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Healthy food for the kids isn’t as hard as you might think. Even the fussiest eater can be tamed with a few easy tricks. Getting the kids involved in meal preparation makes them feel closer to the food. And you can save sugary foods as a once-in-a-while treat. Here are some more tips.
Swap Out their Snacks
Kids and adults alike love snacks. What would the world be without potato chips? Pretty darn boring, that’s what. Anyway, back to the subject. Yeah, how about slowly but surely swapping the kids’ unhealthy snacks for ones that are better for them? On the go snacks from Yumble offer a variety of amazing stuff that the kids will love. Of course, they will want the high-sugar stuff they are used to. But over time, you can begin to introduce healthier options they love.
Get them Involved in Cooking
Cooking shouldn’t feel like a chore, although it can when you have to juggle life, school, kids, and work. And this makes it all too easy to call a takeout or grab a supermarket pizza. But these are typically laden with excess fat and sugar. So how do you make meal prep fun? Get the kids involved, of course. Kids love preparing and cooking, and it teaches them valuable life skills. Further, they are much more likely to eat a healthy meal they have helped to make themselves.
Eat Healthy Food for the Kids Together
There are many benefits to sitting down and eating together as a family. First, it provides children with comfort knowing everything is OK and family is there. This can help with emotional and social development. But it also ensures children eat healthy meals, manage portion sizes, and develop healthy eating habits. While eating well-prepared vegetables and other nutritious food, you can explain to the children what the food is and how it will help them grow.
Keep Unhealthy Foods as a Treat
OK, so there’s nothing really wrong with unhealthy food per se. We all have our guilty pleasures. Ice cream, chips, and junk food like hot dogs are great examples. The problems begin when these become normalized, and the kids eat them multiple times per week. This won’t do them any good and will add to the growing childhood obesity crisis, which is at 17%. As such, these are better in small portions as a monthly treat or as a reward for doing something well.
Hide the Veggies in the Meal
Sometimes kids are just stubborn, and no matter how much you try, they will not eat those pesky vegetables. There are many reasons this can happen, and the main one is that some vegetables taste bitter to young and sensitive tongues. However, a super easy way to get vegetables into your kids is to simply hide them. How? Well, use a blender to chop up veggies like carrots so you can use them in a cooking sauce. The kids won’t even know they’re there.
Summary
You can swap out snacks to include more healthy food for the kids. But spending time together cooking and eating also helps them appreciate meals, and you can just hide veggies in food.