc -- found in veggies -- are the greatest contributor to childhood disease. (The Lancet medical journal)

SO STOP GIVING KIDS "kid food" INSTEAD OF WHATEVER HEALTHY MEAL YOU ARE EATING YOURSELF -- instead of pizza, fries, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese that are no better for them than they are for you.

• Healthy Eating ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS * Giving FAT KIDS a Better Chance * SUCCESSFUL Healthy Eating ADVICE FOR KIDS * How NOT Eating Healthy When Pregnant Is PASSED ON * Healthy Eating Plan for TODDLERS eating healthy *

Is Your 10 Year Old Eating Healthy?

• When researchers asked 534 kids aged 10 to 12 what they eat in their bedrooms, they were astounded to find that 58% of boys eat regularly or daily in their bedrooms, and they typically eat: pastries, ice cream, French fries and sodas.

The girls fared slightly better, preferring fruit juices, tea or coffee. (M. Marquis, University of Montreal)

“The family no longer sits down to eat together, and this is a shift that’s been happening for the last number years,” according to Laurent Legault, director of the weight-management clinic at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, saying that this study confirms who he sees as patients – overweight children, or fat kids.

• You may need to spend time re-training taste buds to appreciate real and simple foods rather than those laced with fats or sugar. Even providing a “sit down meal,” may be a novelty.

• Parents and even grand parents may need to pitch in to re-assess “convenience.”

HERE ARE 10 HEALTHY EATING TIPS to get you thinking beyond carrot and celery sticks for real healthy eating:

10 Healthy Eating Tips and a Kids Recipe:

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: ADD TO FAVORITES

Just add finely chopped kale to the last 5 minutes of steaming potatoes and then mash into the potatoes according to your favorite method.

Here are some great resources:

• Healthy Eating for Teenagers: TIPS and TRICKS * A Cook Book featuring a SNEAKY CHEF For Kids *

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: GET THEM OFF FOOD ADDITIVES

A study, published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet showed that artificial colors and flavors are definitely affecting children's behavior.

They tested a cocktail of artificial colors and the commonly-used preservative sodium benzoate on three year olds and older children, and found that they increased hyperactivity.

Researchers found that food additives increase the following hyperactive behaviors:

1) inattention, 2) impulsivity, and 3) overactivity in these young children as well as eight to nine-year olds.

Increased hyperactivity is associated with the development of educational difficulties, especially in relation to reading.

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: REAL FOOD can be as FAST as FAST FOOD for BREAKFAST

• First reason -- children who miss out on breakfast are more sluggish, less attentive and have less energy.

• Second reason -- in a study of 60 children that assessed the impact of various breakfasts on classroom performance, boys and girls performed better after eating oatmeal compared with sugary cereal.

The “slow release” of glucose of the oats boosts memory and attention, not like the “fast release” sugar cereal.

SLOW-RELEASE BREAKFASTS ARE:

oatmeal (non-instant), bran cereal, whole-grain breads with nuts and seeds, apples, oranges, grapefruit, berries, grapes, pears, milk, yogurt and soy beverages.

• Healthy Eating COOK BOOKS for Kids, Teens and Adults * SLOW RELEASE Recipes and Healthy Eating for the Whole Family *

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: The ONE BITE RULE

Researchers tell us that it often takes SEVEN TRIES for a child to get to like a vegetable. Why?

• Nature gives us a "warning" when we first try a "bitter" food like green beans and veggies that in the past might have been poisonous.

• So, if your child "grimaces" at the first bite, it is not that they don't like it -- it is just nature's protective reaction, so STICK WITH IT FOR at least 7 TIMES.

• A child can imagine all kinds of things, so to keep them open minded -- a “one bite rule” will show them that they can survive an unusual taste sensation.

Many need to “re-train their brain” from an unvaried over-dose of fatty, starchy sweets.

People and families vary greatly as to their curiosity about foods and willingness to taste different foods.

• Historically, sticking to the “tried and true” might have been for safety.

• Today, however, healthy eating means eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains!

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: Add BERRIES, BERRIES, BERRIES with GREENS

Add SEEDS (sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, ground flax) or nuts and a FINELY CHOPPED APPLE.

