Raising Healthy Eaters from Preschool to High School

Food, nutrition and eating skills are among the most important things you can share with children — food to fuel busy, successful lives, nutrition to nourish strong bodies and smart brains, and eating skills to enjoy the social aspect of meals with family and friends.

As with any part of raising children, no one does a perfect job with nutrition, not even nutrition professionals. As a parent, grandparent or adult caregiver, you can help raise healthy eaters during these critical years by doing your best to:

Serve regular, balanced meals and snacks with a variety of nutrient-rich foods.
Provide calm, pleasant meal times where adults and children can talk together.
Allow children to use their internal signals to decide how much and what to eat.
Explore a variety of flavors and foods from different cultures and cuisines.
Share an appreciation for healthful food, lovingly prepared and shared with others.
Make food safety, including washing hands, a part of every eating occasion.
Teach basic skills for making positive food choices away from home.
Find credible food and nutrition resources when you don’t know the answer.

While this may seem like an intimidating list, two family habits go a long way in making this happen: regular family meals and involving kids in nutrition from the ground up.

Make Family Meal Times a Priority

Sometimes a very simple act can have important, long-lasting benefits. According to parenting and health experts, that is exactly the case with family meal times. Eating and talking together helps:

Foster family unity.
Prevent behavior problems at home and school.
Enhance academic success.
Improve nutrition.
Promote healthy weight for kids.

With that impressive list of benefits, it’s worth making the time and effort to enjoy more family meal times each week. Look for easy ways to add just one family meal to the schedule. If evenings seem too hectic for family dinners, set aside time for a weekend breakfast or lunch. After a month or two of this new pattern, you can add another family meal each week. Before you know it, you will be eating together on most days.

Get Kids Involved in Nutrition

This one is fun for everyone and it can happen anywhere: your kitchen, the grocery store or a community garden. Every trip through the supermarket can be a nutrition lesson. Kids can learn to categorize food into groups: grains, fruits, vegetables, milk foods and meat/beans. They can choose new foods that they want to try, such as picking out a new fresh, frozen, canned or dried fruit each trip. As children get older, they can help plan the menu at home and then pick out the foods to match the menu items while shopping.

Nutrition is just one of many reasons to have a garden. The process of planting, watching over and harvesting a garden provides daily opportunities for children to learn valuable lessons and enjoy physical activity, while reaping the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor.

Coping with Picky Eating Phases

first goto-www.healthcasket.in

Every parent of a young child has been through the pain of a picky eating phase: the time your child refused to eat anything except peanut butter for weeks, then announced “no more peanut butter!” Or the month when your child wouldn’t eat anything white and got hysterical if foods touched each other on the plate.

Toddlers Are Naturally Picky Eaters

All kids go through stages of being picky about food. Between the ages of 1 and 3, they are expressing independence about everything, including food. These frustrating behaviors are actually perfectly normal:

After rapid growth during their first year, toddlers start growing more slowly. They need less food and are less interested in eating.
Kids are hesitant or even afraid to try new items. They want to see, touch and think about it several times before eating it.
Toddlers are busy. They have a whole world to explore and it’s hard to sit for a meal. They are also very busy telling everyone “I can do it myself!”

Dividing Up the Responsibility

How can you ensure toddlers get the nutrition they need without going crazy? Take a deep breath and relax. Adults want kids to try new foods for all the right reasons; unfortunately, we often go about it the wrong way. Forcing or bribing children to eat foods rarely gets the desired result.

An adult’s job in feeding kids includes buying and preparing a variety of tasty, healthful foods; offering regular meals and snacks; and making the eating environment as pleasant as possible. The rest up to your children. Whether they eat, how much they eat and what they eat is their responsibility.

Children are often more open to new foods when everyone surrounding them is relaxed about eating. Although they may not eat perfectly every day, they tend to eat well enough over the course of several days or a week.

Making Meals and Foods Toddler-Friendly

There’s no need to become a short-order cook or beg your child to eat green things. However, you can make eating more toddler-friendly.

Toddler-Size Their Eating Environment. Most young children are more comfortable in a booster seat so their legs don’t dangle. They also like cups, plates, utensils and food servings that are the right size for small hands and mouths.
Turn Down the Noise. Toddlers are easily distracted by almost anything, including television, music, phone calls and loud conversations. Help your toddler focus on food by keeping things calm.
Think Bright Colors and Fun Shapes. Like adults, toddlers eat with their eyes first. Use cookie cutters to make almost anything into an appealing shape.
Keep Young Chefs Busy in the Kitchen. Helping prepare meals is one of the best ways to get kids to try new foods and to eat what’s good for them.

