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What Are You Feeding Your Kids On Raksha Bandhan

   John Doe      August 29th, 2023

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With the festival of Raksha Bandhan knocking on the doors, your kids are surely going to get special online rakhi delivery to the USA from their cousins back home. No matter what you cannot lose the track of healthy eating at all! Children always do as we do. So start by setting examples even through the various occasions that pop along.

Following in the footsteps of their parents, kids develop the same eating habits for better or for worse. Overall, both adults and children consume far too much-saturated fat and trans-fatty acids in their diets. In addition to not getting enough fiber, our diets are loaded with sodium. Sugar is another component in our diets that we get way too much of. It is important for the development of your children to ensure you pay attention to what they put into their mouths.

Another nutrient that is seriously lacking in the average traditional diet is iron. Even if the level of iron consumption is not low enough to cause anemia, low iron intake can be seen in a child’s inability to concentrate on her studies as well as a general lack of energy. It is important for you to start your child’s day off right with iron-fortified cereals and bread every day. Vitamin C in the form of orange juice will aid in the ability of your child’s body to more effectively use that iron. In addition, a serving of lean red meat a couple of times a week will help to boost your child’s iron levels.

While it is important not to restrict the fat intake of children under two years of age, most health professionals seem to feel that for active kids older than two, limiting the intake of unsaturated fats to 40 percent of the child’s caloric intake should be appropriate. Saturated fats and trans fatty acids must be avoided at all costs. Of course, if your child would rather sit and watch TV or play video games than go out and run around, you may need to drop that percentage to keep him from gaining weight.

When dealing with the eating habits of teenage girls, we must keep in mind that body image is everything to them. Adolescent and teenage girls tend to seriously limit the amount of food they eat as a way to reach that perceived ideal body weight. This can have severe ramifications when it comes to depriving them of much-needed nutrients to keep them healthy. The most notable nutrients found lacking in the diets of many teenage girls is calcium and iron.

Teaching your children good eating habits should start early in life. Begun at an early age, healthy eating becomes a habit and you will find that it will be carried on into teenage and adult years. Providing your children with healthy meals every day at an early age will help you to avoid having to fight with them about their eating habits later on.

So besides starting early, practicing what you preach, and introducing new foods regularly, what else can you do as a parent to help foster a healthy nutritional foundation in your child? Here are some other simple tips to get you on your way:

• Limit soda to special occasions only, and instead offer water and no sugar added juices to drink. One healthy and fun snack for kids is real fruit smoothies. They pack in the nutritional punch as well as taste so good!
• Use milk containing no more than 2% milkfat, 1%, or skim is preferred.
• Do not completely restrict foods (unless of course, your child has an allergy to that food). Restricting and banning certain foods tends to backfire and cause the child to seek the forbidden food even more.
• When introducing new foods, do not force your child to eat them. If they taste it and express dislike, don’t make them finish the food. Instead, put it aside and re-introduce it in a few months, perhaps prepared differently. For example, if they did not like cauliflower the first time around, in a few months make it with a tasty sauce.
• Breakfast is important! If you have a child that is not particularly fond of traditional “breakfast foods”, a small portion of leftover dinner will do the trick. The goal is to get the metabolism going and prevent overeating at lunch or snack time from excessive hunger.

The above tips must be followed even during the various occasions that pop in. Although children tend to get more excited about the special dishes that are cooked, prepared, or sent by friends and family, be careful and monitor what your kids eat.