7 Easy Ways to Teach Kids About Nutrition and Healthy Food Choices

Last updated on August 13th, 2024 at 08:48 pm

Kids are notoriously picky eaters, so if you’re worried about getting your kids to eat a healthy diet, you’re not alone.

Many parents struggle with getting their children to eat healthy foods. And, the easy availibility of junk food doesn’t make things any easier.

Although it may feel like a mammoth undertaking, there are ways to teach kids about nutrition and healthy food choices that will stick with them.

There are things you can do at home to reframe your child’s understanding of food and encourage them to make better choices. Here are seven simple ways to start.

7 Ways to Teach Kids About Nutrition and Healthy Food Choices

Practice What You Preach

Although it can sometimes seem that you’re the last person in the world to inspire your kids, you are their primary influence. This means that they model a lot of their behavior on yours. This might be a scary thought–that’s why it’s important to practice what you preach.

If you’re trying to teach your kids about nutrition while you eat junk food in front of them, then it probably will not go over too well. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some junk food occasionally, just make sure you consume it away from your kids!

Hide & Reveal

If you want to introduce your children to healthy eating, it can be helpful to use a little trickery. Many kids are reluctant to eat healthy foods when they know what they are. Therefore, hiding it in their meals can be a good way to get them into their diet.

The important thing to do though is to tell them once they’ve eaten it and enjoyed the meal. This reinforces the idea that healthy foods can be tasty, so they’ll be more likely to eat non-hidden healthy foods in the future.

Remove Restrictions From Healthy Snacks

Kids love to snack. Unfortunately, they mainly love to snack on the wrong things.

One way to get them to eat more healthy snacks is to remove any restrictions that you have in place.

For example, if you only allow your children to have a certain number of snacks per day, or only allow them snacks after a certain time, taking away those restrictions and making healthy snacks accessible and “limitless” can encourage them to reach for healthy options.

Nutritious snacks your kids will love might include things like apple slices, energy bites made with healthy organic nut butter, frozen fruit popsicles, carrot sticks or pretzels with hummus, cheese sticks, and smoothies.

Plan a Food Tasting Lesson

A food tasting lesson can be an excellent way to educate your kids about nutrition.

Having a variety of foods from different food groups spread out on the table and talking about their nutritional values can help your kids better understand nutrition.

Teach them about things like the carbohydrates in bread, sugar in fruit juices, protein in salmon, and how certain fats are better than others. This is both fun and educational, the kids will love tasting the various foods.

Take Them Shopping

Taking your kids shopping for groceries can be a challenge. However, it’s essential if you’re looking to improve their understanding of healthy ingredients and how healthy meals come together.

Allowing your children to have input and choose healthy ingredients can make them more likely to want to try them later.

Kids like to feel like they are contributing and their voices are being heard. This means that taking them shopping and involving them in the preparation and cooking process can make them much more likely to try healthy meals. They’ll want to taste the fruits of their labor, so involve them as much as possible!

Teach Them About Feeling Full 

Many adults have a questionable relationship with food. This is probably because previous generations focused on telling children to clean their plate and not waste food. This kind of attitude toward food can be detrimental and lead to adults who have a hard time knowing when they’re full.

If this sounds familiar, it’s much more common than you’d think. Retraining your mind and body to understand when to stop eating isn’t easy. That’s why instilling this in childhood often leads to healthier relationships with food in later life.

Teach your children to listen to their bodies, and stop eating when they feel full. Although you may deal with a little waste, it will pay off in the long term.

Eat Together 

Eating together is important for many reasons. It’s especially important if you want to teach your children about nutrition and healthy food.

As you introduce healthier foods into their diet, eating healthy meals in front of them at the dinner table is essential.

Even if your kids are very fussy at the moment, seeing you eating healthy foods with them at the same table can spike their curiosity. Encourage them to take a bite from your fork and see if they like what you’re eating.

And, sometimes, it’s a matter of presenting the same healthy choices several times until the new food doesn’t seem so strange.

These are just a few ideas for helping kids to eat more nutritious foods.

Do you have any other ideas for how to teach kids about nutrition? Leave us a comment.

Also read:
Fun Mindfulness Activities for Children + Free PDF Printables
Kids’ Alphabet Exercises Workout — Get the Free Printable
18 Mindful Eating Exercises + a Free Printable

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