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.
Whatever you believe about the above figures, as a parent you will be concerned about helping kids to discover fun facts about food and recipes. If they discover early on that healthy eating and a nutritional program is fun, then they will hooked for life.
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.
Kids will want to learn fun facts about food and a great way is to involve them in the kitchen and the preparation of food. They also love cooking and trying out what they have cooked. Another thing is that they are more curious about food than we think. As they are copycats, they are going to imitate us a lot so if our choices are deadly dull and boring, then they will fall into the same rut.
When parents are diffident about what they eat, kids beome very choosy. Parents need to exploit their kids' curiosity about food and the best way to do this is to be really enthusiastic about what yu are eating. Then they will more than likely want to try it. As a family we should always eat together- research shows that teenagers who were on a healthy nutritional program had always eaten with the family.
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.
A study just published by the University of Minnesota found that when healthy and nutritional school lunches were served, there was no drop off in sales. Schools have to adjust in the training of staff and changing kitchens but these results are encouraging. They also try to serve a turkey low-fat hot dog instead of the traditional one and the kids like them.
Getting out your blender and using it for kids recipes is a great way of getting them into a healthy nutritional prrogram without them even knowing. As we all know, kids are not all that keen on fruit and vegetables but a lot of smoothie rcipes are really delicious and kids will go for them. These are way better than a bottle of soda.