Ethnic Foods for a Healthy Plate | healthcasket.in

Eating right is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. A healthy plate can include foods from all corners of the globe. In fact, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americanscalls a healthy eating pattern “an array of options that can accommodate cultural, ethnic, traditional and personal preferences and food cost and availability.”

Regardless of your heritage, follow these guidelines: make half your plate fruits and vegetables; about one-quarter protein, such as lean meat, poultry, seafood or beans; and about one-quarter grains, preferably whole grains. With each meal, add fat-free or low-fat milk, yogurt or cheese.

With increasing varieties of food available today, nutritious, healthy meals can fit within any cultural preferences.

Examples of healthful menus items from ethnic traditions include:

Chinese: Stir-fried chicken and vegetables such as bok choy, snap peas, carrots and bean sprouts; brown rice; and a dish of lychee fruit.

Italian: Minestrone (a hearty, tomato-based soup with, vegetables and pasta) with kidney beans added for folate, fiber and protein; gnocchi (flour or potato dumplings) with chopped vegetables like spinach mixed into the dough and served with lycopene-rich tomato sauce.

Greek: Tzatziki sauce (a creamy dressing of low-fat yogurt, garlic and cucumber) served on pita sandwiches or as a dip with vegetables; and dolmas (grape leaves stuffed with ground meat, vegetables such as bell peppers, eggplant and squash, rice, dried fruit and pine nuts).

Mexican: Jicama (a crisp and slightly sweet root vegetable) peeled, sliced and served on a salad with lime vinaigrette or chopped for a crunchy addition to salsas; and gazpacho (a cold tomato-based raw vegetable soup) made with spinach or cucumbers.

Or, try these additional menu ideas for ethnic foods that add flavor, variety and nutrition:

Fruit chutney (Asian Indian)
Grilled pineapple as part of a chicken shish kabob (Middle Eastern)
Mango or other tropical fruit smoothie (Latin American)
Baked pumpkin sprinkled with cinnamon (African)
Polish beets (European)
Stir-fried greens (Asian)
Cactus salad (Latin American)
Succotash (Native American or Southern U.S.)
Couscous (African)
Quinoa (Latin American)
Naan bread (Asian Indian)
Egg noodles (German)

Total Diet Approach to Healthy Eating [Infographic] The foundation of a healthy lifestyle includes physical activity and consuming a balanced variety of nutrient-rich foods and beverages in moderation. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics refers to this as the total diet approach to healthy eating.

Grilled Fruits and Vegetables Add Color, Nutrition and Flavor | healthcasket.in

first goto-www.healthcasket.in

Grilled Fruits and Vegetables Add Color, Nutrition and Flavor

Summer is a great time to fire up the grill. Consider yourself a grill master? Spice up any cookout by adding fruits and vegetables to the menu.

Beyond the benefits of adding color, variety and flavor to the menu with fruits and vegetables, you're also serving up a variety of vitamins and nutrients. Remember, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend filling half your plate with fruits and vegetables at each meal.

Throw a kabob of color onto the grill with marinated vegetables including red or yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, eggplant, cherry tomatoes and onions. Simply brush the vegetables with olive oil and your favorite spices and grill over medium heat, turning until marked and tender (about 12 to 15 minutes, and 8 to 10 minutes for cherry tomatoes and pre-boiled potatoes).

Whether you're a vegetarian or an avid meat lover, a grilled, marinated Portobello burger is a tasty alternative. Marinate and grill mushrooms, gill sides up, over medium-low heat with the grill covered until they are marked and softened (about 15 minutes). Flip and grill until cooked through, being careful not to char the gills (1 to 2 minutes).

For a flavorful dessert, try fruit kabobs with pineapple slices or peach halves. Grill on low heat until the fruit is hot and slightly golden. Serve them on top of low-fat frozen yogurt or angel food cake.

Another tasty option — grilled watermelon! Since watermelon is primarily made up of water, when you put it on the grill some of the water evaporates, leaving an intense watermelon flavor. Grilling watermelon slices only takes about 30 seconds on each side.

If you're grilling meat as well, choose healthier options such as lean cuts of beef, pork, chicken or fish. As you grill, keep raw meat and poultry (and raw meat juices) separate from ready-to-eat foods, including fruits and vegetables. This means using separate plates, cooking utensils and cutting boards.

Remember to always use a food thermometer when cooking meat, poultry or fish to ensure it reaches a safe minimum internal temperature. Using a food thermometer is key to reducing your risk of food poisoning.