Parents can take big steps toward ensuring their children's health by making nutrition and wellness practices for kids a priority. Because young bodies are developing, they are both vulnerable to sickness and in need of special nutrients. "Empty" calories pose great risks for kids.
Don't let your kids become statistics in the rising trend of obesity that the U.S. Surgeon General cites as a major threat to children's health. Carrying extra weight and not getting adequate nutrition can cause high blood pressure and cholesterol problems now and chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer later.
Features
A good diet to promote children's health should include plenty of calcium and vitamin D for normal bone growth. Magnesium and potassium are essential to nerve and muscle development, and vitamin E strengthens the immune system. All of these essential nutrients can be derived from your family's good diet. Eat healthy foods such as low-fat milk products; fruits and vegetables; lean meats; and nuts, seeds and legumes (dry cooked beans, lentils and peas) in reasonable quantities.
Make wellness practices a part of good eating habits. Hand washing and teeth brushing should be encouraged before and after meals. Daily exercise of 60 minutes for kids and 30 minutes for adults is encouraged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which researches the factors of good health and disease prevention.
Tools
Parents' most potent tool in this endeavor is modeling healthy behavior for their kids. To stay fit, help your children learn more about how to count calories, identify beneficial nutrients and exercise regularly, which you can all practice together. The USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans show you how to eat healthy for your age and gender, emphasizing vitamins, minerals and fiber and reducing the amount of fat, salt and sugar in your diet.
Your kids can apply this information to daily meal planning. Let them tell you how to eat healthy using the nutrition facts on food labels and making wise choices from a variety of food groups. The USDA Food and Nutrition Center offers links to all of these tools. A good diet is just as important in maintaining wellness as are safe hygiene practices.
Benefits
Instituting a good diet from the start is the best way to make sure kids eat healthy as they become independent. Insisting on daily exercise and hygiene helps protect them--and you--from weight gain and from communicable coughs and colds.
These short-term benefits become long-term boons to children's health as they grow into adulthood. Those who reach a healthy weight and body fitness by adolescence are more likely to maintain them in the years ahead. A life free of chronic heart disease and weight-related bone degeneration may depend on how well parents "teach" nutrition and wellness to their kids in the early years.
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