Food is essential to everyone, especially for kids, as food provides nutrition that can help their well-being. With proper food, your kids and the whole family will have a better, healthier lifestyle. Many people seek advice on what food their family should eat. Also, they want to know if there are ways to become healthier.
When you visit Play Eat Grow, you’ll find a lot of helpful information that can make your family healthier.
One misconception people have when it comes to a healthy diet is that they should eat vegetables. Vegetables are indeed healthy, but they are not the only food our family needs.
You also need meat, or some other sort of protein and source of essential vitamins, if your family is vegetarian or vegan. To make it more on point, it should be well-balanced.
However, it’s tough to make our family healthy, especially with our busy schedules. So here are five tips that can help you.
Family Meal
We understand that we all have busy schedules. It’s hard to keep time, especially when it comes to food.
We sometimes eat take-out or fast food because we don’t have time to cook. They are not as healthy as home-cooked meals, but it is always best to eat as a family.
Eating at the same time with your kids at the table can help them relieve their stress, which could be good for their mental health.
You can share each other’s stories of how your day was. It is an effective way to communicate and know if something is bothering them.
Of course, bonding over a meal is much better if it’s a home-cooked meal. But regardless of the food that you’re eating, making mealtime your bonding time affects your family’s well-being.
For a combination of convenience and health-consciousness, ordering delicious meals low on carbs to be delivered to your home represents a happy medium. You get the speed and efficiency of fast food, but without any of the downsides, and you can still sit down to eat with your kids as well.
Start With Breakfast
Starting the day with breakfast is important. You and your family need the energy to face the long day. And where would you get the energy you need to work and for your kids to study? Food!
According to an article on Fox News, studies have found that skipping breakfast is damaging to our health. Protein is a good breakfast as it provides the energy that we need for the day. However, preparing meals can be challenging.
Thankfully, there is plenty of on-the-go breakfast that is available.
You can prepare easy breakfast food such as greek yogurt, egg sandwich on whole wheat bread, hard-boiled eggs, and a lot more.
These foods won’t take much of your time. And the best part about them is that they contribute a lot to you and your family’s health.
Eat Your Greens
Vegetables are probably the most challenging for people to eat. Nowadays, most people only know a few vegetables, such as potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and asparagus.
Eating them could be challenging for some adults because of the taste. And it’s even worse when we give them to our kids.
However, there are ways where you can eat them and enjoy the benefits they bring without tasting the bland, icky taste.
For kids, you might want to chop them into tiny pieces and use them as a filler for your beef patties or pasta sauces. This technique could also work for adults.
Another idea is to cut them up and serve them raw. Children generally prefer the crunchiness of fresh veggies over the cooked variety.
But what we recommend is to start young when eating vegetables. You don’t need to force yourself. Instead, do it slowly.
Start with the common ones, and gradually increase the number of vegetables you serve on your family’s plate.
Avoid Sugar
Most kids love sweets. Whether it’s chocolate or soda, they surely enjoy a sweet treat.
Although it is a good source of energy in urgent cases, such as being sleepy in class, it is still best to avoid it. Chocolate bars have a lot of sugar in them.
Eating them regularly highly contributes to gaining weight which can lead to obesity. That is the same thing for drinking soda.
Also, if you give such food to your kids regularly, they will be more hyper at home.
It is okay to give them once in a while, but keep in mind that it should always be in moderation. A perfect alternative is to eat fruits instead.
Fruits have natural sugar in them that makes them sweet. It’s far healthier and better for our bodies and our teeth.
Drink Water
With the increasing number of coffee shops and flavored drinks, it’s difficult for us to drink water. Ideally, a human body should drink at least 7 to 8 glasses of water a day.
It helps our digestion. But we all know it’s hard to do.
However, there are plenty of ways we can motivate ourselves and push ourselves to drink more water. One way is to avoid stocking soda and other flavored drinks in your house.
You’ll feel lazier going out just for a drink. Instead, you’ll resort to water.
Also, an article from Buzzfeed states that you’ll tend to use it more often by personalizing your water bottle. The same article also offers other ways to drink more water every day. Another great idea is to purchase one of those 64 ounce water bottles with motivational sayings for different times of the day to inspire you to drink more. My water intake has increased tremendously after using this water bottle.
Be Healthy
Eating healthy food can make you and your family have a better, healthier lifestyle. It’ll save you money from paying unnecessary medical and dental bills.
Also, it would affect not only your physical health but also your mental and emotional health.
You can still eat unhealthy food, but always keep it in moderation, as changing healthy habits is a tough process.
