 Making nutritious and active choices for your children is important, but teaching your children to make physically, emotionally, and socially healthy choices for themselves will last a lifetime. Here are some simple ways to do that: - Have your children create a "color palette plate." Explain to your children that,oftentimes, foods of similar color have similar nutrients. For example, "white" foods,such as potatoes, rice, and pasta are starchy carbohydrates. "Green" foods, such as spinach, string beans, and broccoli, are full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. "Red" foods, such as apples, tomatoes, and red peppers, are high in certain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Then, encourage your children to eat a variety of colors with each meal.
- Have a "meal race" where you work together with your family to prepare a meal. Assign a responsibility to each member of the family (such as gathering, measuring,or mixing the ingredients) and use a timer to measure how long it takes to prepare. By racing against the clock, you'll turn a generally sedentary activity into a cardiovascular activity.
- Have a family game night at least once a month. This will provide a great opportunity for your family to spend valuable time together in a fun and engaging way.
- A good way to teach your children how to make good food choices is to allow them to select foods for themselves. This can be done effectively by offering a variety of good foods when planning a meal, and then allowing them to choose which foods they would most like.
- Turn your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer into a "food pyramid." With your children's help, organize your food items so that the foods at the base of the pyramid are on the bottom shelf, and those at the top are on the top shelf. Besides making the foods your children need the least of less-accessible and out of sight, your children will constantly be reminded of the balance of foods they should be eating.
- Allow your children to plan and/or prepare at least one meal per week. Besides giving them valuable skills in food preparation, measurement, and nutrition, your kids will actually help you with your busy day.
- Select a book for every member of your family to read. Then, have a family "book club chat" over dinner.
- Include your children in your grocery shopping. Rather than a chore, it becomes a learning experience. Have them decide if the foods selected pass your family's "health test" and if the cart, as a whole, is balanced. To add a physical component to this activity, have your children help to carry the bags of groceries and put them away while racing the clock.
- When eating out, have your children find the "best choice" on the menu.
- Have your children look at recipes in cookbooks or on the Internet. Ask them to list ways they can make the recipe healthier (for example, replace brown rice for white rice, or use half of the oil the recipe calls for.) Then, have a family taste test.
- Hang up a world map. Ask extended family and friends to send a postcard to your family when traveling. Then, work with your children to locate the places from where they received postcards on the map.
- Show your children how to read nutrition labels.
- Give your children a "recipe challenge." Provide your children with ingredients that you have on-hand and have them create their own recipes using those ingredients. Alternatively, for younger children, have your kids create animals or other figures on their plates using the ingredients you provide.
- If you have older children, have them help you calculate the "energy" (or calories) in a meal or nutritious dessert, and then have them find an activity which uses the same amount of energy. For example, if a bowl of oatmeal has 150 calories, the equivalent activity to use 150 calories would be approximately 20 minutes of a moderate bike ride, one hour of playing Frisbee®, or 15 minutes of jumping rope. Then, as a family, select one activity to do.
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