Kids

ZoneKids: It’s one thing to eat healthy yourself, but it takes an entirely new level of commitment and dedication to ensure the same for your children. Especially when it seems like each week there is a new treat lining the shelves that they simply must have.

Parents all around the world share the same stresses; their children’s health being a predominant concern. Finding fresh and exciting ways to sneak vegetables onto the plate might not do the trick as kids are getting smarter about their food intake, and aren’t always open to negotiations.

1. The best way to reignite the excitement at the dinner table for your whole family is to get them all involved in the cooking process. Kids will be more interested in eating something they’ve had a hand in making. Take them shopping with you, let them choose the products you’ll be using for the dish. If they’re old enough they can even help with the chopping and preparation of the meals.
2. Only cook one dish. Catering for everyone’s likes and dislikes in the family can be exhausting for you and leans too far into enabling bad food choices. When everyone is eating the same meal, there are fewer opportunities for griping and complaints – all round.
3. Don’t forbid “junk” food in the house – this only makes the concept more appealing to them. Refer, perhaps, to a small sugary snack as “sometimes” foods. Save these for sporadic occasions to ensure that your kids do get to sample the foods they enjoy and don’t let the cravings mount and cause trouble.
4. Be a role model for their food choices. When it comes to your own choices “I’m the adult” isn’t always the reasoning you should go with. Lead by example, eating healthily isn’t always the most appealing concept to anyone, so a little encouragement and leadership will go a long way in your home if you bite the bran, so to speak.
5. Sneak in some soy. Even without allergies, children stand to benefit from soy milk as it is a great source of healthy phytochemicals. Add it into a recipe to mask any suspicion and go about your baking as normal – they won’t notice a thing!
6. Try a dip. If vegetables are a sore spot for the kids, try out some dips to ease them into the textures and flavours of various veggies. Hummus, salsa or yoghurt based dressings are a good starting point with julienned vegetables.
7. Ease them into new foods. Let them sample something and decide for themselves how the experience is. Then, incorporate it as a side dish to add to their favourites and keep going until they’ve accustomed themselves to it and then it can be the star of the plate!

All in all, it generally just takes some soft words of encouragement, a smile and a sprinkle of their favourite seasoning. Kids love to eat in general, and employing rules only takes the fun out of their meal adventures – hop on board and steer the plane, and fly off into healthy living!