Fat kids are in the news again. The British government is alarmed that the obesity rates show that up to 25% of five year olds are overweight and within 15 years this is going to reduce life expectancy by about 13 years.! Others laugh these figures to scorn and say that obesity has no significant effect on the mortality rates.
By discovering a nutritional health program for kids early on means they have the basis for a healthy lifestyle right into adulthood. If kids are involved in fun activities and learning fun facts about food, then this means they are on the right road in keeping to a nutritonal health program for the rest of their lives. Kids are bombarded with food ads every year - in fact they see about 20,000 of them ! These food ads are not really into healthy nutritional programs as they are concerned with brainwashing kids and making money. Kids are hungry all the time, it seems.
Most snack foods are loaded with trans fats, sugar and salt which is not exactly healthy. So much so that recent research shows that hyperactivity and ADHD in kids could be caused by these food additives and colourings. Getting kids to help you in the litchen is a great way of involving them and making them aware of what they eat.
Kids love to try cooking and have great fun in eating what they have prepared. Their spirit of adventure is greater than we think and if they follow our boring choices, then we only have ourselves to blame. Kids are picky eaters because parents are too afraid to say this is what we eat. They are curious, so if you constantly say how amazing some food is, they might actually try it. They should be encouraged to try new foods but never forced. Eating together as a family cannot be overstressed.
A study found that teenagers who ate more family meals were much more likely to eat more fruits vegetables and grains and drink less soda. Kids want food from the kids menu because it just the same fare that they are getting at home -frozen fish fingers, chicken nuggets. Enthusiasm on the parents' part usually works wonders.
Another trick is to NOT let them choose from the kids' menu but share a meal from the normal menu with you thereby involving them in the choice. The University of Minnesota found that the situation as regards school lunches was not as hopeless as they feared. They found that there had been no drop off in sales when nutritional healthy dishes were served.This means more exepnse for the schools as they have to retrain cooking staff. Encouraged by these results, some of the schools in the State now serve a low-fat turkey hot dog instead of the traditional one.
Smoothie recipes are great for parents and kids love them too. This is one of the best way of disguising healthy ingredients like fruit and vegetables and getting the kids on to a nutritional healthy eating plan, without them realizing it.
Tired of thinking up healthy recipes for a healthy nutritional program for your kids ? Fun Food For Kids For Health Tips, visit The Wellness Bible for the latest news and research on wellness, fitness and medicine.