1. Let kids help you pick out the fruits and veggies at the store. I've created a monster in my daughter. She asks everyday to go to Trader Joe's. It's her favorite store. She loves that she gets to push her own little cart and I pretty much let her fill it up with anything she wants. For two reasons, one, she always picks out the stuff that we usually buy anyways because that is what she knows, two, there's not much you can go wrong with at a store like that.
2. Let kids help you prepare the food. My kids pull up a chair EVERY time I'm in the kitchen. They know I will let them stir, or pour or whatever that particular recipe calls for. The love it and they are getting pretty good at helping. I'm hoping this will teach both of them how to cook and give them a love of cooking in the future.
3. Put fruits and veggies out on the counter or table while you are cooking dinner. My kids are always hovering around looking for something to eat while I'm cooking. They now know, if they want something to eat, there will be food on the counter. This is how my son started finally eating carrots.
4. Let kids help you grow the food. This will get them very excited to eat the food that they helped to water each day. It's a great science lesson too for all of you homeschool moms. Also, another opportunity to teach about how awesome our God is.
5. Give them two or three choices of healthy things to eat. Don't just use phrases like "what do you want to eat?" Try saying things like "do you want an apple or banana for your snack?" or "Let's make a smoothie and you can pick which fruits go in"(then set out 4 or 5 fruits for them to pick from)
6. Sneak veggies into everything. I've added carrots to popsicles, spinach to pizzas and smoothies, etc. If you need help, there are plenty of tips on-line to help you. Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife) has a cookbook about sneaking veggies into recipes. I don't have it, but I heard it's really good.
7. Make eating fun. Make up stories about the food, have contests with a prize at the end for everyone who completes the contest, let the children be magicians that can make their food disappear, whatever works for your child. And no two children are the same. The magician thing worked for my daughter, but my son just looks at us like we are crazy.
We are responsible for shaping our kids eating habits for the rest of their lives. We are also facing different challenges than our parents because of the changes in our foods in the last 15-20 years. It seems sometimes like 95% of the food in the grocery stores are artificial or have artificial ingredients in them. Think about that word "artificial". "Fake", "not real", or "junk". I understand that it's cheaper to eat junk food, but ever think about why? It's not real food. Anything that is fake is cheaper, but it is also going to be much less effective and poorer quality. We want the best clothes, best car seats, best medicine, best education, best daycare, and so on, for our kids and we are not willing to skimp on these items because we want our kids to be cute, safe, healthy, smart, well-taken care of kids. "Only the best for my kids, I'm not willing to cut corners on any of these" we think. But what do our kids do more than anything besides sleep? Eat. It's one of the most important parts of their lives as it is for adults. It will affect their energy levels, ability to think clearly, growth, weight and immune systems. This next generation is facing some scary futures. Let's do everything we can to make sure they are healthier than what is being predicted. We have to set the example. Let's start making changes now. Consumers control what is put into grocery stores. Know why companies have switched over to processed, artificial, quick and easy foods. Because that is what we have told them we want by buying those items every time we see them. We are telling them that cheap and easy is more important to us than health. If more people start buying organic, real foods we will start to see more of these items on the shelves and we will see the prices start to drop. Remember, if you are on a tight budget, buy organic where you can. Refer back to the organics list. I use this example a lot, I know, but a bag of organic apples is going to go much farther, be a lot healthier, and give kids a lot more energy than a box of packaged fruit snacks and they cost about the same. Ok, I'm off my soap box now.
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