All kids love junk food. Things like pizzas, burgers, French fries, fried chicken, are all they want to eat. Offer them fresh fruits and green vegetables, and they will leave the food untouched.
Making your kids eat healthy food is a tough task. You must ensure their proper training begins at home. Make sure that you have family meals where all members sit down at the table together. Enforce the rule that they have to taste whatever is on their plate. Even one spoon will do, but they have to eat what everyone else is having.
Tell them they can have junk food occasionally, provided they have home cooked food regularly. Certain basic ground rules have to be laid down and enforced to ensure your kids have proper food. This process has to start from infancy. Once your baby starts taking solid food, ensure that you give him/her fresh vegetables daily. Boil, puree, and lightly season the veggies while also incorporating whole grains in your child's food.
Do not give your child refined sugary foods such as cakes, cookies, and candy. Tell your friends and relatives too that this is a strict no-no.
Toddlers have strong opinions about what they want to eat. You can't always force them to eat healthy, so the trick is to be sneaky. You can make sandwiches with grated carrot and peas and camouflage them with mashed potatoes. You can use a cookie cutter to cut vegetables into cute animal or geometric shapes. Make the food look appealing, and chances are your kids won't notice the change in flavor.
Once they start going to school, you need to teach your child how to differentiate between good and bad food. This is because they will come across many kinds of foods in school courtesy other school kids, and may want to try out certain items.
Kids never want to eat sprouts and broccoli. They have a heightened sense of taste as opposed to adults, so they may hate certain veggies find them unpalatable. However, you must try to incorporate these vegetables in the food that they like. If your child is fond of pizza, you can sneak in a layer of mashed vegetables. Similarly, you can make a burger at home using carrots, beans, etc. layered between cheese and ketchup so your kid won't be able to detect the difference in taste.
You can make smoothies using bananas, strawberries, blueberries, etc. and put some delicious chopped fruits in jellies and custards.
Try to involve your kids in the process of selecting and making food. Take them to the market and ask them to pick up whatever fruits and vegetables they like. In the kitchen, ask them to lend you a helping hand for fetching, washing, cutting, and decorating food. If they too participate in the cooking process, they will love to eat what they have prepared.
Teenagers are especially fussy and have body image issues. They love hanging out with friends. Peer pressure makes them avoid food in general, so you must educate them about healthy weight loss. If they know they can lose weight by eating correctly, it might motivate them to eat healthy. Tell them the benefits of having fruits and vegetables in a detailed manner so that they can make informed decisions before following a low fat diet plan.
To learn more check out Healthy Eating for Kids [http://www.chrisedwardshealthfoodandfitness.com] OR
Thanks,
Chris Edwards
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_R._Edwards
