Teaching Your Kids About Organic Food and Healthy Eating

We all know how important healthy eating and organic foods are to us and our family. However, your child may not understand the reasons to eat fruits and vegetables over sweets and chocolates.

Healthy eating by providing healthy lunches and snacks at school with balanced meals at home helps your child with concentration and learning. A child may not understand this, but we can certainly help them to start making healthy eating choices so that they can grow up to have an appreciation for the right foods and reduce the risk of weight concerns for their future.

Here are some great tips on introducing healthy living to your children and how to talk to them about it in ways they’ll understand.

• Lead by example
  It’s important to lead by example with something like healthy eating, and this is an action you need to make every single day. If you tell your child something but then do the exact opposite, they will get conflicting messages about what is right. If you haven’t started already, start making healthy choices for your own foods, whether it be at home or at work. Children absorb so much information with what they see, so seeing you choose a salad over hot chips and gravy is the best start you can give them.If they ask you why they can’t have lollies over fruit, eat a piece of fruit with them to show that it’s a choice you both make, not just a choice you are making for them. If they argue with you about your choice, then get them involved in the process. If they want strawberry flavoured lollies, then ask them if they want some strawberries. If they insist they don’t want fruit, then offer another healthy alternative like carrot or celery sticks.
• Have fun with food
  It’s common for young eaters to only choose foods that are brightly packaged or contain a toy, but children are also going to love food that looks fun. Create dishes with funny faces or chop foods into shapes where possible. Anything that is interactive and looks interesting can help to please even the fussiest of eaters.As you prepare the food talk to your child about what you are doing, and casually bring into conversation all the things that are good for them about this food. For example, if you are making an afternoon snack of cheese and carrot sticks, make the carrot sticks form a mouth and use cheese for the eyes and nose of a smiley face. As you cut up the cheese and carrot, tell your child that the cheese is full of calcium that will make their bones super strong, and that the carrot can make their skin orange if they eat enough of it – this is sure to get most boys happily snacking down on carrot!
• Grow your own food
  If you teach children where food comes from and how it has grown, it makes them more interested in eating the food knowing that they were the ones who grew it. One idea is to start a vegetable garden with your children and ask them to choose which vegetables they want to grow.Once they’ve chosen them and you begin planting, tell your child as you plant what’s good about the vegetables, eg. cauliflower is high in Vitamin C, which helps prevent illness.
• Grocery games
  Some of the older children who accompany you on the trip to the grocery store will have fun playing this game. To keep them occupied while you shop, ask them to choose items from the aisle you’re in that is the healthiest. Once they’ve picked, take a look at what they chose and talk about if it’s a healthy choice or if there are any healthier alternatives in the aisle. This is also a good opportunity to show your kids nutrition labels on packages, and explain to them what some of the common words mean.If they choose healthy items that they would like to try or that they like, they could be rewarded by purchasing a couple of them.
• Healthy colouring books
  There are so many colouring books around, and what better way to teach them about healthy eating than by colouring in healthy foods. Choose activity books and colouring books that represent healthy and organic living. Teach them about the different items in the book as they colour them in, and then make a game of cooking the foods that they coloured in that day.
• Farmers markets
  Check out your local area for farmers markets. They’re a great place to take the kids to see the massive amounts of healthy and fresh produce available. Ask them to name the vegetables and fruits as you look around.Farmer’s markets are also a great place to teach them about sustainability and how buying from local sources helps, but this will be more appropriate for older children.
• Involve them in planning
  To get your kids on the path to discovering healthy foods and making healthy choices, begin asking them to plan their own lunchbox for school. It’s best to plan either the night before or for the week ahead (so you can get the grocery shopping done for the week), and sit down together to decide what they will have for lunch the next day. After deciding on what will go in their lunchbox, if possible, prepare the lunch box the night before together. Children who are old enough can pack it themselves, while younger children can help by peeling or cutting fruits or vegetable sticks.By involving your child in the process you can also talk to them about the lunchbox choices of their friends, and find alternatives to the lollies/processed foods their friends might be eating so that your child doesn’t feel that they are missing out on anything.
• Choose your words
  It is important when discussing healthy eating with your kids that you choose your words wisely. Show them that the importance of choosing the right foods is to be healthy and fit, not to lose weight or be “skinny”. Instead of saying something like “Drinking water will keep you from becoming overweight”, discuss how hydration is important for everyone to help them grow up.Helping your child to have a healthy relationship with food also means having a healthy relationship with your own body and self-esteem.

Starting your children on fresh and organic food from when they are born is the best way to start them on their journey to healthy eating. It may not be possible all the time, so when you do decide to start your children on the path to healthy living, teach them to be mindful in the choices of foods they make. It’s fine to have foods like cake or ice cream during special occasions or as a sporadic treat, but teaching them to choose healthy options can help you end up with much healthier and happier children in the long run.

Have you talked to your kids about healthy eating?

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