Is Your Child's Diet Missing Something? The Crucial Role of Healthy Eating Habits

If you are a parent and reading this, we know you are tired of forcing your child to eat healthy and balanced diet. The nagging of kids around “healthy food being tasteless” is something that every parent has faced occasionally.

So, what are you doing as a parent to address this issue?

To understand this issue, a research study conducted in a co-educational school in Pune. Of the 1200 students from the school, 760 children were included in this study—50% of children were non-vegetarians, 70% consumed milk daily, and only 5% ate green leafy vegetables daily. The results of this study showed that majority of children preferred snacks, fast food, and processed food.¹

This research study clearly suggests that teaching your child the importance of healthy eating is not something they can learn in school or can be done overnight, it’s a time-consuming but fruitful process. Including healthy eating habits in your child’s diet is a long-term investment as it supports the overall growth and development of their body and mind. If you are a new parent and looking to get a detailed explanation, let us break this information down for a better understanding:

Importance of Healthy Eating Habits for Kids

Physical Well-Being
The most needed and crucial benefit a kid can get through Healthy eating is Physical Well-being. The right amount of addition of green leafy vegetables and fruits can fill the child’s body with essential nutrients, helping in the overall development. When we say, “Physical Well-being”, it is not about their height and weight only. Healthy eating will help your child with the growth of every single part of their body, from teeth, hair, skin, and energy levels to muscle growth, and much more!

Enhanced Cognitive Skills
Along with your child’s physical growth, their cognitive health development is important as well. Nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants help with brain health. Many studies have shown that children with healthy eating habits are found to acquire a better cognitive potential. Such kids tend to perform better academically, and exhibit enhanced problem-solving skills and memory. For a nutritious breakfast for children that can add up to the good fat part, you can offer them a feast full of healthy nuts and seeds.

Better Mental Health Happiness, aggression, sadness, with a delicate age comes a lot of fragile emotions of a child. However, consuming a healthy diet filled with fruits, leafy vegetables, good fats, and whole grains can help your child to regulate their emotions better, because it starts from their gut. Maintaining a balanced number of vitamins for children can help you regulate their mental health and keep control over Mental disorders such as Stress, anxiety, and depression.

Tips One Can Consider Planning Healthy Eating Habits for Kids

• Always prioritize a nutritious breakfast for children as they require a good amount of energy for their day-to-day physical activities.
• Morning rush can be a hurdle in the way of preparing time-consuming meal options. Try to stick to easy healthy recipes for kids that require less time and hold high nutritional value.
• Become their role model, as most kids imitate what they see around themselves. Prefer eating healthy and make sure to have every meal sitting with them.
• Start relying more on Home-cooked food. Limit processed and canned food as much as possible.
• Never force your child to finish a portion, let them understand their hunger pattern.

Summary
No parent is perfect in their first-time parenthood. Some are struggling even after years of experience. Parenting is a never-ending job; you always learn and unlearn something about a child and their habits. To make them feel healthy eating is a “Lifestyle” and not a “Punishment”, a parent needs to normalize healthy food as a part of their routine. With a few changes in your lifestyle and routine, you can always get your child back on track to eat healthy and right.

Further reading:

1. Mukherjee R, Chaturvedi S. A study of the dietary habits of school children in Pune city, Maharashtra, India. Int J Community Med Public Health 2017;4:593-7.
2. Importance of healthy eating for children
3. Healthy food for kids