Education stands as the strongest foundation for preventing health problems. By teaching our children good eating habits, the proper vegetables and fruits to eat, and establishing general nutritional awareness among them will lead them into healthier lifestyles as they mature.
I believe educating our youth about nutrition and promoting physical activity will instill good habits for life. Education is the best practice to save money in healthcare and food costs in the long run.
These five ways push nutrition and wellness to the center of children’s lives. By establishing an aware and educated youth, we can start to attack the problems of obesity, diabetes, and other illnesses that plague American society.
Lead by Example
Whether you realize it or not, your children follow your example. The way you act, speak, exercise, and even eat influences their habits for life early. As their main role model, you bear the responsibility for their healthy outlooks.
Teach them early about eating the right fruits, vegetables, meats, and any food. The practice of portion control lets them know how much food they should intake.
Take them grocery shopping with you as much as possible. When they can read, make them read the nutritional labels at the store. Sorting out the artificial and natural ingredients on labels sparks their curiosity and awareness. Slowly give them more responsibility when handling the grocery list.
Exercise daily to demonstrate the importance of physical activity. Provide them opportunities for physical activity whether it’s through youth sports, walking the dog, or going to the park.
When possible, encourage them to play outside with friends.
Teach them about Healthcare
Healthcare confuses even an intelligent college educated individual. When growing older, it’s beneficial to explain the various options of healthcare to our children. Educating them about choosing the best primary care dedicated to helping them lead healthier lives will make them more aware about the importance of healthy living.
Great doctors commit their services to the overall long term health. Finding a good doctor dedicated to wellness, which includes reducing healthcare costs, will shape their perspective on a complicated and criticized industry.
You don’t want your children to be discouraged from whatever resources cultivate and maintain their health. Communicating with their doctor keys overall long term health. You can’t be afraid or ashamed to live healthy.
Start or Join a Community Garden
Community gardens for children attack nutritional awareness fully. Let them see how vegetables and plants grow. They’ll retain valuable knowledge relating to healthy eating. They learn information advocating the use of natural soil without chemicals, the importance of delicious local foods, and the entire growing process.
Natural gardeners eat healthier due to their knack for working with the land. Instilling this activity and appreciation for vegetation encourages more education in this area.
Gardening provides an opportunity for a healthy physical activity as well.
If no community gardens reside nearby or the resources to start one aren’t available, then it’s a great idea to start a home garden. Even if you join the local community garden, a home garden ensures the ongoing practices learned from the community efforts. Let your child share responsibility maintaining the home garden.
Involve Technology
Investing in technology usually comes at a considerable price. But in this case, the technological investment costs you nothing. Free education through technology encourages the continuing learning process for children. Plus, technology makes everything fun.
Whether you encourage it or not, children will engage in social media and online resources as they grow older. Why not utilize those free resources for their nutritional benefit?
Google added a “Nutrition” aspect to their search engine services. This feature simplifies the burden of looking up food nutritional value.
You’ll have access to instant nutritional information from a desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile smartphone. This feature creates a fun, more convenient way for children to learn about what they eat.
Another option for boosting healthy eating awareness is found through nutrition apps. The Fooducator app and the calorie counter section in the MyFitnessPal app allow children to search nutritional aspects and calories of food.
Knowledge is power. These techno innovations promote nutritional knowledge and practice that contribute to healthy living.
Cooking
Encourage your children to help with cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Allow them the creativity to think of their own snacks. Teach them what you know about cooking. Both you and your children can learn together about cooking well balanced nutritious meals.
When you learn something from a cooking show, blog, or cookbook; talk about it with kids. For example, teach them about how to cook vegetables to retain nutrients. Simple acts make profound impressions upon a child’s brain development.
The ability to cook deters young adults from divulging in fast food, junk food, and unhealthy quick alternatives. Creating a culture of cooking will encourage nutritional awareness and healthy eating.
Their learned skills will give them a sense of pride and accomplishment in a worthwhile activity that simultaneously enables their ability to lead a better life.
The task of managing a health plan for parents proves too difficult at times. Your children’s health means everything to you. By starting young you’ll encourage a long life of good habits dedicated to healthy eating and living. When practiced, these habits create a healthier person that saves money on healthcare.