How to Encourage Your Kids to Eat Healthier

Getting your young kids to eat all the greens on their plate might be a battle that you’re not currently winning. Kids often want to eat treats and snacks that taste delicious to them but don’t hold much in the way of nutritional content. You’ve probably tried asking them nicely and going to the trouble of cooking a home-cooked meal to try to coax them out of the love for all things sugar and fat, but to avail. Encouraging your kids to eat more healthily is achievable, you just need to be armed with ideas. You can get there with a little assistance, so take note and get your kids eating more healthily as soon as you can.

Start With Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and so is a good place to start educating your kids. When you and your family are next stationed around the dining table, ask your kids what they want for breakfast and then see whether they’ll try an alternative. If they willingly agree, then you’re off to a great start, so try to keep this up.

Make breakfast more fun and let your kids mix their cereals. This should be appealing to your younger kids, so let them take handfuls of a few and try them together. However, refuse any excessively sugary cereal. As part of this mix, you should include their favorite cereal choices but also things like rolled oats and other healthy alternatives such as whole grain cereal.

Tell Them Why Health Is So Important

Your kids will appreciate you telling them why you want them to eat healthily. Communicate the importance of health to your kids by explaining what effects poor health has on the body. Let your kids watch informative shows about why your body needs water and the right amount of vitamins and minerals.

Let Them Grow Vegetables

Kids love getting involved, especially if the task in hand requires getting messy and dirty. Well, you’re in luck, as growing vegetables outside in the soil requires exactly this. Ask your kids for their help and make the prospect of being in the yard more exciting by giving them their own part of it to grow whichever plants and vegetables they wish. Allow them to pick their own seeds and consider picking up a set of miniature gardening tools. Although, don’t invest in particularly expensive ones as you don’t know just how long this interest will last. By getting your kids involved in seeing where vegetables come from, they’ll be far more likely to want to eat the produce that they grew and nurtured.

Let Them Help in The Kitchen

Although having little hands buzzing around the kitchen might not sound appealing, letting your kids help in the kitchen will open their eyes up to eating new foods as they can see the preparation for themselves. Have a day purely dedicated to cooking and baking and teach your kids how you prepare simple recipes. The best part of letting your kids help in the kitchen is that you’ll have baked goods to eat at the end of it. Even if your kids aren’t interested in baking, let them get creative and have them decorate the cakes with whatever designs interest them. However, remember to always supervise your kids when in the kitchen and only assign them cooking tasks suited to their ages and abilities.