28 Feb 7 Ways To Keep Your Child Away From Junk Food
Feeding veggies to a kid nowadays feels like a cat-and-mouse race. Whether you are a new Mom or a mother of two, it is a never-ending quarrel.
The credit goes to their Super Tasty Junk Food! Once kids have a packet of chips, they won’t eat their dinner. Every time you go shopping, they ask for a chocolate treat. And you dare refuse; they greet you with tantrums.
That notorious junk food; how much you pray to defeat it from your child’s life. But, let me tell you the truth!
YOU CAN’T STOP YOUR KID FROM HAVING A JUNK FOOD!
Why?
Because you can’t stop yourself, then how the kid?While you dine at a restaurant, go out with friends for a Pizza party, you want your children to eat their bowl of veggies. How unfair?
That’s why they make every ugly face they can on seeing your home-cooked food.
Even if you switch to a healthy lifestyle, you don’t ditch junk food completely. You only reserve it for an occasional treat. The same holds true for your kids. You can’t stop them totally, but only reduce the occasions. So, let’s quickly learn the methods to inculcate healthy eating habits in your child.
7 Tips to reduce Junk Food in Kid’s Meals
- Educate early on nutrition
Teaching kids about food and nutrition is crucial so they understand its significance right from a tender age. Invent your own methods of teaching kids about food and nutrition through books, games, plays, etc, as per your kid’s interest.
- Practice healthy eating yourself
You are the first teacher of your child. He imitates what you speak, do, and behave. So, you must change your eating habits before nagging your kid. Practice what you preach to your kid.
- Set a daily menu with your child
Involve your kids in preparing a daily menu for your meals. Include a variety of foods as per your kid’s choice. Write your menu in different colours corresponding to your fruits and veggies.
Why?
Because kids are most attracted to the colours. When they set up a daily menu, it arouses in them a curiosity towards different foods and they are more likely to try them.
BONUS: It reduces your workload of thinking what to cook daily.
- Find healthy alternatives
Is healthy eating limited to only veggies, fruit juice, and chapatti? Why label pizza, burgers, noodles, pasta, etc, as junk food and forbid your kids from consuming them? In reality, the more you forbid, the more they will want. So, revolve your culinary skills around your kid’s taste, but in a healthy way.
For example,
- Home-cooked pizza with roti base and bell peppers
- Fruit and vegetable smoothies instead of carbonated beverages
- Kale/dried apple chips instead of the deep-fried potato chips
- Mix almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, raisins, sesame seeds, and dried dates into a sweet/salty snack
- Monitor their eating habits
Take your kids out for a treat in a good restaurant once/twice a month. This way you can monitor what they eat and how much. It also helps you bond with your children and they will listen to you the next time. Also, don’t stock your kitchen with chocolates, wafers, cold drinks, etc. Remember, being easily available means more consumption.
- Shop with the kids
Take your kids along for your grocery shopping. Ask them to pick up their favourite fruits and veggies. They might not eat all the veggies but favour over the others. And that’s OK. Your goal is to make them eat healthily and not everything.
- Cook with your child
Ask your child for small favours to help you in cooking the meal. Let them feel the aroma of the food while being cooked. Kids are curious to taste the food they helped in cooking.
Conclusion
Pizzas, burgers, chips, and sweets are not always bad. They are bad and a junk when your kid consumes them frequently from outside the home.
So, gear up to refresh your culinary skills and your home cuisines to match the tastes to today’s kids, but in a healthy way.
No Comments