Facts About Healthy Eating For Kids

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Are you looking for facts about healthy eating for kids? Being overweight is not just something that happens to adults – it can be a problem for kids too. In fact, 23% children in the world are classified as overweight or obese.

The good news is that making small changes to what you give your child to eat, and how you encourage them to do physical activity, can prevent them from becoming overweight. By doing this you’re also setting them up with habits that will last a lifetime, and helping them grow into healthy adults.

Good nutrition during childhood is essential for normal growth, development, current health and future health.

Fat cells developed in childhood remain into adult life – which makes it easier to put on weight. This is why overweight children often grow up to be overweight adults.

However, if children eat healthy foods and do enough physical activity, they will grow into their weight without increasing fat cells, setting them up for a healthier future.

Should I be worried about my child’s weight?

Children grow at different rates and sometimes it’s impossible to tell if a child is a healthy weight by just looking at them.

Normal growth during childhood and adolescence involves weight gain and an increase in body size. Too little or too much food, or an imbalance of nutrients over a period of time, can alter this physical growth.

If your child experiences more than two of the symptoms on this checklist, he or she may be overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. See your child’s GP for a health and weight assessment, and to get advice on helping your family live a healthier lifestyle.

Checklist:

• Wears clothes that are two sizes too big for his/her age
• Has rolls or skin folds around waist
• Snores when asleep
• Mentions getting teased about weight
• Gets very puffed or red in the face after running for 10 minutes continuously
• Doesn’t participate in games at school or doesn’t want to go out with other children
• Eats adult size food portions of high fat or high sugar foods
• Is always hungry or asking for high fat or high sugar foods - although their appetite may change when they are experiencing growth spurts
• Doesn’t regularly eat a high fibre breakfast
• Skips meals regularly
• Eats more than two serves of ‘extra' foods each day, such as sugary drinks, cakes, muffins, pies, biscuits or high sugar muesli bars
• Drinks sugary cordial or soft drink more than three times a week
• Eats high fat foods such as pies, pasties, sausage rolls, chips or hot chips more than three times a week
• Eats high sugar foods such as muffins, cakes, biscuits most days (or more than three days a week)
• Has take-away or fast-food meals more than once a week
• Watches TV/video games for more than two hours each day

The best way to find out if your child is a healthy weight is to work out their Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI takes into account how much they weigh and how tall they are. These charts are different for boys and girls, and different to BMI calculations for adults. It’s important to remember, however, that your child's BMI is only a guideline. Regardless of the result of the BMI, a health professional is best placed to assess your child's weight and lifestyle, and to guide you on lifestyle changes.

An online tool for assessing children and adolescents' weight can be found here. You will need to know their gender, age in years and months, height in centimetres (cm) and weight in kilograms (kg).

Here is a list of some of the food facts I have shared with my children during meal time.It is a great way to start the conversation for eating healthier foods.

Fun Healthy Foods Facts

Meal time is another time to remind kids that foods are very interesting and fun. Here are some food facts you can share with your children.

Take a look at some of the interesting healthy food facts below:

• 1 cup of strawberries contains only 50 calories while providing 100 mg of vitamin C and 2 grams of fiber.
• California produces over 80% of the strawberries grown in the United States.
• Parsnips, a fall vegetable, are related to carrots. Baking them brings out their sweet, nutty flavor. They can be enjoyed raw too; try grating them onto a salad or on top of a soup.
• Native Americans used berries as a fabric dye. Berries and their leaves and roots were also used for medicinal purposes.
• A small orange is about 80 calories and contains vitamin C and carotenoids.
• Carotenoids are plant pigments responsible for the yellow, orange, and red color in fruits and vegetables. Carotenoids serve as antioxidants.
• When people think of vitamin C, they think of colds. Vitamin C does play a role in the immune system but it has many other roles including helping to form collagen and maintaining healthy teeth, gums, and blood vessels.
• Chinese royalty enjoyed melon seeds as early as 200 BC. The seeds were believed to be essential for good intestinal health.
• Marco Polo brought melon seeds to Europe after enjoying strips of sweet dried melon in Afghanistan. Dried and roasted seeds are still consumed as snacks in South America and the Middle East.
• Melons are in the same gourd family as squashes and cucumbers.
• There are two groups of melons available: watermelons and muskmelons. The most familiar muskmelons include cantaloupe and honeydew.

I hope you enjoy with this article.

Source: nourishinteractive.com; livelighter.com.au