Use a bit of mayonnaise or olive oil for dressing mixed with some apple juice or orange juice for flavor. YUM YUM YUM!

CABBAGE and BROCCOLI are on the “must eat often” list for everyone eating healthy, and fortunately many kids will munch on broccoli with a dip.

• Great Blueberry Recipes and Snacks * Easy Steps to Start Eating Healthy Organic Meals *

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: MAKE 40 OLD FASHIONED COOKIES

• 1 cup (250 ml) all purpose flour• 1cup (250 ml) whole wheat flour• ½ teaspoon (2 ml) baking powder• ¼ teaspoon (1 ml) baking soda• ½ teaspoon ( 2 ml) salt• ½ teaspoon (2 ml) cinnamon• 1 cup (250 ml) butter (room temperature)• ¾ cup (175 ml) brown sugar, packed• ¾ cup (175 ml) granulated sugar• 2 large eggs• 1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract• 2 cups (500 ml) large flake oats• 2 cups (500 ml) raisins• 1 cup (250 ml) sunflower seeds, unsalted

* In a bowl, whisk together the two types of flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.

* In a large bowl, beat butter, both types of sugar until fluffy and add the eggs, one at a time, beating them in well. Beat in the vanilla. Add flour mixture, stirring until just blended. Stir in oats, raisins and sunflower seeds.

* Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls, 2 inches (5 cm) apart, onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. Press lightly with back f fork.

* Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 12 minutes or until golden and set around the edges but still slightly soft in the center.

* Store between sheets of wax paper in container at room temperature for up to 1 day or freeze for 2 weeks. (per serving, 162 cal, 3 grams protein, 7 grams fat, 23 grams carbs.)

• Children Eating Healthy Tip: INVOLVE THEM EARLY and as TEENS

Even though messy, involving kids is fun and teaches skills, and not just for baking. Even young kids can help arrange salads, e.g. and make faces, or help add things to make a soup.

Help them decide which soup or stew you should make.

Help them find the ingredients or go shopping with them. This way they will learn that soup does not always come from a can.

• Cook Book for kids eating healthy: "I Made It Myself" * KIDS COOKING: A Cookbook for Preschoolers & Up * Honest Pretzels Cook Book for COOKS AGES 8 & UP *

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: PACK a LUNCH and SNACKS

* Dried fruits e.g raisins or apricots and nuts and seeds for an easy to pack snack, or protein to hold them over, e.g. yogurt or hummus with slices of apple for dipping, cubes of cheese with sliced veggies – cucumber, mushrooms, broccoli.

Make cookie-cutter sandwiches, salads of beans or chickpeas, or cook extra chicken for left-over pieces of chicken with cut up veggies.

• LUNCH BOX: Creative Recipes for Everyday Lunches * LUNCH LESSONS: Changing The Way We Feed Our Children *

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: TEACH BY EXAMPLE and BAN JUNK FOOD

Junk food means processed foods such as white flour, and all hydrogenated oils in margarine, shortening, snack crackers and peanut butter.

Instead, on outings, take kids to a market and explore new fruits and vegetables – buy a pomegranate, or a whole pineapple, some peas in the pod, an avocado or any fresh fruit in season.

Don’t make a pie unless you have too much fruit. Instead, teach them that fresh and whole is best for them. Make whipping cream (the real thing) to go with the fruit if you want to make it special. Yummy and fun!

• Kids Eating Healthy Tip: “PLAY” with SWEET, SALT-SAVORY, and BITTER

Be playful with introducing new tastes and smells and ask for feedback on textures and subtleties rather than simply “do you like this” or “not like this.”

Bitter has virtually disappeared from modern eating, but some greens may come close. Ask them to tell you how bitter it is, rather than “bitter, yuk,” so they find out it is OK to experience bitter.

Find words to describe texture, such as smooth, gritty, crunchy, slimy, etc.

Learn from the French who love food but tend not to be fat and go see the movie Ratatouille : Rat-a-too-ee

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Getting Kids Eating Healthy: Start Healthy Eating Plans Early to Avoid Childhood Obesity

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