Habits of Highly Healthy Families: For Tweens and Teens:
* Be a better role model. Just as we teach our children to wash their hands before eating bread and to recite Grace After Meals, we must also teach them to eat healthfully and in moderation.
* Control the speed at which your children eat. The brain needs time to record the satiety message from the stomach, so second portions should not be given unless fifteen to twenty minutes have passed since the first portion was completed.
* Teach children to read and understand food labels and nutrition facts.
* Provide healthy afterschool snacks everyday. Children love to dip, so serve cut fruits and vegetables with dips. It is somewhat hypocritical when parents complain about their children’s unwillingness to eat fruit and vegetables when they themselves do not eat these foods regularly.
* Advocate for healthy school lunch programs. Portion sizes should be monitored. If you prepare your children’s lunches, make sure they are nutritious.
* The shift toward artificial sugar or substitutes is not a healthy compromise. Although most scientists today feel that saccharin (Sweet’N Low), aspartame (Equal) and the recent sucralose (Splenda) are safe, they do not know the long-term effects these sugar substitutes might have.
* Drink water. Fruit juices, soda and power drinks are full of “empty calories.” Beverages containing high fructose corn syrup should be avoided, and offered only on special occasions.
* Limit eating out to once or twice a week, and teach your children food exchanges. For example, if your child will be eating dessert after dinner, he should cut back on French fries or soda that day.
* Limit screen time (TV, DVD, movies and Internet usage) to a maximum of two hours on a school night. Instead, encourage after-school physical activities, and allow children to “buy” extra screen time with additional physical activity. For example, suggest to your child that he walk on the treadmill while watching a movie.

ou.org


Tags: , , ,