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Talk about the why
It’s not enough to just tell our kids what they can’t eat. If we don’t teach our kids why having healthy eating habits is important, it will make food choices a constant battle. We don’t want them to just learn rules around food – we want them to actually understand the bigger picture.
So talk about how foods either fuel or work against our bodies. Talk about how healthy bodies can run and jump and climb. Talk about how certain foods make our brains work better. Teach them about how the habits they develop now will carry over into adulthood.
Model by example
If we want our kids to have healthy eating habits, we need to have them too! If I’m sneaking dessert every night when the kids go to bed, but always telling them “no,” it just teaches them that healthy eating is only for kids. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ever save our treats for bedtime… I love a treat that no one is going to share with me. ;)
But the phrase “more is caught than taught” is true! This means that we can’t just tell them to have healthy eating habits, but not care about our own health.
You might like this post about daily habits to keep your family healthy.
Get them in the kitchen
If your kids are in the kitchen with you, cooking and baking, they are much more likely to want to eat new things. This is one of my favorite ways to get my kids to try new things. They can see that the ingredients in healthy foods aren’t scary. They also take ownership over the food, and they’ll be proud to serve and eat it!
Check out the post Encouraging Responsibility and Life Skills in the Kitchen for more
Grow your own food
A lot like getting in the kitchen, I’ve found that kids like to try foods that they plant themselves. That doesn’t mean they’ll like the foods ;) but they tend to at least try them! Research shows it takes trying a food eight to fifteen times before a child will accept it, so keep at it!
You can use the garden printables below, including the taste testing page:
Make healthy food fun
I grew up thinking that healthy food was boring. I don’t want my kids thinking that only junk foods are fun!
So be creative with your food. Challenge your kids to eat a veggie from every color in the rainbow or letter in the alphabet. Read books about different foods and do kitchen experiments.
For awhile, we subscribed to Atlas Crate from KiwiCo, and they have recipes from the different countries each month, so we try them. We make up our own recipes too!
Give them choices within your boundaries
If you have foods in your house that you don’t want them to eat, they’ll always be asking you for them! So if you don’t want them to eat chips, don’t buy them (or keep them in a tote in the basement where they won’t be visible everyday). If you want your kids to eat more fruits and veggies, keep them accessible and in forms that are easy to grab, like a container of precut broccoli vs a full head.
I also like to have some healthier options, so when they ask for a treat, I can still feel good about it. Like a healthy popsicle , crackers with better ingredients (we love Simple Mills crackers), or a no sugar frosting.
Make sure you them what they can eat, not just what they can’t. I started keeping a master meal plan up in the kitchen, so that my kids have a list of healthy foods they can reference. Because sometimes it’s just easier when you’re really hungry to think of the bad foods!
Teach them balance
No one eats perfectly all the time, we shouldn’t expect this from our kids! I want my kids to know that they can have an occasional treat without ruining their health. Our kids love to go out for french fries with their track and cross country team after meets. If we said no every single time, because we don’t like to eat fast food, we’d miss out on the fellowship that happens there!
We live by the 80/20 rule. So 80% of the time we are eating healthy, whole foods, and then 20% of the time, we can have the treats or the more processed foods. And when we can, we find “better” versions of those treats. It’s not about depriving our kids or our bodies, it’s about putting the foods that fuel our bodies in first, so that the other stuff doesn’t crowd it out.
Teach them to listen to their bodies
This is probably one of the most important things I’ve taught my kids (and am still teaching them) in regards to food. Food has a direct impact on how we feel. And if we are fueling our bodies with good foods, it makes our bodies and minds feel good!
My kids recognize that certain foods aren’t worth the brief feel-good moments, because the aftermath is so much worse.
Does a certain food make their tummy hurt? Do they get a headache after eating something? If I notice an impact a food has on them (like how red food dye makes one of my kids have complete meltdowns), I talk about it with them, and how the consequence just isn’t worth it.
One time, after eating at a fast food restaurant, every single one of my kids said they never wanted to eat there again, because none of them felt well! These conversations only happen when kids are paying attention to how food makes their bodies feel.
Don’t just talk about the negative though. Talk about how protein will give them energy for running or how avocado has healthy fats for their brains. Sometimes these aren’t as easy to feel, but they can begin to understand that food has an impact on their bodies for good too.
What are some things that you do in your home to encourage healthy eating habits?
You might like this video:
