5 ways to get your children to eat healthy

1. Lead By Example

From a young age, kids look up to their parents, and, in direct comparison to the animal kingdom, "monkey see, monkey do". Kids will naturally tend to eat what their parents eat, and what is readily available in their household. Typically, healthy parents have healthy children. That fact alone should also motivate parents to make healthy choices for themselves.

2. Educate Your Children On Health

Our children cannot be expected to make healthy choices without knowing why they make healthy choices. Explain to them, in ways they can understand, that eating healthy will make them grow physically and mentally strong.

3. Eating Healthy Can Be Fun!

There are a wide variety of snack foods and recipes that are not only healthy, but appealing to children. If eating healthy can be just as fun as eating poorly, they will discover on their own that whole foods, and their abundance of natural flavor, taste just as good as nutrient-robbed-additive-filled foods.

4. Give 100%

Replace empty filler foods with nutrient-rich whole foods. For example, let's take an all-time favorite, PB & J, and give it a makeover. Exchange the white, or 60% whole wheat bread, for 100% whole grain bread. Exchange the sugar infused jam or jelly for jam made from 100% fruit. Now for the best part, exchange the common peanut butter for the 100% all-natural variety, or switch it up with almond butter. Apply this thinking for the rest of the food available in your home. Whole foods often show glaring differences when it comes to the ingredients list.

5. Remember: Kids Will Be Kids

Although we should encourage our children to eat healthy, they should never be judged for what they choose to eat outside the home. Nutrition should never be forced, only provided. If you follow the above 4 steps, you are already doing more than most parents. Kids naturally go through phases. Forcing the issue will only lead to rebellion, whether you know about it or not. We, as parents, can only ensure that they are getting the nutrients they need when eating at home. In time, they will learn to make the right decisions for themselves.

Click Here!