Undrestanding The Importance Of Healthy Eating Habits

When children are growing up, it is very important for the parents to check on their eating habits. For the wise men have said and proved the popular proverb, ‘what you eat, you become‘. Eating healthy food would definitely lead to a healthy body and a healthy lifestyle. Unhealthy food, on the other hand, would affect their health negatively and open doors for various potential health risks for them.

Often, parents find themselves treating children with unhealthy food or sugar treats as a form of reward or out of sheer love. However, what most parents don’t realise is that they are, unknowingly, damaging their children’s health and eating habits.

Types of Unhealthy Food

The various kinds of unhealthy food that may affect a child’s health and put them at risk are the following:

Junk Food
Oily and deep-fried Snacks
Old Packaged fruits and vegetables
Food with high fats and sugar
Candies, Treats and gums
Dense Dairy Products

It is important to understand that the food items mentioned above are not necessarily bad food choices. It is imperative to let your kids savour varieties of food and pleasure their taste buds, get an experience of everything. What is not acceptable is when the consumption of these food items go overboard.

Furthermore, the treats work well as rewards when you have to encourage them for doing something. But it should be done in control. Often, parents fail to realise when the treats go a little overboard. Hence, it is important to look for the signs and identify them.

Signs that Unhealthy Food might be going overboard

There are small signs that start appearing in children as soon as the unhealthy food in their stomach begins showing effects on their health. Parents should look out for these definite and most prominent signs:

Sudden weight gain or weight loss
Overweight or Underweight, i.e., improper BMI
Indigestion or constipation
Loose motions
Laziness and low activity levels
Tooth decay, Cavities, Yellowness of Teeth or Consistent Bad Breath
Sleeping problems and uncertain sleep schedules
Poor concentration and focus
Poor or slow physical growth

If you observe any of these obvious signs, it is not difficult to conclude that these are the consequences of poor eating habits or overeating unhealthy foods. It is crucial to identify these signs and teach them healthy eating habits.

Let us look into the possible techniques that can be used to train your children to adopt healthier eating habits without pushing them too much.

Train your children to Adopt Healthy Eating Habits

Training your children to make healthy choices is not easy. It cannot be done with strict rules and regulations around the house. Such restrictions would only make them more inclined towards unhealthy food and tempt them to eat something unhealthy as soon as they leave the house. Hence, it is important to take it slow and gradually build healthy eating habits in their lives without putting them under pressure. Here are some of the methods that can help you to do so:

Introduce Healthy Snacks

The most unhealthy eating choices occur when the children look for snacks in between the meals. Encountering this problem and replacing all the unhealthy snacks in your house with healthier options can help you encounter this problem. For example, you can get rid of all the fried snacks and replace them with fruits, healthy cookies, fat-free and sugar-free products, etc.

Become their Role Model

It is vital to address that children do not learn what we teach them. They learn what they see and understand. To inculcate healthy eating habits in their lifestyles, you must watch out for your own meals too. Ensure that you always eat healthy food and choose healthier options around the house, in front of your kids and while going out with them. Your kids will soon look up to you as role models and adopt your habits as their own.

Explain and Elaborate the Effects

Kids can often be smarter than you think. More children tend to avoid eating candies if they understand that it can damage their teeth and give them cavities. Similarly, more children can be led towards healthy eating habits if you make them understand the ill-effects of unhealthy food. Use examples from people around them and funny cartoons when explaining them things and they will most probably remember it for longer. Always make the conversations fun and engaging for them. Otherwise, they will start feeling that they are getting lectured.

Developing healthy eating habits in your children is important. But it can only be done if the entire family eats healthy too. You cannot expect your children to eat healthy while you enjoy unhealthy meals.

Hence, it is vital that you ensure that you are cooking healthy meals in your household that actually taste good. After all, change starts from home, and the mother is every children’s first teacher. Gradually, children will learn and understand the importance of healthy eating. What’s more? They will always be grateful to you for your healthy food choices that would eventually lead to excellent immunity and physical fitness for them.

Also read – Role And Importance Of Music In Child Development