Healthy Eating Habits Tips

Habits to Look Out For
Sure, not everyone has perfect eating habits. Despite the constant warnings that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, many people skip it. However, not fueling up for the day with a proper, nutritious breakfast, loaded with the vitamins and minerals your body needs, leaves you, and your children, vulnerable to strong hunger cravings later on. And that commonly means reaching for foods that are high in fat and calories but do little for you on the nutritious scale.

Other seemingly normal habits that are actually not that healthy and interfere with your child’s body include:

  • Eating too quickly
  • Paying little attention to the kind of food being eaten
  • Eating when depressed, frustrated, irritated or angry
  • Eating too much junk food on a regular basis
  • Drinking high amounts of sodas and packaged juices
  • Skipping breakfast, lunch or dinner regularly
  • Eating a quantity much more or less than recommended for ones body type, age and activity level
  • Eating while watching TV, studying or traveling
  • Regularly eating snacks that are fried, have high fat or a high sugar content
  • Habitually eating candies, chocolates, ice cream
  • Making any time a dessert time

Unhealthy eating may lead to lot of complications in a child’s life. Sometimes even those ailments that we thought could only affect adults may affect your child because of their diet. However, by understanding how making healthy food choices for your child can help prevent these problems, both now and in the future, you can ensure that your child lives a long and healthy life.

Remedy and Precaution
Healthy eating has to start from home. Even if your child seems to be addicted to junk food, it is not an impossible task to change her eating habits to healthy ones. It may take a bit of persistence and perseverance on your part, but it is possible to help your child be healthier than ever before. If your child is not already into the fast food life, make sure it stays that way by providing unlimited healthy food choices at home.

To encourage healthy eating, some of the things you can incorporate into your family’s life are:

  • Following the food pyramid to prepare healthy, well-balanced meals
  • Make sure your child’s daily calorie intake is appropriate for her age and activity level
  • Try new recipes and new products to add variety to your meals
  • Keep a daily count of your child’s carbohydrate, protein, vitamins, mineral, fat, and sugar intake
  • Limit fat consumption. Switch to oils instead of solid fats for cooking purposes.
  • Choose healthy snacks, like yogurt, carrot sticks, and tuna sandwiches for yourself and your family
  • Limit your family’s consumption of soda and other drinks that have sugar added to them, like fruit drinks
  • Provide meals or snacks at regular intervals so that your child’s blood glucose level is balanced throughout the day
  • Help your child stay active by getting them involved with exercise. Better yet, get active as a family and make it a regular feature of your day.
  • Be a role model. If you eat healthy, it is more likely that your child will follow you example and eat healthy as well.