Catherine Guthrie has written an excellent article, “Tangled Up in Food” for experience life.com:
Even the healthiest eaters are prone to occasional food transgressions — a dinner downed in front of the TV, a lunch wolfed down on the way to an appointment, a snack attack that sneaks up on us. As long as such lackluster eating experiences are the exception, and not the rule, they’re probably no cause for worry. But what about when the occasional “whoops!” becomes part of a more persistent pattern?
While the majority of the article focuses on adult eating habits, Guthrie adds some nice advice to parents struggling to create healthy eaters:
Seeds of problem-eating patterns are sowed early on. No parent wants to raise an unhealthy child, yet the statistics are sobering: 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 are obese and 80 percent of obese children will become obese adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Guthrie presents six tips, from Keith Ayoob, EdD, RD, FADA, a pediatric nutritionist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, that bear highlighting:
- Get them involved in the preparing of healthy foods.
- Avoid giving children super-sweet foods.
- Resist the temptation to make separate dinners to satisfy each child’s palate.
- Limit sweet beverages, especially during meals.
- Be flexible but be clear that fruits and vegetables are nonnegotiable.
- Teach children to try a small serving of every dish.
- At the end of the day, remember that the best way to instill healthy food habits in your child is to live by them yourself.
Read this excellent article here–>