How to teach your kids about healthy food choices

Fun ways to teach your kids about healthy food choices

1. Books

healthy reads
There are many books you can find or borrow from your local library. Kids respond well to hidden messages instead of direct instructions, which they can tend to turn off from.
Some classics that never grow old are: The Hungry Caterpillar, which distinguishes between foods that makes us feel sick and foods that make us feel much better. Green Eggs and Ham shares a powerful lesson about being open to trying new foods. Eat Your Peas is a funny book about dinnertime that will appeal to fussy eaters and their despairing parents.

2. Games

Yay or nay

Next time you go to throw out your weekly grocery catalogues … don’t! With some glue, scissors, a large sheet of paper or two separate sheets, make two columns labelled ‘yay’ and ‘nay’. Yay to ‘healthy’ food choices and nay to ‘sometimes’ foods, plus those ones deceitfully marketed towards children (see if they can pick them). Use the catalogues to cut out pictures (together for littlies or leave bigger kids to it to see what they come up with!), then glue them into their corresponding column. Talk about the choices your children have made and discuss improvements where necessary. Investigate ‘maybe’ foods together so you can agree the correct column.

Where did I come from?

Not in the way you’re thinking, but from a wholefoods perspective. If you’re eating an apple together, for example, ask “Where did I come from?” (you can even use a silly voice and pretend you’re the apple … or not) and keep giving clues until they get it right. Other examples are potatoes/plant buried under ground, lemon/tree, milk/cow, bread/wheat crop, honey/bees etc. See if you can visit a farm or grower’s market to see what ‘real foods’ really look like.

Some more games to encourage healthy eating can be found here.

3. Desktop games

Food balance game
From the Australian Government Eat for Health website, this game allows children to choose healthy foods from the five food groups for meals and snacks for the whole day.
Fuel up to play 60
Lots of games to choose from for the little ones, which include identifying and classifying foods into the five groups and identifying the health benefit of each food group.

4. Apps

Healthy food monsters – iTunes - free
Join the furry friends in their quest to find all the healthy food, while avoiding all the unhealthy foods and snacks that want to kick you out of the game!

Healthy heroes – Android – free
This one will appeal to the boys … An adventure game that teaches kids about nutrition and promotes healthy behaviours. Yogopolis is being attacked by hungry monsters, who’ll keep destroying everything until kids feed them fruits and vegetables!

Healthy eating with Diana – iTunes – free
Puzzles, drawing, colouring and games teach the important concepts about healthy eating.

Awesome Eats – iTunes – free
In each level, you’ll stack and sort fruits, veggies and wholegrains across wacky contraptions to win stars and score points. Your kids will unlock hours of challenging game play and get loads of healthy eating tips along the way.

ABC foods – iTunes – free
Expose your child to the exciting world of food! This award-winning American ABC Series teaches children new words through sight, sound and touch. Let them chop celery, cook pasta, slice strawberries and more through beautiful pictures, lively videos, and interactive scenes.
DinnerTime app – Android/iTunes – free

Your kids will have so much fun playing and learning and, even better, you can control how long they spend doing so. The DinnerTime app gives parents the ability to easily lock and unlock their child’s Android tablet or smartphone, without intrusive controls, no matter where they are.

5. Hands on

I’m sure there are some creative types that have come up with their own versions to coax children into having fun with wholefoods but if not, here are a few to get you started.
Teach your kids fun facts

Do a Google search and find fun facts such as:

• Apples, onions and potatoes taste the same … try it with your nose pinched.
• Cherries are from the rose family.
• Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
• Apples float as they are 25 percent air.
• Give foods a novelty name

This helps create a fun bond with healthy food. Corrie the cauliflower, Richard rice, Bernard the bean … you get the picture.

Make fun food creations

Let the kids dictate this one and let their imaginations run wild. Some examples are here.

With such a huge bank of awesome resources to encourage your kids to learn about healthy eating habits, the hardest part will be choosing which ones will work best for you!

Tweet