How to Adopt Healthy Eating Habits
We all want our children to eat healthy food… We know how important good food is for proper growth and development. To ensure they pick up this habit, we have to adopt a healthy diet plan for the whole family and pass on certain lifestyle values to our children.
To function properly, our body requires a balanced amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, calcium, and nutrients. Each component is essential as it caters to different body needs.
We require calcium for bone development. This is especially required in young, growing children and older people who tend to suffer from osteoporosis. Proteins are the building blocks of cells. Amino acids and Omega 3 fatty acids are equally important. Not all fats are bad, and the trick is to pick healthy foods and eat well.
Our meal should be comprised of a wide variety of foods that will give us our daily dose of nutrients. Our body requires more than 40 kinds of nutrients. This may sound mind boggling, but it is quite easy to ensure that you get all these components through foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, lean meat, and poultry. Our diet should also have low sodium content.
Plan healthy meals for your family; instead of three large meals, try to have four to five small meals. This aids the digestion process, as large meals need more time to digest. It takes about 4-5 hours to metabolize one meal, so keep adequate gaps between two meals.
Drink lots of water. It will help digestion, flush out toxins, and keep our bowels clean. Avoid high fat or high sugar food. Junk foods like French fries and the like contain trans fats, which stay in our intestines for long periods. These are harder to break down and lead to digestive problems and weight gain. You can have cakes, chocolates and desserts, but make sure you consume them in moderation.
Cut out all saturated and trans fats from your diet. Instead, opt for nuts and seeds and fulfill the fat content requirement from fish and vegetable oils. Fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines contain Omega 3 fatty acids which greatly reduce the cholesterol and triglyceride levels. For the vegetarians, Omega 3 is found in abundance in flaxseeds and flaxseed oil.
Keep away from aerated drinks. They are rich in calories and provide no nutrients. Instead, try out fresh fruit smoothies, which are not only delicious, but also very nutritious.
Ask your kids to help you plan and execute a healthy meal. This will make them feel involved and geared to eat healthy food. If they are reluctant to eat their fruits and veggies at first, don’t be discouraged. Kids generally need to see a food 3-4 times before they try it. Don’t try to bribe them with candy or junk food to make them eat their veggies. This will tell them that veggies are bad.
By keeping to the aforementioned points, you can make certain small, but significant changes in your lifestyle.
