Children’s nutrition tips

Today, most families and children are very busy. This makes it difficult for them to eat home-cooked meals every day. Most kids’ diets include takeout food and convenience foods. Yet, these foods are not necessarily healthy. You might want to limit your child’s intake of these foods. Poor eating habits can persist into adulthood. There is a chance that some diseases may develop.

Children can benefit greatly from healthy eating. 

It can:

• Maintain a stable energy level.
• Develop the mind.
• Balance their moods.
• Encourage them to maintain a healthy weight.
• Prevent mental illness. Depression, anxiety, and ADHD are some examples.

A healthy diet and a focus on nutrition are the easiest and most effective ways to prevent disease. Good nutrition can help you avoid many chronic diseases. Diabetes type 2 is also among them, including obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Around half of all Malaysians have one or more of these illnesses.

If you learn healthy eating habits as a child, they are more likely to stick with you. Therefore, you must teach your children good habits now.

Health improvement path

Children can be taught and supported to eat healthily in many ways. 

These include a Healthy, balanced breakfast in the morning.

Your child should start their day with a balanced breakfast that contains protein. A high-protein breakfast will enable your child to stay full for a longer period. We all know how hectic mornings can be. Here are a few healthy, on-the-go breakfast ideas:

• Egg sandwich on whole-wheat bread.
• Greek yogurt.
• Peanut butter on whole-grain toast.
• Hard-boiled eggs, toast, and an apple.

Prioritize mealtimes

Family meals at the table are important for establishing healthy eating habits. But it’s not just about eating together. Meals provide opportunities for:

• Mealtime routine. Routines are important for children. It makes them feel safe knowing they share meals with their family regularly.
• Spend time with your kids. Take an interest in what they’re doing. Share what’s going on in your life. Make your family closer.
• Monitoring eating habits. During this time, watch how and what they eat. Try to encourage healthier eating habits.
• Be a role model for your children. If you prepare and eat healthy foods yourself, your child will do the same. Stop counting calories. Avoid negative self-talk. Your child might do the same. This could lead to negative associations with food or body image issues.

Involve the kids

Shop for groceries and choose foods together with your kids. Get them involved in cooking and preparing meals.

Making small changes to your diet to make it healthier

It’s not necessary to completely overhaul your diet. Just replace some unhealthy items in your pantry or refrigerator. Add in more until you have adopted healthier eating habits.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Instead of whole milk, try low-fat milk.
• Instead of soda, try water of flavored sparkling water
• Instead of white bread, try whole wheat or whole grain bread
• Instead of ice cream, try homemade smoothie
• Instead of butter, try olive oil
• Instead of potato chips, try baked chips or nuts

Limit sugar intake

Many foods contain sugar naturally. Examples include fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy products. These foods provide all the sugar we need.

Foods with added sugar are common. Our diets are being filled with empty calories from all this extra sugar. It’s common for sugar to be added to foods we wouldn’t expect. Bread, canned soup or vegetables, ketchup, frozen meals, and fast food are included in this category. These foods should be avoided or consumed in moderation for our best health.

The following tips will help you and your children reduce the amount of sugar in their diets.

• Avoid banning sweets. Just make these foods a special treat rather than regular parts of their diet.
• Modify recipes. Reduce the added sugar by half and see how it turns out.
• Cut back on sugary drinks. A simple way to reduce sugar is to avoid sodas and artificial juices.
• Eat more fruit. Fruits are full of natural sugars. Consume more fruit to satisfy your sugar cravings. For example, replace milkshakes with fruit smoothies.

Make fruits and vegetables more appealing.

Get rid of unhealthy sweet and salty snacks to make fruits and vegetables more appealing.

Here are a few ideas you can try:

• Keep fresh fruit on hand.
• Let kids choose in a shopping mall and let them choose what they want to eat.
• Hide veggies in their food.
• Use your imagination and create fun food.

A few things to consider

You can find many tips on how to get your child to eat nutritious food. Healthy habits are the most important thing you can do to help your child’s nutrition.

• Be a role model for your kids as they follow what you do and eat.
• Start healthy eating from a young.
• Focus on an overall healthy diet.
• Know what they should be eating.
• Don’t force them to eat.
• Don’t use food and sweets as a reward.
• Put limits on screen time during mealtime.
• Encourage them to ask for snacks instead of taking themself and eating from the bag.