What is a parent to do? The obesity rate among children between 2 and 18 has tripled in the last 20 years. We know our children need good food choices for optimum growth and brain development. Food choices need to reflect low calories, low sugar and high vitamin, fiber and protein. We may have to be creative in the way we introduce and include healthy foods in our family's diet plan.
Recently there have been several cookbooks celebrating the effort of hiding vegetables in food. While it might be effective, for a short time, to load pasta sauce with diced veggies or to add pureed zucchini to brownies, breads or chocolate cake, ultimately teaching our children to choose fruit and vegetables is going to be much more effective than tricking them. Hopefully we can help our children to learn to love healthy choices.
Another technique that may work is to give two choices, instead of an open ended choice. For example, instead of saying "What kind of fruit would you like for breakfast?", try "Would you like an apple or a banana for breakfast?" During meal preparations ask, "Would you like to help me prepare zucchini or peas for dinner tonight?". This will give you an opportunity to develop your little chef's motor skills and engage him more fully in the healthy eating process. Children often love to eat what they have helped prepare.
One technique that worked with my kids, was talking about "eating the rainbow". We copied some pictures of a simple rainbow and hung one on the fridge each day. My daughter was learning the colors of the rainbow, ROY G. BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet) in school. Each day she would search out a food item for each color. After she ate her "color", she colored in that portion of the rainbow. It was an engaging and interesting way to try many new, healthy foods. We both tried things we hadn't tried before, like turnips, eggplant, kale and spaghetti squash---and had some coloring time, which is always fun!
I do believe it is important to show our children that we want to make healthy food choices. They need to see us choosing a apple or banana over a cookie or taking a second helping of vegetables at dinner instead of an extra roll. Showing our own good example is the best way to teach healty eating habits. Eating as a family and trying new foods together has benefits on many levels. We know children respond positively to family dinners. Talking about choices and giving our children the opportunity to make those good choices can help us all to be healthier. And in my opinion, that is an essential.
