We start our Kids Week off with some great Nutritional Tips!

To kick off our kids week I wanted to start with some Nutritional Info. There are so many tools available to you that it can almost be overwhelming. Personally I like the basics when it comes to kids nutrition. I also think that getting your kids involved in some of the decision making can make a huge impact on them for life. Here is my absolute favorite site for nutrition info for kids.

My Pyramid is a site that has answers for everyone about their nutritional needs. There are some fun interactive games for kids to learn more about nutrition and how they can make good choices to help them out. I like how they make it easy to get the information you want and the ability to break it up by their age. 

There are some very good video podcasts and audio as well. These give you some good tips on how to not overeat at holiday parties and even good shopping advice. Take some time to experiment around on this site and see what you can come up with to help you and your kids out. One of my favorite quotes of all time goes like this, “First you form habits, then habits form you.” This is very true of nutrition. Eating right is simply a habit. Do your kids a favor and teach them good habits now. In the long run it will make them so much healthier. 

What are some basics that anyone can do right now to help improve your child’s nutritional lifestyle?

Here are the Big 3 from train2move.

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup. Simply out, get it out of your house. Here is what I have found with my own children. If they do not know what it is they will not want it. My wife and I did a good job (in our opinion) of keeping our kids away from the “treats”. Try to not use sugary treats as any kind of reward. If your kids do not know that it is something to desire, they wont. As they get a little older this becomes more challenging and I have to be honest the number one culprit of this is Grandma! Seriously it must be in the Grandma bylaws that it is their job to get your kids all excited about candy. To read more about High fructose Corn Syrup follow this link to the Mayo Clinic. They have a quick read about it. 

2. Trans Fats. Again do your best to not allow your kids to eat them. Here is a great link to some solid info on how bad trans fats can be for you from  Americanheart.org. This is another one our country has become dependent on because it allows food to taste better, is super cheap for companies to use in their products, and allows food to last for a long time. It has become a habit that is really hard for people to break. 

3. Water. This is one we want you to use! Try to encourage kids to drink more water during the day. Teach them how their body craves water, not soda and sugar drinks. I was so pleased at how well it worked to get a refrigerator that has a water dispenser on the front. That was all it took to get them excited about drinking water. We just put dixie cups next to it and they will fill it all the time. We posted a link on water earlier that has some more benefits for you to be aware of.

Hope this helps you to get our Healthy Kids week off by improving your kids nutrition. One other thing I have noticed is that by improving nutrition for your kids, yours also tends to get better! Check back tomorrow for more info for you and your kids!