The Secret to Developing Healthy Eating Habits in Our Children
Article by Mr Don
Everyone has heard the old saying you are what you eat. In most cases, this is true, because if you eat unhealthy foods you are prone to be an unhealthy person. The same will be true for the children in your life who are watching everything you do or don’t do! The foods we supply our bodies are extremely important to our ability to grow, maintain function, and prevent illness. Therefore, if you value your health and the health of the young people in your life you should learn as much about healthy eating as possible and to integrate the material into your daily lives.
Every day we seem to learn more and more about the health consequences of being over-weight. New studies are showing that our children are also increasingly at risk of these same consequences, except for them these consequences will begin to affect their lives sooner, resulting in a significantly reduced quality of life for them, and increased health care costs for everyone.
On the bright side to begin to change that pattern is not a monumental task. It does take some effort! It does not however have to be something that requires a life altering commitment! There are many, many little ways of altering our eating habits that will seem almost effortless. The first step is to increase our awareness of the importance of eating healthy meals.
Healthy eating is important from the day we are born. As babies, we grow very rapidly and this is due in large part to the foods we eat. Foods all contain nutrients that provide us not only with fuel to live our daily lives, but also with the very substances that build our bones, muscles, and organ tissues. Not getting enough of one nutrient or another can lead to a variety of problems, including stunting our physical growth and psychological development. For mothers who are nursing, personal nutrition is extremely important because breast milk contains the nutrients a child needs to grow and develop properly. What you eat as a nursing mother is what your baby will be eating. As the infant grows older, these nutrients are then found in the food they eat, food that we as parents put in front of them. Is it possible to control every thing that they eat? No, but we do have significant control over what we purchase to have in our homes.
Don’t think that healthy eating isn’t important for growth after they have gone through puberty. As we age our body continues to need the nutrients that are supplied through healthy eating habits. Our cells continuously break down and rebuild themselves, so healthy eating for growth continues to be important until the day we die. We run a real risk of permanently damaging our bodies if we pursue poor eating habits over a lifetime. It is imperative that our young people learn about and implement healthy eating habits at as early an age as possible.
Maintaining our daily functioning is not easy without healthy eating habits. In our daily lives, we use energy to think, walk, talk, breathe, and perform any other action. The energy it takes our body to do these things comes from two places: fat reserves in the body or our daily food intake in the form of calories. If you don’t eat healthy foods, you will find that you are storing much more fat than necessary. Some individuals mistakenly believe that drastically reducing the calories that they take in, will some how help them to burn off their fat reserves. That is mistaken because what happens is that your body in its attempt to protect itself, goes into an energy conserving mode, because it sees the reduction in calories coming in as a threat. So if you aren’t getting enough calories to be used as energy, you will feel sluggish and weak. Along with energy-providing nutrients, like fats, proteins and carbohydrates, we also need the right nutrients to allow our organs to do their jobs. Hormones and other naturally produced substances in the body make sure that everything is working properly. If you don’t eat the right nutrients, your body cannot produce these hormones and, as a result, will not be able to function properly.
Healthy eating habits are also important in the prevention of illness. When we do not get the right nutrients, our body’s natural defense system that is designed to protect us from diseases, weakens, allowing viruses and infections to attack our body. It’s like a well-trained combat ready army-if the army doesn’t have enough to eat, it can not do well in battle. Without healthy foods and plenty of water, our bodies simply could not operate on a daily basis. Learning how to develop healthy eating habits is an important lesson, and one which we should begin learning about, implementing in our daily lives and teaching it to our children.
One of the most effortless ways to coach the young people in your life on how to have healthy eating habits is to develop those habits yourself. Incorporate those habits into the daily routine of your home. That is the secret!! What our children live today is what they will live when they are on their own and what they will pass on to their children.
About the Author
Mr Don as he is known to his students, is a highly qualified martial artist and masters level mental health counselor. He continues to focus on providing students, parents and other concerned adults with the knowledge, skills, abilities and confidence to be safer in an uncertain world. Visit http://safekidz.us for further information and functional fitness and safety tips.
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