27 Raring2go! HEALTHY EATING Balancing food palettes: encouraging children to develop healthy eating habits From a young age, it is important to teach children what a balanced diet looks like so that they can take healthy eating habits into their adulthood. However, it can be difficult to ensure that children don’t overindulge in sugary foods and drinks, especially if this is what they lean more towards. As a result, many easily develop snacking habits on foods such as sweets and chocolates, which can lead to fillings and unhealthy weight gain. In this feature, I will highlight some methods to help encourage children to establish a healthy relationship with food and a balanced diet. Scheduled family meals: Having routine family meals together gives children a meal to look forward when they arrive home from school.This can help prevent children from consuming unhealthy snacks throughout the day, so they don’t spoil their appetite for dinner. Stocking up on healthy snacks: When children are looking for something to snack on, being stocked up on healthy foods such as fruit and yoghurt is a great way to prevent children from turning to foods such as sweets, chocolates and crisps by default. Bear fruit snacks can be good to have on hand as these are tasty and still count as one of your five-a-day. Be a role model: One of the best ways to introduce children to healthy eating habits is by demonstrating them yourself. Many children use their parent’s own eating habits as a guide for their own.This can be done by showing children that while the occasional takeaway is a nice treat, this isn’t a habit to get into every day. Preparing balanced home cooked meals and packed lunches for yourself and the children, is an effective way of encouraging them to do the same in future years. Cooking together: Getting children involved in the cooking process at home means that they are more likely to develop an interest in food and take more time in the future to cook themselves proper meals.This is also an easy and impactful way of introducing children to the components that make up a balanced and varied diet. Making time for a treat: There is no need to completely deprive children of sweet treats and sugary drinks, however it is important to monitor their intake. By scheduling a specific time in the day for children to have something such as biscuits or cake gives them a treat to look forward to and prevents them from overindulging throughout the rest of the day.
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