Concerned About Nutrition for Kids? – Find Out What to Do
As parents we want our kids to be as healthy as possible for many reasons. We want to avoid illness on a day to day basis and we want to prevent more serious long term illness and disease.
Children at an increasing and alarming rate are developing long term preventable illness and disease. Like type 2 diabetes, asthma, dental problems and other imbalances.
These nutrition related issues are a result of nutrition for kids or rather the lack of nutrition for kids.
Obesity is now a serious issue for many kids. Fast foods, junk food, sodas, foods with high fructose corn syrup, a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables are all contributing to an epidemic of illness for kids.
In a lot of homes the parents and other adults are also eating a very low nutrition unhealthy diet and modeling this to their kids.
In some cases adults are not modeling an unhealthy diet but are not monitoring their kids diets. They are going with the path of least resistance and letting their kids eat whatever they want to avoid confrontation.
Kids are the losers. Kids are not mature or educated enough to know what the short and long term consequences are from poor food choices. They just want to eat what tastes good to them. This is usually because the food tastes sweet, salty or fried. For kids its a lack of knowledge and maturity. For the adults its more of a lack of consciousness about nutrition and diet and they often have the same desire to choose foods solely for their taste without thought to the foods nutritional value and health consequences.
Most parents do want their kids to be healthy now, as they get older and through out their lives. The best way to help your kids is to start at as early an age as possible to adopt taste habits for healthy foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. Help them to understand the consequences of unhealthy food choices at a young age. Talk to them honestly and model the good habits for them.
If kids are told over and over about the facts concerning nutrition, healthy foods and the consequences of a bad diet, it will soak in and they will make better food choices on their own.
Our modern day food culture and food quality has been seriously compromised by the over processing and manufacturing of food, mainly for shelf life and profit. Kids are some of the most innocent victims of the manipulation of the quality of our foods solely for profit.
Kids are advertised to relentlessly. If parents don’t pay attention, kids will be totally brain washed into wanting mostly unhealthy foods. They will fight with you endlessly about it. By starting the education of your kids nutrition knowledge at a young age you can hopefully counter the brain wash coming from the industries pushing all the bad food choices.
Healthy alternatives are now pretty much available in most stores if you choose and can afford to buy them. There are usually affordable alternatives to almost all the crap that is being pushed. It is up to parents to care about nutrition for kids. It takes some effort to stay on top of it. You let down your guard to many times and the kids will begin developing the habits and tastes for the junk and low nutrition foods.
There is more and more awareness as parents can not avoid the facts about their kids nutritional needs, especially when their kids develop type 2 diabetes at 12 years old. If your kids don’t grow toward adult hood with a firm education about the life consequences of poor diet and low nutrition they will continue to eat all the bad foods and model it to their kids and the cycle will go on and on. Obesity and type 2 diabetes is not normal for anyone, it is a horrible and very preventable disease for kids and adults. Many forms of nutrition related illness and disease are rampant today yet totally avoidable.
Take the time to educate your kids about nutrition, most likely no one else will.