By: Chrissy Meyer, Region Senior Marketing Communications Director, American Heart Associaiton-South Dakota
It is important for kids and their families to understand how to choose foods that properly fuel our bodies. According to the American Heart Association, foods like green vegetables, fruit, skinless poultry and fish, beans, nuts, low-fat dairy and whole grains are important for a healthy, well-balanced diet.
Here are some recommendations to help establish a healthy eating pattern:
1. Make it easy for your kids to choose healthy snacks. Keep fruits and vegetables prepared and accessible as a healthy snack option. Other good snacks include low-fat yogurt, whole-grain crackers and cheese, or peanut butter and celery. You could create a space in your refrigerator that is strictly for them!
2. Involve kids in meal planning and prep. Kids love having a say in what they eat. Let your kids decide what veggie or side dish you serve at dinner. Kids can also participate in age-appropriate activities to help you while cooking dinner , like washing vegetables, chopping fruit or counting down the oven timer.
3. Make eating fun. To encourage your kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, try to make each meal and snack novel. You can use different shape cut outs to shape fruits or arrange vegetables in the shape of their favorite animal. There are plenty of inspiration pictures online that you and your child could decide upon together.
4. Embrace Breakfast. Eating a healthy breakfast makes for a great start to the day! It doesn’t have to be something huge, just enough to help your child get moving and fuel their body well right from the start.
5. Address picky eating early. Research has shown that it can take multiple tries for a child to decide if they like a food or not. Certain tastes, textures, and smells can take some time to get used to. Encourage your child to try at least one bite of everything on their plate.
As we all know, it takes a village to instill healthy habits for our children. That’s why the American Heart Association is working in schools across the nation to teach children about being kind to yourself – both by increasing self-esteem and through caring for your physical body. Throughout the Association’s Kids Heart Challenge and American Heart Challenge programs, schools are equipped with tools and activities to support both mental and physical well-being for students, families and staff. Parents and schools in Sioux Falls who are interested in bringing the American Heart Association’s in-school programs to their children should visit www.heart.org/getstarted.
