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Tuesday, 27 November 2007 18:00 |
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One fantastic way to get your children involved in what they are
eating, is to have them help. A great way to start is to let
them make up their lunch for the next day. Obviously you will
need to set some guidelines. For example, when I turned 9 I was
allowed to make up my own lunch. In my girlfriends’ houses they
were 10 and in some others 11. However, we all felt very
important and grown up that we were allowed to make up our own
lunch. Again, my mom had certain guidelines. We had to pick a
lunch meat, fruit or yogurt and bread to put it on (white,
wheat, rye or a roll; today wraps are another alternative). As I
got older however, I cut down to a half sandwich as I found I
didn’t always finish a full sandwich. I continue to eat lunch
this way today, a half sandwich and some fruit.
Large meals make people full and sleepy, and they cut down on
employee’s productiveness. Think of what large meals do to your
children at school. We want our children alert so that they can
learn, not falling asleep at their desks, so let’s keep those
lunches on the lighter side. You can do this if you provide them
with a good breakfast.
By working beside your children and discussing what they eat for
lunch (healthy protein, fruit, veggie and healthy carbs) you are
helping them to understand the importance of whole foods and the
avoidance of junk foods. You are helping them to learn and make
smart informed choices and as they get older these good habits
will stay with them. They will learn that these types of food
will help them feel better and look better, give them more
energy. Try to drop the phrase healthy foods from your
vocabulary and let them see that the food choices they are
making will help them feel so much better. Put the emphasis on
how their body is feeling and all the energy they have rather
than “that food is bad for you, why don’t you eat this healthy
food”.
I know of one family that actually had the food pyramid on their
bulletin board in their kitchen and it helped them to pick out
what foods they wanted. Their mom actually let them help plan
not only their lunch meals, but the meals during the week also.
Everyone got a chance to decide what to eat on certain nights.
Again, however, the caveats were there about food choices. They
had to pick a protein, vegetable, carbohydrate and fruit. By
keeping the food pyramid handy her kids got to see what was
available. I also remember her taking out pictures of the
various meats (beef, pork, chicken) so they could see what they
looked like. In addition, she had a book available with recipes
of chicken and rice, corn beef and cabbage, standing rib roast,
etc. The book also had the different kinds of vegetables and
recipes for different ways to prepare them. It also included
different types of salads, lunch meats, breads and fruits. All
of the recipes had pictures of what the food looked like. She
usually baked a cake or pie over the weekend and they got to
have a dessert other than fruit, Jell-O, pudding or fruit cup on
Saturday and Sunday.
Unlike today, when we grew up we played outside, rode our bikes,
ran around, roller skated, and the list goes on and on. We
didn’t have computers or computer games. So in addition to the
above healthy eating choices you need to plan some activities
for your children today other than the television or video
games. This is a topic however, for a future article.
Copyright 2005, DeFiore Enterprises
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