Creating healthy food habits
If you want your children to be healthy eaters, teach them how to cook, share meals together and encourage adventurous eating. “The key is to establish a culture of healthy, mindful eating through modeled behavior and teachable moments, and this can happen any time,” said children’s author and illustrator Lizzy Rockwell, author of “Plants Feed Me.” “My No. 1 tip is to talk about it when you are not eating. Try when shopping, going to the farmers market, working in the garden or planting a windowsill herb garden, visiting a farm or petting zoo, watching something relevant on TV or reading a book.”
Making meal time stressful or a battlefield is the mistake many parents make, including Rockwell herself when she was a parent of young children, she said.
“If what we put on the table is nutritious and wholesome, the last thing we want to do is spoil the sanctity of that mealtime with an argument. Children should be able to make their own choices and pick their portion size as much as possible, even avoiding certain foods altogether, if they are just not ready,” Rockwell said.
Involvement in meal time
Making time to cook together positively impacts parents’ and children’s eating habits and nutritional well-being, not to mention your pocketbook, said Samantha Barnes, founder and chief executive officer of Raddish, a kids cooking subscription kit that includes everything from recipes and grocery lists to activities and kitchen tools.
“Kids are more likely to eat what they’ve helped cook — vegetables and whole grains included,” she said. “Studies show that kids who learn to cook have healthier profiles as adults. It’s only natural to talk to kids about making good food choices when you’re in the kitchen together. Moreover, it can be one of the most rewarding and bonding experiences for parents and children alike.”
In addition to cooking meals together, involve kids in planning and preparing in the kitchen, said Monica Wellington, author and illustrator of “Apple Farmer Annie.”
“This seems so obvious but too many families don’t do this. You could also give over deciding the menu for a meal completely to the child, perhaps once a week or at least on a regular basis, without intervention or advice about what is healthy or well-balanced,” Wellington said.
Seek adventure
Books can be one part of the big puzzle of how to raise children to be adventurous and healthy eaters.
“Books can introduce new foods and explore familiar foods. They can be a first step toward trying out foods and recipes in their kitchen at home,” Wellington said. “This is why I include favorite recipes at the end of many of my books. You hear a story and see the pictures, but hopefully you will also taste and smell and touch the food, for a full and satisfying experience.”
“The food that you eat becomes the body you inhabit,” Rockwell said. It powers all the things your body does: healing, growing, thinking, moving, even feeling happy, she said.
“Eating whole foods is the best way to get the nutrients and fiber we need, without getting things we don’t need like added sugars, fats, salt and chemicals. So cooking from scratch with foods that we recognize and can even possibly identify the origin of — animal, leaf, seed, root — is a great way to impart this lesson,” Rockwell said.